Importing images into the library

The first step is to import the images for this lesson into the Lightroom library.

1. In the Library module, click the Import button below the left panel group.

   

2. If the Import dialog box appears in compact mode, click the Show More Options button at the lower left of the dialog box to see all the options in the expanded Import dialog box.

   

3. Under Source at the left of the expanded Import dialog box, locate and select your LRClassicCIBLessonsonuslesson folder. Ensure that all 14 images in the folder are selected (checked) for import.

4. In the import options above the thumbnail previews, select Add so that the imported photos will be added to your catalog without being moved or copied. Under File Handling at the right, choose Minimal from the Build Previews menu and leave the Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates option unselected. Type Bonus, Publish in the Keywords text box. Make sure that your import is set up as shown in the illustration below, and then click Import.

   

   The 14 images are imported from the bonuslesson folder, and appear in the Library module, in both the Grid view and the Filmstrip across the bottom of the Lightroom Classic workspace.

   As a final step, select all 14 images and create a collection called Images to Publish, making sure that all of them are added to this collection.

   

Setting up a Flickr account

In this exercise, you’ll set up a Flickr account and publish a selection of photos.

1. Expand the Publish Services panel, if necessary, by clicking the triangle to the left of the panel’s name; then, click Set Up in the Flickr header.

   

The Lightroom Publishing Manager dialog box opens.

2. Under Publish Service, type a name for the service in the Description text box, then click the Authorize button under Flickr Account.

   

   Tip

   If you don’t see the sign-in page, try using a different web browser. As of the writing of this book, Flickr is in the process of changing its Sign In procedure, so this may look different for you.

3. Lightroom asks your permission to upload images to Flickr; click Authorize. Your default web browser opens. For now, you will be asked to sign in to (or to sign up for) Yahoo, and then your browser will open the Flickr sign-in page.

4. Type a screen name for your Flickr account and click Create A New Account.

5. Flickr asks you to confirm the request from Lightroom Classic to link to your Flickr account. Click the OK, I’ll Authorize It button to authorize Lightroom to access all content in your Flickr account, to upload, edit, replace, and delete photos in your account, and to interact with other Flickr members.

   

6. Agree to opening Lightroom Classic to establish the link, then in the Confirm dialog box, click Done to return to the Lightroom Publishing Manager. In the Flickr Account area, the Authorize button is now unavailable.

7. In the Lightroom Publishing Manager dialog box, set the Flickr Title to use the images’ existing filenames. Under File Settings, drag the Quality slider to set a value of 75. Scroll down, if necessary, to see the Output Sharpening options. Select the Sharpen For option, choose Screen from the menu, and then choose Standard from the Amount menu.

8. Make sure that the Watermarking option is not selected. Under Privacy and Safety, select the Public setting, so that access to your photos will be unrestricted. Leave the options for File Naming, Image Sizing, Video, and Metadata at their defaults.

9. Click Save to close the Lightroom Publishing Manager dialog box.

   

In the Publish Services panel, your activated Flickr ­service displays the name you assigned in step 2. The service now contains a single photostream; an image count of 0 at the right indicates that the new photostream does not yet contain any photos.

Publishing photos to Flickr

In this exercise, you’ll add a selection of images to your Flickr Photostream.

1. In the left panel group, expand the Collections panel. Collapse other panels, if necessary, so that you can see the expanded Collections panel and the Publish Services panel at the same time, without scrolling.

2. Select your Images to Publish collection in the Collections panel, if necessary.

3. Select the first four images from the collection, and then drag the selected photos to your Flickr Photostream in the Publish Services panel.

   

4. In the Publish Services panel, click the photostream to see its contents; the four images are displayed in the work area under the header New Photos To Publish.

5. Click the Publish button at the bottom of the left panel group.

   

6. Wait until the publish process is complete and all four photos are listed as published, then right-click the entry for your new photostream in the Publish Services panel and choose Show In Flickr from the menu.

Publishing photo comments

Your Publish Services connection allows for two-way interaction between Flickr and Lightroom, so you can keep up to date with—and respond to—any comments that are posted on your images.

1. On your Flickr web page, click the bonuslesson-002 photo to see the image enlarged. Type a comment in the text box on the left below the enlarged image, and then click Comment.

