Smart Collection Workflow - 0 Overview

This article covers the Overview section of the Smart Collections Workflow and is part of the complete Smart Collection Workflow for Lightroom.

The Overview section of the Smart Collection Workflow is labeled at placeholder zero (0) so that it will appear first in the list. The overview contains, as you might expect, collections that give you an overview of your work. More important is the first collection of the group.

Current Work

This first collection is called the Current Work collection and is a normal collection, not a smart collection. The heart of the entire Smart Collection Workflow is with the Current Work collection. Just about every Smart Collection in the Workflow uses the images in the Current Work collection. Thus, a filter in the smart collection is as follows:

Collection contains 'Current Workflow'

To use the Smart Collection Workflow, the Current Work collection must contain images. Once it is populated with images, the remainder of the work flow will populate with results. Don't worry about particulars yet, this is a summary of the Overview section of the work flow. We will discuss how to use the Smart Collection Workflow after we go through each section.

Components of the Overview

The first item to notice is how the numbering system works. The base collection set is labeled: 0 Workflow. Notice how each collection name begins with a number. The reason this occurs is to properly sort the items. With no number at the front, the collections would be sorted alphabetically and not in the correct order.

The next level of Collection Sets starts with 0 and moves forward in 0.1 increments. These are as follows:

0 Current Work
0.1 Edited - All Library
0.2 Flagged - Current
0.3 File Conversions
0.4 Images Taken - All Library
0.5 Current Work Composition

So the next item to notice after the numbering is the description. If the description includes 'All Library' then the entire image library is the scope of the Smart Collection. Thus, the 0.1 Edited collection includes images that have been edited recently through the current week. These are without regard to the Current Work collection and are based on the entire library.

If the collection includes the tag 'Current' then it only applies to the Current Work collection. Thus, the 0.2 Flagged collection shows images in the Current Work collection split by type of flag the image has. If the image is deleted (rejected) or contains no flag and is a member of the Current Work collection, then the image would appear here.

Collection Descriptions

We will discuss each section of collections and a description of the type of information gleaned by the collections. Not all of the Smart Collections are important to the actual work at hand in the Current Work collection. Some are just to give you a feel for how much (or little) work you have accomplished and what the makeup of your library is. The remaining workflow steps after the Overview are more focussed to the work.

0.1 Edited - All Library

As we alluded to above, the edited list of Smart Collections tells us the volume of work that has been done at various time intervals. These intervals are one hour, this day, yesterday and this week. Since the Smart Collection filters the entire image library, you can see how much work you have accomplished over the week.

I also added a new item - Deleted - All Library. The purpose of this collection is to indicate which images in the entire library are marked as rejects and ready for deleting. I use the reject flag to determine which images need to be deleted. Then I use the Lightroom command to delete the rejected images from the disk. This collection prevents me from accidentally deleting other images. I check this collection before I start a workflow session and it should be empty. If not, I verify those images still want to be deleted.

0.2 Flagged - Current

This group of collections lets you see at a glance the status of your images - but only as they relate to the Current Work. Images outside of the Current Work collection are not reviewed.

Thus, as rejects are flagged during the early processing of the working collection, they are segregated here. Any images that are Flagged are shown here as well as images that have no flag (Unflagged). The confusing collection is the one I added - A No Rating collection. The difference between an Unflagged collection and a No Rating collection is the difference between a flag and a star rating. Unflagged collections have no flag and no reject flag assigned. A No Rating collection is one that has no stars for a rating and is not selected as a reject. Thus, even though an image might be flagged, until it receives at least a one star rating it will show up in this collection.

EDIT 11/19/2008:

I have found with the help of some of the folks very close to Lightroom, that flags are specific to a collection and the library. Thus a single image can have different flag status: picked, not flagged and rejected. This is possible when an image is a member of different collections. More importantly, even using two rules in a smart collection: a) collection name contains 'Current Work' and b) pick flag isPicked, the pick flag rule only looks at the library, not the collection returned from the first rule. Thus, for now, 0.2 Flagged - Current does not work.

