In this episode, we are going to demonstrate how to use the Library Module’s Navigator and Catalog Panel in Lightroom 4. The Navigator helps you preview images while browsing through the Filmstrip, as well as quickly set your zoom. The Catalog Panel allows you to quickly organize your images by using the temporary collections.
The following tutorial is from the Lightroom 4 A-Z DVD Guide. The full DVD including 130 tutorials and nearly 14 hours of Lightroom 4 training is available in the SLR Lounge Store for only $99.
Watch the Video Tutorial
The Library Module’s Navigator Window
The Navigator window in the Library Module works as the preview window in Lightroom. The Library Navigator also allows you to quickly view a photo in the Filmstrip when you hover your mouse over the photo’s thumbnails.
You can turn off this mouse-over function by going to the Preference menu (Ctrl+, on Windows and CMD+, on Mac) and unchecking “Show photos in navigator on mouse-over” under the Filmstrip section.
The next thing that the Navigator can is allow you to quickly zoom in to any point of the image. If you click on the Navigator window once, Lightroom will automatically switch to Loupe view. You can then click on the Navigator window again to zoom into that image.
Let’s look at the different zoom options available with the Navigator:
1. Fit: This zoom mode will fit the entire image within the working area
2. Fill: This will fill the left-to-right edge of the image
3. 1:1: This will zoom the image to a 1:1 pixel preview or 100% crop
4. 3:1: This zoom mode gets us even closer for any detail touch up work
You can also select different zoom ratios by clicking on the up-down arrow next to the 3:1. This will open up a drop-down menu with more zoom ratios ranging from 1:16 to 11:1.
That’s about it for the Navigation Panel. Let’s take a look at the Catalog Panel.
Catalog Panel
The Catalog Panel is an assortment of different temporary collections. Depending on your workflow, these temporary collections can help you get your photos organized quickly.
1. All Photographs: This shows all the images in the Catalog.
2. Quick Collections: This is used to make a quick and easy image grouping to organize later. You can add a photo into it by pressing the letter “B” on the keyboard. To show all the images that are in the Quick Collection, press Ctrl+B on Windows or Cmd+B on Mac. Because there is only one Quick Collection, if you are going to add a different set of images into it, be sure to organize the current set of images in the collection before adding the second set. Finally, to clear the Quick Collection, you can right-click on Quick Collections and select Clear Quick Collections or press Ctrl+Shift+B on Windows or Cmd+Shift+B on Mac.
3. Previous Import: This shows all the images from the last import. One of the uses for it is to compare the number of images that was imported versus the number of images in the Memory Card to make sure that the right number of images was imported.
4. Previous Export as Catalog: This last collection only appears if you have exported a group of images into a separate Catalog
That’s it for this tutorial. In our next tutorial, we will talk about the Folders panel in the Develop Module.
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