Catalogue Usage/Size

[RobertC]

I have been a member for a while and have picked up some useful information. It is only now I need to ask a question! I have been using LR for couple of years in various versions.

My question is about LR catalogues - I currently have only one main catalogue which contains the majority of all the pictures I have taken over the past two years. For 2''8 my catalogue consists of 14,5'' images and for 2''9 I have an explosion it consists of 48,''' covering some 4' events.

I ought to add here I specialise in Motor Sport and I am quite happy with my worfkflow going through this number of images.

I was wondering whether I should create a new catalogue for 2'1' or carry one using the current one? My main concern would be about size and performance implications.

As a bit of background to where and how the images are stored. All the pictures are stored on an external 2TB raid drive. The folder structure is a top level "picture" folder, the next level is the year, the next level down is whether they are "cars" or "other". Then each event, folders show year and month and the name of the event. Though for next year I am going to record year, month and day as well as the event name.

Any Thoughts, Thanks

 

[dj_paige]

My normal recommendation is to put everything in a single catalog. There is no way to search for that great picture from 2''8 and that great picture from 2''9 if they are in separate catalogs. With a 2'1' catalog, things become even harder to do. Furthermore, in my opinion, catalogs by years is probably the worst reason to split up your photos into separate catalogs. Lightroom already has the ability to split up photos by year, without using separate catalogs, if you need to do so.

If you have to have separate catalogs, make sure the subject matter is completely non-overlapping. For example, Motor Sports, and family activities, could be two non-overlapping sets of photos.

I recommend that you combine your catalogs using the File->Import from Catalog command.

There is no maximum number of photos you can put in a single catalog. People have reported catalogs with over 21'K images working well. Your mileage may vary, especially depending on your hardware, and your tolerance for the appearance of speed or slowness.

As far as putting the Event name into the folder name, I am personally opposed to putting metadata into the folder name, although I know a lot of people do this. My feeling is that assigning the Event in a Keyword (along with assigning other appropriate keywords and assigning other metadata) is a much superior method of organizing, giving you much more flexibility and a much greater ability to find your photos via Lightroom searches.

 

[clee01l]

IIRC, our John Beardy has over 3''K images in a single database with no problems. For file access speed, I have most of my images stored on on a NAS. with only the most current months stored locally on my primary HD. The NAS is certainly not the fastest access path even with Gigabit ethernet. But it works for me just fine when I need to access seldom needed images.

 

[MarkNicholas]

I find that performance only becomes an issue when editing and updating files or applying a settings to multiple files. etc.
I therefore use a "working catalogue" which only contains the files I am currently working on and when done these are then imported into my master catalogue.

 

[Brad Snyder]

From several years of reading 1's or 1''s of thousands of posts on various forums, I believe Mark has stated the most common practice for users of large catalogs.