Adobe's Lightroom, known as Lightroom Classic to distinguish it from the cloud-based Lightroom CC, is one of the best image editing programs to be found. Undoubtedly, Lightroom Classic (Not Lightroom CC) is the best image management software by far with no rival to its combined functionality.

Despite this, there is no easy way to find all black and white images in Lightroom Classic, the closest method is to use Smart Collections.

Collections are one of Lightroom Classic's best ways to organise images, Smart Collections automatically find and add images based on criteria you set.

Here I'm going to create a Smart Collection for images that have been marked as Black and White in Lightroom Classic, so all of the images that I have converted to black and white using the program.

Here's how:

• In the left hand side panel, scroll down to Collections

• Click on the + to the right

• In the context menu choose Create Smart Collection...

Adobe's Lightroom is a powerful piece of software and sometimes it is necessary to change settings.

Here for example is one use, the standard settings for filenames on export can cause problems. If for example you have an image that has been edited in Photoshop and has the suffix -Edit like I do here then on export the entire filename can sometimes go missing.

Or if you work for different clients or publications then it is nice to apply their naming structure to exported images.

For me, I like to keep the original filename in as part of the export so that it makes finding images easier if a client has a query.

Even if a client has no specific requirements for naming images it is still useful to be able to identify or file away finished images based on the filename.

So I add some custom text based on where the image will be used, keep the original filename and sometimes add other information.

Thankfully Lightroom allows all this to be done quite easily.

Here's how:

1. Export the image using Ctrl+Shift+E or right click the image and choose Export > Export... as described here.

   

2. Here I have chosen to go with Filename and Custom Text (set on the main Export dialog so Insert > Filename and Insert > Custom Text followed by Done.

   

3. Check that the example filename is correct, here in the final image it shows correctly as Filename > Custom Text.

   

 That's it, you can now export your images with filenames that suit.

I hope this short tutorial has been useful, check back regularly for more or sign up for more information. Panoramic Ireland's workshops run all year round, in Ireland and online.