A First Look at the Book Module and Map Module in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4
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From the book
The Book module, also new in Lightroom 4, delivers a suite of layout and type tools to help you create sophisticated photo book designs that can either be uploaded directly from Lightroom for printing through the online book vendor Blurb, or saved to PDF and printed on your own printer. You can work with a multi-page preview of your layout, focus on your design spread-by-spread, or view single pages in the Book module’s central work area, switching between these viewing modes and moving through the pages of your book using the controls in the Toolbar.
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In the left panel group, the Preview panel displays a thumbnail preview of the page or spread you’re editing and helps you to navigate the layout when you’re working at high magnification. The Collections panel provides easy access to your photo collections and saved book designs. The right panel group presents the tools and controls you’ll use to customize your photo book. Once you’ve chosen from size, cover style, and paper type options, you can either have Lightroom generate a layout and place your photos automatically or choose from a wide range of preset page templates, and then tweak your design with the controls in the Page, Guides, Cell, and Background panels. The Caption and Type panels let you customize page and photo captions and edit type characteristics for titles and body text. The Book module Filmstrip has markers to show which images are included in your layout.
Organizing photos by location
Lightroom 4 introduces geotagging in the new Map module, where you can see exactly where your photos were captured on a Google map, and search and filter the images in your library by location.
Photos that were captured with a camera or phone that records GPS coordinates will appear on the map automatically. You can easily add location metadata to images captured without GPS information by dragging them directly onto the map from the Filmstrip, or by having Lightroom match their capture times to a tracklog exported from a mobile device.
- In the Library module, click the Import button below the left panel group.
- 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 more options.
- Under Source at the left of the Import dialog box, navigate to and select the LR4CIB > Lessons > LR4CIB GPS folder. Make sure that both of the images in the LR4CIB GPS folder are checked for import. In the import options picker above the thumbnail previews, click Add to add the imported photos to your catalog without moving or copying them. In the Apply During Import panel at the right, type Lesson 5, GPS in the Keywords text box, and then click Import.
- In the Grid view or the Filmstrip, select the image Audreys_House.jpg, and then click Map in the module picker across the top of the workspace.
Working in the Map module
Lightroom has automatically plotted the photo’s location by reading the GPS metadata embedded in the image file. The mapped location is marked by a colored pin.
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The Navigator panel at the left shows a thumbnail overview map, with a white-bordered rectangle indicating the area currently visible in the main map view.
The Toolbar below the map view offers a Map Style menu, a Zoom slider, and buttons for locking marker pins and accessing imported GPS tracklogs. You can add location details and other information in the Metadata panel at the right.
- Dismiss the Map Key by clicking the Close button (x) in the upper right corner of the overlay, or by disabling the Show Map Key option in the View menu.
- Experiment with changing the magnification of the map by dragging the Zoom slider in the Toolbar, or by clicking the Zoom In (+) and Zoom Out (-) buttons at either end of the slider. Hold down the Alt / Option key and drag a rectangle in the map to zoom into that area. Drag the map to reposition it in the view, or move the focus by dragging the white-bordered rectangle in the Navigator.
- In the Map Style menu at the left of the Toolbar, select each of the six styles in turn, then set the map to the look you prefer.
- Click each of the four options in the Location Filter bar in turn, noting the effect of the filters on which images are displayed in the Filmstrip.
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Figure 3 Map styles, clockwise from upper left: Hybrid, Road Map, Satellite, Dark, Light, Terrain.
The Location Filter bar above the map lets you highlight just those photos captured at locations currently visible on the map or filter for tagged or untagged shots.
In the Filmstrip and the Library module’s
Grid view, images that have been
tagged with a GPS location are
marked with a location marker
badge (
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Geotagging images captured without GPS information
Even if your camera does not record GPS data, the Map module makes it easy to tag your photos by location.
- In the header of the Filmstrip, click the white arrow to the right of the name of the currently selected image and choose Folder - Lesson 5 from the Recent Sources list in the menu.
- In the Filter bar’s text search box, type Venice, Italy; then, press Enter / Return.
- Clear the Search Result marker by clicking the X button at the right of the text search box in the Location Filter bar.
- Select the three photos of carnival masks, and then right-click / Control-click Venice on the map and choose Add GPS Location To Selected Photos.
- Choose Edit > Select None. Move the pointer over the marker pin on the map to see a preview of the photos captured at that location. Click the marker pin to select the photos captured at that location; then, click it again to open the pop-up preview. Click the white arrows at the sides of the preview thumbnail to see the other images at this location, and then click away from the preview to close it.
- In the header of the Filmstrip, click the arrow to the right of the image source information and choose Previous Import from the source menu.
The map is redrawn and the new location is marked with a Search Result marker, distinguished by a bold black spot.
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