Catalogs Replacing catalog

[Gerry Q]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom version: 6.14 [ 1149743 ]

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I was so excited to start using Lightroom that I rushed in to setting up my first catalog. Since then I've come across lots of options for setting up my catalog the "correct" way. I'm now wondering if it would be a good idea to go back to the start and import my photos to a new catalog that I can configure correctly from the start. I know I would lose any work I've done on photos in the old catalog, but they would always be there if I choose to load that catalog. I'm sure I'm not the first to go through this so If anyone has found a solution to their "jumping the gun", I'd love to hear it. Thanks

 

[Zenon]

Can you describe how your catalogue has been set up incorrectly. Also what do you mean by correct.

 

[Gerry Q]

Hi Zenon. Maybe "incorrect" is the wrong word. It just feels clunky and when I read about other peoples' systems, they always sound better than mine. I retained a lot of the folder names from my hard drive when I was importing. I feel now that I should have just let the program assign the folder names (2012, 2013, etc) and sort all of the photos by date. When I say "correct" I mean a system that lends itself to easy interrogation when I'm searching for a particular photo. I've started to use Collections a bit more now and I find that helpful.

 

[clee01l]

Welcome to the forum. A lot depends on how much work you have done with the develop module, keywording and creating collections. If you are willing to re-do that work, then creating a new catalog and importing into one of the date named folder schemes should not take too long.
If you have done a lot of work that you do not want to lose, then you can manually create your date based folder scheme and move image from their current folders to the date based folder.

 

[Zenon]

I’m set up by year. In each year I name the event by type of shoot and date. I’ve never felt the need for the software to do the naming.

 

[Gerry Q]

Welcome to the forum. A lot depends on how much work you have done with the develop module, keywording and creating collections. If you are willing to re-do that work, then creating a new catalog and importing into one of the date named folder schemes should not take too long.
If you have done a lot of work that you do not want to lose, then you can manually create your date based folder scheme and move image from their current folders to the date based folder.

I think my big mistake was in not importing ALL of my photographs from my hard drive in the first place. I now have a catalog that contains only some of my photos and a hard drive that has all my photos but I'm not sure which of them are in my catalog.
I have done some work on my photos but I don't have that many "keepers". As long as I know I can have access to them on the old catalog, I think it would be OK.

 

[Rob_Cullen]

I would not call it a "big mistake...not importing", but I do recommend importing ALL your photos from the hard-drive.
Lightroom works like a database, and to use its best features you need to reference all your photos. "keepers" or not!
(Do you only have your "keeper" friends in your Phone Contacts list?)

Don't start a new catalog. You can import all your photos to the current working catalog easily.
In summary: In the import dialog set the source to the topmost folder that has your photos (eg. My Pictures), set the option to 'ADD' the photos, check the box to [Include sub-folders], Select all, (Do not import duplicates), [Import].

In a 'complete' catalog, you will use Star Ratings, Keywords, Collections, etc, to mark your "keepers".
Your hard-drive folder structure is not so important when you use these tools in Lightroom, but going forward you can use Lightroom to keep your files in an orderly manner.

 

[Gerry Q]

That sounds like a good solution. Thanks to everyone who replied. Good result for my first post!