A Very Brief Overview Of The Lightroom Modules
Lightroom has five distinct sections, known as workspace modules. They are:
- Library
- Develop
- Slideshow
- Web
Each of the five modules in the Lightroom workspace include panels that contain options and controls for working on your photos that are specific to each. Within each of these modules you’ll find a set of tools to help you with the different phases of your digital photography workflow. So for instance, the Library module lets you organise the images in your library (where you import your pictures) and offers you several viewing modes to browse through, rank, compare and select images easily. The Develop module is for adjusting color and tone, or creatively processing photos; and the Slideshow and Print modules are for presenting your photos. The Web module has tools which help you build, preview, and export or upload your own website to showcase your photos.
It quite literally only takes a mouse click to move between the modules as the name of each one appears in the top-right corner of Lightroom in the Module Picker and these are links which take you from module to module.
You can click on each link, or you can do things the fast way and learn the keyboard shortcuts (which are very easy).
Holding down Ctrl+Alt/Command+Option + 1 takes you to the Library module.
Holding down Ctrl+Alt/Command+Option + 2 takes you to the Develop module.
Holding down Ctrl+Alt/Command+Option + 3 takes you to the Slideshow module.
Holding down Ctrl+Alt/Command+Option + 4 takes you to the Print module.
Holding down Ctrl+Alt/Command+Option + 5 takes you to the Web module.
If you accidentally switch modules, press Ctrl + Z / Cmd + Z to go back to where you were.
It’s well worth the time and (minimal) effort to learn these shortcuts. You’ll find that pretty quickly you’re jumping to and fro without even having to think about moving your mouse up to click on the link.
So let’s continue with a quick run through the modules.
1. With Lightroom open and at least one photo in your library, click on any photo thumbnail in the Library and then press Ctrl+Alt/Command+Option + 2 to switch to the Develop module.
You’ll see that there are two new sets of panels on either side of the screen and there is now a large version of the thumbnail photo you picked in the Library module. One thing that stays consistent throughout each module is the filmstrip running along the bottom of the window. Use the keyboard shortcuts to jump into Slideshow, Print and Web modules and you’ll see the filmstrip stays with you the whole time. This is a nice feature because it means you can always have access to all the photos you have in the Library without having to jump back into the actual Library module.
2. You can scroll through the filmstrip in two ways
· Drag the scroll bar at the bottom of the Filmstrip, click the arrows on the sides, or drag the top edge of a thumbnail frame.
· Press the Left and Right Arrow keys to navigate through thumbnails in the Filmstrip.
Again I highly recommend the keyboard shortcuts, so you’re working with one hand on the mouse or pen and one hand pressing keys, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you speed up.
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