   

2. Switch back to Lightroom Classic. With your Flickr Photostream selected in the Publish Services panel, click to select the bonuslesson-002 image under the Published Photos header in the work area, then click the Refresh Comments button at the left of the header of the Comments panel in the right panel group (it shows as No Comments when collapsed). Watch the progress bar at the top left of the workspace as Lightroom Classic connects to Flickr and updates your publish collection.

3. Expand the Comments panel, if necessary, to confirm that the comment you posted on your Flickr page has been downloaded to Lightroom Classic.

   

   Tip

   To post a comment to your Flickr Photostream from within Lightroom Classic, click the Flickr service in the Publish Services panel, select a published photo, type your comment in the text box at the top of the Comments panel, and then press Return/Enter.

Republishing a photo

The Publish Services panel helps you keep track of images that have been modified since they were published, so you can easily make sure that you are sharing the latest versions.

1. With Flickr Photostream selected in the Publish Services panel, and the bonuslesson-002 image selected in the work area, expand the Quick Develop panel in the right panel group.

2. In the Saved Preset menu, at the top of the Quick Develop panel, choose User Presets > Mandalorian. The edited image is now displayed under the header Modified Photos To Re-Publish.

   

3. Click the Publish button in the bar at the top of the work area to republish the modified photo. A dialog box appears asking if you wish to replace the original photo published on Flickr; click Replace.

4. Right-click Photostream under Flickr in the Publish Services panel and choose Show In Flickr from the menu. If you don’t see the republished version of the photo, try reloading the page in your browser.

   

5. Click the republished photo to see it in single-image view. Scroll down to see the comment you posted earlier. Move the pointer over the comment, then click the trash icon at the right to delete it, and click Delete in the dialog box.

   

6. In the Library, select the bonuslesson-002 image and click the Refresh Comments button in the Comments panel. Watch the progress bar at the top left of the work­space as Lightroom connects to Flickr and updates your publish collection.

Creating a new album on Flickr

The Publish Services panel offers several options for working with your Flickr account from within Lightroom Classic; let’s look at another one of them.

1. Select the Images to Publish collection in the Collections panel again, and select the next six images in the grid (starting with bonuslesson-005, click the first one and Shift-click the last one).

2. Right-click your Flickr Photostream in the Publish Services panel and choose Create Album from the menu.

   Tip

   Right-click your Flickr Photostream, and one of the menu choices is to create a Smart Album. This creates a publish collection that updates itself to include any new photos you import into Lightroom that match the saved search criteria.

3. In the Create Album dialog box, type Other Work as the name for the new album. Ensure that the Include Selected Photos option is selected and the other options are disabled, and then click Create.

A listing for your new album appears, nested under the Flickr service in the Publish Services panel, and the central work area displays the six images from the Other Work album under the New Photos To Publish header.

4. Click the Publish button below the left panel group, or in the bar above the work area, and then wait while the new set of images is uploaded to Flickr.

5. To view the newly published images online, right-click your new album in the Publish Services panel and choose Show In Flickr from the menu. When you’re done, return to Lightroom Classic.

   

Sharing images to Facebook

In the past, Lightroom provided a publish service to connect with Facebook. Sadly, on August 1, 2018, Facebook stopped allowing desktop-based applications to post to the Facebook timeline. To continue sharing them on Facebook, we’ll have to export our edited images at a size to be shared on the web. We covered that in Lesson 10 “Making Backups and Exporting Photos.”

Publishing photos to Adobe Stock

The latest addition to the integrated services in the Publish Services panel, Adobe Stock is a service that provides designers and businesses with access to curated, high-quality photos and other assets for use in creative projects.

The Adobe Stock service is integrated with other Adobe desktop apps, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, so that creative professionals can search and browse photographic assets from Adobe Stock as they work.

Through the Publish Services panel, you can use your existing Creative Cloud account credentials to establish a connection between Lightroom Classic and the Adobe Stock Contributor portal (https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/), where you can set up a contributor account.

As a contributor, Adobe Stock offers you unparalleled exposure, licensing photo-graphic assets to stock content buyers directly through Adobe Creative Cloud apps and also via the web. By contributing to Adobe Stock, your work can reach these global buyers and you can start to earn money doing what you love.

Your photos remain your own; you are not signing your rights away when you work with Adobe Stock. Instead, you enter a non-exclusive agreement that allows Adobe to promote and license your content.