0.3 File Conversions

This collection shows the group of images that are being worked on and their current file type. If the image is a RAW image it is collected in the first group. A DNG file is recorded in the second type and any files converted to Adobe Photoshop files are listed in the last group - PSD Files. Since I shoot with a Leica M8 that saves images in an Adobe native DNG format, I shouldn't see any RAW files. If I do, I can look to see where they came from. I can also see quickly if I converted any files to Photoshop files. If you use JPEGs or TIFFs, then you can add those smart collections as well.

0.4 Images Taken

Images Shot just sounds poor in writing even though we might say it that way. Images Taken represent the entire library and when the images were taken. Using these smart collections you can get a quick grasp on how many images you have been taking over time. You can add other time frames if your goals are broken down differently.

0.5 Current Work Composition

The composition group indicates the makeup of the Current Work collection. How many are actually virtual images? How many images are the real thing - the original master copy? Finally, how many are black and white (Bnw) virtuals and master copies. In my workflow, I want to know how many have been converted to black and white, or greyscale, and how many actually started that way. You could add two more to show color virtuals and color masters if you wanted to.

Conclusion

The numbering for the Overview is done with sections less than 1.0. At the same time, section numbers within each type are listed as 10, 20, 30 so that they could be moved around without having to be renumbered.

Also, the key collection is the Current Work collection. The Current Work collection drives the remainder of the workflow. We see how the Overview section tells us some information about the group of images we are working on as well as the status of the library as a whole.

Next we will discuss the Metadata section to see what data hasn't been input properly. Stay tuned!

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Managing Lightroom Galleries on the Web

This is part of my Web Workflow using Adobe Lightroom.

Adobe Lightroom is such an efficient tool, I developed a method for managing the web sites I create so that updates are available with minimum fuss and little manual work. The hard part is creating the first page or gallery. After that, maintenance is easy!

Using Collections in the Library Module and Templates in the Web Module are the keys to managing your web sites through Lightroom. We will discuss the creation of a gallery and then the maintenance plan showing each step along the way.

Creating the Collection For the Gallery

By now you have probably already created a gallery and tested it so that you have something to look at. Bear with me and follow these steps to create a new gallery so that it will be easy to update.

First, use the Library Module and select a group of images that should be shown in a single gallery for your web site. Use the SHIFT key to select multiple images in a row and the CRTL key to select images that are not immediately next to each other. With these images selected, go to the left panel and expand the Collections Pane. Be sure not to click on any of the collections.

As an alternative method, and one I prefer, clear the Quick Collection by pressing and holding the SHIFT and ALT keys and then pressing the B key. Then, click on each photo to add to the gallery and press the B key. Do this for each individual or group selection of images. You can find photos, scroll around and not worry about de-selecting some of the images. When you are done, click on the Quick Collection under the Library Panel and select all the photos before proceeding to the next step. This time you can click the first photo and SHIFT click the last photo or use the Edit, Select All menu item (CTRL-A is the shortcut for that menu item).


You can either click on the plus sign contained in the Collections Panel header, or


right-click on any of the existing collections and choose either a) create collection or b) create collection in xxxx. The first item will create a new collection at the base level and the second menu item will create a collection contained within an existing folder. When you choose one of these options, or press the plus sign as shown above, you get the following dialog box:


Note that there are three check box choices after inputting a collection name. They are:

1. put inside xxxx
2. include selected photos
3. make new virtual copies

Check the first item to include it under the already highlighted folder or the folder you right-clicked on. Check the second item to include the photos we selected in the first step. Check the final item to make virtual copies of the images before adding them to the collection.

My preference is to use virtual copies in a collection so that I can change the development look, the cropping, the description and any of the other meta data for the purposes of the gallery. Also, virtual copies take up very little room on the hard drive.

Using this method you can organize your collections under folders. For example, you can create a "collection" titled, 'My Web Site.' To do this, open the Create Collection dialog box and de-select the checkbox to include the selected images. This will create a collection with no images in it which is the same as a folder. Then, right-click on the newly created collection, 'My Web Site' in this example, and create a collection underneath it. For example, create the collection, 'My First Gallery.'

Setting Up the Web Web Gallery

After creating the collection of images, go to the Web Panel and select a web gallery to create a web page with. Change all the settings and colors until achieving the look for this gallery. The images should be previewed on the screen.


