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Author Topic: A beginner's Lightroom questions  (Read 7465 times)

prbimages

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A beginner's Lightroom questions
« on: August 25, 2014, 01:30:33 am »

Hi, I've been using Lightroom for a couple of months now and am starting to feel comfortable with it. However, I keep coming up with little niggling questions for which I cannot (quickly) find answers (and then I often forget the questions). I thought I would scribble them down here as they occur to me, and see if I can get some timely help. I apologize in advance if some or even most of them are blindingly obvious, but then, this is the "Beginner's Questions" forum so hopefully I will be forgiven!

First question:

When I make virtual copies of a photo, they are automatically given a "Copy Name" of the form "Copy 1", "Copy 2", and so on. Is there any way to change this behaviour? For example, if I wanted to have a name that was more meaningful to me? I notice that there is a "Copy Name" field over in the Metadata panel on the right (in Library view), and I can type into that field, but it doesn't appear that what I type in there actually gets saved.
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francois

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2014, 02:57:16 am »

To rename a virtual copy, hit G (Library module), then open the Metadata Pane and there you'll find a field named Copy Name.
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Francois

prbimages

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2014, 04:01:43 am »

To rename a virtual copy, hit G (Library module), then open the Metadata Pane and there you'll find a field named Copy Name.
Hmmm, you're right, thanks! I said in my original post that I tried this but was not able to save my changes. But I just tried it again, and now it saves correctly. Don't know what happened the first time ...
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prbimages

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2014, 04:05:41 am »

My next question:

Is there a facility in Lightroom for making notes, or comments, on an image? For example, I might want to record some pertinent details about the processing I've applied; or I might want to write down the name of a person in the photo (but not want to add them to an already long list of people I've keyworded).
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sharperstill

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2014, 04:21:25 am »

The caption/description field?
And all your processing will be visible by switching to the develop module.
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prbimages

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2014, 07:06:58 am »

The caption/description field?
And all your processing will be visible by switching to the develop module.

I had avoided "Caption" because I knew it was used in other modules, such as Print and Slideshow, for display alongside the image, which is not what I want. "Description" sounded like a better choice - until I discovered that "Caption" and "Description" are just two names for the same field - if I type something into "Caption", the same text appears in the IPTC "Description" field (and vice-versa).

So I guess the answer to my question is: No, there is no specific facility for making private notes on an image, but in a pinch you could use the "Caption" field - as long as you don't want to have a real caption for your image.

Re "all your processing will be visible by switching to the develop module" - yes, I realize the History panel shows what you've done, but I would much prefer to read something like "Accentuated the colors in the scarf" than to interpret "Add Brush Stroke" (repeated 29 times). And that's assuming, of course, that you haven't at some point cleared the history information, in which case it is all lost.
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Dan Glynhampton

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #6 on: August 26, 2014, 05:19:50 pm »

I would much prefer to read something like "Accentuated the colors in the scarf" than to interpret "Add Brush Stroke" (repeated 29 times). And that's assuming, of course, that you haven't at some point cleared the history information, in which case it is all lost.

Take a look at John Beardsworth's Big Note plugin, that might do what you want...

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/big-note/

Dan
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prbimages

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2014, 09:17:08 am »

Take a look at John Beardsworth's Big Note plugin, that might do what you want...

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/big-note/

Dan

Wow, that looks great! Thanks Dan  :)
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MarkJohnson

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2014, 11:19:44 am »

For such Develop notes, I make a Snapshot and use the Snapshot Name for the (brief) notes. You can clear the default Name first.
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Mark J

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Re: A beginner's Lightroom questions
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2014, 11:49:59 am »

For such Develop notes, I make a Snapshot and use the Snapshot Name for the (brief) notes. You can clear the default Name first.
This is what I do too and also use the snapshot variation names for my VC variations, so I never bother to rename them.
There's an extra benefit to this too. If your catalogue goes tits up you will lose any VCs made since last backup, but as snapshots are stored in the XMP file so you do not lose those edits - this assumes you check the 'autosave to XMP' option in catalogue settings. Which I highly recommend for this reason. I have had a catalogue corrupt.
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