The public beta versions of Lightroom will not upgrade your existing catalog from an earlier version of Lightroom, so don’t even try to open your working Lightroom catalog into the beta. You will get rejected.

Similarly the public beta version can not import from a catalog from an earlier version of Lightroom.

Also, Adobe makes no promises that all the work you do in the beta will transfer over in exactly the same way to the final release version (whenever that should come). In fact, head over to Lightroom Journal and read everything they tell you.

So, this means it is time to start fresh! I found it best to:

1. Select photos in my Lightroom 3 catalog that I wanted to play with in the beta (put them in a collection if it is easier to wrangle).

2. Export these photos as Originals to a folder I named Beta Test (call yours whatever you want).

3. Then quit Lightroom 3 and launch Lightroom 4 Beta.

4. Click the Import button and import that folder of test subjects into Lightroom 4 Beta.

Now you have a safe batch of copies that you can play with and not worry about doing any damage to your real photos and videos (yes, be sure to bring some video over!). If you’ve never used a previous version of Lightroom before then that’s fine too! The public beta is open to all. Just make a copy of some photos and import them into the beta to play with.

Welcome Change
One small change that I am very excited about is the fact that Lightroom 4 is much more helpful when you first launch the program in telling you that you need to “create a catalog to store information about your photos” then goes on to show you exactly where this catalog file will be stored, and even gives you the option to change the destination. Oh so simple, but I think this will help decrease confusion for a lot of people.

From there the program launches and it is Go time!

Go to Adobe Labs to download the Lightroom 4 Public Beta. Join the fun in the Beta forum to give your feedback.

I’ll have an article on Peachpit.com with my top 10 new features appearing soon, a few deeper dive Beta tutorials here on my blog, and a big feature article in the Feburary issue of Photoshop User magazine. Also, stop by Kelby Training at 10am (Eastern Time) 1/10/12 for a live webcast that’s sure to be a lot of fun. In the meantime, here are a bunch of resources to get you started. Enjoy!

I don’t often get questions about how to apply keywords to photos, but I do hear from people who are struggling to regain a bit of order over an unruly keyword list, so it is to them that I devote this column. Unfortunately, there is no magic wand to wave and automatically fix a disorganized keyword list, you’ll need to roll up your sleeves, put the kettle on, and just get down to business. Keywording is a manual process, and while I do suggest that you check out the resources I mention at the end of the column, you still need to be prepared to do the heavy lifting.

Creating a Hierarchy

If you have already assigned keywords to photos and you want to retain those assignments and create a more structured list you should first consider creating that structure right in the Keyword List panel. You can drag and drop one keyword onto another to nest them together. Let’s say I have a flat keyword list that contains Animals, Dogs, Mammals, and Golden Retriever. I can drag Golden Retriever onto Dogs, then drag Dogs onto Mammals, then drag Mammals onto Animals and create a logical hierarchy while maintaining all the assignments I’ve already made with those keywords.

You can also move a child keyword out of a parent-child relationship by clicking and dragging it above its top-level parent keyword until you see the space above the parent keyword become highlighted, indicating you are leaving that structure, and release the keyword.

Some people find it helpful to create their keyword list outside of Lightroom in a plain text file (here is a great tutorial on that http://bit.ly/KeywordListOutside). You can also simply purchase very large keyword lists (see Resource at the end) that you can import right into Lightroom. While these are both excellent methods to consider I do want to point out that the importing of a new keyword list will not replace your existing keyword list. In other words, if you have a long flat list of keywords that you’ve assigned to various photos and you import a beautifully structured keyword hierarchy it is not going to magically transform your existing flat keyword list into a structure, but rather you will now have your old list with the new list appended on to it, all sorted alphabetically, and it is still up to you to assign the new keywords to your photos, or organize your flat list into a structure.

Re-Assign Keywords

Using my previous keyword example, if I had created that same keyword structure in a plain text file and imported it into Lightroom (instead of creating the structure inside of Lightroom) I would still have the same four top-level keywords, and in addition I would have my new logical structure under Animals. The problem is that I’d now have to re-assign the photos attached to keywords from my original list to the keywords in the new structure.

Here’s how to transfer photos from one keyword to another:

STEP ONE: Working in Grid view with the Keyword List panel expanded, move the cursor over the assigned keyword until you see the arrow appear to the right of the keyword total, and click that arrow to filter your catalog to only images tagged with that keyword.

STEP TWO: Press Cmd+A (PC: Ctrl+A) to select all photos showing in the Grid.

