Among other Adobe products, Lightroom is an industry standard editing and media management software. Adobe recently split Lightroom into two different applications: Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. Lightroom Classic is more aligned with file/folder management while the new Lightroom application is inclined towards a cloud-based and mobile workflow. Both applications are very similar in functionality, but they do have different workspace, navigation, and workflow. For our purposes, this page discusses Lightroom Classic.

Lightroom is often praised for how it manages post-processing workflow, by facilitating efficient “batch” photo organization, editing, exporting.   

Unlike Photoshop, Lightroom provides a database for photos, metadata, and edits. Lightroom is non-destructive; it saves edits as metadata (like a set of instructions for each photo) rather than affecting the original image information. This functionality allows photographers to quickly sort, edit, and export large quantities of photos.

With Lightroom, you can create collections, rate images, add tags and keywords, share images on social media… even create slideshows, web galleries, and other presentation materials.

Lightroom can’t compete with Photoshop when it comes to detailed retouching (like compositing or content-aware fixes) because Photoshop manipulates image information down to the pixel. However, Lightroom can process a wide variety of basic adjustments, including color correction, tone (exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows), vibrance, saturation, lens profile and distortion, noise reduction, sharpening, and transform.

Depending on your process and needs, Lightroom could manage a majority of your editing. If you’re still learning about post-processing, Lightroom is also generally more intuitive and less time consuming than Photoshop.

The good news is that you don’t have to choose just one program. Many photographers use Lightroom to batch-process before retouching selects with Photoshop. Lightroom and Photoshop are compatible with one another and can both fit within your workflow for different post needs.

In this section, we will discuss fundamental editing in Lightroom as well as its workspace, organization, and presentation capabilities. 

If you’re bent against implementing new software (we’ve been there) or you’re not sure what it’s capable of, here are a few before-and-afters to demonstrate just a fraction of what Lightroom can do. If you want to stylize, enhance, or correct your images, Lightroom is a powerful tool.

WORKSPACE

Workspace is another word for your window, or the area in which you operate. 

In Lightroom Classic, your workspace consists of a few main elements: the top Menu, Left Module, Right Module, and the Filmstrip. Each of these elements can be hidden or made visible with a small, gray arrow (triangle icon). If you don’t see one of these elements, you may have accidentally hidden it. The Left Module can be hidden with an arrow to the left, the Right Module with an arrow to the right, the Menu with an arrow above, and the Filmstrip with an arrow below.

Hitting the Tab key will hide left and right side panels while Shift+Tab will hide all panels.

Top Right Menu

Here’s a look at the top Menu, which offers a variety of different functions with unique workspace panels:

The Library module is open by default when you open Lightroom. Library helps you organize and view your images.

The Develop module allows you to edit images in Lightroom. This module contains basic editing functions like white balance and tone adjustments as well as spot removal, lens corrections, and sharpening.

The Map module documents where your photos were taken. Shoot locations can be read automatically if your camera has enabled GPS (like most smartphones do) or you can enter them manually. 

The Book module allows you to quickly layout images in a book format. You can export your final design as a PDF or export it to the web and use an online vendor to purchase a printed version.

The Slideshow module allows you to create and export slideshow presentations within Lightroom.

The Print module allows you to “pre-press” or prepare your images to print. It even includes text overlay (think watermarks) and default package layouts for a variety of print sizes and contact sheets (a grid of images to facilitate making selections).

The Web module allows you to create HTML web galleries with your images. This module includes templates to facilitate layout.

To choose which panels appear in your workspace on the left, right click the module. You can select and deselect the panels that appear or you can collapse all or expand all. Unless you think your module is too cluttered, you will likely prefer for them all to be visible. 

Filmstrip

The Filmstrip is located at the bottom of the Lightroom workspace. Regardless of which Module or Workspace you’re in, the Filmstrip will allow you to view and select images from your folder or collection. To scroll through images in your Filmstrip, click the right and left arrow keys on your keyboard. 

On the left side of the Filmstrip, there’s a window icon with a 1 and a window icon with a 2. The 1 represents your main Lightroom window, and the 2 allows you to open a secondary window to view images in the filmstrip. Clicking on these icons allows you to select different view styles for each window depending on the module you’re in. For example, Library has a grid view while Develop does not.

If you accidentally open a second viewing window, close it at the top right and you should return to your main window.

Moving right on the Filmstrip, you’ll see a grid icon to enable Library grid view. Regardless of which module you’re currently in, this icon will take you back to Library.

The left and right arrows will take your view back or forward. This won’t scroll through your images in the filmstrip, but instead, it will revisit modules or sources you’ve previously viewed.

In the image below, “Previous Import” is the Source, which implies that we’re viewing images that have been most recently imported. If you’d like to quickly switch the source of the images in your Filmstrip, click on this section and select All Photographs, Quick Selection, or a Recent Source. 

The Filmstrip will show the total number of images in your collection or import as well as how many images are currently selected. If you don’t see a specific filename, you likely don’t have an image selected.

Your images could also have small icons indicating if they have been edited, if they have rating, keywords, etc. The tag icon above shows that the image has keywords while the stars indicate ratings for other images in the Filmstrip. If you’re not sure what the icon on your image means, hover over it without clicking and a small description will appear.

On the right side of the Filmstrip, you can filter your images by Camera Info, Rating, Flags, etc. If you select “Rated,” for example, the Filmstrip will only include images with a rating. You can even specify how many stars to further narrow down your images. To turn off all filters, there’s a small, gray switch on the far right of the Filmstrip. 

LIBRARY

The Library module is open by default when you open Lightroom. Library helps you manage and view your images.

Import 

Before we get into how you can organize images in the Library module, let’s talk about how to import images into Lightroom.

To open the Import window, click File at the top left, then Import Photos and Video. You can also drag and drop photos from your computer into Lightroom’s workspace to begin a new import. The shortcut to import is CTRL+Shift+I or Command+Shift+I.

