Lightroom CC Collage

[RJ.Piekos]

Background:

Lightroom CC

Windows 10

I am trying to create a very large collage in lightroom (36in x 24in). My workflow is as follows:

I select my photos, typically 140 to 170 photos, and put them into a collection

save the collection

In in the print module, I go to the print job  panel and change the 'print to' to JPEG file

Change the 'custom file' dimension to 36 x 24

I have the ruler bar showing, but no snap to grid as I want the placement to be random.

i do not use a template of any type of standard cell size like 3x2

i start dragging my photos up onto the page.

on the collections panel my collection is hilited (there are me than 1 collection in this catalogue.

After i have dragged a few picture onto the page i decided to select a different collection from the collections panel

i dragged a few pictures from that collection onto the page

i go back to the original collection and my photos are gone.. the only thing that shows in the print area are rectangles were my photos were placed but there are no images in the cells.

What am i doing wrong? How do i get the images to stay on the print page when i switch from one collection to another?

[Just Shoot Me]

Since you have a Photographers plan subscription, your list included LR CC, you would be much better off doing the collage in Photoshop. Much simpler and better.

[RJ.Piekos]

Thanks for your response. my concern with that approach is that I am working with 150+ images and according to what I have read, that would mean 150+ layers in PS. Every image needs to be tweaked a bit so I cannot condense the layers - at least not immediately. LR gives just enough flexibility to collect the images and do minor adjustment, then place them. I am really close - just thought I was doing something wrong.

[JoeKostoss]

rjpiekos wrote:

What am i doing wrong? How do i get the images to stay on the print page when i switch from one collection to another?

What you are doing wrong is switching from one collection to another.  All of the photos you want to use must be in the same collection.

[RJ.Piekos]

Joe

Thank you. I figured that out through trial and error. Unfortunately I have a new problem:

as I select photos and place them in the image, I tag them with 1 star. the idea was to be able to filter out the ones I use and place the remaining ones that are not stared. when I invoke the filter all the images disappear from the collage  but when turn the filter off the images do not re-appear in the collage. is this another user error?

Thanks for your response.

[ManiacJoe · Accepted solution]

My guess is that when you turn on the filter, the images are removed from the collage, not just from view. Thus, to get them back you need to manually add them back. Not sure if you can do that without starting over.

[RJ.Piekos]

That's exactly what I had to do (several times). Its a pity, the flow works very well no matter how many photos you want to put into the collage. Pick them, use developer to make changes, arrange them. Doesn't get any easier than that, no layers to deal with.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for contributing. Consider this closed.