Contributing to Adobe Stock allows you to be part of an amazing community of creative content providers, whose efforts and input ensure that Adobe Stock is constantly evolving and building even more ways for you to be involved. Keep an eye on the Adobe Stock page at the Adobe Creative Cloud Blog for more information and ideas: https://theblog.adobe.com/creative-cloud/adobe-stock/.

Simply drag photos from the Grid view to your activated Adobe Stock collection in the Publish Services panel to publish the photos from Lightroom Classic and submit them to Adobe Stock for moderation. The Adobe Stock Contributor portal automatically extracts the Lightroom Classic keywords associated with your images and displays them as tagged keywords; you can visit the contributor portal to add more tags and organize your uploaded images.

The Lightroom Classic Web module

Another way to share your photos is to use the Lightroom Classic Web module to design, preview, and upload your own web gallery.

In the Web module, you’ll start by using the Template Browser in the left panel group to preview the wide range of gallery layout templates. When you’ve made your choice from the Template Browser, the Gallery Editor view in the central work area shows how your images look in the selected gallery layout. In the Gallery Editor view, your gallery is fully interactive, performing exactly as it will on the web.

You’ll use the panels in the right group to customize the gallery template. You can tweak the layout, change the color scheme, and add text, borders, and effects. With a single click, you can preview your gallery in a web browser or upload it to your web server—all without leaving Lightroom Classic.

Assembling photos for an online gallery

In the exercises to follow, you’ll customize a Lightroom template to showcase some photographs in an interactive web portfolio. The first step in creating a web gallery is to isolate the images you want to use from the rest of your catalog.

By having your images in a collection, you are already halfway to setting up your sample gallery. Before we do, let’s experiment with reordering the images in the collection, and adding some images from another collection for maximum effect.

1. Select the Images to Publish collection in the Collections panel and delete bonuslesson-011, then move the images to create a custom order. You’ll know the images are reorganized because you will see Custom Order in the Toolbar.

   

2. Select the Images to Print collection and drag lesson05-001, lesson07-006, and lesson07-023 into the Images to Publish collection (this is where collections really shine).

   

   Continue to drag to reorganize these new images with the exsisting images in your collection. When finished, your layout should look as shown below.

   

3. Click Web in the Module Picker at the upper right of the Lightroom window.

Choosing a template in the Web module

The first step in creating your own web gallery is to choose one of the 24 customizable HTML5 gallery designs in the Template Browser. Once you have tweaked and personal­ized the layout to suit your needs, you can save it, ready for reuse or further modification the next time you need to generate a similar presentation.

The Lightroom gallery templates differ not only in basic layout and color scheme, but also in the use of design elements such as image borders and drop shadows, and in the options available for displaying text information on your gallery pages.

1. In the Layout Style panel at the right, select the Classic Gallery style. In the Template Browser at the left, the default HTML5 gallery template is selected. Click the Lightroom UI template instead; the Preview panel shows you a thumbnail of the selected design, and the Gallery Editor view shows how your images will look in that layout. From the Use menu in the Toolbar below the Gallery Editor, choose All Filmstrip Photos.

   

2. Hide the Filmstrip, if necessary, so that you can see the Preview panel and as much as possible of the list of templates in the Template Browser. Keep an eye on the Preview panel as you move the pointer down the list of templates.

3. Click one or two templates from each category and inspect the layout in the Gallery Editor. For each design you preview, mouse over the thumbnails in the Gallery Editor view; some layouts include interactive highlighting.

4. In the right panel group, collapse all but the Layout Style and Site Info panels. In the Layout Style panel, click Classic Gallery, then examine the options in the Site Info panel. In the Layout Style panel, select each of the other three styles in turn, noting the different options in the Site Info panel.

   Note

   The Grid Gallery and Track Gallery styles share the same options in the Site Info panel.

   

   The Classic Gallery styles offer the most options for adding descriptive text to your gallery, and also the opportunity to personalize the page with your own identity plate. You can use a simple text identity plate or place a graphic such as your business logo or signature (as shown at left), or even your photo.

   Note

   When selecting Classic Gallery again after looking at the options for the other gallery styles, you will have to select Lightroom UI in the Template Browser again, since it isn’t the default.

