Collections were a great idea in version 1 of Lightroom. It was so good, in fact, that Adobe decided to expand collections in Lightroom 2. Now you can access your collections in all of the modules via the Collections panel that appears in the left panel set in every module. But did you know that collections come in different flavors? We're all familiar now with collections, collection sets, and smart collections. But you can also create slideshow collections, print collections, and web gallery collections. They even have their own distinct icons so you can tell them apart!

Well, it's hard to believe that 2008 is coming to a close and 2009 is just over the next hill! Now is the time of year we all start thinking about what went on this past year and planning on what we'll do to make the new year better. Don't leave Lightroom out of you annual musings!

Make it a point to go through your collection of work for 2008. Before you press that shutter release in 2009 try and get a handle on where you are in your work.

Tucked away in the keyword panel is a section called Keyword Set. There is another workflow enhancement built into Lightroom here. The sooner you get some basic keywords on an image the better off you'll be later. If you get in the habit of adding keywords early on you'll be glad you did.

Stacks are pretty cool … I use them quite a bit while I shuffle around images in Library mode. There’s a very nice shortcut for creating and collapsing stacks that I’m totally digging lately … it’s ultra-simple: Select the images...

This weeks tip has been around since version 1.0 of Lightroom, and although I personally do not use it that often, it’s a great image inspection technique. Normally, I’m pushing images to 72ppi for proofing on the web, which...

We all have come to love Lightroom 2’s new Graduated Filter [GF] tool. (That’s keyboard shortcut “M” in your program.) A common use of this filter is to affect the sky, very similar to photographing using split filters… adding blue...

Yet another great little shortcut trick is switching from one folder to another by right clicking on the Filmstrip. As in the image at right I wanted to move to a folder that I had worked in recently and...

Editing thousands of images is a daunting task. Usually when I get back from a shoot I am, like every other photographer, anxious to see what I got. I can normally tell within a few minutes what the real winners...

Another tidbit I found in Julieanne Kost’s recent Lightroom seminar here in Santa Fe is a method to control the multiple dialog panels in any module of Lightroom. Especially if you are working on a laptop it can sometimes...

I’m not sure at what point this snuck into Lightroom’s preferences (it could very well have been there since the initial release), but somewhere along the way it managed to become unchecked: the “Show photos in navigator on mouse-over”...

I don't recall any other bloggers posting here about the incredible usefulness of the option key in conjunction with several sliders in the Develop Module of Lightroom. This is a well known "trick" of the trade and a huge reason...

You probably already know this, but Lightroom has many shortcuts that I haven’t listed here. If you know them all, you’ll save even more time. There’s a really easy way to see what they are for any given module you...

Adobe’s given Lightroom users a few options to customize the application’s interface to their liking: the abilitity to create an “identity plate” immediately comes to mind. There’s at least one more purely visual preference: the “end marks” that appear...

Cropping and/or straightening your photos can be initiated in one of three ways: tapping the “r” key, selecting “View” and then “Crop” from the menu, or clicking the “Crop Overlay” button displayed in the command bar underneath your photos...

Well, they're not so much hidden as easily forgotten. In this blog, I'm going to remind you of some of my favorite features that are so subtly presented in the interface that, if you're not careful, you can easily forget...

Strike the P while any or several images are highlighted in Lightroom to save yourself a lot of time. Striking the P assigns the highlighted image(s) as a Quick Pick. At the bottom of the screen in the Filters...

I'm visually oriented. Give me a well-designed UI and I'm happy. I have a limited memory for keyboard shortcuts. One keystroke is ok. Two is pushing it. Three or more... forget it. I especially like keyboard commands that follow some...

My favorite thing about the release of Lightroom 1.1? We're going to press this week with Mikkel's beautiful book, Photoshop Lightroom Adventure. And we're doing so knowing that it will be the most up-to-date Lightroom book out there. Over...

A few weeks ago, Mikkel talked about all the handy contextual (right-click) menus in Lightroom. Yesterday, when we met to do final finishing touches for the book, I showed him how the new MacBook and MacBook Pros have a...

One of the first features that I played with in Lightroom was the "Lights Out" feature. Press the L key once and the interface around the photograph you are looking at fades out. Press again and the interface fades completely...