Color labels

[alsacienne]

Lightroom Version Number

LRC 9.3

Operating System

1. macOS 10.15 Catalina

I feel totally silly asking this question: is there a way to find out what I have assigned different color labels to? I set this up eons ago and only regularly use two of the five colors but know that, at some point, I used the other three for some quick 'filing into collections'. Is there a way for me to find out? I now know that I can put a brief description to each color but I didn't back then...

Thanks in advance!
Michele

 

[alec.dann-verizon]

In Library, select All Photogaphs in the Catalog panel (left side).
At the top of Grid view (G key), in the Library Filter options (top, between left and right panels), click Attribute. If the Libary Filter options aren't visible, from the top menu select View > Show Filter Bar (or click the \ key).
In the color filter (right side), select the color you want to review.

Another option is to create a Smart Collection and use the Label Color as a criterion to see photos for each color.

 

[Califdan]

Alec-dann's method is correct but will not include images buried in stacks. If you have stacked images you can either "expand all stacks" first but that loses track of which stacks had been expanded and which had been collapsed. As an alternative create a smart collection whose only rule is "rating >= 0 stars" - which means all images. Smart collection blind to stacks (they don't care if an image is in a stack or not). Then select this smart collection and follow alec.dann's method and it will include images buried in stacks.

 

[johnbeardy]

You might be better off creating a smart collection but with this condition - Label Text / isn't emtpy.

Also look at the Library Filter. You can set a column to Label.

And review Metadata > Color Label Set. This is where you define what each colour means.

 

[alsacienne]

Thank you all for your very quick replies. I was able to get the answer to my question. I do have another question: I thought I'd outsmart myself and edit the name of the color label to something that I could look up if I needed a reminder but apparently by doing so, I'm reverting all previously color labelled images to white. Is there a way to keep the color as a label but give it a more meaningful name?

 

[johnbeardy]

You need to look closely at the Color Label Set feature mentioned above. Also, if you accidentally make photos white, notice that the name text is still shown in the Library Filter, so in my screenshot you can see that I must have used AB at some point. Using the Library Filter should help you tidy things up.

That should help resolve this, and please feel even freer to ignore what follows.....

When you apply a colour label, LR isn't actually recording yellow or blue or whatever. It's seeing that you have chosen yellow, then looks to the Color Label Set's current setup and says "ah, yellow means I must record 'To email' in the colour label text field". You see this in Library Filter and also in the Metadata panel.

It does the reverse later when you go back to the images. It finds 'To email', then looks up its meaning in the Color Label Set. If you've not changed the setup, it says "Ah, yellow". But if you've done something to change the Color Label Set, it no longer understands that 'To email' should be mapped to a colour and just displays white.

Personally, I have always thought this was overcomplicated, even if it does allow compatibility with Bridge or other software. So
I have always preferred to name green "Green" and remember that it means "multi-frame" (HDR, panorama) or red "Red" and remember it means "!!!!AAAARRRRGGHHH!!!!".

 

[clee01l]

Thank you all for your very quick replies. I was able to get the answer to my question. I do have another question: I thought I'd outsmart myself and edit the name of the color label to something that I could look up if I needed a reminder but apparently by doing so, I'm reverting all previously color labelled images to white. Is there a way to keep the color as a label but give it a more meaningful name?

As mentioned previously, Adobe uses the "Color Label Set" to assign the five colors to a set of Label values. The default "Color Label Set" assigns the red color to the label value "red" and so forth. The "Bridge" "Color Label Set" assigns the red color to a label Value of "Select" etc. If you change "Color Label Set" to another set, then the Label values that are not in the current "Color Label Set" are assigned the color "white". Unlabeled images are assigned to the "gray" color.

I have my own "Color Label Set" to identify my workflow process state and assign the label "In a Published Collection" to the red color and so forth assigning the purple color on import the the label value "To Be Worked" as this is the only label color that does not have a hot key.

 

[alsacienne]

"!!!!AAAARRRRGGHHH!!!!".

Yes! that last word of yours, totally! )))

 

[alsacienne]

As mentioned previously, Adobe uses the "Color Label Set" to assign the five colors to a set of Label values. The default "Color Label Set" assigns the red color to the label value "red" and so forth. The "Bridge" "Color Label Set" assigns the red color to a label Value of "Select" etc. If you change "Color Label Set" to another set, then the Label values that are not in the current "Color Label Set" are assigned the color "white". Unlabeled images are assigned to the "gray" color.

I have my own "Color Label Set" to identify my workflow process state and assign the label "In a Published Collection" to the red color and so forth assigning the purple color on import the the label value "To Be Worked" as this is the only label color that does not have a hot key.

thanks!