5. Collapse the Site Info panel, and then expand the Color Palette panel. Compare the options for each of the four gallery styles. When you’re done, collapse the Color Palette panel and move down to the Appearance panel.

   

Just as for the Site Info panel, the Classic Gallery styles also provide more specific and comprehensive controls in the Color Palette and Appearance panels, including the option to specify a fixed number of rows and columns of image cells (the illustration at the left shows the default 3 × 3 grid).

In the Grid Pages area of the Appearance panel, you can set the number of images that will be displayed on each index page of a Classic gallery. A page indicator and navigation controls below the index grid enable the viewer to move between pages.

For a Grid Gallery template, you can choose either a scrolling, single-page index or a navigable, multiple-page layout from the Pagination Style menu in the Appearance panel. For a multiple-page index, you must specify the number of images per page.

The Square and Track Gallery styles have scrolling, single-page index layouts that will flow to fill the browser window; there are no pagination or navigation controls.

For a Classic gallery, you can set the size of the single image that you’ll see when you click a thumbnail in the index by using the Size slider in the Image Pages area at the bottom of the Appearance panel; for the other gallery styles, the image will be automatically scaled to fit the browser window (see below right).

The options and controls that are presented in the last three panels in the right panel group—the Image Info, Output Settings, and Upload Settings panels—are common to all four gallery styles.

It’s a good idea to make sure you’re familiar with the differences between the four gallery layout styles and the characteristics of their preset variations, so that you can choose the template that’s closest to the design you have in mind. For even more choices, explore the third-party gallery plug-ins available at Adobe Exchange.

6. In the Layout Style panel, click Find More Galleries Online.

7. On the Adobe Exchange page, make sure Lightroom Classic is chosen in the program list on the left.

8. Click the search box at the top and type web in the search box, then press Return/Enter.

In the results, you’ll find links to web gallery creation plug-ins that enable you to create a range of galleries, including specialized galleries for full-screen images, galleries that resize easily for a variety of screen sizes, and password-protected galleries with features including e-commerce and client proofing.

There are also add-ons for uploading your photos and existing albums to online gallery hosting services, and for generating an entire website to showcase your work, where instead of a single gallery, you can create a complete web presence that includes a structured hierarchy of galleries.

Personalizing a Classic Gallery template

If you’ve chosen one of the Classic Gallery templates, you have the opportunity to personalize your gallery by placing your name, signature, photo, or business logo in the header, which is particularly effective if you’re presenting photos to a client.

1. In the Template Browser, select the Charcoal gallery template, the first layout in the Classic Gallery Templates category.

   

2. Select the Identity Plate option in the Site Info panel, then click the white triangle at the lower right of the identity plate preview and choose Edit at the bottom of the menu.

   

   Tip

   best results, use an image that is no more than 60 pixels high so that Lightroom will not need to scale it to fit your layout. Although the file supplied for this exercise is 60 pixels in height, it includes 12 pixels of transparency along the bottom edge, which serves as a spacer to separate it from the preset gallery text.

3. In the Identity Plate Editor dialog box, select the Use A Graphical Identity Plate option, and then click the Locate File button.

4. In the Locate File dialog box, navigate to the bonuslesson_logo folder and select the sig_test.png file. Click Choose, then click OK. The new identity plate appears in the Gallery Editor view and in the Identity Plate preview in the Site Info panel.

   

Tweaking the layout of a web gallery

You can adjust your gallery layout using the Appearance panel. The options available in the Appearance panel differ for each layout style.

For a Classic gallery, the Appearance panel offers the options shown in the illustration to the right. You can add borders or drop shadows to your images and display an index number in the background of each image cell. Change the number of rows and columns used on the index page with the Grid Pages controls, which will indirectly determine the size of the thumbnail images in the grid. The minimum grid is three by three—if your gallery contains more than nine images, additional index pages will be generated. You can also set the size of the image on the single-image page and the width of a photo border for this enlarged view of an image.

Together with the controls in the Color Palette panel, these options give you great flexibility in customizing the look and feel of your Classic Gallery layout.

1. We’ll look at the color controls in another exercise; for now, work your way down the controls in the Appearance panel, toggling the controls by clicking the check boxes as you watch the effects in the gallery preview. Experiment with setting different proportions for the index page layout in the Grid Pages area.

