Combine catalogs

[amos diament]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic version: 9.3 [ 202005281810-476e492c ]

Operating System

1. macOS 10.15 Catalina

Hi to all members,
I would like to combine two completely different catalogs and I wonder if you can separate completely all related collections and keywords,
One catalog is personal and fam. photos and the second is art paintings.
If in Laura videos pls let me know which video number.
Thanks for any adv.
Amos

 

[johnbeardy]

File > Import from Another Catalog.

Maybe before doing this, add a keyword "Personal" to all the photos in that catalogue?

 

[Califdan]

Take all Keywords in the Personal catalog and put them under a parent keyword called "personal". Do the same for the the art photos using a different keyword.

Put all your collections from the personal catalog into a collection set called "Personal". Do the same for the art catalog using a different collection set name.

Now when you merge the two catalogs the Keywords and the collecitons will be in two different groups.

If you do this it is entirely possible for the same keyword (e.g. "red") to be in both groups. LR will not have a problem with this but you will need to be diligent in making sure you're using the correct one as you move forward.

 

[amos diament]

File > Import from Another Catalog.

Maybe before doing this, add a keyword "Personal" to all the photos in that catalogue?

File > Import from Another Catalog.

Maybe before doing this, add a keyword "Personal" to all the photos in that catalogue?

Thanks

 

[amos diament]

Take all Keywords in the Personal catalog and put them under a parent keyword called "personal". Do the same for the the art photos using a different keyword.

Put all your collections from the personal catalog into a collection set called "Personal". Do the same for the art catalog using a different collection set name.

Now when you merge the two catalogs the Keywords and the collecitons will be in two different groups.

If you do this it is entirely possible for the same keyword (e.g. "red") to be in both groups. LR will not have a problem with this but you will need to be diligent in making sure you're using the correct one as you move forward.

Ok thanks for help and quick answer ,will try and hope not to mess everything.
Amos

 

[amos diament]

Ok thanks for help and quick answer ,will try and hope not to mess everything.
Amos

After second thoughts it will not solve my problem as according to your suggestion same keywords will be in both which I wanted to avoid.
Amos

 

[Califdan]

So, what do you want to do you want to happen if you have the same KW in both?.

 

[johnbeardy]

I would like to combine two completely different catalogs and I wonder if you can separate completely all related collections and keywords,

Completely, no. But what do you mean by "completely" and would that really be a good thing?

One catalogue is perfectly able to manage both personal/family photos and those of paintings. However, it will have one Keyword List and one Collections panel. So to distinguish one set of photos from the other, you need something else.

It might be that you already have the photos in completely separate folders, for example, and this will be shown in the Folders panel. Or if they are mixed in roughly the same folders, then simply add a keyword to all the photos. So all the personal photos have a keyword "Personal" and the paintings have "Paintings".

Whenever you want, you can then filter the grid using the Library Filter (the 4 columns at the top of grid). It might make sense for you to create a "Filter Preset" in the little menu at the top right of Library Filter so you can easily filter the photos to one or other set of photos.