Question for LR3 users

[Robin Usagani]

Do you use several catalogs? Or do you only use one big catalogs? I recently got LR3 and just wondering what I should so with organizing and mixing personal photos with client photos. Can you explain your workflow? Do you keep all your photos in the my pictures folder separated by folder dates?

 

[AgentDrex]

I used LR3 Beta for a little while, but my normal work-flow is to group photos into a directory that has a name based upon date taken (day, month and year) and then inside that directory, a sub-directory named "Keepers" for any photos that actually turned out. If I were to have clients I would also have another sub-directory called "Clients" alongside "Keepers" and another sub-directory inside that one also called "Keepers".

 

[edouble]

I have not used catalogs yet in LR3. When I import pictures from my SD card I either create a new folder on the hard drive using LR3 or create a subfolder. I believe you can tag photos in LR3 to help finding a photo or a group of photos in the future.

I find the Flickr export extremely useful. I can upload photos directly to Flickr from LR3. You can specify photo size, watermark and a slew of other options. If any photos are edited in LR3 you can automatically have those changes reflected in Flickr.

 

[SrBiscuit]

i use one giant catalog since everything is organized by type of shoot, and then broken down into months.

i find that one catalog is fine for easy access to any image i want.

 

[Big Mike]

I think that the first two replies missed the question here.
Any photo imported into Lightroom (any version) is put into in a 'catalog'....because a catalog is the file that LR saves to. I would think that most beginner LR users just use one Catalog.
Whether you use one or many catalogs, you should still have a sound method of organizing the image files (folders etc.)

The benefit of using one catalog is that you can easily search for any photos that you have imported. You can use the filters and keywords to find what you want or create groups of similar images etc.

The problem with one catalog is that it can get bogged down with a lot of photos. And the backup files can get pretty big as well. And really, if you have no reason to ever view/edit certain photos at the same time, there is no reason to have them in the same catalog.

For example, you may never want/need to view your client photos along side your personal photos. In that case, you could put them in separate catalogs.
Then you have to decide if you want to put all your clients into a catalog or create a new catalog for each client/job.
I know some photographers that put each wedding into a new catalog. This keeps things tightly organized, but the down side is that if they want to search 'bride by a lake', they might have to open several catalogs and search each one.

Going back to where you put the images...that is also important, but it's a separate issue from LR catalogs. LR can create a catalog from files that are saved anywhere on your system, so it technically doesn't matter how or where you put them...but it's still a very good idea to have a strategy and to stick to it.

I think that most people organize their photos with folder by date. You may want to have your client images completely separate from your personal files, but that's up to you.

What I do, is to have different locations for personal photos, weddings and portraits.

Also, you should have a plan for backing up your images.

 

[edouble]

I think that the first two replies missed the question here.
Any photo imported into Lightroom (any version) is put into in a 'catalog'....because a catalog is the file that LR saves to. I would think that most beginner LR users just use one Catalog.
Whether you use one or many catalogs, you should still have a sound method of organizing the image files (folders etc.)

The benefit of using one catalog is that you can easily search for any photos that you have imported. You can use the filters and keywords to find what you want or create groups of similar images etc.

The problem with one catalog is that it can get bogged down with a lot of photos. And the backup files can get pretty big as well. And really, if you have no reason to ever view/edit certain photos at the same time, there is no reasonu to have them in the same catalog.

For example, you may never want/need to view your client photos along side your personal photos. In that case, you could put them in separate catalogs.
Then you have to decide if you want to put all your clients into a catalog or create a new catalog for each client/job.
I know some photographers that put each wedding into a new catalog. This keeps things tightly organized, but the down side is that if they want to search 'bride by a lake', they might have to open several catalogs and search each one.

Going back to where you put the images...that is also important, but it's a separate issue from LR catalogs. LR can create a catalog from files that are saved anywhere on your system, so it technically doesn't matter how or where you put them...but it's still a very good idea to have a strategy and to stick to it.

I think that most people organize their photos with folder by date. You may want to have your client images completely separate from your personal files, but that's up to you.

What I do, is to have different locations for personal photos, weddings and portraits.

Also, you should have a plan for backing up your images.