2. In the Template Browser, click the Grid Gallery variants in turn, noting the differences in the Appearance panel settings for each of the three templates, then choose the Grid Gallery (default) template and experiment with the controls. Change the Pagination Style to Multiple Pages and experiment with the Items Per Page setting. Enable the Floating Header option, and then scroll down the index page in the Gallery Editor view to see the result.

3. Repeat the process for the three Square Gallery variants.

4. Select the default Track Gallery template. Set the Row Spacing to Large and enable Floating Header, then expand the Site Info and Color Palette panels.

   

Working with Site Info text

For all four gallery styles, you can add a gallery title, an author name, and a website or email link in the Site Info panel. The Classic and Square galleries also allow for extra lines of descriptive text.

1. Click the default Gallery Title text in the Site Info panel and type a title for your site, then press Return/Enter. Your text replaces the placeholder text in the gallery header. In a web browser, your gallery title will also appear in the browser window title bar or tab.

   

2. Click the triangle beside Gallery Title and note the entries in the Site Title menu. Lightroom keeps track of your entries for each of the text boxes in the Site Info panel. Instead of retyping information each time you create a new web gallery, you can choose previously entered details from the menus.

   

   Tip

   In a Classic Gallery layout, you can also edit text directly in the Gallery Editor view; simply click the text you wish to change, and then type over it. Press Return/Enter to update both the gallery preview and the corresponding entry in the Site Info panel.

3. Click the Gallery Author text box in the Site Info panel and type your name. Press Return/Enter, and your name appears in a byline below the title in the gallery header.

   

The third item in the Track Gallery Site Info panel, Gallery Author URL, will not be visible onscreen in its own right, but is attached to the Gallery Author text, making it an interactive web or mail link.

4. Click the Gallery Author URL text box in the Site Info panel, then enter your email address like this: mailto:[email protected]. Press Return/Enter; in the work area preview, the Gallery Author text is now underlined to indicate a live link. Click the byline and your default mail application opens to a new, pre-addressed email message.

   

If you have a personal web page, you can use the Gallery Author URL entry to set up a link to your Home page, where you can offer the viewer links to other galleries that you’ve created in Lightroom.

5. Click the Gallery Author URL text box in the Site Info panel and enter your Home page URL like this: http://www.domain.com, then press Return/Enter. In the work area preview, click the byline; your default web browser will open to the specified web page.

   

Changing colors

The controls in the Color Palette panel enable you to change the color scheme for your website. You can set the color for every element in the layout: background, text, navigation icons; for Classic and Grid galleries, borders; and for Classic galleries, image cells.

Choosing colors that work well together and look good on any system may seem a challenge, but keeping just a few simple rules in mind should help you to stay within a safe palette. Text that stands out from the background only because of its hue, rather than by tonal contrast, may be hard to see if the colors are shifted on the viewer’s browser; use dark text on a light background and vice versa.

For base elements such as the background, image borders, and header text, neutral, muted colors will compete less with your images.

If you want to get serious about designing color schemes (and have some fun along the way), Adobe Color can be an invaluable reference. Explore the interactive color wheel and browse palettes created by other users at color.adobe.com.

1. In the Color Palette panel, click the Background color swatch to open the Lightroom Color Picker.

2. Move the pointer over the central gradient in the Color Picker; the cursor becomes an eyedropper. Click anywhere in the gradient and drag the eyedropper over the gallery preview to sample a blue hue from the second to last image in the bottom row. Watch the HSL values at the bottom of the Color Picker to make sure that the luminance (L) value of the color you sample is no higher than 15%. You can see the result in the template preview at the left as you drag; the new color is not applied in the Gallery Editor until you release the mouse button.

   

3. In the Color Palette panel, click the Text color swatch and select white, then press Return/Enter.

   

Adding information about your photos

In the Image Info panel, you can choose from a range of options in the Title and Caption menus to specify the information you’d like to display about each of the images in your web gallery. The lesson images may have already had titles added to their metadata. In this exercise, you’ll add a common caption to the entire collection.

1. Expand the Image Info panel in the right panel group. Make sure that both the Title and Caption options are selected, and that the Title label option is set to display the title embedded in the images’ metadata.

