Photoshop User - USA (2021-01)

ALL IMAGES BY SCOTT KELBY

like your copyright information, photographer’s

name, address, contact info, etc. So, part of the

metadata is taken care of for you by your camera,

and the other part (copyright, etc.) is optional

and totally up to you if you want to add it or not.

You can see the information that’s embedded

into your image by going to the Metadata panel

in the Library panel (the one shown here is from

Lightroom Classic).

Q. I know I can close each of the panels one by

one so I just see the name of that panel, but

is there an easy way to close all the panels at

once in a particular area? I don’t want to hide

them, I just don’t want them open.

A. There is. Just Right-click on any panel and from

the pop-up menu that appears, choose Collapse All

and it folds all of them up to just their titles. Now,

if you click on one of those titles, it will expand

that panel.

While you’re in that pop-up menu, you might

want to consider choosing Solo Mode, which

keeps all your panels collapsed all the time except

for the one with which you’re currently working.

What’s different is that one panel will always be

open (the active panel), so it’s not the same as

collapsing all the panels, but at least it automatically

closes all the other panels. Now if you want all

the panels collapsed, you can just close that one

panel instead of having to choose Collapse All.

Q. Is there a way I can see photos from a shoot

that I’ve already edited so I can tell which

ones still need editing?

A. Yup. In the Library module (of Classic), press

Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to bring up the Library

View Options dialog and then turn on the checkbox

for Thumbnail Badges. This turns on a small series

of icons that appear in the lower-right corner of

each image thumbnail, giving you info about each

photo at a glance, like whether it’s been edited

or not.

In the example shown at the top of the next

page, I increased the size of the thumbnails so it’s

easier for you to see the badges. The one with the

+ and – lets you know it’s been edited in Develop,

and the one with the dotted rectangle lets you

know it’s been cropped. The first icon from the

click one of the Exposure buttons in Quick Develop

a couple of times until they’re properly exposed.

I can then see if it’s worth digging deeper to find

the best one of that group to take over to Develop

for more in-depth editing.

Q. I hear a lot about metadata in Lightroom,
but I don’t do anything with metadata (and
I’m not even certain what it is). Am I missing
out on something?
A. Metadata is information that’s embedded into
your photo, either by your camera when you took
the shot (your camera automatically embeds info
on the f-stop, ISO, and shutter speed you used,
along with the make and model of camera, type
of lens, date and time the photo was taken, etc.),
or info you embed into the photo manually: stuff

 LIGHTROOM Q&A

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