Later, we’ll discuss how you can import images with the Folders panel in Library. For now, we’ll stick to File > Import Photos and Video.

Once the Import window opens, you’ll need to select your source on the left. You can select a folder from your computer or an external source like a hard drive. After you’ve selected a source, all images it contains should appear in the window. If you have images within folders that you’d like to see, check “Include Subfolders” at the top of the Source panel on the left.

At the bottom left, you can change your view from Grid to Loupe. You can also Check All images or Uncheck All images. Once you start importing, Lightroom will only bring in images that are checked. Manually check or uncheck images as needed. You can also Sort images and change Thumbnail size in the grid by adjusting the Thumbnail Slider at the bottom right.

At the top of the Import window, there are four main import options: Copy as DNG, Copy, Move, and Add.

Copy as DNG will import your images and copy them from their source to a new folder and convert them to a DNG (Digital Negative).

Copy will import your images and copy them from their source to a new folder.

Move will import your images and move them from their source to a new folder. After this process, the images will not be in the original source.

Add will allow Lightroom to manage your images without moving or copying them from their original source. 

Panels on the right side of the window will vary depending on which import option you select at the top.

Add only includes File Handling and Apply During Import while the other three options (Copy as DNG, Copy, and Move) also include File Naming and Destination since they involve file management and storage.

Library Workspace

At the top of the workspace, you’ll see a menu with default filter options: Text, Attribute, Metadata, and None.

Text and Attributes can be added in Lightroom, like keywords, ratings, color, flags, etc. When Metadata is selected, you can filter your images by file-specific data such as Date, Camera, Lens, and Label. When None is selected, your library will not be filtered.

At the bottom left of the workspace, you’ll see a toolbar with multiple icons for different view options: Grid, Loupe, Compare, Survey, and People.

You can also Sort your images by Capture Time, Added Order, Edit Time, Edit Count, Rating, Pick, Label Text or Color, File Name, File Extension, File Type, and Aspect Ratio. If you click on the “AZ” button, you’ll flip the Sort Direction.

Grid view shows your images in a grid of thumbnails. Adjust thumbnail size with the Thumbnail slider at the bottom right of the workspace. The shortcut for Grid is G. 

Loupe will show one image at a time, only the image that’s selected in your filmstrip. Click left or right arrows to scroll through your images. The shortcut for Loupe in Library is E.

Compare will show two images side by side for comparison. To change which images are being compared, click on the side you’d like to change (select or candidate) and then click on a new image in the filmstrip below. The shortcut for Compare is C.

Survey allows you to view several images together in a grid. This is especially helpful for comparing similar images or looking for consistency across images with a similar art direction. The shortcut for Survey is N. Select multiple images and then click on the Survey icon (or use the shortcut). Select or deselect images to add or remove them from your view.

To select multiple adjacent images in your Filmstrip, click on your first image, hold shift, then click on the last image. It will select all images in the range. To select multiple images otherwise, hold CTRL or Command while you click on additional images. 

People actually indexes images by facial recognition. It may seem creepy and less useful for client images, but this can be incredibly helpful to quickly organize and find family images. You’ll need to identify and name people in images at first, but Lightroom should quickly identify the same faces in other images. The shortcut for People is O.

To customize the bottom toolbar, click on the light gray arrow at the bottom right of the workspace. While in the Library module, you can show or hide any of the following options: View Modes, Sorting, Flagging, Rating, Color Label, Rotate, Navigate, Slideshow, Zoom, Draw Face Region, and Grid Overlay.

Left Module Panels

Like all Lightroom Modules, the Library workspace has unique panels in the Left and Right Modules.

Left-side panels include Navigator, Catalog, Folders, Collections, and Publish Services.  

Navigator

The Navigator panel is available for every module in Lightroom, like the Filmstrip. It acts as a preview window and allows you to change the way you view each image.

Catalog

The Catalog panel helps organize your photos within Lightroom. It creates collections by import and other functions so you can quickly look for recent or relevant images. Your Catalog panel should show several groupings: All Photographs, All Synced Photographs, Quick Collection, and Previous Import. If you’ve used specific processes within Lightroom, it may even group images together by action like Previous Export as Catalog or Missing Images. The number of images in each collection will appear to the right of the collection name.

Folders

The Folders panel shows folders that contain your images – on your computer and any connected external sources. Folder organization should appear the same as your original location or volume. Any changes made to folders in this panel (rename, move, or delete) will be carried out in the original volume as well.

Once you import images, the folders that contain them will automatically be added to this panel. You can also add a folder to begin the import process. There are + and – icons at the top right of the Folders panel so you can add or remove folders. The – icon will remove any selected folder(s). The + icon will have you select the desired folder so you can begin the import process.

Lightroom references images in the folder by remembering where it is stored in the original volume. If you change the folder location on your computer or storage device, Lightroom will not be able to pull its images. If you changed a folder’s name or location since it was imported in Lightroom, the folder will likely have a ? on its icon. In the Library grid view, missing images will show a ! icon at the top right of the thumbnail. If you try to open images in Develop, Lightroom will display “The File Could Not Be Found.”

To access a missing folder and its images in Lightroom, you can either return the folder to its original state (name or location) or you can right click the folder in the panel and click “Find Missing Folder.” If you need to access a single missing image, click on the ! icon and select “Locate.”

You can also right click on a folder to make other changes such as create a new subfolder, create a collection, rename, export, label, or move it. 

Collections

The Collections panel is another way to organize and quickly access your images in Lightroom. Collections don’t act like folders; they only reference your images and do not create copies or move the original image. The same image can be organized in multiple Collections, but it will still be stored in its original volume, visible in the Folders panel.

If you’re looking for a specific Collection, use the search bar at the top of the panel. Click on the magnifying glass icon to filter by label color.

