Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Lightroom Killer Tips
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but really makes perfect sense (in fact,
it may be just what you need). He cre-
ates a separate Lightroom catalog (go
under the File menu and choose
New
Catalog
) for every single wedding. At
each wedding, he shoots more than a
thousand shots, and often he has one to
two other photographers shooting with
him. His way, Lightroom really screams,
because each catalog has only a thou-
sand or so photos (where for many folks,
it's not unusual to have 30,000 or 40,000
images, which tends to slow Lightroom
down a bit). Hey, if you're a high-volume
shooter, it's worth considering.
you. Well, if you delete some of these
files, then your numbering will be out
of sequence (there will be numbers
missing). This doesn't bother me at
all, but I've learned that it drives some
people crazy (you know who you are),
so it's definitely something to consider.
▼
Drag-and-Drop Straight
Into Lightroom 3
If you have photos on your desktop, or
in a folder, that you want to import into
Lightroom, you can drag-and-drop the
photo (or a folder full of photos) right
on the Lightroom icon (or the Dock icon
if you're using a Mac), and it will launch
Lightroom (if it's not already running),
and bring up Lightroom's Import
window automatically.
▼
Getting Back to Your Last
Imported Images
▼
When the Import Window
Doesn't Appear Automatically
Lightroom keeps track of the last set
of images you imported, and you can
get back to those images anytime by
going to Catalog panel (in the Library
module's left side Panels area) and
clicking on Previous Import. However,
I think it's faster (and more convenient)
to go down to the Filmstrip, and on the
left side, where you see the current
collection's name, click-and-hold, and
from the pop-up menu that appears,
choose Previous Import.
▼
Lightroom Won't Let You
Import Duplicates
If you connect a memory card reader
to your computer, Lightroom's Import
window should appear automatically.
If for some reason it doesn't, press
Com-
mand-, (comma; PC: Ctrl-,)
to bring up
Lightroom's Preferences, then click the
General tab up top, and make sure the
checkbox is turned on for Show Import
Dialog When a Memory Card Is Detected.
If you go to import some photos, and
some (or all) of them are already found
in your Lightroom catalog (in other words,
these are duplicates), and the Don't
Import Suspected Duplicates checkbox
is turned on, any images already in Light-
room will be grayed out in the Import
window. If all the images are duplicate,
the Import button will also be grayed
out, so you can't import them.
▼ Using Lightroom in 32-Bit
▼ Why You Might Want to Wait
to Rename Your Files
As you saw in this chapter, you can
rename your files as you import them
into Lightroom (and I definitely think
you should give your files descriptive
names), but you might want to wait until
after you've sorted your photos (and
deleted any out-of-focus shots, or shots
where the flash didn't fire, etc.), because
Lightroom auto-numbers the files for
▼
Using Separate Catalogs to
Make Lightroom Faster
Although I keep one single catalog for
all the photos on my laptop, and just
three catalogs for my entire collection
in the studio, I have a friend who's a full-
time wedding photographer who uses
a different Lightroom catalog strategy
that freaked me out when I first heard it,
Lightroom 3 is 64-bit capable, and
if you're working on a Mac, it runs in
64-bit mode by default. If you want to
run it in 32-bit, go to the Applications
folder, click on the icon for Lightroom
