The Library module is one of the two key modules in the Lightroom Classic workflow. It’s where you view, organize, search and browse your entire photo catalog. So how is the interface laid out, what do the tools do and how do you find the tools you need?
The Library module is laid out like all the other Lightroom Classic modules, with vertical sidebars on the left and right of the screen, top and bottom bars for other controls and expandable top and bottom toolbars. I tend to leave these collapsed.
The top toolbar, when expanded, simply lists all seven Lightroom Classic modules for one-click access, and you can leave this open if you want to, but simply moving the mouse over the top of the screen temporarily reveals it anyway.
The bottom toolbar acts as a filmstrip display for the contents of whatever Folder or Collection you’ve selected in the left sidebar. You can see the same images in the main window in the Thumbnail view anyway, so the filmstrip is not necessarily all that useful – I leave it hidden.
So let’s get down to the important stuff and start with the left sidebar.
Lightroom Classic Library Module left sidebar
This is where all the serious organizing work is done. Right at the top of the sidebar is a Navigator panel, and this is useful if you’ve zoomed in to an image in Loupe view (we’ll come on to the different view options shortly). Like all Lightroom panels, this is collapsible, so you can click the arrow next to the name to shrink it to just its title bar.
Below this is the Catalog panel, which gives you an overview of your catalog and all the images imported into it. There are different automatic collections in this panel, including ones for your latest import and all the photographs you’ve synchronized with Adobe Creative Cloud (this is another topic!). Probably the most useful, though, is the one at the top – All Photographs. This will display all the images imported into your Lightroom catalog, and you can use the Library Filters and sort options to narrow down those displayed. Again, we’ll come on to those shortly.
It’s likely, though, that you’ll want to organize your images a little more selectively than this, and this is where the Folders panel comes in. This shows the actual folder and sub-folder locations of all your imported folders as they are actually stored on your computer. There are different import options for Lightroom Classic, but often the best option is to leave your images where they are and have Lightroom ‘reference’ them in that location. You can use the Folders panel just as you would use the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer, moving photos and folders directly on your computer.
For many photographers, a folder-based filing system makes the most sense. It’s simple and direct. But often it’s useful to organise images ‘virtually’ using Collections. These can bring together photos from different folders without actually changing their location – and a single photo can be in many different Collections. You use the Collections panel to create and organize these Collections, which can also be nested in Collection Sets. Lightroom Classic also offers Smart Collections, which use search criteria to automatically find and bring together matching images.
You might use Collections a lot, a little, or not at all – it’s up to you. But Collections (not Folders) are key to a couple of Lightroom Classic activities. First, the Develop module displays only your Collections, not your Folders. Second, if you do want to synchronize any photos with Creative Cloud, for use in Lightroom on mobile, for example, you can only do this with Collections. You can’t synchronize a Folder or a Collection Set (or even a Smart Collection).
The next panel down is for Publish Services. This only applies if you decide to hook up Lightroom Classic with an online service like SmugMug or Flickr.
At the bottom of the left sidebar are the Import and Export buttons. The Import button is key because this is how you get your images into Lightroom Classic. There are a couple of ways of doing this which will be covered in a separate article. The Export button is for outputting images editing in Lightroom as processed JPEG or TIFF images, for example, that can be shared, displayed, printed or edited in other software.
Lightroom Classic Library Module right sidebar
There’s a theme with Lightroom Classic’s sidebar layouts. The left sidebar is broadly about the big picture, while the right sidebar gets down to nitty-gritty details with individual images or image selections.
It’s the same here. The right sidebar has a Histogram panel at the top to give you a quick glimpse of the selected image’s tonal range and whether the shadows or highlights are clipped.
So what happens if you have more than one image selected? The left/right arrow keys cycle you through the selected images one by one. This applies when you’re editing image metadata (more on this shortly) or images themselves in the Develop module.
The next panel down is Quick Develop. This is a way to apply a handful of basic image corrections without needing to swap to the Develop Module. You can apply a preset from the drop-down menu, change the white balance and apply Lightroom’s Auto tone and color corrections, with manual sliders underneath if you need to fine tune the results. Anything you change here will be reflected in the Develop panel.
