Reorganizing my catalog

[imagiz]

[size=1'pt]I'm using Lightroom 2.6. I messed up my files and folders so bad that I find it necessary to start with a clean slate. I am deleting all my existing folders and catalogs. I will be using one catalog. From what I have read here, it's Ok to import and establish my folders by one of the date methods in LR. True? [/size]

[size=1'pt]I pulled this quote from a thread posted on Jan. 3, "Understanding Catalogs" and it seems to summarize what I understand at this point.[/size]
[size=1'pt] Since I am just beginning I should seriously focus on planning and organizing a well thought out scheme (as mentioned by Paige) and utilize the tools that already exist in Lr. Again, as promoted by Paige and Brad, if I create a good hierarchy of keywords, and want to search by other metadata such as flags, stars, colors, etc, this essentially eliminates the need for all those folders and catalogs. I can then create collections and/or smart collections inside Lr using keywords or other metadata in a duplicate sort of way. In other words if I labeled many of my photos with the keyword "family" (granted that would be a top hierarchy keyword). I could create a collection called family inside Lr and any time I wanted to find those and work on those photos I could look in the collection called family or just search by the keyword family. I would not have to access a folder or catalog called "family".[/][/size]
[size=1'pt]My real problem is reimporting all my older images stored on my computer. I have them orgainized in one main folder: All Inner Visions images. That folder contains my subfloders broken down by various catagories: Abstracts, Butterflies, Covered bridges, Trees, Invertebrates, Herbs, Flowing plants (white, red, etc.) and so on. The mistake I made before was trying to set up a similar organization in LR. So now, as I start over, I'm not sure how to organize these in LR. Should I just import all the images in all of those folders at the same time and use let's say tomorrow's date as the first entry or would you suggest a diffent approach? I'm also not sure if I should reorganize my images on the computer. It makes sense that both LR and the hard drive have the same organization.[/size]

[size=1'pt]I realize that I have a huge job to develop my keyword heirarchy for all of those images I will be importing. I have looked online for some that I might be able to download, but didn't find anything appropriate for my work. Perhaps I should do a different post to see if anyone on this forum would share theirs with me.[/size]

[size=1'pt]I would appreciate any import some of you could provide in reorganizing my work.[/size]
[size=1'pt] [/size]

 

[Replytoken]

Larry,

I will be brief because many others will add to this commonly asked question. Your file/folder structure outside of LR is primarily for backing up images, or for possible use outside of LR. A very common method of ogranization is using date-based folders. This coincides well with the idea of letting LR do your real organization with keywords and collections. LR is very good at this, and there is no reason to try and duplicate this type of organization outside of your catalog. So, if you really want to start from scratch, I would suggest you consider renaming and organizing your images with some type of date-based structure. Then let LR handle all other organization. You will probably hear variations on this theme from others, and will need to approach the challenge as you find most appropriate.

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[Brad Snyder]

Larry, how much adjustment and keywording/metadata work have you invested in the images where they currently are?
A lot of the advice will hinge on this.

 

[dj_paige]

[quote author=imagiz link=topic=8894.msg5975'#msg5975' date=1263249823]
[size=1'pt]I'm using Lightroom 2.6. I messed up my files and folders so bad that I find it necessary to start with a clean slate. I am deleting all my existing folders and catalogs. I will be using one catalog. From what I have read here, it's Ok to import and establish my folders by one of the date methods in LR. True? [/size]

[size=1'pt]I pulled this quote from a thread posted on Jan. 3, "Understanding Catalogs" and it seems to summarize what I understand at this point.[/size]
[size=1'pt] Since I am just beginning I should seriously focus on planning and organizing a well thought out scheme (as mentioned by Paige) and utilize the tools that already exist in Lr. Again, as promoted by Paige and Brad, if I create a good hierarchy of keywords, and want to search by other metadata such as flags, stars, colors, etc, this essentially eliminates the need for all those folders and catalogs. I can then create collections and/or smart collections inside Lr using keywords or other metadata in a duplicate sort of way. In other words if I labeled many of my photos with the keyword "family" (granted that would be a top hierarchy keyword). I could create a collection called family inside Lr and any time I wanted to find those and work on those photos I could look in the collection called family or just search by the keyword family. I would not have to access a folder or catalog called "family".[/size][/]
[size=1'pt]My real problem is reimporting all my older images stored on my computer. I have them orgainized in one main folder: All Inner Visions images. That folder contains my subfloders broken down by various catagories: Abstracts, Butterflies, Covered bridges, Trees, Invertebrates, Herbs, Flowing plants (white, red, etc.) and so on. The mistake I made before was trying to set up a similar organization in LR.[/size][/quote]