Other kinds of Collections are Smart Collections, Collection Sets, and a Quick Collection. 

To create a Collection, click on the + icon at the top of the panel or right click any pre-existing Collection. Select “Create New Collection,” “Create New Collection Set,” or “Create New Smart Collection.” When you right-click a Collection, you can also rename, delete, label, or export it. To add new images to a collection, drag and drop them on the Collection in the panel.

A Quick Collection is a temporary Collection made for immediate convenience. Remember the Catalog panel – a place for quick access to groups of images? Well, your Quick Collection is saved there.

There’s only one Quick Collection. To add images to it, right click on the image and select “Add to Quick Collection.” Right-click on the Quick Collection to clear or save it once you’re finished. If you save it, you’ll need to rename it and it will be saved in the Collections panel.

Smart Collections act like a filter, grouping images that fit specified rules. You can create a Smart Collection for all 5-star images, for example. If you import new images and rate them with 5 stars, they will automatically go into your 5-star Smart Collection. If their ratings change, they will automatically be removed from that Collection.

Smart Collections can be defined by a variety of rules, including but not limited to rating, label color, source, date, camera info, and size. 

Collection Sets are like parent folders for your Collections, to keep more them more organized in specific groups. You can manually create Collection Sets and add new or pre-existing Collections to them.

Collections should have a stacked-images icon while Collection Sets have a box-like icon.

Publish Services

The Publish Services panel helps streamline your common export processes.

You can customize each publish service like a preset, with a variety of export settings: File Name, Export Location (Save Destination), File Format, Image Quality, File Size, Color Space, Sharpening, Metadata and Watermark. This tool also functions in tandem with online services and can upload your images after export (if you have internet connection, of course).

Where does it upload them? You can specify using the default services or by downloading a plug-in.

Lightroom comes with a few default Publish Connections that need to be setup before use: Hard Drive, Adobe Stock, Facebook, and Flickr (In 2018, Facebook prohibited applications like Lightroom from posting images to your timeline.)

When you establish or edit a Publish Service, you’ll open the Publishing Manager window: 

To access additional plug-ins for sites such as Dropbox, Smugmug, Google Drive, or Pinterest, click on Find More Services Online. This should take you to Adobe’s website where you can purchase or download Lightroom Classic extensions. To help narrow your search, type “Publish.”

Once you’ve downloaded the plug-in, save the file somewhere more permanent on your computer. Next you’ll need to click on Plug-In Manager in the Publishing Manger Window pictured above. The Plug-In Manager has “Add” and “Remove” buttons near the bottom left of the window. To add your new plug-in, click Add. When you setup this new Publish Service, it’ll prompt you to sign in to the application you’d like to upload to (Google Drive for example) and establish other file settings as well.

Remember, the Published Service panel is meant to streamline exporting in tandem with online sharing. You can still export your images through the standard Export Window, found through File > Export. We’ll cover general export processes (and presets) in the Develop section below.

Right Module Panels

Right-side panels in the Library module workspace include Histogram, Quick Develop, Keywording, Keyword List, and Metadata.

Histogram

The Histogram panel shows a variety of information in your selected image. The Histogram is found at the top right of the Library and Develop modules to assist with editing. In addition to displaying your image’s distribution of bright and dark values, this panel also lists basic image info like ISO, Focal Length, Aperture, and Shutter Speed.

The Histogram shows the distribution of whites, highlights, midtones, shadows, and blacks. Whites are pixels with no detail; they’re completely overexposed. Highlights are brighter pixels with minimal information loss. Midtones are perfectly exposed and retain all detail. Shadows are darker pixels with minimal information loss. Blacks are pixels with no detail because they’re completely underexposed. These values are shown from left to right on the Histogram; blacks are the farthest left, then shadows, midtones, highlights, and whites on the farthest right.

By looking at the Histogram, you should be able to see if your image is mostly underexposed or overexposed, if it’s high contrast or low contrast. As you make changes in Quick Develop or Develop, the Histogram will change accordingly.

Under Quick Develop in the Library module, you can adjust Exposure. If you increase overall exposure, all values on the chart will move to the right (towards brighter values like highlights and whites). If you decrease overall exposure, all values on the chart will move to the left.

If you increase contrast, the left and right sides will get farther apart, making your bright values brighter and your dark values darker. If you decrease contrast, the left and right sides will get closer together, moving your bright and dark values closer to midtones.

All histograms in the images above are from the Library module, and all adjustments were made in Quick Develop.

In the Develop module, you can also edit from the Histogram itself and the Develop sliders will change accordingly. We’ll explain the Develop module in more detail later, but just remember: the Histogram will show the distribution of values for your selected image given the most recent crop or adjustment. Yes, it even changes according to your crop.

You might be thinking, “Okay, but what about all the colors on the histogram?” The Histogram also shows distribution of color in Red, Green, and Blue. The Magenta in the histogram shows where Blue and Red overlap. The Yellow shows where Green and Red overlap. The Turquoise shows where Blue and Green overlap. The Gray area shows where all three overlap.

If one color is brighter in your image, it will appear more to the right of your histogram. If one color is darker in your image, it will appear more to the left of your histogram.

Finally, if you select “Original Photo” in the Histogram panel, you can make a Smart Preview for your selected image. As a reminder, a Smart Preview is a copy of your image, saved in Lightroom as an .lrdata file. Smart previews allow you to work on images without the source connected to your computer. These copies are smaller than the original files to save space and allow Lightroom to process and make edits quickly. 

Quick Develop

Does the whites in your image look yellow or blue, green or magenta? Adjust accordingly so your whites appear as neutral as possible. Otherwise, color your images to your taste.

How warm or cool your image appears is under “Temperature.” Clicking these arrows to the right will make your image look warmer, clicking arrows to the left will make your image appear cooler.

