Tutorial: Diptychs in Lightroom
Here is a video tutorial on how to build diptychs in Adobe Lightroom. I was hit with a few emails asking about how this is done, and wanted to share some of my discoveries and workarounds. Man, I wish I had something like this years ago. Cumulatively I have wasted years doing this in Quark (cough!) and PhotoShop (time suck). Finally there is a super fast and intuitive way for photographers to put multiple images together on a page. Your money also gets you additional tips on custom sizing, exporting, and archiving your finished diptychs.
Tutorial: Diptychs in Adobe Lightroom from Jay Watson on Vimeo.
This is the first tutorial shared on this blog, and it feels incredibly geeky of me to post a software demo. Maybe I am paying back the world for all the free demos I have viewed online. Whatever the truth is behind this demo, PLEASE set me straight. If you dig it, share the link. If it is wack, let me know so I can put effort towards building log cabins other things.
click to enlarge
Adobe Lightroom Tutorial: screen capture of diptych settings. © Jay Watson Photography
Tags: Adobe Lightroom, diptych, tutorial
August 7th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Thanks Jay! Great tutorial. Very easy to follow.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
hey thanks for posting this, picked up a couple of things, saving the templates and the custom file dimensions. Will try sometime soon.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Well done — thanks for putting in the effort to share this time-saving technique!
August 8th, 2009 at 9:23 am
That’s great Jay! Thanks a bunch for sharing…
August 10th, 2009 at 2:24 am
Thx Jay – it solved a certain headache I had. Never thought about changing the paper from portrailandscape!
August 10th, 2009 at 6:04 am
Thanks for sharing that tip!
August 10th, 2009 at 8:56 am
TNX, Jay, Looking forward to more of your insights.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:26 am
Great lesson. Keep it up, looking forward to more!
August 11th, 2009 at 4:15 am
hi, which version are you using? i dont see custom file dimensions in LR2..:(
August 11th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Mansi – Good point. I should have mentioned this is for LR 2.4 (latest version). I also should have mentioned to access the “custom file dimensions” option you first have to choose the option “print to: JPEG file” in the PRINT JOB settings. Thanks for sending a question.
Everyone – Thanks for the great response. Much appreciated and I hope the demo helps to save you some time.
- JW
August 11th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Thanks much, got it. And did i mention this was extremely useful. I just made my first ever diptych!:)
August 12th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Thanks a ton!!! I have already used this tutorial several times and shared with several friends as well!! Great job and a very useful and easy to follow vid. Thanks again!!
August 18th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Wonderful … thank you so much for sharing !!
Gill
September 7th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Thank you! I think our Wednesday night class will cover this in an earlier version of Lightroom… but seeing the concepts here first will really help me “get it!”
September 11th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Great Tutorial mate ! Thanks for sharing !
September 14th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Thanks a lot Jay! This is a great tutorial.
December 4th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
hey man, just a quick thank you for the explanation. i don’t have lightroom yet but I’m trying it out on their trial download to see if I feel like making the investment. this is one of the features I would have definitely wanted in it so thanks a million for explaining very clearly something I wouldn’t have figured out in probably a long time. when I get some time this weekend I’m going to glance thru the rest of your stuff, thanks again.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Mark – thanks for the visit. A good catalog software like Lightroom (or Aperture) will change your life. Enjoy your investment and hope to hear back from you.
December 29th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Hey, great tutorial! Have been looking for a way of doing this nice and easy. And now I found it, and the good thing is, I can use LIghtroom! Thanks.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
This awesome, thank you, I’m tweeting this immediately…what a great timesaver…thank you, thank you!
January 27th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Hi,
I made the diptych, but I could not figure out how to save it.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Jas – From the print module, go to the “Print Job” box, print to: choose “JPEG file”, then hit the “Print to File” button. After this is finished you will need to re import the completed diptych. All this is covered in the demo. Good luck.
JW
March 28th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Hi. Great tutorial–very simple and nice looking. You narrate well, too. Anyway. I’m trying to do this but when I reimport my jpg it looks awful–all blown out and lacking the color of the original. When I open the created file in preview it looks the same as it did in the Print Module. But the reimported version is awful-looking. Any thoughts? I increased the dpi and got the same results.
Thanks,
Meghan
June 21st, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Good tutorial, Jay. In LR3 there’s another ‘Custom’ option in addition to Picture Package, so this allows even more creativity. It goes without saying that you can create triptychs as well. If you create virtual copies, you can also subdivide your image, like these:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfnowl/3027262864/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfnowl/3231069764/
BTW, I’ve added this page to my ‘Lightroom Links’ page: http://bit.ly/LRTips
Mike.
July 19th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
just wanted to let you know that the link was shared with me, by a friend, and i will do the same and pass it on. super tutorial. thank you for it. i’ve been looking for a way to create diptychs with my mac for a while now – and you’ve shown me how. awesome.
August 14th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Thanks much! Some of the tips will help me with printing, too! I shared the link on both FB and Twitter so hopefully some other folks will check out your blog.
October 9th, 2010 at 9:40 am
thanks so much for an awesome tutorial! I can’t find anywhere on line though, how to make the contact sheet/grid for numerous different images on one sheet (as you show towards the end of the video with one image repeating in contact sheet form). Any ideas? thanks so much for your tips!
October 13th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Lindsey
Just do the same as you would with a diptych but select multiple images (best to group in a Lightroom Collection) then increase the numbers of rows and columns in the print module. Thanks for the visit.
-JW
December 14th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Thanks a lot
December 17th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Thanks for the tutorial. Ever since I’ve began using Lightroom I really don’t care to use anything else. This gives me one more reason.
