The Usefulness of Lightroom's Secondary Display

Buried deep inside Lightroom's menu is a highly useful feature: the secondary display function. This can make your workflow both far easier and much more efficient. This great video dives into the secondary display feature to show you how it can be of use to your post-processing workflow.

Coming to you from Anthony Morganti, this helpful video discusses the secondary display feature in Lightroom. If you are someone who uses multiple monitors in your workflow, this feature is particularly useful. For example, in the Library module, you can have a grid of your images displayed on one monitor with your selected photo maximized on the other monitor, saving you from constantly opening and minimizing images. You can also use it to reference other photos while editing, making it easy to consistently match styles or imitate another photo's post-processing. You can even change the behavior of the secondary display relative to the main display by changing the mode between normal, live, and locked, allowing you to do things like have it follow your grid selections or keep a certain photo locked in place. It is certainly a useful tool for many workflows. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

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Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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4 Comments

Buried deep inside? There’s an icon on the screen to switch it on.
I find it difficult using LR without it.

right.... feature has been right on the screen from early releases

Very useful with a laptop for freeing up precious screen space for a single image by putting the grid on a connected iPad.

Once you have located the second photo, is there an easy way to select both photos so you can take them into Photoshop--as layers of the same file?