How magenta or green your image appears is under “Tint.” Clicking these arrows to the right will make your image look more magenta, while clicking arrows to the left will make your image appear more green.

Under Tone Control, you can make adjustments to Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Clarity, and Vibrance. Again, these are general adjustments. You can also make specific, controlled adjustments in the Develop module. To reset all adjustments made in Quick Develop, click the bottom right button “Reset All.”

To show you how convenient and powerful this tool is, here are some examples of adjustments done in Quick Develop alone:

Keywording

The next panel on the right side of the Library module is Keywording. Keywords are tags that help you organize and find images in your Lightroom Library. As with any other panel, this information will change based on which image you currently have selected. Make sure your intended image is selected before adding or editing its keywords/metadata.

photographer – an associate photographer that helped you at a wedding. It might be helpful to add their name to their images. You might also want to list client names in case they’re recurring or you need to recall images quickly at a later date.

Keyword List

If you create custom keywords but don’t save them under a preset, where do they go? That brings us to our next panel, the Keyword List. The Keyword List indexes all keywords you have set up. To assign a keyword to an image using this list, hover over the keyword and you’ll see a gray box appear to the left. Click on that box; you should see a check mark appear and the keyword will be added to Keyword Tags above.

To add keywords to multiple images at a time, go to the Grid view in Library and select multiple images before adjusting their keywords.

To copy and paste keywords from one image to another, select the image with the keywords you’d like to copy. Select all keywords in the Keyword Tags box and Copy (CTRL+C or Command+C). Select the image(s) you’d like to assign the keywords to. Click on the Keyword Tags box and Paste (CTRL+V or Command+V). It’s that easy. 

Metadata

Metadata is information about your image that has been embedded into the image itself or saved on a separate file associated with your image. Metadata can act like a set of instructions as an XMP file, for example, so your adjustments are saved separate from the original file.

The Metadata panel indexes this information for you and allows you to make adjustments to metadata in Lightroom. Metadata can include equipment info, capture info, adjustments, keywords, location, dimensions, and copyright.

Equipment information usually includes camera make and model, lens make and model, and whether or not a flash was triggered from the camera. Yes, you can actually sort images by which lens you used to capture them. Crazy, right? This information is typically embedded in your image file by your camera. You don’t need to manually save this information yourself.

Capture information usually includes location, date and time, and camera settings like ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and focal length. Again, this information is typically embedded in your file by your camera.

You can manually add copyright information so that it has a digital signature, so to speak, if someone else accesses your image. You can indicate in this panel whether your image is copyrighted or public domain. You may also choose to add labels, a rating, a creator name, title and caption.

Remember, if you’d like to filter your images by metadata, go to Grid view in Library. Click on “Metadata” at the top of the workspace and select the information you’d like to sort. To view all images again with no filter, select “None” at the top of the workspace.

Finally, there are two buttons at the bottom right of the Library workspace: Sync Metadata and Sync Settings. To enable these buttons, you must have more than one image selected at a time.

DEVELOP

The Develop module allows you to edit images in Lightroom. This module contains basic editing functions like white balance and tone adjustments as well as spot removal, lens corrections, and sharpening.

Develop Workspace

The Develop Workspace is designed to facilitate making, viewing, and comparing edits. Similar to other modules, the Develop module has left-side panels, right-side panels, and a bottom toolbar.

The Left-Side panels in Develop consist of Navigator, Presets, Snapshots, History, and Collections. We’ll discuss each panel below, even those that appear in multiple different modules. If you’ve read the Library section above, you’ve already learned about Navigator and Collections. We’ve kept some redundant information to encourage browsing that’s relevant to your interests rather than a once-through read of all of fundamentals.

The Right-Side panels in Develop consist of Histogram, Basic, Tone Curve, HSL/Color, Split Toning, Detail, Lens Corrections, Transform, Effects, and Calibration. This group of panels is contained within the Develop Panel. To customize the Develop Panel, right-click anywhere on the dark gray part of the panel and click “Customize Develop Panel.” We’ll discuss each panel in greater detail below.

By default, the bottom Toolbar in Develop should include Loupe View, Reference View, Before and After, Grid Overlay, and Soft Proofing.

Loupe View is the default view in Develop. Loupe will show one image at a time, and only the image that’s selected in your filmstrip. Click left or right arrows to scroll through your images. The shortcut for Loupe in Develop is D.

Reference View allows you to compare two different images in the same window: an Active image and a Reference image. Once you click on Reference View, the image selected will be your Active image. Selecting another image in the filmstrip will change your Active image. To set a Reference image, drag an image from the filmstrip into the Reference window. With this view, you can continue making adjustments to your Active image while comparing it to your Reference.

To change the Reference View to a left-to-right comparison or a top-to-bottom comparison, click on the light gray arrow to the right of the icon.

Before & After allows you to compare the same image – before and after your Lightroom edits – in the same window.

Similar to Reference View, this mode splits your screen to show two images: a Before image and an After image. The Before image will be your selected image as it originally appeared upon import. The After image will be the same selected image, as it appears with current edits in the Develop panel. The After image will update in real time as you continue to make adjustments to your selected image.

Before & After also offers multiple view modes. Not only does it offer left-to-right and top-to-bottom comparison, but you can also split the image horizontally or vertically. Instead of seeing two images, you’ll see one half of your image as the Before and one half as the After. To change the view mode, click on the light gray arrow to the right of the Before & After icon.

When Before & After is selected, your bottom toolbar should change. Three new icons should appear: Copy Before’s Settings to After, Copy After’s Settings to Before, and Swap Before and After Settings.

Soft Proofing should simulate how your image will appear when printed so you can optimize it for your intended final use.

When you select Soft Proofing, your workspace background will turn white and the Soft Proofing panel will open at the top right. This panel includes a Histogram and a variety of Proof Settings. To close the Soft Proofing panel, deselect Soft Proofing in the bottom toolbar.