January 31st, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Awesome and very clear! Now if only Lightroom made it easier to get the diptychs into the library rather than having to export as a jpeg then reimport. But this works for me for now! Thank you
February 7th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for the awesome tutorial! Exactly what I was looking for, and at first I didn’t know what term it is (diptych) so I actually searched around a lot just to know what it’s called. Short and straightforward, thanks again.
February 8th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Thanks everyone for leaving so many comments and for letting me know how helpful this tutorial has been. Hopefully Adobe will see this as an important feature and allow the diptychs to be added easily to a catalog and allow them to be created as PSDs. Bummer they didn’t do that for LR3.
I’m thinking about doing another demo for users of multiple catalogs. Let me know if you are interested.
-Watson
March 16th, 2011 at 10:51 pm
This is a great quick and intuitive tutorial. Thanks for putting it together! The only problem I have found is that the output sharpening seems very low when printing to JPEG and saving the diptych at 72dpi. After testing at 300dpi, it looks great, but a 900px file at 72dpi looks horrible. Even with quality settings at 100. Any idea why? I have experimented with all the sharpening settings. I would love to use this feature for posting to my blog, the image quality seems completely degraded after output.
March 17th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
@Ryan: There is a glitch in LR when using the Print module “print to JPEG file” settings. The resolution does not match the same quality as the EXPORT tab even if you use the same settings. I have mentioned this twice to Adobe and was there last week talking about it. The only workaround is to save your diptych at 300ppi settings (some suggest 320 ppi) with the “print to JPEG file” option in the Print Module. Don’t bother using 72 ppi. This means you have to then re import the diptych into your catalog, then export out a second version at 72 ppi (set sharpening to standard or high) for your website. It will then look good. This extra step is a pain, but at least you’ll have the high res 300ppi version with minimal compression archived in your catalog. Hope that info helps.
May 11th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
Hi Jay,
Thanks for the tutorial, I’ve been watching the Adobe TV tutorials but this topic doesn’t seem to be covered. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do this for a while.
Cheers,
Stuart
May 18th, 2011 at 7:17 am
Excellent tutorial video. Thanks so much….
June 22nd, 2011 at 10:36 am
Thank you very much for this tutorial, helped me a lot
June 29th, 2011 at 6:59 am
Jay, it’s 2011 and this is still the go-to tutorial on Lihtroom diptychs
Job well done, many thanks.
July 10th, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Thanks Jay excellent tutorial, helped me a lot. many thanks again
July 27th, 2011 at 9:30 pm
It’s cool to hear people are still finding this tutorial useful. Thanks for letting me know. If anyone has any suggestions for a future LR tutorial – let me know and I’ll consider it.
July 31st, 2011 at 7:59 pm
This tutorial is great! Many thanks! One question.
It looks like Lightroom will put the first photo in the timeline in the left-most cell. How can I override this so I can drag and drop files? Right now, it looks like it’s locked and I can’t drag and drop or re-arrange the photos?
August 14th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Great tutorial! Quick question (and it may be a dumb one…but how will I ever learn if I don’t ask). I’m doing a diptych with your method. How do I switch the photos? I want to see what it looks like when I put the one on the bottom to the top. Thanks.
August 15th, 2011 at 10:42 am
@Pat – If I understand you correctly you are asking how to arrange photos inside LR? You can only change the sequence of images when they are in a collection.
@Nicole – Put anything you want to possibly use in a diptych into a collection. Set up your diptych template in the PRINT module. Choose a photo in your collection. This will appear first in your diptych. The next image you choose in the collection that is to the RIGHT of the first image will appear second. So to change the order in the diptych just switch the order in the collection. Hope that helps.
November 14th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
fantastic tutorial, thankyou!!!!!!
December 17th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
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January 25th, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Thanks for this! I had been messing around with the Print view in Lightroom, but didn’t realize you could drag the borders when ‘custom file size’ was selected. That made all the difference, and now I don’t have to lay my blog post images out in Indesign! Yay!
February 12th, 2012 at 10:02 pm
Just what I needed tonight! Thanks – very well explained.
February 16th, 2012 at 6:09 am
Awesome…just awesome. Thanks a ton for this tutorial. I just switched from Windows to Mac. I was using photoscape earlier and life was a bit easy. I use Lightroom for editing and this has made life much simpler.
Would be grateful if you have more tips to create pages as well using lightroom.
However this is of great help as I can now create borders as well.
April 22nd, 2012 at 12:29 pm
Very nice – I learned a bunch from this
Thanks
July 18th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Thank you so much! This was a great help!
August 9th, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Thank you very much for the tutorial! I’m currently without PS and have already been thinking about how to do these on LR…awesome! So clear and easy to understand.
September 4th, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Very helpful, thank you for sharing! <3 Ann Bennett – Owner, Ann Bennett Photography
September 13th, 2012 at 3:27 am
Very helpful thanks! I just have one hurdle, I can only get 2 of the same image on the page. Any tips please
September 13th, 2012 at 9:43 am
@Marlene – Thanks. Easy Fix. Under the Print module, make sure you don’t have “picture package” selected in the Layout Style (very top of Print module). In LR4 you’ll want “Single Image/Contact Sheet” selected. Pick 2 images in any collection and you’ll have your diptych.
October 7th, 2012 at 5:29 am
This is great! I work mainly in Lightroom and was trying to find a way to avoid having to add another step when creating a diptych. Thank you so much for sharing!
February 14th, 2013 at 12:10 pm
SUPER helpful! Thank you!