The next two panels are Keywording and Keyword List. Not everyone uses keywords to organize, filter and search their images, but Lightroom Classic has powerful tools for this. You use the Keywording panel to add keywords to images or selected images, and it will automatically lookup existing keywords as you type.
The Keyword List panel is where you can browse, organize and search through the keywords you’ve assigned. This is useful for photographers who like to stay organized and in control – and it’s also a way of checking for mis-spelt keywords or unwanted duplicates.
Keywords are just one example of Metadata, and in the Metadata panel below you’ll see that there are many more fields you can check or type into. There are two broad types of metadata: EXIF data embedded by the camera, such as the date, the exposure settings, the camera and lens model and more (you can’t directly edit this); and IPTC metadata, where you add optional information about your images such as a Title, Description, Copyright information and more. This is entirely optional.
The last panel is for Comments, but this only applies if you engage with an audience via Lightroom’s Cloud tools and if you do then you are more likely to use the Lightroom app, not Lightroom Classic.
At the bottom of the right sidebar are Sync and Sync Settings buttons. Let’s say you want to apply the same adjustment (or keywords) to a group of images. If you ‘switch on’ the Sync button, your changes will be applied to all the selected images, even while you’re working on just one of them. The Sync Settings button lists all the possible adjustments so that you can select the ones you want to synchronize and de-select the ones you don’t.
This makes more sense if you have several images selected but you are using Lightroom’s Loupe view and only looking at one at a time. Let’s look at this next.
Lightroom Classic Library Module bottom bar
Lightroom Classic offers several different views in the Library module, and you’ll find buttons for these on the bottom bar. So, from left to right…
The Grid View displays all the images in the current Folder or Collection as thumbnails. This is one of the most useful views because you get an overview of what’s there.
Next to it is Loupe View. This displays the currently selected image at full size – and you also get the Loupe view if you double-click a thumbnail in Grid View. Loupe View is useful for examining single images, though if you’re going to do any serious editing you’re better off switching to the Develop module.
Compare View is interesting. This displays side-by-side views of two images and you can zoom in and pan around both simultaneously. It’s good for comparing focus, sharpness and detail. You can also use it to decide which of two images you like best, though for that you’ve also got Survey View…
In Survey View you can compare multiple images. You can’t zoom in on them in the same way you can with Compare View, but this is a great view for choosing the best images from the point of view of exposure, composition and overall look. You can also apply star ratings here, color labels and flags. These are important later when filtering and searching your photos. More on this shortly.
The last view in this list is People View. The first time you select this you’ll be prompted to search your entire catalog for shots of people. It’s not a feature I use, but portrait or event photographers might and it will be covered in a separate article.
The bottom bar also has a drop-down menu for changing the image sort order and a slider for adjusting the thumbnail size. These probably don’t need any explanation, so we’ll move straight on to the top bar and Lightroom’s Library Filters.
Lightroom Classic Library Filters
In the Lightroom Classic Library Module, the top bar is taken up by the Library Filters. This is an important tool for finding and selecting specific image types. By default, the Grid view displays all the images in any Folder or Collection you select in the left sidebar, but you can use the Filter bar to make the view much more selective.
There are four tabs, one for Text, one for Attributes, one for Metadata and one for ‘None’ – which simply removes all the filtering so that you see all the images again.
If you click the Text button, you get a search field where you can type in any text you’re looking for. This is fairly indiscriminate because Lightroom will search all the image data, including any available image metadata and image filenames – though you can use the drop-down menus to narrow this down a bit.
The Attribute option can filter your images according to any color labels, flags or star ratings you apply. You can use these filters in combination, but they are limited to these specific attributes. Not everyone uses them, but you might find them useful. There is an interesting option on the far right, though. Lightroom can create non-destructive Virtual Copies of images for trying out different editing variations on the same photo – you can use these buttons to show only original images, Virtual Copies or both. There’s also a button for filtering video files.
That’s it for this tour of the Lightroom Library Module. There’s a lot here to look at and understand, but this does at least give a quick overview.
