Happy Friday, everybody!

This coming week I’ll be teaching my Lightroom seminars in LA (Monday), San Francisco (Wednesday), and Seattle (Friday). It’s not too late to come spend the day with me digging deep into Lightroom.

Anyway, this is from a post that Matt wrote back in 2010 where he listed some great ideas for Smart Collections, so I wanted to share those (and get some of your ideas, so please share yours in the comments below). Best one wins a signed copy of my “How do I do that in Lightroom?” book. In the meantime, here’s Matt’s 5 Smart Collection ideas:

> Smart Collection Idea #1: PSD Files
Any image edited in Photoshop means it was taken to the next level. Since I’ll usually want to get back to those photos quickly I set the File Type to “PSD” so I can quickly find any PSD files.

> Smart Collection Idea #2: HDR Images
Any time I work on an HDR photo in Photoshop I make sure I rename it (to include “HDR) when I get back over to Lightroom. That way, I can set up a Smart Collection where the Filename contains “HDR” so all of my HDR images are just a click away.

> Smart Collection Idea #3: Panoramas
Along the same lines of the HDR photos, I do something similar for panos. I make sure to rename any panos when I get back to Lightroom and create a Smart Collection where the Filename contains “Pano.”

> Smart Collection Idea #4: Copyright Check
I create a Smart Collection to check for any photos where the Copyright metadata field doesn’t contain “Matt Kloskowski” in it. That way, I can keep an eye on any that I forget to copyright.

> Smart Collection Idea #5: Recently Edited
Lightroom also has some default Smart Collections. I kinda like the “Recently Modified” one so I can see what photos I’ve recently changed. I double click on it though, to change it from 2 days to 5 days, and that seems to work well for me.

Hope you found those helpful. 🙂

Have a great weekend everybody – looking forward to meeting some of you in this coming week out on the West Coast (ain’t no party like a West-coast party ’cause a West-coast party don’t stop).

Best,

-Scott

Share: