I'm goona post this up because I see people all the time who deal with hassles due to their catalog being too big, they want to go mobile with it etc.
I make a NEW catalog for ever shoot. It's all within a folder along with the images that I import into it. Th beauty is that I can be on location at a wedding and import images into the catalog that only for this client. I do a slideshow from the wedding day at the reception, and when I get home the images are mostly imported already so all I do is start full res previews before I go to bed.
The next day I can just copy the entire folder (with the catalog and images) into the client folder on my main computer and it's ready to go. No re-importing, no hassle. Because the images are within the catalog folder Lightroom does not even lose track of them when the drive changes.
Better yet when drives are getting full and I need to archive old jobs, I don't have top separate the images from a huge master catalog, I just copy the entire catalog folder with it's images to an archive drive and if I ever need it again it's all together.
I catch flack for this method, but it's works like a dream so I don't care. I understand that some types of work may need a single catalog (like your stock or nature library) but for client based work nothing beats the organization and peace of mind from having small portable catalogs.
If you want more details here's an article I wrote about it... http://prophotoshow.net/seim_effects/2''8/1'/15/lightroom-catalogs-photo-managment-pro/
I make a NEW catalog for ever shoot. It's all within a folder along with the images that I import into it. Th beauty is that I can be on location at a wedding and import images into the catalog that only for this client. I do a slideshow from the wedding day at the reception, and when I get home the images are mostly imported already so all I do is start full res previews before I go to bed.
The next day I can just copy the entire folder (with the catalog and images) into the client folder on my main computer and it's ready to go. No re-importing, no hassle. Because the images are within the catalog folder Lightroom does not even lose track of them when the drive changes.
Better yet when drives are getting full and I need to archive old jobs, I don't have top separate the images from a huge master catalog, I just copy the entire catalog folder with it's images to an archive drive and if I ever need it again it's all together.
I catch flack for this method, but it's works like a dream so I don't care. I understand that some types of work may need a single catalog (like your stock or nature library) but for client based work nothing beats the organization and peace of mind from having small portable catalogs.
If you want more details here's an article I wrote about it... http://prophotoshow.net/seim_effects/2''8/1'/15/lightroom-catalogs-photo-managment-pro/