Today’s Question: Can I change the cell color on the filmstrip in Lightroom Classic to make selected images more visible than the rest of the cells?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Assigning color labels to all images on the filmstrip can help make selected images stand out better, although this is obviously not ideal if you use color labels for specific purposes in Lightroom Classic. You may also find it helpful to increase the thumbnail size on the filmstrip by enlarging the bottom panel.
More Detail: Lightroom Classic provides only a few options for changing the appearance of the interface in terms of contrast. For example, you can change the background color that surrounds the image in the loupe view. You cannot, however, adjust the default cell color in the grid view or filmstrip. In particular, this can create a problem where it isn’t especially easy to tell the difference between the active image and other selected images when you have more than one image selected.
Temporarily assigning a color label to all images you’re working with can make it easier to see the difference between selected and non-selected images. This is in large part because if you have the option enabled to tint the cell color for thumbnails with the color label that is assigned, that tint becomes a smaller frame when an image is selected. This helps selected images stand out better, but unfortunately it doesn’t help distinguish between selected images and the active image among those that are selected.
I also find that it helps a little to enlarge the thumbnails in the grid view or on the filmstrip. This doesn’t actually enhance contrast, but in my experience it does make it a little easier to see which images are selected. You can enlarge thumbnails in the grid view by dragging the Thumbnails slider to the right on the toolbar below the image preview area. For the filmstrip you can enlarge the thumbnails by enlarging the bottom panel, which you can resize by dragging the top edge of the panel up or down.
