Impromptu Slideshow

You’re working in the Library module and you’ve selected some images. Do you want to see an impromptu slideshow of your selected images? No need to go over to the Slideshow module! Just press Command-Return on a Mac or Control-Return on a PC. Voila! Instant slideshow.

Single Catalog or Multiple Catalogs?

Underneath all of the features and tools, Lightroom is, at its heart, a database program. One of the things that make Lightroom such a powerful and flexible application is its ability to help us find our images. As our collection of images grows it can become more and more difficult to locate that image of the puppy in the basket by the red flowers. But the keywords, metadata, collections, folders, and so on are all hooks Lightroom can use to search and find that puppy!

There is nothing in Lightroom to prevent you from creating more than one catalog to store your images. But should you? Let’s take a look at the reasons you might decide on one approach versus the other.

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Rename Your Files On The Go

When you are working in the Library module sometimes you just need to rename one file or a group of files quickly. Simply press the F2 key and Lightroom will present you with a dialog box that will allow you to rename all your selected files. It even gives you access to all your file naming templates.

Virtual Copies and the Develop Module

There is an interesting, but sometimes confusing, issue when you create a virtual copy while you are working in the Develop module. Here’s the scenario: You are working on an image and before you travel down an alternate creative path you decide to make a virtual copy before proceeding. So you use the menu command or the keyboard shortcut and… poof …a different image is sitting there instead of your virtual copy! You go back to the Library module or look in the filmstrip and notice your virtual copy did get created. You’ve done this before and it worked. So what’s going on?

When you create a virtual copy in the Develop module Lightroom (1) creates the virtual copy, (2) deselects the original, and (3) selects the virtual copy. So you are left with your virtual copy waiting to be processed. That works so long as your original image is the ONLY one selected when you start the process.

If you select multiple images either in the Library module before you enter the Develop module, or you select multiple images in the filmstrip then Lightroom gets caught by a conflict. When you create that virtual copy and Lightroom deselects the original image it immediately selects another image in your selection set. So it never gets to step 3 and your virtual copy doesn’t get selected as usual.

So if you like to create virtual copies while in the Develop module remember to only select one image at a time. Remember that Lightroom keeps the filmstrip at the bottom of each module so you can access your images easily without going back to the Library module.

Recover Lost Images with LRViewer

A user over at the Adobe Lightroom Forums was having a problem recently. It seems that he had imported some images into Lightroom and now could not locate any of the original files. While he could work on them in the Library module he couldn’t do anything else without those source files. The previews were there. He could see the images. But that was it.

We discussed it a bit and tried some tests but nothing. A thorough search of his drives yielded no results. The originals were gone! Then Don Ricklin made a brilliant suggestion that I want to pass on to you. Marc Rochkind is a photographer and software developer. He has made available a free program called LRViewer. LRViewer let’s you view the contents of a Lightroom catalog and see the previews and metadata for the images.

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