Multiple Library Windows -- can it be done?

[tspear]

Lightroom Version Number

9.2.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

There are many occasions where I am going back and forth between two collections.
Usually I am looking for how I handled something previously or some missing information. For example, I have a couple dozen images that I am currently working on that are missing GPS data, I would like to find other images which I took at the same location and around the same time after the camera GPS locked on. So I can then "fix" the GPS data.

Has anyone found a way to have two Lr library windows open at the same time?

 

[Califdan]

No, but you can select more than one folder at a time. You can also add images from multiple folders to the quick collection and process the GPS data from there.

 

[clee01l]

You can search for images in a date range using a Smart Collection

 

[johnbeardy]

Or set the date as a column in the Library Filter, maybe with the lock too.

 

[tspear]

All,

A few more detailed examples:

• I have a smart collection called Missing GPS. My normal process is to get the timestamp from the image with the missing GPS. Then switch collections to my culled image smart collection, use the filter by meta-data and filter down to that day. Find the closest image with GPS, copy it. Switch back to my Missing GPS collection and select the image and paste in the GPS data.
• I use a similar process to review and update location description.
• For titles, I often end using all photographs library using text and keyword searches to find something which closely resembles the image I want to apply the title. After finding, I then switch back to the Missing Title smart collection....

If I select multiple folders or collections, I do not know which image to work.
Each time I switch, the search criteria are partially reset which slows me down.

So is my process "broken" or is this a missing feature from Lr?

 

[tspear]

Or set the date as a column in the Library Filter, maybe with the lock too.

I forgot about the lock. A good start, definetly helps on the date based issue. Does not with title, or key-wording...

Tim

 

[johnbeardy]

Don't you use my Search and Replace? Its workflow filter window adds title and other fields to the Library Filter, updating as you change field values.

 

[tspear]

Don't you use my Search and Replace? Its workflow filter window adds title and other fields to the Library Filter, updating as you change field values.

Not currently. I still have the listview. How would search and replace work?
A quick look on your webpage about it gives me an idea. I could expand the keywords some, and automatically generate the title.

 

[johnbeardy]

The plugin adds a group of custom fields including ones like Title* which mirror the standard fields but which can be displayed in the Library Filter. The fields are populated either by calling the Refresh Workflow Filters menu command (like saying recalculate in Excel) or automatically in the background via the Refresh Workflow Filters - Auto menu. This Auto menu launches a floating dialog box which you can leave open on a second screen or behind LR, and it watches the image selection, recalculating the fields every time you change selection.

I use this all the time for tightening up metadata entry, and one big goal of the new 1.70 from » Search & Replace 1.7 (ie 2.0) is to encourage more people to use it. Now the UI has settled down, I intend to do a short video that will explain it, hopefully inspire too.

 

[johnbeardy]

The other parts of the plugin let me do things like copying the location to the title, or vice versa, copying the 4 IPTC location fields to keywords, or doing search and replace operations such as the other day where I had lots of different captions including "... Coronavirus outbreak ..." which I wanted to change to "... Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak ...".

 

[johnrellis]

Each time I switch, the search criteria are partially reset which slows me down.

Yeah, LR's back and forward commands are pretty limiting for those of us using LR as a digital asset manager for large libraries of old photos that need to be tagged.

My Any Source plugin maintains a history of the current source (folder or collection), filter settings, and selected photos. It provides "back" and "forward" commands (which you can assign to keystrokes) that let you quickly go back and forth through this history. Thus, if you're tagging a set of photos defined by a combination of folder/collection and filters, then do a deep dive on some related photos, you can just do "back" to get the original folder/collection, filter, and selection.

 

[PhilBurton]

All,

A few more detailed examples:

• I have a smart collection called Missing GPS. My normal process is to get the timestamp from the image with the missing GPS. Then switch collections to my culled image smart collection, use the filter by meta-data and filter down to that day. Find the closest image with GPS, copy it. Switch back to my Missing GPS collection and select the image and paste in the GPS data.
• I use a similar process to review and update location description.
• For titles, I often end using all photographs library using text and keyword searches to find something which closely resembles the image I want to apply the title. After finding, I then switch back to the Missing Title smart collection....

If I select multiple folders or collections, I do not know which image to work.
Each time I switch, the search criteria are partially reset which slows me down.

So is my process "broken" or is this a missing feature from Lr?

Another possibility is to use John B's "smart collection" workflow, where the absence of GPS data is a filter for a smart collection. As you fill in the GPS data, the photos you just fixed automagically disappear from the "missing GPS data" smart collection.

At least for me, that approach works.

Phil

 

[tspear]

@PhilBurton

Actually I am using John B's smart workflow. And that is my GPS example above. The filter lock @johnbeardy suggested solves that one.
I downloaded John's Search/Replace tool last night and plan to test it with some keywords and caption/title tasks next week when I get home.

 

[prbimages]

Simple methods which might help your navigating:

1. Create a "GPS Missing" regular collection from your smart collection, then set this as the target collection (right-click, then "Set as Target Collection"). Then when you navigate away, you can just hit Control-B to go back to it (and Control-B again then toggles back to where you came from).

2. Use the "Go Back" and "Go Forward" arrows above the film strip to move around in your recent folders and collections. Keyboard shortcuts Control-Alt-Left Arrow and Control-Alt-Right Arrow.

 

[johnrellis]

Use the "Go Back" and "Go Forward" arrows

In a follow-up post, Tim described his issue with the Go Back and Go Forward commands -- they don't restore his filter settings.

 

[prbimages]

In a follow-up post, Tim described his issue with the Go Back and Go Forward commands -- they don't restore his filter settings.

Well, he said he was losing his filter settings when changing between sources, but he didn't specifically mention the Go Back and Go Forward arrows - I was just pointing out that those keys may be useful to speed up the navigation.