 

[PhilBurton]

You need to look closely at the Color Label Set feature mentioned above. Also, if you accidentally make photos white, notice that the name text is still shown in the Library Filter, so in my screenshot you can see that I must have used AB at some point. Using the Library Filter should help you tidy things up.

That should help resolve this, and please feel even freer to ignore what follows.....

When you apply a colour label, LR isn't actually recording yellow or blue or whatever. It's seeing that you have chosen yellow, then looks to the Color Label Set's current setup and says "ah, yellow means I must record 'To email' in the colour label text field". You see this in Library Filter and also in the Metadata panel.

It does the reverse later when you go back to the images. It finds 'To email', then looks up its meaning in the Color Label Set. If you've not changed the setup, it says "Ah, yellow". But if you've done something to change the Color Label Set, it no longer understands that 'To email' should be mapped to a colour and just displays white.

Personally, I have always thought this was overcomplicated, even if it does allow compatibility with Bridge or other software. So
I have always preferred to name green "Green" and remember that it means "multi-frame" (HDR, panorama) or red "Red" and remember it means "!!!!AAAARRRRGGHHH!!!!".

John,

I never use Bridge, so that's not an issue for me. I just wish Adobe would allow us to define one or two additional colors. It can't be that hard.

 

[clee01l]

John,

I never use Bridge, so that's not an issue for me. I just wish Adobe would allow us to define one or two additional colors. It can't be that hard.

Hard it is not. However, the available hotkeys only allow for 4 colors and there are 5 labels. From the major rainbow colors , only Orange and Indigo are missing and these are shades of red and blue that might be difficult to distinguish. I too have wished for more colors and only one ColorLabel Set.

 

[PhilBurton]

Hard it is not. However, the available hotkeys only allow for 4 colors and there are 5 labels. From the major rainbow colors , only Orange and Indigo are missing and these are shades of red and blue that might be difficult to distinguish. I too have wished for more colors and only one ColorLabel Set.

Clee,

Your point about orange and indigo is well taken. Adobe could get "creative" and define "icons" instead to replace definitions. An icon could be a solid color, or it could be some sort of pattern or design. I suspect that if Adobe (1) implemented such a design and (2) took the design to the relevant IPTC/metadata group, it might just get accepted. Given Adobe's marketplace presence, within one or two software development cycles, other companies would probably follow suit.

I know that if I could use actual icons, say 32 pix x 120 pix, which could be designed in Photoshop, it might prove useful.

Does anyone have a "second" for this idea, so I'll do a feature request on the Adobe feature request forum?

Phil

 

[clee01l]

took the design to the relevant IPTC/metadata group, it might just get accepted.

The JEITA standard is only for a label field which takes a character value ("red", "Chartreuse", "Red", "Mary had a little Lamb"). The 5 colors are strictly a Lightroom management tool and associating them with the Label field is a Lightroom concept. This is why there are label sets and why any Label value not associated with the current Color Label Set of values is assigned the color white (Custom) and unlabeled are assigned the color gray by LrC. If you look at the grid view the colors are not solid but a shade So red is not really RED but more of a "pink" on my monitor and "my" estimation of color names associated with what I see. I think 5 (7) is probably enough when you consider the Selected image only gets a thin color border. And there is no easy way that you can turn that this border into a color pattern.

 

[PhilBurton]

The JEITA standard is only for a label field which takes a character value ("red", "Chartreuse", "Red", "Mary had a little Lamb"). The 5 colors are strictly a Lightroom management tool and associating them with the Label field is a Lightroom concept. This is why there are label sets and why any Label value not associated with the current Color Label Set of values is assigned the color white (Custom) and unlabeled are assigned the color gray by LrC. If you look at the grid view the colors are not solid but a shade So red is not really RED but more of a "pink" on my monitor and "my" estimation of color names associated with what I see. I think 5 (7) is probably enough when you consider the Selected image only gets a thin color border. And there is no easy way that you can turn that this border into a color pattern.

Clee, What you just wrote makes perfect sense. So I'm "officially" dropping this idea and I will not embarrass myself with an idea submission to Adobe.

Phil

 

[johnbeardy]

It would not be at all impossible for Adobe to add extra colours. The urgency field is what's used for label compatibility, and nothing stops an app like LR recording multiple pieces of text in the existing urgency field - eg Red|Green - and parsing them as needed in the app. And nothing stops Adobe adding extra fields which remain purely in LR. But don't forget their failure to sync labels to the cloud.