I never said I know what I am talking about

 

[Big Mike]

I forgot to mention 'Collections' within LR. They are a great way to organize your photos for easy searching or easy workflow.

A collection is just a way to separate certain images, so that you don't have to sort through the ones you don't want. It doesn't actually create copies of the images (until you tell it to).

For example...after a portrait shoot, I might go through the images and toss the obvious bad ones, then pick out the very best ones. There will likely be many that aren't bad enough to toss right away and yet not good enough to go with the best ones. So to make thinks easier, I'll just take the best ones and create a collection. Then when I go from the Library module to the Develop module to the Print module...all the photos I want to work on, are nicely organized in my collection.

You can also have 'Smart' collections that can automatically add photos. For example, for my personal photos, I will usually keyword images with my son, with his name. I can create a Smart collection to grab any images that have his name attached to them. They I just click on that collection and it automatically shows me all the images (in that catalog) that have been key-worded as such.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Thanks Mike. That's what I've been doing although I have not done a good job with adding keywords.

 

[AgentDrex]

I understood the question...I was just relating my work-flow practices...obviously the OP was referring to inside of LR3, but same practice should hold true either way, whether inside LR3 or outside of the program.

 

[Big Mike]

Sorry, the workflow question was addressed...I was thinking more about the catalog question at first.

 

[Big Mike]

Thanks Mike. That's what I've been doing although I have not done a good job with adding keywords.

I get lazy with that sometimes too, although it's pretty easy to go back later and add keywords. I just view the images in a grid, and select all the ones that need a particular keyword and do them all at once. Then make a new selection for the next keyword. You certainly don't need to go through them one by one.

 

[pbelarge]

I get lazy with that sometimes too, although it's pretty easy to go back later and add keywords. I just view the images in a grid, and select all the ones that need a particular keyword and do them all at once. Then make a new selection for the next keyword. You certainly don't need to go through them one by one.

This is the same method I use when I download the images. I usually have from 150-360 images downloaded. I will tag the images as need be, and I do it when I download. I find this easier, as once you have been downloading for a while, the numbers add up quickly.

I have one catalog for work photos. The work photos are on a separate harddrive.
I have another catalog for all other photos, this one also has it's own harddrive.
Then all of the photos are backed up on additional harddrives.

I am thinking of storing my photos by year on separate harddrives, starting with 2010.

 

[KmH]

Get:

The DAM Book Digital Assest Management for Photographers, by Peter Krogh

Lightroom can only open one catalog at a time.

 

[RayH]

My first post. Three days ago I called Adobe support for help. My problem was an incompatibility between Lr3 and Pse9. (It should be possible to send an image from Lr3 to Pse for editing and have it returned after editing to Lr-seamlessly!). The Adobe Tech, at the end of the "help" session said that I should re-install both programs. AFTER doing this I could not find the Lr3 Catalog that controlled my photos ( I store all my photos on an Ext. HD - with a copy on another Ext. HD) - Back to Adobe to solve this new problem. After this 2nd "help" session I had to create a new Lr3 Catalog and then re-import ALL my photos. ALL the editing I had done was LOST because we could not locate the old Catalog. I'm now proceeding to re-edit all the photos - but, on the bright side, I've also begun to add Keywords to each photo and to do a lot of Syncing when appropriate. Its a hard lesson to learn and I'm trying to learn more about the relationship between the Photos and the Lr3 Catalog - where they and their backups should be stored and what should be done to prevent this happening in the future - I'm obviously an inexperienced user - although I've been using Lr since the first Beta was introduced.
I'm hoping for help in solving the mysteries of Lr3's Organization of the Photos and the Catalog and their interdependency. I don't want this to ever happen again. Looking forward to your help.

If you are wondering why I'd want to also use PSE. Its because I've found that you can (at least in PSE 8 and earlier vs. ) make some drastic perspective changes that are less easily done in the new Lens Correction section of Lr3.
RayH

 

[RauschPhotography]

I need to get a little more serious about my organization on LR3... So far I haven't been using any collections, but I have everything assigned with keywords. (Weddings, senior portraits, vacation trips, etc.) Work in progress. Sigh.