A few weeks ago, photographer Colin Smith showed us some useful Photoshop tricks hiding right before our eyes. Now he presents us with seven tricks that will make the workflow faster and more efficient when editing in Lightroom. These features are also practically hiding before our eyes, and they will make you think “how come I didn’t know about this before?”
1. Solo Mode
If you’re editing photos on a small screen (like I do on my laptop), when you open all tabs in the Develop Module, you’ll have a lot of scrolling going on. So, right-click on an arrow in any panel, and choose “Solo Mode.” This way, each time you open one panel, the previous one will collapse. This will save you some scrolling and speed up your workflow.
2. Make sliders longer
You can make the sliders longer so you get more precise settings when you adjust them. Just click on the edge of the panel and drag it to the left.
3. Fit Radial Filter to the photo
You can make Radial Filter fit the photo without dragging it around the photo until it fits. Instead, just click the Ctrl button (Cmd on Mac), double-click on the pin, and the Radial Filter will fit the image.
4. Hide the modules
Lightroom also enables you to hide the modules you’re not using. Right-click anywhere in the area with modules, and check the ones you want to be visible.
You can also do this in individual panels, again by right-clicking inside of them and selecting the features you don’t want to be shown.
5. Add photo settings to the video
If you import a video to Lightroom and can’t view it in the Develop module, you can bypass this problem by editing a photo. Take a screenshot of the video and apply the settings you want. Then, select both the photo and the video and press Ctrl + Shift + S to sync settings. Now the entire video will have the same tone as the screenshot you edited.
6. Change target collection
The target collection is by default the Quick Collection. You can change it and make another collection to be your default one. Create a new collection, name it, and before you are done, check the “Set as Target Collection.” This way, your new collection will work as Quick Collection.
You can change this by right-clicking on the collection and turning the feature on and off. Your target collection will always have a “+” symbol next to the name. When you turn it off, the Quick Collection will become the default again.
7. Show metadata when more photos are selected
When you have several photos selected, you can’t see the metadata as you click between them. Go to Metadata > Show Metadata for Target Photo Only, and now you’ll be able to see the metadata for individual photos as you switch between them.
I think most of these things are basic stuff, and while I’ve already used some of them, the rest of them were new to me. What about you? Did you already know about all these, or you learned something new? [7 SECRET Tips you probably don’t know in LIGHTROOM | photoshopCAFE]
