Sorting your Library

You don’t have to rely on the default view: here’s how to customise it

01 Change the order

Press G to display the Grid view. Photos are displayed by when they were captured, with the newer thumbnails at the top. From the Toolbar at the bottom you can use the Sort pop-up menu to change the way photos are displayed, such as making the highest-rated ones appear at the top.

02 Rate your photos

To rate a photo, click its thumbnail, then click below the thumbnail to assign between zero and five stars. Alternatively, you can tap the number keys (1 to 5), or click a suitable star rating icon in the Toolbar. You can also right-click a thumbnail and use the Set Rating command.

03 Take your pick

Double-click on a thumbnail (or press E) to take the photo into Loupe view. You can then click the image to zoom in and see the image at 100% view. You can either tick the Set as Pick flag icon in the Toolbar, or the Set as Rejected flag (this won’t delete the image, it will just tag it as rejected).

04 Remove unwanted shots

Use the Sort menu to display Picked photos at the top of the Grid view. Rejected ones will be greyed out at the bottom. Go to Photo >Delete Rejected Photos. Click either Remove (photos will still be on your computer but not in Lightroom’s Catalog) or Delete from Disk.

05 Filter your photos

Go to View >Show Filter Bar. Tick Attribute. Click the Pick icon to display photos that have been Picked. You can also display photos that have been rated greater than or equal to a specific star rating. You can refine the filter results by clicking Metadata and choosing an attribute.

06 Add a label

The Filter Bar can also display photos according to colour labels. Click the Custom Filter menu and choose Filters Off. This will display all the photos. To assign a coloured label to a photo, simply right-click on its thumbnail, choose Set Color Label, and choose a colour from the list.