STEP THREE: Move the cursor over the new keyword until an empty checkbox appears to the left of the keyword, and click the box to assign that keyword to all selected photos.

STEP FOUR: Remove the check from the box next to the original keyword to un-assign it from those photos, or see the next section on removing keywords completely. Photos are now only assigned to the new keyword.

Remove Unwanted Keywords

If you simply want to remove a keyword from all photos and remove the keyword itself from your keyword list you can select the keyword in the Keyword List panel and click the minus sign that appears in the panel header. Removing a parent keyword will also remove its children. Proceed with caution.

Tip: You can select multiple keywords in the Keyword List for removal as well. To select continuous keywords, click the first keyword then hold the Shift key and click the last keyword you want to select. You can select non-contiguous keywords by holding the Cmd key (PC: Ctrl) while clicking individual keywords.

Keywording Resources

• Keyword-centric plugins on Lightroom Exchange (http://adobe.ly/KeywordPlugins)
•  Controlled Vocabulary (www.controlledvocabulary.com)
• Keyword Catalog (www.keyword-catalog.com)

Have you ever opened Lightroom and thought something was lost? A tool, a panel, a preset, or something you knew was there before is no longer there? Don’t fret; it is most likely just hiding.

A week doesn’t go by that I don’t hear from someone who is struggling to find something that has seemingly vanished from Lightroom. In the interest of helping you avoid this sensation of panic and frustration I have compiled my list of the top ten things that seem to go missing (or appear out of nowhere) of their own accord, and, more importantly, how to put things back to normal.

10. Individual panels. It is possible to hide many of the individual panels completely from view. I don’t mean collapsing the panels, but outright removal from the panel group. If you should find some day that a certain panel has vanished from the interface all you need to do is go to Window > Panels and select the wayward panel from the menu to bring it back. In addition, you can hide (or show) a panel by ctrl-clicking (PC: right-click) a panel header and selecting the panel from the contextual menu that appears. [insert figure1]

9. The Library Filter bar. Normally positioned above the thumbnails in Grid view of the Library module, the Library Filter can be hidden or shown by pressing the \ key. Hiding the bar does not turn off the filter being applied.

8. The Toolbar in any module. This is an easy one to misplace and return. Just hit the T key to toggle it into and out of view. If your Toolbar is visible, but certain tools are not showing, click the drop-down menu at the far-right end of the Toolbar and select the tools from the menu.

7. The Crop Guide Overlay. When you are in the Crop Tool you should see a guide overlay appear on top of your photo to help create a stronger composition. The overlay can be hidden/revealed by pressing the H key. You can also cycle through the different guide overlays by pressing the O key. If your Toolbar is showing, you can also control the tool overlay from there.

6. Adjustment Brush pins. While we are at it, the same goes for the Graduated Filter pins, the Spot Removal Tool circles, and the Red-Eye circles. If any of these tools are active, but something is missing, hit the H key to toggle visibility.

5. Highlight/Shadow Clipping Indicators. This is one that can accidentally appear and take you by surprise, so if you are seeing a red overlay on the brightest areas of the photo or a blue overlay on the darkest (or both) and you want it to go away, just press the J key, which will show/hide the clipping indicator.

4. Adjustment Brush mask overlay. Speaking of colorful overlays that won’t go away, if you are applying an adjustment via the Adjustment Brush and a colored overlay seems to have become a permanent part of the image, just press the O key to hide it again. While you are at it, you can cycle through the colors of the mask overlay by holding the Shift key while pressing O.

3. Custom Presets/Templates. If it seems as though all your custom presets/templates have vanished, the most likely cause is a box in the Lightroom preferences. Go to Preferences > Presets and uncheck Store presets with catalog and see if that doesn’t bring them right back.

2. Entire batches of photos you know you imported In my experience, if you launch Lightroom and find that it doesn’t have the same photos in it as when you left it during your last session, the most likely suspect is that the wrong catalog was opened. By default Lightroom is set to open the last catalog used, but if for some reason the Lightroom preference file got corrupted it will automatically revert to its default settings and only look for the default catalog in the default location. If you know where your real catalog is located then use the File > Open menu to open it directly, otherwise, search your hard drive for all .lrcat files and open the one with the most recent date.

1. The Close, Minimize and Maximize buttons on the top of the Lightroom interface. This is the all time number one thing that I’ve been asked about since Lightroom was first released. Lightroom has three different screen modes, and you can continuously cycle through these three modes simply by pressing the F key.

I think many people discover these hiding shortcuts by accident first, so don’t worry if it has happened to you, as you are in very good company. Once you know them they are excellent tools to use in your workflow.