The Histogram in the Soft Proofing panel has two icons: a monitor in the top left and a piece of paper in the top right. The monitor icon shows or hides Monitor Gamut Warning. The paper icon shows or hides Destination Gamut Warning.

When Monitor Gamut Warning is shown, colors outside your monitor’s display capability will appear blue.

When Destination Gamut Warning is shown, colors outside your printer’s rendering capability will appear red.

Other Proof Settings in the Soft Proofing panel include Profile, Intent, and Simulate Ink & Paper.

Profile, by default, will show the color profile of your monitor. Color Profile describes your device’s capability to display an accurate range of color, also known as Color Space.

Intent describes how colors appear when converted from one color space to another. Perceptual Intent adjusts colors so they appear visually consistent, rather than preserving the real original colors. Perceptual Intent is optimal for highly saturated images. Relative Intent shifts colors to the closest comparable colors in the destination color space. This setting preserves more of the original colors but will affect the image visually.

Simulate Ink & Paper is not activated with all color profiles. This setting should show white and black values closer to how they would appear in ink: blacks will look more dark gray while whites will look slightly more muted.

To customize the bottom toolbar in the Develop module, click on the light gray arrow at the bottom right of the workspace. While in the Develop module, you can show or hide any of the following options: View Modes, Flagging, Rating, Color Label, Navigate, Slideshow, Zoom, Grid Overlay and Soft Proofing.

Left Module Panels

Left-side panels in the Develop module workspace include Navigator, Presets, Snapshots, History, and Collections.

Navigator

Presets

Presets are like specific editing instructions you can consistently apply to your images. Lightroom contains a variety of default presets, but you can also create and save your own or upload presets from outside developers.

in the Preset Panel.

A pop-up window will have you name your preset, assign it to a Preset Group, and confirm which settings you’d like to copy from the Develop panel. The settings with a check mark will be saved in your new preset. 

When you click Create, your new preset (and possibly new group) will appear in the Presets Panel. You can apply your custom preset to any future images for quick, consistent adjustments.

To import a new preset, click on the + icon and Import Preset. In the next pop-up window, you’ll need to find the preset file where it was saved on your computer or external device. When you click Import, the preset will appear in your preset panel as it was named and grouped by its creator.

When you right-click a custom group in the Presets Panel, you can rename, delete, import, or export a group. You cannot change the default preset groups – only those you’ve created or imported.

To hide default preset groups, click on the + icon and click Manage Presets. You can also find Manage Presets by right-clicking any preset group in the panel. In this window, you can check or uncheck groups to change their visibility in the Presets Panel.

When you right-click a custom preset in the Presets Panel, you can rename, delete, update, or export the preset. Again, this only applies to presets you’ve created or imported.

Here are two examples (shown with the original) of quick, one-click edits made using default Lightroom presets.

Snapshots

Snapshots allow you to save a version of your image in order to document its settings or be able to go back to that stage in editing at a later time. Think of Snapshots like saving your progress at checkpoints you may want to return to in the future.

To create a Snapshot, click on the + icon at the top right of the Snapshot Panel. You can apply a custom name to the Snapshot or keep the default created by Lightroom: the date and time the Snapshot is created.

To rename a Snapshot, right click on it in the panel and click “Rename.”

To update a Snapshot to your current Develop settings, right click on the Snapshot in the panel and click “Update with Current Settings.”

History

The History panel documents a list of edits and actions made with each image, including when it was imported, exported, and printed.

The list of actions saved in the History panel don’t go away when you close Lightroom – you can continue to access them in the future since they’re saved in the catalog file. The History panel is also exclusive to Lightroom Classic; it’s not in the cloud-based/mobile Lightroom.

When you hover over an action saved in History, the Navigator panel will preview the image how it was at that state. The oldest actions are at the bottom of the panel, while the most recent ones appear at the top.

If you click on a step saved in History, the image will return to its settings at that state. If you make a new edit after returning to a previous step, the steps after the one you clicked on will reset. If you’d like to return to a previous step but don’t want to make additional edits, simply click “Clear History Above This Step.”

To save a snapshot of your image in a specific stage of its editing history, right click the saved step in the History panel and click “Create Snapshot.”

You can also clear information stored in the History panel. To clear all saved History for your selected image,  go to the Develop menu at the top left of your window and click Clear History.

When you clear the History panel for a specific image, it will not return the image to its original state before editing. Clearing History only deletes the information saved about each step in your process. To reset your image to its original settings, click “Reset” at the bottom of the Develop panel.

Collections

The Collections panel allows you to organize and quickly access your images in Lightroom. Collections don’t act like folders; they only reference your images and do not create copies or move the original image. The same image can be organized in multiple Collections, but it will still be stored in its original volume, visible in the Folders panel.

If you’re looking for a specific Collection, use the search bar at the top of the panel. Click on the magnifying glass icon to filter by label color.

Other kinds of Collections are Smart Collections, Collection Sets, and a Quick Collection. 

To create a Collection, click on the + icon at the top of the panel or right click any pre-existing Collection. Select “Create New Collection,” “Create New Collection Set,” or “Create New Smart Collection.” When you right-click a Collection, you can also rename, delete, label, or export it. To add new images to a collection, drag and drop them on the Collection in the panel.

A Quick Collection is a temporary Collection made for immediate convenience. Remember the Catalog panel – a place for quick access to groups of images? Well, your Quick Collection is saved there.

There’s only one Quick Collection. To add images to it, right click on the image and select “Add to Quick Collection.” Right-click on the Quick Collection to clear or save it once you’re finished. If you save it, you’ll need to rename it and it will be saved in the Collections panel.

Smart Collections act like a filter, grouping images that fit specified rules. You can create a Smart Collection for all 5-star images, for example. If you import new images and rate them with 5 stars, they will automatically go into your 5-star Smart Collection. If their ratings change, they will automatically be removed from that Collection.

