Catalogs Continuity and passing images on by generation

[tspear]

Lightroom Version Number

Classic 8.0.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I put this sunder the desktop since I happen to use the Classic version.
However, the basic question applies. Has anyone thought about family level catalogs and passing on to other generations?
e.g. My parents have gone digital, even my grandmother at a 101 has gone digital. We now share images via FaceBook, email, MS OneDrive and Google Drive. This is sort of a hodgepodge solution; and I think a fair amount of metadata gets lost, never entered or images duplicated. So we have started discussing how we can better do it; the major metadata items we are interested in facial tagging, location, and event. The goal being to be able to pass on the information generation to generation.

 

[PhilBurton]

I put this sunder the desktop since I happen to use the Classic version.
However, the basic question applies. Has anyone thought about family level catalogs and passing on to other generations?
e.g. My parents have gone digital, even my grandmother at a 101 has gone digital. We now share images via FaceBook, email, MS OneDrive and Google Drive. This is sort of a hodgepodge solution; and I think a fair amount of metadata gets lost, never entered or images duplicated. So we have started discussing how we can better do it; the major metadata items we are interested in facial tagging, location, and event. The goal being to be able to pass on the information generation to generation.

Tim,

The core issue here is that Lightroom has never implemented a multi-user or workgroup solution, unlike the other apps in CC (or CS before that).

My guess is that the most practical way forward is to maintain a "union catalog" (a term used by librarians) by importing everyone's separate catalog into that master. Of course, you might run into issues if two catalogs have the same original RAW/JPG but different catalogs have different keywords or develop instructions.

 

[rob211]

Well, think about how we used to pass on images. We had nice photo albums done by our more OCD relatives, with dates and descriptions, nicely organized, maybe one album per family. Or nice slideshows, with labels on the slide holders, all oriented properly. Aaaah.

Then we had the shoebox of prints. All shapes, sizes, dates. Maybe some stuff written on the back; maybe a time stamp in the margin. Ugh, but kinda of fun to explore nonetheless.

It's not that much different in digital. Someone probably is capable of organizing a nice folder and/or thumbdrive full of archive worthy digital images, with metadata entered into the files themselves. But one also needs to keep track of the shoeboxes, the hard drives, FB accounts, iCloud accounts, and so on full of random snapshots. Sometimes some of those can be passed to the OCD relative (you?) who can organize 'em, but the main thing is to keep track of the accounts so you don't lose 'em altogether. And sometimes it's those shoebox finds that are most precious to the rest of us, more memorable than say the nice Yosemite landscape shots.

 

[MarkNicholas]

This something I have thought about a lot but have never come up with a viable solution. In the old print days there was less clutter to deal with and everyone knows where the photo albums or shoe boxes are or they can be easily found. However, with digital there are photos all over the place. For every person that keeps everything tidy in one place there will be many others that don't.

Perhaps the best solution is not try to sort them out at all and just dump them all in a common location for others to randomly go through at their leisure, a bit like going through an old box of random prints.

 

[tspear]

@PhilBurton ,

Yeah, I am aware Lr has not addressed this issue. Hence why I was asking if anyone else has figured out the answer

@rob211 ,

Yeah, I might be slightly OCD as it relates to images, but I do not have the time. I was just trying to plan/think ahead.

@MarkNicholas ,

If I figure something out, I will post it.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

I don't have the solution here but one thing i do be sure te next generation is able to enjoy the photo's is to create physical albums. Not as much i would (not OCD enough ) but at least every holiday and special occasions.