[quote author=ChuckT link=topic=9467.msg6382'#msg6382' date=127'134686]
I have several years worth of images to bring into Lightroom. They are stored randomly by date & event.[/quote]
Great. Leave them in their "random" location. My advice is that you not spend a minute re-organizing your folder locations and folder names to make things "neater" or "more organized". Why? Because
folders are no longer organizational tools.
[quote author=ChuckT link=topic=9467.msg6382'#msg6382' date=127'134686]When I tried to catalog all of them LR stopped at about 6'% - 'don't know why just yet, maybe just too many images. But at the Photoshop conference last week one of the suggestions was not to make one huge master catalog.[/quote]
Try importing your photos in batches. Listen to Lightroom experts rather than Photoshop Experts for advice on how to use Lightroom.
[quote author=ChuckT link=topic=9467.msg6382'#msg6382' date=127'134686]Also the images I have fall into more than one over-arching catergory and I want to avoid mixing them for various (and presumably valid :
) reasons.[/quote]
Many people think they have valid reasons for splitting up their photos, and usually I disagree. In my mind, there are very few good reasons for splitting things into separate catalogs. One valid reason is personal versus work photos. Other than that, I see very few valid reasons for splitting photos into several catalogs.
[quote author=ChuckT link=topic=9467.msg6382'#msg6382' date=127'134686]As to the amount of work involved I'd rather start right (whatever "right" means :-\ ) and go in the direction that fits my purpose then accept what a software development committee thinks I need to do.[/quote]
And as I said above, I recommend that you do zero work moving photos and folders around. Use the most powerful organizing tools you have available, tools you paid a lot of money for. I am referring to (as did John Beardsworth) Lightroom tools: keywords, metadata, collections. Multiple catalogs do not help you organize or search, and are not a "tool" in any meaningful sense of the word.
[quote author=ChuckT link=topic=9467.msg6382'#msg6382' date=127'134686]After all that is one of the reasons it's called soft-ware, it's supposed to be flexible enough to react to your commands as well as it would to mine.
[/quote]
There are many ways to organize. Some are more efficient and powerful than others. Which is what John Beardsworth and I are trying to point out. Certainly you have the flexibility to use the software as you see fit, and we are simply trying to steer you to make the best use of your new expensive software.
) solution.
