- Lightroom Version Number
- Any version of Lightroom Classic or earlier
- Operating System
- Other (please note in thread)
You may remember the famous 'John Smith' keyword problem, discussed here many times. Imagine you have three people, called 'John Smith', 'Jane Smith' and 'John Jones'. You want to create a smart collection that searches for images of John Smith. The problem is that 'Contains John Smith' or 'Contains Words John Smith' does not work, because this wil also find images of Jane Smith and John Jones together. Adding a line 'Does not contain Jones' does not work either, because you may have images of John Smith and John Jones together, and these will now be excluded.
Recently we thought that we found the answer. Instead of using 'Contains John Smith' or 'Contains Words John Smith', you should use 'Start with John Smith'. That will work fine with these three people. Unfortunately however, what we didn't think of was the possibility of a fourth person, called 'John Smithson'. That will break this solution again, because John Smithson starts with John Smith... Sure, this may be a rare example, but it's a possibility nevertheless and it seemed that once again there is no answer.
I believe I finally cracked it and found the ultimate solution. And it's even quite simple! Create a smart collection with two criteria that both must be met:
- Contains Words 'John Smith'
- Start With 'John Smith'
What do you think? Did I finally crack it, or did I still miss something?...
Recently we thought that we found the answer. Instead of using 'Contains John Smith' or 'Contains Words John Smith', you should use 'Start with John Smith'. That will work fine with these three people. Unfortunately however, what we didn't think of was the possibility of a fourth person, called 'John Smithson'. That will break this solution again, because John Smithson starts with John Smith... Sure, this may be a rare example, but it's a possibility nevertheless and it seemed that once again there is no answer.
I believe I finally cracked it and found the ultimate solution. And it's even quite simple! Create a smart collection with two criteria that both must be met:
- Contains Words 'John Smith'
- Start With 'John Smith'
What do you think? Did I finally crack it, or did I still miss something?...