3.3 Find Images With Filtering

We took the time to add metadata to all of our images and now it's time to take advantage of it. So let's get started. Just below the center area of the library module, click on the word Filter to get started with filtering our images. These buttons help us filter images using the metadata that we added in the last lesson. Now at the far left we can filter images based on flag status. So let's say I've made a first pass of my images and have marked all the ones I want to keep with a flag. To show only those images all I have to do is click on the flag icon, and Lightroom show me all of the images that are flagged. Now we can click on the other icons as well such as clicking on the second one to show the images that are unflagged or the last icon which shows the images that are set as rejects. Now as I click on these icons it will toggle them off and on so I want to turn off the flag filter by pressing this icon again. Now, my images have no filter at all on them. Next up, let's check out the star-rating filter, we can simply click the number of stars and Lightroom will filter out the images that match the number of stars we've selected. So if I click five for example, it'll show me all images that are five stars. One note here is that this shows us all images of a star rating or greater. So if I select three, for example, it shows us all images with three stars or higher. I'll turn the star rating filter back off by clicking on it again. Last up, let's look at the color label filtering. And I can choose any of these colors to filter for images that match that color label. One thing that's really helpful is the ability to stack these filters so if I choose flagged images plus a three star greater rating and the blue color label It shows us images that match all of those rules not just one. We can stack those ratings to really get to the heart of the images that we're looking for. And I hope that you're seeing the power of metadata we can divide and conquer a huge library just by adding this simple metadata. Let's turn all of these off by clicking on them again. Last up let's take a look at advanced filtering. There's a library filter box here at the top that's already showing for me but if it's not for you you could toggle it off and on by pressing the backslash option. Let's jump to the more advanced filtering by pressing Metadata for for example. Now right away you'll see some more advanced ways to filter our images, such as by the camera or the lens that I used. The coolest thing about this filtering option is that there are more options hiding. If I choose Date for example, I can easily filter to the images that match a certain date or month or even year. Just click one of these dates and Lightroom will instantly filter to the images that match that capture date. Now from this drop down there are a ton of different options that we can use to filter our images, so definitely check out all of these options and keep playing to find out more about how metadata filtering works. These filters stack as well so I can mix and match these different panels to find just the images that I'm looking for. That's all for filtering. It only took a few minutes to start to see the power of what metadata filtering can do for us. It's all about adding that metadata to images and then using this filtering to find just what we're looking for at a moment's notice.