Step by step

Start a collection

Open up Lightroom and you can start organising your photos in seconds

01 Make a Quick Collection

The Catalog panel on the left of the Library module has a Quick Collection label. To add a set of photos to a Quick Collection, click on the thumbnails of the images you want to gather and press B. Here we’ve collected six landscape-themed photos together in a Quick Collection.

03 Set as Target Collection

The Quick Collection will empty once you’ve added the photos to their own Collection. Click on your newly-created Collection to see its contents. Right-click the Collection label and choose Set As Target Collection. Click the All Photographs option to see all the photos again.

05 Create new Collections

To create new Collections, click the + icon to the right of the Collections panel. You can set any new Collections up to be Target Collections. You can also create your own Smart Collections to find files that match specific criteria such as a high ISO setting, for example.

02 Save the Quick Collection

Go to the Catalog panel and click the Quick Collection label. The Grid view will now display the images you gathered. Right-click the Quick Collection label to summon the Save Quick Collection window. Label it – we’ve called ours Landscape Collection. Click Save.

04 Paint to add

Now when you select a thumbnail and press B, the photo will be added to the Target Collection instead of the default Quick Collection. You can also click the Painter icon and set the Paint drop-down menu to Target Collection, then click the Painter tool on any thumbnail to add it.

06 Collect by ISO rating

Click the + icon and pick Create Smart Collection. Name it High ISO Speed. Tick Inside Collection Set and pick Smart Collections. Set Match to Any. Change the Rating menu to Camera Info and choose ISO Speed Rating. Choose the ‘is greater than or equal to’ option. Type 300.