If you haven't created a template shortcut under the Template Browser Panel then go ahead and do so. This is done by clicking the ADD button at the bottom of the left hand pane or by right-clicking in the Template Browser Panel just like we did working with Collections. For example, you could name this one 'My First Web Gallery.'

After adding the new Web Template and storing the settings, perform the upload to your web site.

Now you have a published Web Gallery that can be viewed and used. So what do we do when we want to change the images?

Maintaining the Web Gallery

To maintain the Gallery we only need to perform the following steps:

1. Select additional images
2. Add them to the Collection
3. Remove any images desired from the Collection
4. Call up the Web Template saved
5. Upload the changes

So, first go to the Library Module and select the collection we used to create the web gallery. In our example, we called it 'My Web Site'. Review the images to see what might need added. Then find those images in the Library and drag the image to the collection on the Collections Panel. If there are many images, you can use the Quick Collection as shown above. Just add the new images and drag them all to the 'My Web Site' collection.

Now review the total collection again and remove any of the images you no longer want in the gallery. There are two ways to accomplish this. First, you can right-click on an image in the Collection and choose the 'Remove from collection' menu item as shown here. If you added virtual images to the collection as I prefer to do, then you can delete the image because it is not an original image and it shouldn't be used anywhere else. This is done by clicking on the image and hitting the DEL key.

Once this is done, move to the Web Module and click on the Template Browser panel. Click on the template saved for the web gallery. In our example this was 'My First Web Gallery.' All of the preset choices should be loaded.

If you make any changes to the layout or colors, be sure to save them with the template. Do this by right-clicking on the template name and choosing the update menu item shown below.


This saves all the current settings and updates the template for the next time.

Before uploading the site, check the FTP settings. If you created presets for the FTP Uploads then select that item. I prefer to create an FTP preset for each base web directory and each gallery subdirectory. This prevents me from having to remember each and every individual web directory.


After uploading your site, view it in your internet browser to see the changes.

Conclusion

This is all it takes! Carefully setting up the collections and web gallery templates the first time makes maintenance a breeze. Even if you totally switch out the portfolio for different images, all the settings are there ready to go. Quick Collections are a must for anything more than a few pictures to add or create a collection with.

NOTES

If your web site has various subdirectories that get regularly updated, consider creating additional FTP presets. For example, if all your photo galleries are in a sub directory called 'photos' then create a second FTP Preset called 'My Web Site Photos' and set the directory to 'ftp://www.mydomain.com/photos'. This will allow you to easily add content without having to remember the subdirectory.
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Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Lightroom Tip #3 - Using Quick Collection

Lightroom has redefined the way photographers can work with their images in one software package. This is primarily by separating the physical image file from how it is indexed or cataloged in the software. This has long been done by asset management software, but until now not done in the editing software as well.

This method of storage means an image can be called up in a variety of ways:

1. Using the folder the image is stored in
2. Using a keyword of the image
3. Using some metadata of the image
4. Using a collection containing the image

However, what if you just have a few images you are working on. Maybe a project that is pulling images from several sources. Say that you are putting on an exhibit of some images showing varied techniques to a group of students or for a seminar. You might need a simple collection you can work on and then export to a slideshow and be done.

Whatever the reason, a Quick Collection in Lightroom is a great tool to use. A quick collection is a temporary collection of images that are otherwise unrelated.

The shortcut keys are simple:

• B - Add an Image to the quick collection
• Control + B - View the quick collection
• Del - Delete an image from the quick collection while viewing the collection

So how do we use the quick collection? Highlight an image or a few images and hit the 'B' key on the keyboard. Find a few more images, hitting the 'B' key on the keyboard each time. Then press the 'Control' and 'B' keys together on the keyboard. Suddenly you have a view of all these images together.

Here you can view them side by side or otherwise work with them as any group of images. You can export them to a catalog, to web images, to a slide show, print them, whatever you wish.

When you are finished with the group of images, you can press the 'Control', 'Shift' and 'B' keys to clear the quick collection or right click on the quick collection label under the Library.



If you want to save the collection permanently, you can right click on the quick collection label under the Library and choose 'Save Quick Collection' making it permanent.

However you use them, Quick Collections are a valuable tool you should learn to take advantage of. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.