My favorite layout style in Lightroom’s Print module is the Custom Package, which allows us to layout multiple photos on the page. These can be laid out on top of each other, they can overlap, text can be added, etc.. Here are a couple examples — a tryptic that I designed to print, and a collage that I started working on, sized for my computer monitor to use as a desktop background:
My video series available for sale on DVD or by download, Lightroom CC/6 and 5: Producing Great Output, consists of over 12 hours of training on 57+ videos, on everything you need to know to make great prints, photo books, slideshows and web galleries — including not just “the how-to” of Lightroom’s output modules, but also conceptual topics such as color management and size and resolution.
Here is a video that came from the Lightroom 4 version of this series, on the basics of using the Custom Package layout style in the Print module. Everything in this video is also applicable to Lightroom 5, 6 and CC.
For best quality, after you hit Play, click on the sprocket wheel in the bottom right, and choose 720HD.
(Note that the videos for sale are of much higher quality and resolution.)
The next video in Producing Great Output shows how to use Custom Package to do single-photo printing, and also to size and design a desktop background. Other videos discuss how to print to your printer, make JPEG files of your designs, etc.
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You are the best and have been a life saver.I dont know what we would do with out you,You are truely the very best I have ever seen or heard.Most teachers still hold back there tricks and secrects.I love that you give us all the information and allow us to expand and grow to are full potential.
This vedo brings back old memories of 011 of my first collage of the yellow birds I used .I diffently needed a refresher.It seams like i spend months shooting or traveling or 10hrs a day and 2 or 3 shooting everyday as a break or my way of medatation,in my alpha zone.
I have 600 g.b. shot in the last 4 months backed up and in a 3 tera bite hard drive two,IAM AS SCARD AS HELL TO DELEATE MY CATALOGE AND REBOOT,I have counted ,there all there,nothing is missing.Second- How do I buy the 55hrs from you Laura??and last PLEASE,I HAVE WATCHED THE VIDEOS,THERE HAS TO BE AN EASER WAY TO GET A COPYRIGHT SIMBLE,CAN YOU HELP US ??DOES LIGHT ROOM 4.2 ALLOW US TO,I DONT REMEMBER HOW TO IN CS6,SO I BOUGHT A BOOK AT BARNS and NOBLE.~Brian~ I will never stop shooting or learning.Please help us all>:))thank you O-Last is it nessary to make a vertial copy,or is it a waist of space,not useing a P.D.F. and haveing that side car of info.DO we need a vertuial copy to work woth for protection.Heres my 3 biggest questions.
Hi Brian, thank you for your support! As far as the 55 hours, I believe you have my two series — the Fundamentals & Beyond, and Producing Great Ouput. Copyright symbol: Opt-G on a Mac, Alt-0169 on a PC, using the numeric keypad to the right on your keyboard, if you have one. Otherwise, you can copy one from the web or Word and paste it in. Regarding your catalog, this is too complicated for me to advise you on directly, but be sure that you have backed up both your photo files and your catalog to multiple backup drives and/or the cloud.
Laura,
Great video. I do have one question though. Using LR5, I’m trying to print an image that is landscape (12X20), with a caption underneath. When using the print module, the image appears verticle. Which is fine, but I can’t add a caption under the photo. Basically, the image is verticle and the caption appears horizontal so they are perpendicular to one another. I need both to be verticle. Make sense?
Thanks, Kevin. To flip the page, go into Page Setup, and switch the page orientation to landscape.
Thanks Laura. Works like a charm. Appreciate the help.
Where is part 2 of of this video??
It’s part of my Producing Great Output video series, salsaguy.
Does anyone know if it is possible to do a custom layout with multiple text boxes in LR 5? When I bought the software I thought the “Book” function would do what I want but I can’t work with preset layouts and there is nothing custom like I usually do in Corel Draw.
Essentially I want to do everything in LR : retouch photos (no problem), layout on a 9 x 12 page (like the Print module), add text (like the book module) and export full page JPEGS to send it off to my photo book printer (like the Print module). I want to avoid problems with exporting/importing photos from one software to another. If Adobe could merge the Print and Book modules together it would work perfectly for me! Does anyone know if it would be possible to make a plugin that would accomplish this?
Hi Jean,
The only way to do this would be to create pages in the Print module with the photos placed as you like, print to JPEG, reimport them into LR, and then use the Book module to add the text. (I personally would just turn to Photoshop for text + graphics.)
Hi Laura
I am still grasping LR 5’s mechanisms from your video tutorials. At 70 one is more basics/foundation conscious. Till yesterday I was wondering if collage can be done in LR 5! Your video is very informative and easy to understand, as usual. By the way how do I save the video? I have now shifted to iMac.
Warm Regards from Mauritius
Laura – how do you slant a photo in collage? I mean not horizontal or vertical.
In Photoshop, Tiberman! (Not in Lightroom, unfortunately.)
Laura –
Thanks for an informative video. I am a little confused by Lightroom nomenclature regarding resolution. I understood ppi to reference screen and digital image resolution and dpi to reference print density. Lightroom appears to use ppi for both. Could you clarify?
Hi David,
These terms are often confused. PPI refers to how many pixels per inch are printed or otherwise output, and is relevant in sizing your file for print or other output. DPI refers to how many dots of ink your printer prints per inch. For example, in my printer driver software, if I set Quality to its highest setting, my printer will print 2880×1440 DPI, so at 360 PPI, it will lay down 2880/360 x 1440/360 = 8×4 = 32 dots of ink for every pixel it prints. This is the only context in which DPI is relevant. PPI is resolution, and is relevant in Lightroom’s Print module and Export dialog. Here are a couple articles that talk more about this: https://laurashoe.com/2014/09/08/lightroom-myth-busting-when-resolution-matters-and-when-it-doesnt-and-how-to-set-it/ https://laurashoe.com/2012/06/17/how-large-can-i-print-my-photo-understanding-displaying-and-managing-print-resolution/
I used LR 6.4 (NOT CC) to create triptychs, and am having some success, but I have one question (actually, I have lots of them, but I’ll ask just one right now).
I created a vertical triptych (the whole image was vertical/portrait, while each of the three images comprising the triptych were landscape), and put an “Inner Stroke” border around each picture in the group. The problem I had was aligning the three photos on my page with identical space around each one. That included space between the pictures, space at top and bottom of the page, and space at each side of the page. I turned on the Cell Grid Snap function and that helped in one direction only. What is the best way to equally space and align items on the page?
If allowed here, I’ve included a link to the finished image on my website: http://susan-molnar.pixels.com/featured/jump-for-joy-susan-molnar.html
Thank you for all you do for the photographer community. I learn so much from you!
Laura, after creating a custom layout on one page, is there a way to duplicate that layout on an additional page? If I have created several different custom templates, how can I add an additional page and apply one of those templates to that page? Whenever I click on a saved template, Lightroom clears away all my work and presents with an empty template.
Not that I’m aware of, Sam. The template remembers the number of pages, so you can’t apply a one-page template into a two page setup. I would save your first as a saved print collection, duplicate it and apply then swap out the photos in this second one.
Good to hear from you, by the way, Sam!