   

2. Click on the double triangle beside Caption to see the menu of choices. Most of the choices display information that is retrieved from an image’s metadata. For the purposes of this exercise, choose Custom Text.

   

3. Click the Custom Text box and type Printed on Aluminum, then press Return/Enter.

   

4. Click any of the images on the index page to see it enlarged in the single-image view, labeled with the title from its metadata and your custom text caption. Use the navigation buttons at the top center or move the pointer to the sides of the image page to see additional navigation buttons; then click the X icon at the upper right to return to the index page.

   

Specifying output settings

In the Output Settings panel, you can control the image quality and the sharpness of the JPEG images generated for the single-image pages in your web gallery. You can also choose to add a watermark to your images, which gives you at least minimal protection when publishing your work.

1. In the right panel group, collapse the Image Info panel and expand the Output Settings panel. Drag the Quality slider to set the image quality to 70%, or alternatively, click the value to the right, type 70, and press Return/Enter. In most cases, an image quality setting of 70% to 80% strikes a good balance between file size and image quality.

   

2. If they are currently unselected, select the Watermarking and Sharpening options at the bottom of the Output Settings panel. Make sure that the amount of Sharpening to be applied is set to Standard.

You won’t see the changes you’ve made to these settings reflected in the images in the gallery preview; the image quality and sharpening settings will not be applied until Lightroom Classic exports the image files for your website.

Watermarking images

In the Watermark Editor dialog box, Lightroom makes it easy to watermark your images for export, printing, publishing, or for a web gallery.

You have the choice of applying a simple text watermark—ideal for a copyright message or your business name—or importing an image file such as your company logo to be applied as a graphic watermark.

For a text watermark you can specify a font and the text color, and for both watermark styles you can adjust the opacity and either use precise scaling and positioning controls or work directly with your watermark in the watermarking preview.

1. Press Command+A/Ctrl+A, or select all of the images in your web gallery manually by Shift-clicking the thumbnails at either end of the Filmstrip. Click the double arrow to open the Watermarking menu and choose Edit Watermarks to open the Watermark Editor dialog box.

   

The default watermark style is a simple text copyright watermark. In the Watermark Editor dialog box you have the opportunity to enter your own message below the preview and specify the font, style, alignment, and color of your text. You can also set up a drop-shadow effect for your watermark text.

For both watermark styles you can use the Watermark Effects controls at the right of the dialog box to adjust the opacity, size, and placement of your watermark. Alternatively, you can move or resize the watermark directly; a bounding box and handles will appear when you move the pointer over the preview. Use the left and right arrows at the top of the dialog box to change the image in the preview.

2. Under Image Options at the upper right of the Watermark Editor dialog box, click Choose to select an image file to be used as a graphic watermark. In the Choose A File/Open dialog box, navigate to and open the bonuslesson_logo folder. Select the sig_test.png file, then click Choose.

At the upper right of the Watermark Editor dialog box, the Watermark Style has changed to Graphic and the Text Options are now disabled.

3. At the right of the Watermark Editor dialog box, scroll down if necessary and expand the Watermark Effects controls. Use the sliders or type new values to set the opacity value to 75, the proportional sizing value to 10, and both the horizontal and vertical inset values to 1. Use the Anchor setting at the lower left to position the watermark at the lower right of the image. For our purposes, you won’t need to use the Rotate buttons to reorient the watermark image.

   

4. Use the left and right arrow buttons at the top of the Watermark Editor dialog box to cycle the image in the watermarking preview and decide whether the settings work for all the images in the collection. Make any adjustments needed.

5. Choose Save Current Settings As New Preset from the Custom menu at the upper left. In the New Preset dialog box, type web portfolio to name the new preset, and then click Create.

You could now easily apply the same watermark to another collection of images by choosing it from the Watermarking menu in the Output Settings panel.

6. Click Done to close the Watermark Editor dialog box. The watermark appears on the images in the gallery preview and the web portfolio preset is indicated beside Watermarking in the Output Settings panel.

This concludes the section on customizing the look and feel of your web gallery. You’ve personalized a web page by placing a graphic identity plate, changed the site info text, added a live link, learned how to adjust the layout and color scheme, and finally added titles, captions, and a watermark to the images.

It’s time to test the way your gallery performs in a web browser before you save all these modifications as a custom template that you can use as a starting point the next time you create a web gallery.