This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Working with the Filmstrip
No matter which module or view you’re working in, the Filmstrip across the bottom of the Lightroom workspace provides constant access to the images in your selected folder or collection.
As with the Grid view, you can quickly navigate through your images in the Filmstrip using the arrow keys on your keyboard. If there are more images than will fit in the Filmstrip you can use the scroll bar below the thumbnails, drag the Filmstrip by the top edge of the thumbnail frame, or click the shaded thumbnails at either end.
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Hiding the Filmstrip and adjusting its size
Click the triangle in the lower border of the workspace window to hide and show the Filmstrip. Right-click / Control-click the triangle to set the automatic show and hide options.
Position the pointer over the top edge of the Filmstrip; the cursor becomes a double arrow. Drag the top edge of the Filmstrip up or down to enlarge or reduce the thumbnails. The narrower you make the Filmstrip the more thumbnails it can display.
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Using filters in the Filmstrip
With so few photos in the Lesson 4 folder it’s not difficult to see all the images at once in the Filmstrip. However, when you are working with a folder containing many images it can be inconvenient to scroll the Filmstrip looking for the images you want. Use the Filmstrip filters to narrow down the images displayed in the Filmstrip to only those that share a specified flag status, rating, color label, or any combination of these attributes.
In the Filmstrip you can see that one of the images in the Lesson 4 folder displays the white Pick flag that you assigned in a previous exercise. If you don’t see the flag, activate the option Show Ratings And Picks In Filmstrip in the Interface tab in Lightroom Preferences.
From the filters menu at the top right of the Filmstrip, choose Flagged. Only the image with the white flag is displayed in the Filmstrip.
- The white flag icon is now highlighted among the Filter controls in the top bar of the Filmstrip. You can activate or disable any of the filters you saw in the filters menu by clicking the Filter controls buttons. You can set up a combination of filters and save it as a custom preset. Click to deactivate the white flag filter in the top bar of the Filmstrip or choose Filters Off from the menu to disable all filters. The Filmstrip once more displays all the images in the folder.
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Change the sorting order of the thumbnails
Use the Sort Direction control and the Sort Criteria menu in the Toolbar to change the display order of the thumbnails images in the Grid view and the Filmstrip.
- If the Sort Direction control is not currently visible in the Toolbar, choose Sorting from the tools menu at the right of the Toolbar. Click the Sort Direction control (
) to reverse the sorting direction of the thumbnails. Choose Pick from the Sort Criteria menu beside the Sort Direction control.
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Stacking images
Another effective way of reducing the numbers of images displayed is by grouping similar photos in stacks. This is particularly helpful when you are working with a folder containing hundreds of photos from the same shoot. You can stack a group of images of the same subject or a series shot to test different camera settings. To reduce the clutter in the Filmstrip and the Grid view, only the top image in each stack is displayed.
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An icon representing a stack of photos is shown in the upper left corner of the thumbnail together with an image count.
To create a stack, do the following:
- In Grid view or the Filmstrip, select two or more images.
- Choose Photo > Stacking > Group Into Stack.
- Click the stack icon to expand and collapse the stack.
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To learn more about Stacks, please refer to Lightroom Help.
The thumbnails are rearranged to display the images with a white Pick flag first in the Grid and the Filmstrip.
You can arbitrarily change the sorting order for images you’ve group as a Collection.
If you are not already in the Grid view, press G on your keyboard or click the Library Grid button at the left of the top bar of the Filmstrip.
Expand the Collections panel in the left panel group and click the New York Skyscrapers collection that you created earlier.
In the Grid view, drag the third thumbnail to the left and release the pointer when you see a black insertion bar appear to the left of the first image.
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The image snaps to its new location.
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You can also change the order of the images in a collection by dragging their thumbnails in the Filmstrip.
Your manual sorting order is saved and listed as User Order in the Sort Criteria menu. Choose File Name from the Sort Criteria menu; then return to your manual sorting by choosing User Order.
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Congratulations; you’ve finished another lesson. You’ve gained confidence navigating through your library and learned techniques for reviewing, sorting, filtering, and grouping your images as collections. You’ll learn more about structuring and organizing your photo library in the next lesson.
Review
Review questions
- How would you use each of the views in the Library module?
- What is the Navigator?
- Why would you create a Stack?
- How do you use the Quick Collection?
Review answers
- Switch to the Grid view (
) with the keyboard shortcut G, to review, mark, and select images as thumbnails. Switch to the Loupe view (
) by pressing the E key, to examine a single image at a range of magnification levels and to the Compare view (
) by pressing C, to evaluate images side by side. Press N to refine a multiple selection in the Survey view (
). - The Navigator is an interactive full image preview that helps you move around easily within a zoomed image in Loupe view. Click or drag in the Navigator preview to reposition the view while a white rectangle indicates the portion of the magnified image that is currently visible in the workspace. The Navigator panel also contains controls for setting the zoom levels for the Loupe view. Click the image in Loupe view to switch between the last two zoom levels set in the Navigator panel.
- Stacks can be used to group similar photos and reduce the number of thumbnails displayed at one time in the Grid view and the Filmstrip. Only the top image in a stack appears in the thumbnail display but the stack can be expanded and contracted by clicking the thumbnail.
- To create a Quick Collection, select one or more images and then press the B key or choose Photo > Add To Quick Collection. The Quick Collection is a temporary holding area; you can continue to add—or remove—images until you are ready to save the grouping as a more permanent Collection. You’ll find the Quick Collection listed in the Catalog panel.