Best way to organize two photographers in the same computer?

[llopis]

Hi everybody,

Just joined the forum and I thought I'd seek some advice in the best way to organize things for my situation.

I've been using Lightroom for over a year (and loving it), but I now have a new situation. My girlfriend and I just moved in together and we'd like to both use Lighroom in the same computer.

I know we could keep two totally separate catalogs, but that wouldn't allow us to see our pictures interleaved. For example, we can upload both our pictures from a trip to two different folders, import them in the same catalog, select them both, and see the pictures in chronological order indepedently of who took them.

But at the same time, it would be great if there was a way to flip a switch and only see my pictures or her pictures and have Lightroom behave as usual.

I thought of using collections, but a collection doesn't preserve the folder structure. I guess we could use tags, but I wanted to see if there was a better way. Any thoughts?

 

[cosilver]

How about using the metadata browser in the left hand pane of the library view?

This way you can select (view) only pictures taken by your camera, or even use the Creator field (you or your girlfriend). If using the Creator metatdata field, you would need to enter your and your girlfriend's name into your respective photos' metadata (this can be easily and quickly done). Then, you simply expand the metadata browser section, then expand the Creator arrow, select your name (or hers) under Creator, and voila - only your (or her) pics are there.

 

[stasber]

Hi llopis and welcome along! You don't say which version of LR you're currently using (see people's sigs - helps with the advice ) but I'm assuming from your post that it's version 1. I would suggest the same as cosilver, if this is the case.

LR2 has a much more powerful filter/search bar, which I hope would give you a lot more flexibility over the kind of filtering you're asking about. It also has Smart Collections, which are collections that you can set up to filter/catch all images that fit certain criteria you decide, and when you import and set up your pics (e.g. keywording, ratings, labels etc) they would automatically fall into your Smart Collections without you having to drag or move them like you do in LR1.

Using the Library Filter would be like flicking a switch and LR continuing to work 'as usual'. It'll work on your Folders, or on Collections, Collection Sets, or Smart Collections. You can even save a particular search/filter as a preset for using again later if you found something particularly useful.

Have a looksee at LR2 and see if you like it. Good luck!

 

[Brad Snyder]

I'll repeat the welcome. Good advice from Albert and Stas. If you're not using them currently for any other purpose, I expect color labels would also be a good fit for this situation. One click/one key application from any module, easy single click filtering in any module.

 

[Denis Pagé]

Hi everybody,
...
I've been using Lightroom for over a year (and loving it), but I now have a new situation. My girlfriend and I just moved in together and we'd like to both use Lighroom in the same computer.
...
But at the same time, it would be great if there was a way to flip a switch and only see my pictures or her pictures and have Lightroom behave as usual.
...
Any thoughts?

So many ways!...

The old timers would suggest to prefix the filenames with your name or initials then YYYMMDD then camera's filename at import time. This also can easily be done for your existing photos by going into the menu-library-rename before you start importing coworker's photos. Make presets for each coworker.

Thereafter, that would be easy to filter on filenames stating with "xyz". And if you have Lightroom 2.x, you can set one or more Smart Collections on such a filter and forget about it as it will automatically track new imports.

My way is different tough. What I do is that at import time, I have different Metadata presets for each shooter (two for myself depending if I want to include my phone and address etc or just basic copyright info) and I can then filter on Copyright or Author's name. My naming is then just YYYMMDD-OriginalFileName.

There is also the very first "Tip and Trick" ever written on this forum suggesting a way to work with multiple users of the same computer that I wrote last year... Give it a look as this works nice! And you can use it in combination with what I said above.

At last, welcome to the best Lightroom forum!

P.S.: And do not forget to add in your signature: If you are working Windows/Mac, Intel, AMD, Lightoom version... That help us pinpoint specific problems right from start. 8)

 

[Victoria Bampton]

What a choice of advice! Well welcome to the forum from me too!