Levels of Selection

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"Lightroom has 3 different levels of selection, not 2. Notice the difference, otherwise you could accidently apply a setting to multiple different images."

Victoria, I'm relatively new to Lightroom so when I saw this from your "Top Ten Gotchas", I knew I'd need clarification.

Alex W.
 
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Actually, I need clarification. The statement is logical enough but I was just hoping for a bit more info as I am probably not using Lightroom fully.
Thanks-

Alex W
 
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Because Lightroom allows you to synchronize settings across multiple photos, there needs to be a way of choosing the source of the settings as well as the target photos, so Lightroom has 3 levels of selection rather than 2.

The lightest shade of grey is the active or most-selected photo. If you're synchronizing settings across multiple photos, Lightroom will take the settings from that active photo to apply to the others.

The mid grey is also selected, but not the active photo. If you're synchronizing settings across multiple photos, Lightroom will apply the settings to those photos.

The darkest shade of grey is not selected.
 
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But that is still only two levels of selection?

1. Selected and active
2. Selected but not active

The of course there are non-selected, but that's not really a level of selection. Although I guess you could argue that not-selected is a selection-level, but not in my world.

Or am I missing something here? Are there actually tree levels of selection, different from a fourth non-selected level?
 
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The third level VB is referring to is non-selected. Not a mysterious 4th level.
Non-selected.
Selected
Most-selected.

I've seen it semantically argued that this is 2, not 3 levels of selection. Ok by me, but by the same token then, I find it hard to work with binary code and its single level of digit. :)
 
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Brad,
Back to the practical aspect of all this: How do "levels of selection" actually affect my workflow? The only thing I could think of here was that you have to be careful when making changes in grid view!?
Alex
 
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Alex, I think Victoria explained it fairly well. But I'll add a few sentences. Sometimes in Lr, you want to do something to a single photo. Sometimes you want to make the same changes to multiple photos. Lr provides several methods of applying the same settings to multiple photos.

Let's go to Develop module with the filmstrip visible. Select three adjacent photos in the filmstrip. Note that one has a light gray frame, two have a medium gray frame, and all of the unselected images have a dark gray frame. The lightest gray frame is termed the 'most selected' or 'active' photo. Note that you can change which photo is the most selected, without disturbing the overall selection by single clicking within the actual image area of a filmstrip thumbnail. Make an adjustment or two to the selected photo. Then click on the Sync... button at bottom of Lower Right Hand Panel. You'll open a dialog asking what adjustments you'd like to synchronize from the most selected to the remaining selected. Click Sychronize, and the changes will be applied to the rest of the selected photos. Note 'synchronize' is not exactly the right word, because the transfer only goes one way, from the most selected to the others, and not both ways, which is the usual meaning of synchronize. Take it one step further, same situation in Develop, but before you make any changes to the most selected, hold down Ctrl/Cmd, and note that the Sync... button becomes 'Auto-Sync' . Press that. Now any changes you make to the most selected image are automatically applied to the remaining selected files as well. ***Remember to turn off Auto-Sync, or chaos and confusion will rapidly ensue.

This somewhat elaborate rigmarole is designed to allow you to work with full screen image detail for a source image, while allowing simultaneous manipulation of an unlimited number of target images. If you use Photoshop or similar, think how complicated this would be to open multiple images, run some sort of filter routine, save and close, perhaps hundreds of images. It provides a highly visual user interface into a farily complex batch model.

The same paradigm appears repeatedly in Lr, for instance, applying metadata to multiple images works in much the same way in Library Module.

I see my 'few sentences' have run overtime. I'm hopeful that between my post and Vic's, this is helping you see the light to a massive improvement in your productivity.
 
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Brad,
Thanks a million. As time permits, I'm reading back into past posts by way of steering around potholes but questions inevitably arise.
Alex
 
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This thread is great. Victoria and Brad have managed to clarify this situation, which I was learning to work with but didn't completely understand. Thanks a bunch. I can see now how this selection scheme is a big help in developing.