Smart Collections can be defined by a variety of rules, including but not limited to rating, label color, source, date, camera info, and size. 

Collection Sets are like parent folders for your Collections, to keep more them more organized in specific groups. You can manually create Collection Sets and add new or pre-existing Collections to them.

Collections should have a stacked-images icon while Collection Sets have a box-like icon.

Right Module Panels

The Develop panels on the right include most of what you’ll use to edit the way your images look. Right-side panels in the Develop module workspace include Histogram, Basic, Tone Curve, HSL/Color, Split Toning, Detail, Lens Corrections, Transform, Effects, and Calibration.

Notice two buttons at the bottom right in the Develop Module: Previous and Reset. 

The Reset button will revert your image back to its original state upon import, before any adjustments were made in Develop.

The Previous button acts quite differently; it applies Develop settings from the last image you selected to your currently selected image. This feature essentially saves you from copying and pasting settings to create consistent edits. If you’re quickly adjusting a few images, we’d recommend this button. If you’re batch-editing a massive library of images, we’d still recommend copying and pasting Develop settings.

To copy Develop settings, right-click an image in your filmstrip, hover over “Develop Settings,” and click “Copy Settings.”

To paste Develop Settings, right-click an image in your filmstrip, hover over “Develop Settings,” and click “Paste Settings.” You can paste settings to many images at once by selecting multiple images in the film strip before right-clicking on them.

You can also select an image and click Command+Shift+C “CTRL+SHIFT+C” to copy its settings or “CTRL+SHIFT”V” to paste settings. This shortcut, unfortunately, doesn’t work to apply settings to multiple images at a time. To paste settings to multiple images at once, we’d still recommend right-clicking your selection. 

Histogram

The Histogram panel shows a variety of information in your selected image. In addition to displaying your image’s distribution of bright and dark values, this panel also lists basic image info like ISO, Focal Length, Aperture, and Shutter Speed.

The Histogram shows the distribution of whites, highlights, midtones, shadows, and blacks. Whites are pixels with no detail; they’re completely overexposed. Highlights are brighter pixels with minimal information loss. Midtones are perfectly exposed and retain all detail. Shadows are darker pixels with minimal information loss. Blacks are pixels with no detail because they’re completely underexposed. These values are shown from left to right on the Histogram; blacks are the farthest left, then shadows, midtones, highlights, and whites on the farthest right.

By looking at the Histogram, you should be able to see if your image is mostly underexposed or overexposed, if it’s high contrast or low contrast. As you make changes in Develop settings, the Histogram will change accordingly.

Under the Basic panel in the Develop module, you can make tonal changes to  your image such as Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks. If you increase overall exposure, all values on the chart will move to the right (towards brighter values like highlights and whites). If you decrease overall exposure, all values on the chart will move to the left.

If you increase contrast, the left and right sides will get farther apart, making your bright values brighter and your dark values darker. If you decrease contrast, the left and right sides will get closer together, moving your bright and dark values closer to midtones.

In the Develop module, you can also edit from the Histogram itself. Hover your cursor over any part of the Histogram and you should see a title for the section appear directly below. From left to right, the Histogram sections include: Blacks, Shadows, Exposure, Highlights, and Whites.

Hover over the Histogram section you’d like to adjust. Click and drag your cursor to the left or right. The direction you drag your cursor responds to the direction of the tonal adjustment sliders under Basic: dragging tones to the left will make them darker and dragging tones to the right will make them lighter.

The Histogram will show the distribution of values for your selected image given the most recent crop or adjustment. Yes, it even changes according to your crop.

You might be thinking, “Okay, but what about all the colors on the histogram?” The Histogram also shows distribution of color in Red, Green, and Blue. The Magenta in the histogram shows where Blue and Red overlap. The Yellow shows where Green and Red overlap. The Turquoise shows where Blue and Green overlap. The Gray area shows where all three overlap.

If one color is brighter in your image, it will appear more to the right of your histogram. If one color is darker in your image, it will appear more to the left of your histogram.

Finally, if you select “Original Photo” in the Histogram panel, you can make a Smart Preview for your selected image. As a reminder, a Smart Preview is a copy of your image, saved in Lightroom as an .lrdata file. Smart previews allow you to work on images without the source connected to your computer. These copies are smaller than the original files to save space and allow Lightroom to process and make edits quickly. 

Develop Toolbar

Immediately below the Histogram and just above the Basic panel, there’s a Develop toolbar.

From left to right, this toolbar includes Crop Overlay, Spot Removal, Red Eye Correction, Gradual Filter, Radial Filter, and the Adjustment Brush.

Crop Overlay

The Crop Panel (pictured above) also allows you to adjust your crop aspect ratio and angle (rotation).

For common aspect ratios, click on the drop-down menu to the right of Aspect. Default options include 1×1, 8×10, 5×7, etc. “Original” will return the aspect ratio to what it was when the image was imported. To constrain the aspect ratio or “lock it” so it remains consistent as you move your overlay, click the lock icon. When the icon appears unlocked, the aspect ratio is not constrained. When it appears locked, it is constrained. 

To rotate the image with more specific increments, drag the Angle slider or enter a custom number at the right. You can also try the Auto feature, but it’s usually quicker and more accurate to fix rotation yourself. If you click on the box next to “Constrain to Image,” your crop will not exceed the original image area as you rotate. Keep in mind that this crops your image even more if you rotate it dramatically.

To save your crop and close the Crop Overlay tool, click on the icon, hit the “R” key, or hit “Enter.”

Spot Removal 

Size affects your cursor and how much of your image is affected when removing/replacing a spot.

To quickly adjust brush size: clicking the left bracket [ will make your brush smaller while the right bracket ] will make your brush larger.

Feather refers to how hard or soft the edges of your brush are, which affects how your edited spot blends with the rest of the image.

