Organizing Collections & Collection Sets

[tbishop56]

I am a fairly new LR2 user, but have been shooting digital for 1' years or so. I need some advice on how to organize my files in LR2 and how to deal with the huge library of pictures on my hard disk. I would also like comments on my LR workflow, before i go to far in importing my thousands of image files.

In the past I have kept my "digital negatives" in one folder system (organized by date & shoot name). Then when i process a photo in Photoshop, I save the resulting images in a different folder system (organized more by subject matter). This way if I want to find a finished shot of the beach or of a sea scape I know just where to find it.

At this point, I am loading all new shoots into the LR catalog, while keeping the master image files in my old folder system. As I process them, I have been creating collections and collection sets to hold the images that I like and deleting the ones that are dogs. My collection library is mostly organized by subject matter, but I have taken to creating a new collection for each shoot, saving this in the appropriate subject’s collection set. For example, I have a collection set named “Landscapes”. For the shots that I like from a shoot in the Arnold Arboretum, I create a collection called “Arnold Arboretum 11-'8”.

Figuring out what to do with the huge library of Photoshop files that I have on disk is another issue. So far, my plan is to copy them back into their original negative folders, then import them folder by folder into LR and process them into collections like described above. This is a lot of work, given that I have 1' years of files to go thru.

This all seems fine, but it brings up a few issues that I would love to get your advice on.

1. How to organize the collections ? As I move thousands of files into LR, setting up a well organized group of collection sets is key. Do you have any advice for how to do this ? Are there any resources on the web for collections ? Not so much how to use the software, but how to best organize the photos...

2. How do you handle your library of old photoshop files ? Have you imported them into LR? Did you move them around before importing, or keep them in your old file system ?

3. What about new photoshop files... When you process a new file from LR2 to Photoshop, where do you store the result, in with your negatives or in your old photoshop folder system ?

Any help on these issues or comments on my workflow are appreciated.

Thanks

Tom Bishop

 

[Rooeey]

Go here there are several tutorails on this subject here on key wording collections catalouges etc....
It helped me get organized...
/www.adobe.com/support/photoshoplightroom/

 

[dj_paige]

Tom, if I am understanding your current situation, you have your photos and files organized on your hard disk already according to some rules you have set up. It is my opinion that since you now are a Lightroom user, spending time re-organizing your photos into different folders, or re-organizing the folders, is not time well spent. Leave the folders and files as they are now organized.

Instead, put your energy into applying Lightroom keywords to your photos, adding captions and other metadata to your photos, and creating Lightroom collections. Having a solid set of keywords, and a logical group of collections, will give you a much more powerful search capability than anything you could come up with in Windows. In fact, I advise people who are just getting into Lightroom that they need a mental paradigm shift ... once you import your photos into Lightroom, think in terms of Lightroom structures only. Do not (as in never again) think in terms of folders (except in the case where you need to move the files to a new hard disk, or when you do backups). Working with Lightroom structures is time well spent.

 

[tbishop56]

image organization, still have questions....

Thanks for your advice. I agree that using the Lightroom tools is better than worrying too much about folders, but I still have questions about how to best organize a group of collection sets and how to deal with a large library of photoshop files.

I am sure that there is no right or wrong answer, but I would still be interested in opinions from those of you who have big libraries of images and have been using LR for awhile.

The two main issues are:
1. How do you organize your collections and collection sets to keep your large library of files easily accessible (for old shoots, select files and new shoots).

2. The other issue is with the fact that LR introduces a new paradigm for finding images that does not worry too much about where the files are saved on disk. This is great, but I think it will be quite confusing in the long run to have two different storage schemes, one before LR and one after. So, it would seem to me that i either should re-organize my files into the way I will be saving files with LR (negatives & processed images together), or I should continue to save files the old way (negatives in one system, processed files in another). What do you folks do ?

 

[dj_paige]

1. You can have a hierarchy of collection sets and collections. Other than that, I don't really have much advice for you, as collections and keywords depend heavily on your subject matter, so heavily that I have no way of giving more detailed advice.

2. "but I think it will be quite confusing in the long run to have two different storage schemes, one before LR and one after" This is true only if you continue to use folders to find your photos. My advice again is to stop using folders to find your photos. Use Lightroom to find your photos, it has much more powerful search and find capabilities than anything you can devise using folders. Using Lightroom, your potential two different storage schemes cause no confusion whatsoever.