Adding Overlays To Slideshows In Lightroom

The other day I talked about how to Create Slideshows In Adobe Lightroom and today I want to cover how to add a overlay to the slides in Lightroom slideshows. There are many different things you can add to a slideshow in Lightroom including:

– Your custom Identity plate (logo).
– A copyright watermark.
– Ratings for images.
– Text and metadata.
– A drop shadow to the text.

With some of these overlays you can customize your slideshows to give them a personal look. So lets check out exactly how this works. In this sample slideshow that I have setup here I have a very simple layout. The images will fit the height of most of the screen with a small border around the top. The background is a black to grey gradient and i’ll start with adding my logo. I had already setup my logo here (Setting up your logo in Lightroom by using an identity plate) and now i’ll scroll down to the Overlays section on the right side. The very first option is Identity plate, just check the box to add the identity plate to the slideshow. Automatically it will add to the top left of the slideshow and be fairly small.

Adding a Identity Plate (logo)

There are a few different settings that you can adjust with a Identity plate overlay. First you can override the color if your overlay is text based. So if you need to change the color of the text just click the Override Color button and using the color picker select a new color. You can also change the opacity and scale of the identity plate by using the sliders or simply click and drag on the edge of the overlay on the slideshow to scale it up or down. The last setting you can change is to Render behind the image. If you wanted part of your logo to be behind the image and create more depth to the slideshow just check this box, it basically moves the identity plate to a layer behind the main image.

Adding a Watermark
The next thing you can add to a slideshow is your watermark. Here click on the Watermarking checkbox and select a watermark from the drop down. If you want to create a new one click on the Edit Watermarks option and the following box will open up where you can create your own watermark.

Tip if you want to use the © symbol and are on a mac. They keyboard shortcut is to click the Alt (or Option) and the G button.

Adding text or ratings

If you are showing the slideshow to a client and wanted to include some text or the rating on images to them these can be added as an overlay also. To add the ratings check on the Ratings Stars button. Just like adding your identity plate you can also change the opacity and scale of the ratings as well as drag and drop to move them in placement around the image. If you would like to add some text to the slideshow first click on the ABC button at the bottom of the center pane. This will open up a list where you can select from many different types of metadata or select custom text and type in your own message.

Once you have made your selection here go to the Text Overlays menu on the right and you can customize the appearance of this message by changing the font, opacity or adding a drop shadow.

Lots of different things you can overlay on a slideshow to customize the look. For me personally I prefer a very clean look to my slideshows and don’t use any watermarks, logos or anything other than a nice intro and exit slide with my info. If you turned everything on in the overlay section it can start to look a little crazy. My sample here is overdone of course but you can see how overboard you can go.

Look out for our next article in this slideshow series, Setting the Slideshow Background in Lightroom (coming soon). Also if you don’t want to miss any of our posts add your email to the subscription box at the top right of the page. We will never spam you, your info is safe and you will never miss a great photo tutorial or tip.

Thanks,
Mark

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