32. ORGANIZE YOUR IMAGES IN A COLLECTION FIRST

WHEN YOU WANT to create a slideshow, the first thing you need to do is organize the images you want to include into a collection, so we’ll start out in the Library module (Figures 32.1 and 32.2).

The benefit of selecting All Photographs in the Catalog panel is that you can take a look at all of your pictures across all of the different folders you’ve placed them in. This is the option I like to use when I want to take a look at everything I’ve done. From here, you can Shift-click or Command-click on a series of pictures to get them ready to add to a collection.

In the Collections panel, click on the plus sign and select Create Collection (Figure 32.3). In the dialog, you can create a name for the collection and choose whether to place it inside a collection set. You also have the option to include the currently selected photos in the collection, but I prefer to leave this option unchecked (Figure 32.4).

While it might seem like it’s easier for you to include the selected photos right from the Create Collection dialog, I usually tell people to wait. When you choose this option and click Create, it will automatically bring you into the collection with the pictures that are selected. That sounds good, but if you want to add more pictures, you’ll have to go back to the All Photographs area and scroll up and down to find where you were before you made the collection. To save yourself that step, I recommend leaving Include selected photos turned off.

Now the new collection is part of the Collections panel and you can just drag the selected images onto the collection (Figure 32.5). Once the images are in a collection, you can drag them around and place them in the order in which you want them to appear. Simply single-click on one of the images and drag it to its new location.

If you want to see how the images are going to flow from one image to the next, press Shift + Tab to hide the Lightroom interface, and use your left and right arrow keys to go back and forth within the collection (Figure 32.6).

Figures 32.1–32.2 Moving images in the Catalog is a no-go. You’re going to need a collection for that.

Figure 32.3 Creating a new collection.

Figure 32.4 I prefer to leave the Include selected photos option unchecked.

Figure 32.5 Drag the images you want to include in your slideshow onto the new collection in the Collections panel.

Figure 32.6 Press Shift + Tab to hide the Lightroom interface, and then examine the flow of your images without distractions.

You can even start a slideshow from inside the collection by pressing Command + Return (Mac) or Ctrl + Enter (PC). This will load all of the pictures into a temporary slideshow (Figures 32.7 and 32.8). You can’t change any of the settings, but it will give you an overview of how the images are going to flow from one to the next, and then you can make the changes to the organization of the images accordingly.

Figure 32.7 When you press Command + Return (Mac) or Ctrl + Enter (PC) in the Slideshow module, Lightroom will prepare your images for a slideshow preview.

Figure 32.8 Lightroom plays the slideshow preview right from your collection.