Before you go hiking up the trails or splashing in the water, it’s time to review our snow editing techniques! Lightroom is a great tool for taking relatively flat light shots (like those after a snowstorm) and improving contrast, color, removing vignettes and creating and well-styled Black & White photo. Also creating that snowy day preset will save a lot of time, as chances are good all your other shots from that day (or most of them) require very similar treatment.

I’ve had a review copy of this book for a few months, but my schedule has been so hectic I didn’t want to write this review until I had a chance to actually read the whole book, which I finally had the pleasure of doing. I was really impressed with the choices Dan made for what to include in the book. If I had been asked to choose 100 tips that covered Lightroom, Camera Raw and Photoshop I’m not sure I would even have known where to start! Half of the tips are devoted to Lightroom (and camera raw) and the rest are aimed at Photoshop, and it is a really good crop of tips to have under your belt.

I even learned something new about Lightroom that I had never stumbled on before, Tip #8 on Folder Import, which was very cool!

Dan has a very easy to read style, gives clear instructions, and makes a nice use of screen captures (though I’m sure he would have added more if he’d been allowed). There’s a wealth of smaller tips in the margins too. I was also really pleased to see the book is in full color, because I thought these HOW-Tos books were previously all grayscale. What’s really great about this type of book is that you can pick it up and start anywhere and just focus on a few tips at a time.

I gave away my copy during my Lightroom presentation at Photoshop World and I’m sure it is already being put to good use. This is definitely a book worth checking out. There is sample content and related articles over at Peachpit too.

1. Go to the Lightroom 2 Help page directly.
2. At the bottom of that page, choose Help on the Web
3. Close your browser.

Now, the next time you launch Lightroom 2 and use the Help > Lightroom Help menu, you should go directly to the Lightroom 2 help doc.

That said, don’t give up on the Community Help page! There is a ton of great info to be found from there, and even the links to the Help pages for all versions of Lightroom under the Additional Help menu:

And you can still access all the Lightroom 2 content via the search field at the top of the Community Help page:

What about Lightroom 3?

When you launch Lightroom 3 and go to Help > Lightroom Help don’t be surprised if the Adobe Community Help AIR application opens, which runs a local version of the Community Help as well as the Help docs. Enjoy!

All seems well until you launch Lightroom the next time and see Edit in Adobe Photoshop (not found).

But you know CS5 is installed because you can launch it directly just fine! So, thinking this is a Lightroom problem you might trash your Lightroom preferences or uninstall/reinstall Lightroom to no success. The issue is that Lightroom relies on a registry setting created by Photoshop when it is installed. However, when you uninstall the older version of Photoshop it removes that registry setting and Lightroom becomes blind to Photoshop’s existence.

Adobe has a TechNote that provides 2 solutions to fixing the problem. Both solutions work. Most people seem more comfortable with the reinstall of Photoshop option over the registry edit. Unfortunately, the only way I know to avoid the problem is to uninstall the old version first, then install the new. Hope that helps you plan ahead or at least regain your sanity after discovering the problem the old fashioned way (by accident).

First, here is Dave Cross’ updated planner for Orlando. Second, there is an iPhone app for that too!

There is also a Flickr group for sharing PSW photos. If you are free on Tuesday the 23rd, come by the Rosen Centre Poolside lounge around 7:30 for the official PSW tweetup as I hear @Lightroom will be sharing something. I’ll be there!

Here’s an extra tip I find really useful, when I am first using the Adjustment Brush to apply any setting I prefer to start with all sliders zeroed out and the mask overlay visible. This way I can just focus on applying the brush strokes to the right part of the image. Once the brush strokes have been applied I’ll hide the overlay and work on tweaking the settings as needed. The non-destructive editing capability of the Adjustment Brush is one of its most useful features, so don’t be afraid to experiment. You don’t need to get it right the first time!

If you are using the Lightroom 3 Beta you can simply hold the Alt/Option key and the Effect label changes to Reset. Click Reset and you are all zeroed out. The preset works equally well in the beta too, so if you prefer that option you can still use it.

To install this preset:

1. Download and unzip the .lrtemplate file.
2. In Lightroom, go to Preferences > Presets and click the Show Lightroom Presets Folder button.
3. When your file browser opens, navigate inside the Lightroom folder and copy the zeroed.lrtemplate file into the Local Adjustment Presets folder.
4. Restart Lightroom and look for the “Zeroed” preset in the Effect drop-down menu in either the Adjustment Brush or the Graduated Filter.