Lightroom Classic A-Z

Attributes filter: The Attributes filter is one of three options for Lightroom Classic’s Library Filters. Here you can filter images by their color label, star rating and flag. You can also filter out video files and Lightroom Virtual Copies. You can combine any or all of these attributes to filter your images.

Basic panel: This is where you do much of your photo editing enhancements in the Develop module. It has sliders for adjusting the Exposure and Contrast of your photos but also Shadows and Highlights, Whites and Blacks, for more advanced dynamic range adjustments. You’ll also find the white balance controls here.

B&W mode: This is a special editing mode in the Basic panel in the Develop module. It changes the image to a black and white profile but also swaps the regular HSL/Color panel for a B&W panel that allows you to adjust the conversion of different colors into shades of gray.

Catalog panel: The Catalog panel gives you an overview of your photo catalog in the Library module. It has options to display all the images in the catalog, all images synced with Lightroom in the cloud, Lightroom’s special Quick Collection for speedily gathering images for a project or extra work, and all the images in the previous import.

Collections: Where Folders in Lightroom Classic display the actual location of images on your computer, Collections are like virtual containers for related images where they stay in their existing location. They are the same as ‘albums’ in other software – it’s just the name that’s different. A single photo can be stored in any number of different Collections. 

Color Grading panel: This is used to apply hue, saturation and lightness adjustments to different tonal ranges in the photo, specifically to the shadows, midtones and highlights. Color grading is a common technique in video editing but relatively new in photo editing software. This panel can also be used to apply toning or split toning effects to black and white images.

Compare View: Ever wanted to compare two images side by side and even zoom in with synchronised zoom and pan options to compare sharpness and fine detail? That’s what the Compare View in the Library Module is for. It can only compare two images at a time, though. If you need to compare more you need the Survey View, though that doesn’t have a zoom option.

Crop Tool: You use this tool in the Develop Module to crop your images for creative reasons, to straighten them or to apply specific aspect ratios to match screen sizes, social media channels or print sizes. Crops are non-destructive, so you can redo them at any time.

Detail panel: The Detail panel in Lightroom Classic does two jobs. It contains both the sharpening settings and the noise reduction tools. The sharpening settings are pretty straightforward, but with noise reduction you have a choice between the regular Lightroom noise reduction tools and it’s AI powered Enhance feature.

Develop Module: This is where you do all your editing in Lightroom Classic. It has a set of editing tools arranged in panels in the right sidebar. All your edits are non-destructive, so you can remove or modify them at any time.

Effects panel: This is not really to do with special effects in general, even though it sounds like it, but two effects in particular – Vignette and Grain. The Vignette effect is useful for adding subtle shading to the edges and corners of a picture for a vintage/retro look, while the Grain effect is remarkably good at simulating the appearance of actual film grain.

EXIF data: This is detailed shooting information embedded by digital cameras in image files. It includes the time and data, camera model, lens used, exposure settings and more. This is useful for reference later on and can also be used in Library Filters and Smart Collections to find specific images.

Export option: Lightroom Classic is a non-destructive photo editor, which means that none of your adjustments are applied to the image fully until you export a processed version. The Export options also let you change the image size and resolution, sharpening options, export destination and more.

Folders panel: There are two ways of organising your photos in Lightroom Classic and you can use both, if you like. Collections are like virtual albums that can include images from many different folder locations, but the Folders panel displays the actual folder system on your computer, and you can move, rename or delete images and folders directly.

Grid View: This is probably going to be your most-used view in the Lightroom Classic Library module. It displays all the images in the currently selected Folder or Collection as a grid of thumbnail images. You can change thumbnail size and the image sort order using controls on the bottom bar.

Histogram panel: This is a graphical display of the distribution of tones in an image and used widely in photo editing software. It shows whether the photo has a full range of tones and whether any shadow or highlight detail is ‘clipped’ (lost). The Histogram panel is displayed in Lightroom’s Develop Module and Library Module.

History: Lightroom Classic is a non-destructive photo editor. This means it records every editing step you make and can backtrack through these at any time, and you can do this using the History panel in the Develop Module.

HSL/Color panel: This is used to modify individual color ranges within the photo, either using the HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) model or with named color ranges. In both cases, you first select the color range you want to modify, then adjust its hue, saturation and lightness values.

Import images: Before you can view or edit images in Lightroom you have to Import them into your catalog via the Library module. There are a couple of different options for importing images, but the most common is simply to ‘Add’ them to your catalog without changing their location on your computer.

