Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process

Chapter 3. THE LIGHTROOM WORKSPACE

As a new software application, Lightroom's user interfacewas designed to facilitate easier interaction with vast numbers of images.

Compared with programs like Photoshop, its unconventional tools and screen layout represent a different way of working with digital photos. In particular, using the keyboard to process images is a new approach for many photographers and thus carries a bit of a learning curve.

This chapter provides in-depth explanations of the Lightroom workspace and offers numerous shortcuts and tricks that will make your use of Lightroom fast, fluid and fun.

Modules

All work in Lightroom is done in one of five modules. The modules provide tools and commands specific to each phase of the workflow. The modules can be accessed using the Module Picker (to the right of the top panel; see Figure 3-1) or by using various keyboard shortcuts.

Figure 3.1. Module Picker

1. LIBRARY

This is where you organize, sort and manage your images (see Figure 3-2). A limited subset of processing controls is also included (Quick Develop). See Chapter 6 for more information about Library.

Figure 3.2. Library module in Grid view

Tip

G

To load the Library module in Grid view.

Tip

E

To load the Library module in Loupe view.

Tip

To switch to Library from another module.

2. DEVELOP ...