Opacity describes how transparent or opaque your adjustment will be. If your opacity is at 100, your new spot will completely cover the pre-existing image. If your opacity is at 0, your new spot will not cover the pre-existing image at all. Move this slider somewhere in the middle to make more subtle changes, when you’d like to see some of the pre-existing image through your new edit.

There are two ways to use this tool: Clone and Heal. Click on the function you’d like activated.

Clone duplicates a sampled area of your image to your desired destination. When you have Clone selected, click on the blemish or unwanted element you’d like to remove. Lightroom will automatically create a sample location and a clone destination (your unwanted spot). There should also be an arrow between the two circles to indicate where the sample is coming from and where it’s going to. To move your sample to another area, click and drag it (a hand icon should appear when your cursor is inside the circle). To move your destination to another area, click and drag it.

Heal tries to match texture and light from your sampled area to your desired destination. When you have Heal selected, the process is the same: click on the blemish or unwanted element you’d like to remove. Lightroom will create a sample location as well, and you can move either circle to your satisfaction.

In the two examples above, the source and final destinations are exactly the same. In the first, the Clone function duplicates the white marble onto the wall, which doesn’t blend very well. In the second, the Heal function only matches light and texture, which blends pretty well and maintains the wall color. Of course, the best recommendation for consistency would be to use Heal and set the sample location on the same wall. Using a different area only helps us demonstrate the difference between Clone (duplicating information) and Heal (approximating information). 

To turn the effects of this tool on and off, click the light gray switch at the bottom left of the panel.

You can move the new pupil directly by clicking and dragging. The Red Eye Correction panel allows you to change the new pupil size, darken the pupil, or even add a catch-light (circular reflection) to make the pupil look more realistic.

To turn the effects of this tool on and off, click the light gray switch at the bottom left of the panel.

Graduated & Radial Filters

The farther the borders of your filter are from the center, the softer and more gradual its effects will be. The closer the borders of your filter are to the center, the harder and more abrupt its effect will be.

Once you’ve made your filter, you can move it by clicking and dragging the center circle. Hover your cursor just outside the circle in the middle of your filter – you should see a curved double-sided arrow. When this icon appears, click and drag your cursor to rotate your filter.

Okay, so you have a Graduated Filter placed on your image. Go back to the panel and adjust the settings sliders however you’d like (if you set your color temp dramatically to see the filter’s effects, undo that now). You can even choose “color” at the bottom and apply a custom color overlay to your image.

If you’d like to delete your current filter, click on the circle in its middle and click the “Delete” key on your keyboard. 

If you’d like to make a new filter, click anywhere on your image while the tool is still engaged.

In the example below, we increased exposure by +1.75 and added orange hue by clicking on Color at the bottom of the panel. This Graduated Filter has a large area of influence, fading softly at the edges so it imitates warm, natural light.

The Radial Filter applies your edit settings in an elliptical fashion. It focuses your new settings around a circular portion of your image. Initially, the settings will apply outside your circular filter. To apply settings inside your filter, click on the “Invert” box near the bottom of the panel.

Similar to the Graduated Filter, click and drag your cursor on your image to create a new Radial Filter. Click and drag the square borders of the circle to change its shape and size. Once you’re happy with your filter, change the settings in the panel. You can also move, delete, and create a new filter if you’d like.

In our example above, we created a radial filter and decreased exposure by -2.50. We did not invert our radial filter, making a dark vignette around the focal point of the photo.

While these tools are similar, they do have different panels. Make sure you have the correct filter engaged when trying to make adjustments to pre-existing filters or adding new ones. To turn the effects of either filter tool on and off, click the light gray switch at the bottom left of the panel.

The Brush panel allows you to set preferences for two brushes, A and B, so you can easily switch back and forth if it helps your workflow. Otherwise, you can change brush settings anytime you’d like.

By default, when you click on your image, the brush will add to your mask, or apply adjustments to your image. If you accidentally paint an area you don’t want to change, you can remove it by clicking “Erase” on the panel or by holding down Alt on your keyboard. Notice your cursor should have a – sign in the middle of it rather than the normal + sign. When you have Erase engaged, your brush will remove parts of your masked area, reverting that part of the image back to its original state before you applied the adjustments.

To turn the adjustment brush effects on or off, click the light gray switch at the bottom left of the panel. To remove all effects made with this tool and revert your image back to its original state, click Reset at the bottom right of the panel.

In the example below, we first made adjustments using the Mask panel: -2.00 in exposure and a pink/purple hue in Color (towards the bottom of the panel). Next, we painted the sky by clicking and dragging the cursor on the image. This first application was kind of sloppy; the brush was soft with high feathering, so the sky didn’t stand out from the rooftop. Next, we removed or erased specific areas of the mask with a harder brush to define the edge. Finally, we have our purple sky.

If you change your mind about your adjustments after you’ve spent time masking, don’t worry. You can click on your mask and make adjustments under the “Edit” panel. For the last example, we changed the hue from purple to blue/green.

This is the fun part where you can experiment with Develop settings, no extra masking required.

Basic Panel

White Balance

White Balance affects color cast in your image, which is often most noticeable in white tones. Color cast can be created by the color temperature of a light source or even light bouncing off of color in your environment. White balance is typically adjusted in two ways: temperature and tint.

Color Temperature affects how warm or cool your image appears. If your image has yellowish white tones, it may be too warm. If your image’s whites appear blue, it may be too cool.

Color Tint affects how green or magenta your image appears. If your image has greenish white tones, it may need more magenta. If your image’s whites appear magenta, it may need more green.

If you’re editing images for yourself, then edit how you’d like – color is subjective! If you’re editing images for a client, you may want to adjust color according to their standards or expectations. Remember, commercial work tends to favor realism (where whites appear white).

At the top of the White Balance section in Basic, there’s a drop-down menu that should say “As Shot,” “Auto” or “Custom.”

