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Dan Rodney/4 min read

The Painter Tool

Lightroom Editing Essentials

Library Module

Import, rate, keyword, and organize photos across the catalog.

Develop Module

Global and local adjustments — exposure, contrast, color, sharpening.

Presets

One-click looks — save your own or use the built-in presets.

Export

Output to JPG, TIFF, or PSD with size, sharpening, and metadata control.

Master Adobe Tools at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Graphic Design Certificate covers Photoshop alongside the broader Adobe toolkit that complements Lightroom in any photography workflow.

Delve into a detailed Lightroom tutorial covering topics such as painting keywords, labels, ratings, and filtering by painted-on attributes.

Topics Covered in This Lightroom Tutorial:

Painting Keywords, Labels, & Ratings, Filtering by Painted-on Attributes

Exercise Preview

lightroom preview2B

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, you’ll learn how to use the Painter tool to apply different attributes to photos such as colored labels and keywords. You’ll also learn more about finding and filtering images effectively.

Using the Painter Tool: Keywords

  1. If you have not completed the previous exercises (1A–2A), finish them now before beginning this exercise.

  2. In the Catalog panel on the left, click on All Photographs.

  3. In the Toolbar at the bottom of the Library, click the Painter tool painter tool to pick up the painter.

    NOTE: If you don’t see it, go to View > Show Toolbar.

  4. To the right of where you picked up the painter, from the Paint menu, select Keywords, as seen below:

    screenshot painter keyword

  5. You’re going to paint keywords onto photos. Let’s start with the lighthouse photos. In the text field to the right of the Paint menu, type Lighthouse.

  6. Click on the first lighthouse photo (200905_YourName_001) to spray on the keyword Lighthouse.

  7. Click on the second lighthouse photo (200905_YourName_002) to do the same.

  8. Let’s do the church photos next. At the bottom, delete Lighthouse from the text field and type Church.

  9. To spray on the Church keyword you just created, click all three church photos:
    • 20090503_YourName_006
    • 20090503_YourName_007
    • 20090503_YourName_008

Using the Painter Tool: Colored Labels

  1. At the bottom of the Library, from the Paint menu, select Label.

  2. Click on the small yellow box to select a yellow label color.

  3. Click on all three church photos to label them in yellow.

Spray-On Ratings

Yep, you can also spray star ratings onto photos.

  1. At the bottom of the Library, from the Paint menu, select Rating.

  2. To the right of the menu, click on the third dot to give it 3-star ratings.

  3. Spray the two lighthouse photos.

  4. At the bottom of the screen, click the circle where you picked up the Painter tool painter tool to put it back. (Alternatively, you could click Done at the bottom right.)

The Painter Tool & Filters

  1. At the top of the screen, in the Library Filter panel, click on Attribute.

  2. In the Attribute panel that opens up, we don’t want any of the options selected (they will be highlighted if selected). Click on any of the highlighted icons to gray them out and deselect them.

  3. Next to Color, select the small yellow box to filter and show only photos labeled in yellow.

  4. Click on the small yellow box again to deselect it.

  5. Next to Rating you should see either an equal ( = ), greater than or equal to ( ≥ ), or less than or equal to ( ≤ ) sign. Click on that sign to bring up a menu.

  6. From the menu, choose Rating is equal to.

  7. Click on the third star to filter and show only photos with a 3-star rating.

  8. The Rating menu should already be set to the equal sign (=), so we’ve just filtered all the photos with a 3-star rating.

Filtering by Camera Attributes

  1. In the Library Filter panel, click on the None tab.

  2. Click on the Metadata tab.

  3. Under Date, expand 2011 and click August.

  4. Under Camera, select NIKON D700.

    Note the hierarchy, and the number next to each section, telling us how many photos are in each branch.

  5. Under Lens, select 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8.

  6. Click on the section title Label and from the menu that appears, change Label to Aspect Ratio, as seen below:

    screenshot aspect ratio

  7. Under Aspect Ratio, select Portrait.

  8. Mouse over the Aspect Ratio section title, then click on the menu panel menu and select Add Column.

  9. Click on the new section title, None, and select ISO Speed.

  10. Under the ISO Speed section, select ISO 200.

  11. In the Library Filter panel, click on the None tab.

    We will continue to work with managing these photos in the next exercise.