Unforutunately, I'm a Lightroom newbie and my work with it so far has been in keywording the 6-7,''' pictures I already had before I got LR last month. For keywording, I find this selection stuff to be a bit of a pain. Can I describe my workflow and see if any of you can help me improve it?

Let's say I am applying keywords in a folder of pictures from my daughter's birthday. This is an extreme example, but the basic problem shows up in most of my folders.

1. Click the first photo then shift-click the last to select all. Then I ctrl-click the few my daughter isn't in to deselect them. Now I apply her name as a keyword.

2. Now I want to apply my wife's name, so I click the first picture she is in and ctrl-click the others to select them. Then I apply her name as a keyword.

3. I repeat step 2 for other people and any other important features I want to keyword.

I'm getting better, but I still find that every 5-6 folders I have forgotten to deselect my daughter's pictures before step 2. Since she is inevitbly in all the pictures of my wife, I never really selected the pictures of my wife. I just moved around the "most selected" photo within the selection of my daughter. So, I have to remove my wife's name from all those pictures and start over.

The way to avoid this is a nuisance itself. After applying my daughter's name I have to find a picture she ISN'T in (possibly scrolling since there aren't many and it may not be in the visible part of the grid) to click before I can click the first picture I DO want.

I guess I'm hoping one of you can tell me there is a modifier key I can hold down when I start a new selection that tells Lightroom to "start fresh" with this selection. Any other suggestions will be appreciated as well.
 
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CTRL D will deselect everything. It isn't a key-click like you were asking for but if you get in the habit of clearing your selections regularly, i may help.
 
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Welcome to the forums bniece!

A simple tool in your case is to use the Spay Can. Set it to keyword, enter the name(s) and paint over the images where you see the person. No need for selections!
 
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Oh yeah. I forgot about Ctrl-D. I do use its friend Ctrl-A sometimes.

I was vaguely aware of the spray can. I have to actually touch every picture I want to use it on, right? For a really long run there's no equivalent to the click-the beginning, shift-click the end trick? I'll have to play with that.
 
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With the spray can, you can click and drag and it'll apply to any photos it touches while you're dragging too. It's handy for doing a long string that you'd have used shift-click on.
 
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O.K. I love the spray can. It's great for picking and choosing where to put a keyword that is scattered through a folder. Thanks for pointing it out.

Just to bring this back on-topic for the thread, here's a warning for anyone else new to it like me. The spray can obeys the current set of selected photos just like other methods of applying keywords. So, if you have a bunch of photos selected and squirt one of them with the spray can, the keyword gets applied to all of them. Still have to do that Ctrl-D first.
 
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ahh.. Ctrl - D! That's a shortcut I was looking for too :icon_mrgreen:
 
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bniece,

[quote author=bniece link=topic=9729.msg664'1#msg664'1 date=127368389']
... I guess I'm hoping one of you can tell me there is a modifier key I can hold down when I start a new selection that tells Lightroom to "start fresh" with this selection.
[/quote]

One other way - besides Ctrl-D - to start a new "set" of selections is to click into the gray frame of any image, as opposed into the image area itself. This deselects everything else and makes the clicked image the most selected one. Be careful though not to click into the area where ratings/picks etc. are shown (see attached screen shot), because then you might change the rating or alike at the same time. For this reason I've started to always click into the left or right part of the gray frame to achieve this, never into the top or bottom one.

Beat
 
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This is a fantastically helpful thread. But it's a pity that I had no idea that there was more than level of selection until now. There are so many things in LR that fools like me just don't know about. I'm so grateful for the Forum and the smart guys who share their knowledge.
 
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Let's not say 'fools', :). Let's say 'learning-stage users'.

The product has a pretty steep learning curve, and quite a few of us started when there were many fewer features, and have learned the new stuff as we go along.

Feel free to ask away, our guys (and gals) are here because they enjoy helping out.
 
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