LR 2 Catalogs

[pbelarge]

I have a question about the management of catalogs in LR 2. From the reading I have done, and reviewing some of the videos, I am a little confused.

I want to set up more than one catalog. I have 3 sets/types of photos I would like to keep in their own catalogs.

Catalog 1 - Electrical photographs _ approximately 65,000 shots taken over the last 10 years. I have these in stored in 3 external hard drives. I have the photos in approximately 150 or so folders. I want to mirror those folders within Catalog 1.

Catalog 2- Family photographs _ approximately 20,000 shots taken over the last few years in approximately 30 folders, also stored in 3 external hard drives. I want to mirror those folders within Catalog 2.

Catalog 3 - Nature/Landscape photographs _ approximately 30,000 shots taken over the last few years in approximately 60 folders, also stored in 2 external hard drives. I want to mirror those folders within Catalog 3.

I generally shoot approximately 30-40 thousand shots a year.



It seems to me that LR and the tutorials suggest 1-catalog.
Is what I would like to do okay?

 

[ironsidephoto]

I have countless LR catalogs. I make a new one with almost every shoot. Each wedding gets its own catalog. Each trip. Each portrait session. Each job. Etc. I find that the catalogs are a lot less sluggish this way, and it's easier to keep them organized...I just save the catalog in the folder that contains the photos.

That said, it makes it harder to use keywords and search for entire categories of photos, but I never do that anyway.

To each his own.

(But it sounds like you keep way too many photos...unless they're there for sentimental reasons, weed those suckers out and keep the gems!)