Happy Friday everybody!  Just a friendly reminder: if you missed, didn’t read or forgot my official disclaimer for this series posted at the beginning of #1, please give it a quick read, so we all stay on the same page. Now, without further ado (yes, that was “ado”) I bring you #6:
#6: Only See The Stuff You’re Actually Using By Turning On “Solo Mode”
When I’m teaching a hands-on workshop, I hear a steady number of comments about how intimidating Lightroom seems, but after talking one-on-one with a lot of these folks, I realized one of main reasons it feels so intimidating is that they’re seeing so much of it all at once.
For example, when you’re using the Develop Module, and you scroll down in the right side panels, you just keep scrolling and scrolling past all these panels with all these sliders, and just feels like there’s information overload. Most new users will only use just a few of these panels, but even though they’re only going to use just a few, they still have to see them all in their daily workflow, which not only intimates, but the constant scrolling gets tedious and starts to bog you down. This is precisely why I absolutely LOVE Solo mode, which collapses all the side panels and just shows you the panel you’re currently working in. It’s an instant clutter/stress remover and it puts the focus just on the panel you’re working in — keeping distractions to a minimum.
To turn on Solo Mode, just right-click to the left of any panel’s name and a pop-up menu appears (seen here). To turn on Solo Mode, just choose it from the menu (as shown here). That’s now. Now, when you click on a panel, all the others collapse to just their title (hiding all the sliders and controls), and now all you see is the one you clicked it. Try it once, and you’ll be hooked for life. It’s another “less is more” thing.
There ya have it!
One more thing
This week I released another Lightroom online training class: in this one I take you through how to set-up to shoot tethered directly into Lightroom (including how to troubleshoot when things get wonky), and I take you through how to incorporate Lightroom Mobile into your portrait photography workflow. If you’re a KelbyOne subscriber, you can check it out right here. If you’re not a KelbyOne subscriber, whatdaya waitin’ fer? —  Here’s the link.
Hope you all have a fantastic shootin’ and pollutin’ weekend (I have no idea what that means), and I hope to see you back here on Monday for #7 in my 10 Things I Would Tell a New Lightroom User” series.
Best,
-Scott
[…] To learn how to use Lightroom Solo Mode and why you might want to try out Lightroom Solo Mode check out Scott’s Kelby article, 10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users: #6. […]
Solo mode is the way to go it just shows what you need.
This just made my day, thanks!
This just made my day, thanks!
Solo Mode is the only way to go.I love being able to get rid of all the distractions. I remember this tip from your book and it’s one I implemented right away. Thanks, Scott.
I have not been able to read your Lightroom Killer tips #4. I get an error “Not found” each time I try.
I love solo mode!! I’ve been using it since I discovered it in your Lightroom 3 book.
Thanks for pointing out the tethered class. I’ve been wanting to try shooting tethered to see how it would work for me. I sometimes miss things when chimping on the tiny camera screen, so viewing things on a large screen would be beneficial.