Using Lightroom Collections for Creativity and Inspiration

 

One of the cool features in Lightroom is the ability to create Collections of your photographs. Lightroom Collections are a way to group photos for easy viewing in one place. They can span multiple folders and different shoots so long as they are all in the same Catalog. They can also be used to display in a slide show, contact sheet or web gallery.

One of the ways I like to use Collections is when I come back from a day of shooting and I come across a photo I think looks really cool I'll drop it in to a Collection for the year and name it "2011 Best Of". After adding pictures to this Collection for the year I can look back and see all of the year's best photos in one place. This is a great way to see all your best photos from the past year but it also can be used as a tool to improve your photography and get inspiration.

By looking back at my photos from the year I can see how my photography is progressing, see the types of subjects I photograph, and look at how my work can improve. This can spark creativity for new photos or inspire you to go out and photograph more. Sometimes its hard to see the changes we make over time by looking at just one day's shoot but by looking back over a period of time we can get some perspective and see the big picture (no pun intended) to get a good look as to where our photography is at. 

To create a Collection, select the first photo or two from a shoot you want to include in the Grid view of the Library module. With the photos selected, click the Plus icon (+) in the Collections panel to the left of the Grid and select "Create Collection". Give your new Collection a name, select the placement of the Collection with "Top Level" or include it in a set if you want. Be sure to check "Include Selected Photos" in the Collection Options then select Create. You know have your first Collection.

By using the Label and Filter features in Lightroom you can filter the Collection and narrow down the pictures to the best of the best and play them through the Slide Show module. Once in the Slide Show module, Lightroom also includes a feature to pick a song on your computer to play during the slide show which will give it a more polished feel and add more drama. There's also the ability to export it as a Video or PDF to share it with friends. Now just hit the Play button and watch your photos come to life.

So jump in to your Lightroom Catalog, create a Collection and see where your photography is at.

Note to Bridge users: The same can be done with Collections and the Slide Show but not with music.

Comments

[Efrain Cruz]

Great collection on photos. It's nice to have a record of the year's accomplishments.

[Andrew Andy]

But Lightroom 3 is now on par with Photoshop CS5 in many respects, due mainly to the shared components like RAW image processing

[Armando]

Yes Andrew, they are actually identical to each other as far as the processing engine.