In the examples above, we have White Balance in As Shot and Auto. We also have two custom settings: a cool, greener version and a warm, more magenta version.

As Shot shows the image exactly as the camera recorded it. If you find that your white balance is often inaccurate or unflattering right out of camera, you may want to learn more about setting white balance or color temp in your camera menu. To learn more about white balance and color temperature before you shoot, check out our Camera Basics section in the Fundamentals.

In the example above, our “As Shot” isn’t unflattering, but it is slightly too warm in appearance. The values in the Basic Panel are set at 0 because we haven’t adjusted white balance in Lightroom yet.

Auto sets white balance according to what Lightroom thinks is most accurate. It will try to assess white and black values and adjust them accordingly. In our example above, Lightroom assessed the original shot as slightly too warm. Auto white balance is extremely useful if you need a starting point. Sometimes it’s extremely accurate, sometimes it isn’t. We’d suggest trying Auto first, then making slight adjustments to your satisfaction.

If you manually move either the Temp or Tint slider, the White Balance will automatically change to Custom. We have two custom examples above, just to show more stylized versions of this image.

Another way to set white balance is with the White Balance Selector, the eyedropper icon on the left side of the panel.

To easily reset White Balance in both Temp and Tint, you can double-click WB in the panel. To only reset Temp values, double-click the word Temp. To only reset Tint values, double-click the word Tint. 

Tone

The next section in the Basic Panel is called Tone. This section affects your image’s tonal range with the following sliders: Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.

Contrast refers to the relationship between dark and light values. If there are extremely bright whites and extremely dark blacks in your image, it is has high contrast. If there aren’t many bright or dark values in your image and it consists mainly of midtones, your image has low contrast. If you drag this slider to the right, it will increase contrast. Drag it to the left and it will decrease contrast.

Highlights are lighter values in your image that still retain some detail. If you drag this slider to the right, they’ll get lighter and lose more detail. To the left, they will get darker and some detail should be recovered. This is the second section from the right in the Histogram.

Shadows are darker values in your image that still retain some detail. If you drag this slider to the right, they’ll get lighter and some detail should be recovered. To the left, they’ll get darker and lose more detail. This is the second section from the left in the Histogram.

While the Whites slider looks similar to the Highlights slider, they actually behave differently. Think of the Highlights slider as a way to recover or over-expose detail in lighter areas of your image. The Whites slider sets the brightest value in your image (true white) – it sets tonal parameters for your highlights slider to work within.

If you move the Whites slider to the left, the brightest values in your image get darker. If you move it to the right, they get lighter. Move this slider with moderation; if you push it too far, you may not have enough information to maintain a realistic image. The Whites are in the farthest right section in the Histogram. If your image already has information touching the far right of the Histogram (it already has pure white information with no detail), you may not need to push the Whites further in that direction.

Similarly, the Blacks slider sets the darkest value in your image (true black) – it sets tonal parameters for your shadows slider to work within.

If you move the Blacks slider to the right, the darkest values in your image get lighter. To the left, they’ll get darker. Move this slider with moderation; if you push it too far, you may not have enough information to maintain a realistic image. The Blacks are in the farthest left section in the Histogram. If your image already has information touching the far left of the Histogram (it already has pure black information with no detail), you may not need to push the Blacks further in that direction.

If you’d like to adjust any of the slider values more specifically, you can click on its numerical value and type in your desired number. Remember to include a negative sign (-) before the number if you want the slider will move to the left.

One more way: when you hover over the value for a slider, you should see left and right arrows appear. Click and drag left or right to manually adjust the value.

To easily reset adjustments in Tone, simply double-click on the slider’s name. If you want to reset just the Exposure slider, double-click the word Exposure. If you want to reset adjustments to all Tone sliders, double-click the word Tone.

Presence

The Presence section of the Basic Panel includes sliders for Texture, Clarity, Dehaze, Vibrance, and Saturation.

The Texture and Clarity sliders both affect perceived detail in the image, but in very different ways. 

Texture sharpens or softens smaller details (that occur with high frequency), but it has little effect on overall contrast. Texture has a more subtle effect and brings out detail in elements like hair, wood grain, skin, etc.

Clarity sharpens or softens larger details (that occur with low frequency), and can dramatically increase contrast. Clarity has a more dramatic effect and brings out details in contoured elements like jawline, clothing, etc.

Moving either slider to the right will increase the amount of additional sharpening, while moving it to the left will decrease sharpening or even soften pre-existing details.

The Dehaze slider is meant to decrease environmental haze, lens flare, and other elements that lower contrast or obscure detail.

Moving the Dehaze slider to the left will soften details by creating the appearance of fog or haze. Moving the Dehaze slider to the right will sharpen detail by increasing contrast and saturation. This tool is highly recommended for bringing rich color and detail back into distant landscapes.

The two final sliders in the Presence section affect color: Vibrance and Saturation.

The Vibrance increases or decreases color intensity in a non-linear fashion. When you increase vibrance, it affects the less saturated hues more than the most saturated hues in your image. When you decrease vibrance, it affects the most saturated hues more than the least saturated hues in your image. This makes Vibrance an effective and less-destructive tool for making colors pop. This tool is often a favorite among portrait photographers, since it often increases intensity in colorful elements like a blue sky or green grass rather than over-saturating skin tones.

The Saturation slider increases or decreases color intensity globally, in a linear fashion. This means it affects all hues in your image equally. Saturation is an effective tool for creating intense colors, but it should be used in moderation for more realistic edits.

Tone Curve Panel

HSL / Color

The Histogram panel…

Split Toning

The Histogram panel…

Detail

The Histogram panel…

Lens Corrections

The Histogram panel…

Transform

The Histogram panel…

Effects

The Histogram panel…

Calibration

The Histogram panel…

MAP

The Lightroom book…

BOOK

The Lightroom slideshow…

PRINT

The Lightroom library…