I see no reason to delete existing folders, as they are pretty much irrelevant to your organization that will be done in LR. But if you really want to re-organize all your folders by date, LR's import dialog makes this an easy and painless thing to do, so you might as well go for it (if you were going to re-organize manually, I would argue strenuously against doing that ...)

I don't think it is a mistake to have LR keywords that represent the photo's content, so your list of Abstracts, Butterflies, Covered bridges, Trees, Invertebrates, Herbs, Flowing plants" is probably something that needs to be in LR. You might spend a little time before creating keywords in LR to write down an a sheet of paper or in a word processor a rather complete hierarchy of keywords. This is a step where planning now can be very beneficial.

If you have a keyword named "family", there is absolutely no reason to also create a collection named "family", as this is extra work for no benefit. Just search for the keyword "family".

[quote author=imagiz link=topic=8894.msg5975'#msg5975' date=1263249823][size=1'pt]So now, as I start over, I'm not sure how to organize these in LR. Should I just import all the images in all of those folders at the same time and use let's say tomorrow's date as the first entry or would you suggest a diffent approach? I'm also not sure if I should reorganize my images on the computer. It makes sense that both LR and the hard drive have the same organization.[/size]

[size=1'pt]I realize that I have a huge job to develop my keyword heirarchy for all of those images I will be importing. I have looked online for some that I might be able to download, but didn't find anything appropriate for my work. Perhaps I should do a different post to see if anyone on this forum would share theirs with me.[/size]

[size=1'pt]I would appreciate any import some of you could provide in reorganizing my work.[/size][/quote]

It makes no sense to me to turn a folder of Herbs into a date based folder(s). This is again why I think you need to stop thinking in terms of folders, and just use whatever you have at this time, plus date based folders for future imports, however inconsistent that might be.

LR and the hard drive will have the same folder structure. That is not an issue. No matter how your folder structure is set up, LR will mirror it (unless you deliberately break this connection by moving things in Windows). However, you continue to look at folders as an Organization tool of some importance, and I will continue to state that folders are simply storage locations ... they do not and should not have an organizational purpose. Your organization of photos is done 1''% with Lightroom tools.

I strongly urge you to stop worrying about your folder structure. Just stop. Go straight to keywords.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I don't think I'd delete everything. Without knowing your current state, and also the kind of volume of images you shoot each day/week/month/year, it's tough to give any solid recommendations, so a bit more information would be useful.

Initial thoughts - I'd import all of the existing catalogs into a single catalog, so you can see what you're working with. Then I'd copy the existing folder names into keywords (perhaps under a 'temp' parent keyword), so as not to lose all the organization you've already done. And finally I'd set up a new folder structure - by year, if you don't shoot thousands, or by month within years, and using the metadata filters to separate them up, I'd drag and drop the photos from their existing content-named folders into those dated folders. That wouldn't be a major job, and you could then work on gradually going back and keywording.

 

[imagiz]

Brad,

Sorry for the delay. I haven't invested much time in the keywording. It doesn't bother me that I will be starting over with that because it really needs to be done correctly.

Larry
Vermont

 

[imagiz]

Contrary to what my original intent was, I will not be deleting the images I already have in LR. I only have about 17'' images on file. Up until a year ago I shot slides, so I am in the process of scanning many of those images and getting them into LR.

The word folders has been dropped from my vocabulary.

Keyword and heirarchy are now the "in" words.

Am in the process of developing my own list.

Thanks for the guidance.

Larry
Vermont