IPTC metadata: You can attach additional information, or ‘metadata’ to photos in your Lightroom catalog. This conforms to the IPTC metadata standard, which offers specific fields for keywords, descriptions, author information and more. IPTC metadata is useful for searching and filtering in Lightroom.

Keyword List panel: Keywords are one of the simplest and most versatile way of ‘tagging’ photos so that you can find and filter them more easily later on. You add keywords using the Keywording panel – the Keyword List panel is where you go through your catalog’s list of keywords to check for mis-spellings and duplicates, for example.

Keywording panel: You use the Keywording panel in the Library module to add keywords to your photos. As you type, Lightroom will display any matching keywords already in the catalog. There are also buttons to display recently-used keywords that you can apply with a single click.

Lens Correction panel: Lightroom Classic can correct common lens aberrations like distortion and corner shading automatically by matching up the lens used with a correction profile. There are also manual correction tools where no profile is available. This panel also has a checkbox for correcting chromatic aberration.

Library filters: You’ll find the Library Filters in the top bar in Grid View in the Library Module. You can use them to filter the images displayed according to the text they contain, their attributes (e.g. star rating, flag, color label) or their metadata – this is the most powerful and can search both IPTC metadata and camera EXIF data.

Library Module: In Lightroom Classic, the Develop Module is where you edit images in depth, but it’s the Library Module where you do all your organising. You use the Library Module to browse and manage your Folders, create Collections and Smart Collections, apply keywords and other attributes and use the Library Filters to filter your photos.

Loupe View: In the Lightroom Classic Library module you can view images in bulk in Grid View or double-click on any image to see it full size in Loupe View. This lets you examine photos properly and you can also zoom in to check the fine detail.

Metadata filter: This is the most powerful and flexible filtering mode in the Library. It offers multiple metadata filtering columns, each of which can be set up to filter for IPTC metadata like keywords or camera shooting information like ISO or focal length. Using these filters in combination can produce very specific search results.

Metadata panel: This is a panel in the Library Module which lets you examine both the EXIF shooting information embedded by the camera and any IPTC metadata you’ve added yourself. You can choose what metadata you want to see (or edit) via a drop-down menu at the top.

Navigator panel: When you zoom in on an image to examine it in detail, the Navigator panel shows you an overview of the whole image with a rectangular marquee to show the zoomed in section you’re currently looking at. You can drag this marquee around the Navigator to pan around the image on the screen.

Presets: Lightroom Classic Presets are pre-configured sets of adjustments that you can apply to photos with a single click. All of these adjustments can be examined and modified later. You can also create your own custom presets based on your own edits.

Quick Develop panel: The Quick Develop panel is a tool in the Library Module that lets you apply quick adjustments and enhancements to photos without having to swap to the full Develop Module. You can apply Lightroom’s Auto tone and color adjustments or tweak the image’s appearance manually.

Remove Tool: Lightroom Classic’s Remove Tool is like a modern development of the classic cloning tool for removing objects and distractions from photos. The Remove Tool does indeed have a Clone option, but the Heal option blends repairs more subtle and the new Remove option uses AI to give often ‘invisible’ results on even large object removals.

Snapshots: Every edit you apply in Lightroom’s Develop Module is recorded in its History panel. Sometimes, though, you may want to save a specific state in your editing history to go back to it quickly later on. This is a Snapshot, and you can create and use snapshots in their own panel in the Develop module.

Survey View: Lightroom Classic’s Survey View is useful if you’re trying to find the best version from a set of similar images. It can display several images at once and you can set image attributes such as star rating, color label and flag. 

Sync/Sync Settings: You’ll find these buttons at the bottom of the right sidebar in the Library module and you can use them to apply the same adjustments across a set of images, not just one. You select all the images you want to adjust, make adjustments to the primary image (always highlighted) and the edits you choose in the Sync Settings will be applied across all of them.

Text filter: This is one of the options in the Library Filters bar in the Library Module. You can use it to search for text in any of the metadata fields in your images, so it’s not terribly precise but it’s useful if the text you’re looking for could be in the keywords, the description or even the image filename.

Tone Curve panel: Adobe calls this the Tone Curve panel, but it’s basically the same as the curves panels in other photo editing programs. Adjusting the shape of the tone curve changes the contrast within the image and can be used to adjust the shadows, midtones and highlights and the way they interact.

Transform panel: The Transform panel is used for correcting perspective distortion which can become apparent in shots of tall buildings (converging verticals), but you can also get horizontal convergence, for example when you photograph a painting or a facade from a slight angle. The Transform panel can fix both, and can also do it automatically.