Bryan Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I've just about learned enough to tame the beast, but have not yet come to a definite conclusion about the way to use LR catalogues. Just some background. My raw files are all stored in folders by date, i.e. main folder year sub folder month, and all of my filenames include dates. All of my JPGs are stored by place or person, so, by searching outside of LR for date or place, and by cross referencing, I can locate both the raw and JPG. Up until now I have been creating a new LR catalogue every month. I think that the time has come to merge them so that I can use LR tools to search more rapidly. I was thinking of annual catalogues, merging all of my monthly catalogues into new yearly catalogues, but still using a new monthly catalogue for new photos, to speed processing. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeRay Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Brian That's pretty much how I organise my images. I have catalogues initially sorted as annual with each containing folders by ascending date order within which each image is sorted by file name. I close down all past annual catalogues so all is see is the year. I leave open the current year showing all folder dates. I keyword all images. Finding any given image or collection of same or similar is easy and keeps the interface tidy. I only keep RAW and TIFF files, converting the latter to jpeg for upload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CM photo Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 There's no need to set up a new catalogue each month or year, just a new folder. So you may have 2013 > 12-2013 > 131225 for example (dates being written backward to maintain the right chronological order). I have the file-naming set up in a similar way so that each day's shooting is prefixed with the date in this same format, followed by the file number, and this happens automatically when I download my card into LR. If you set up a new catalogue every year you will need to search each one in turn to find something. In my case, I have a general catalogue (wildlife and travel) an aviation catalogue and a family catalogue, just to make everything more manageable but I could, in theory, just use a single catalogue. I know other people do things differently but if I want to find all my Peak District pictures, for instance, I want them all in one place, not divided between several catalogues. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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DHill Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Interestingly, earlier today, I saw the table of contents of Peter Krogh (digital asset management guru)'s new book: Organising your photos with Lightroom 5. One of the headings there is "The ideal number of catalogs is 1". So, that would probably add to the consensus. http://thedambook.com/organizing-your-photos-with-lightroom-5/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearl Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I only use one catalogue with my images sorted into different folders according to subject. Even those on my backup hard drives are in the same catalogue. I can't begin to think how it would work otherwise as you have to close one catalogue to open another. With one catalogue I can look at multiple folders if I so wish. Keep things simple Bryan Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 Thanks for all of the responses, it seems I need to do some merging of catalogues! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julesimages Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 For what it's worth, I use one catalogue for each year with collections for each month or special project I want to keep easy access to. I sometimes set up a catalogue for a special event if I know I won't be fishing around in that pool for general stuff (e.g. My daughter's wedding is in one catalogue which is proving useful now I am doing albums and books for her). I understand the logic of having only one catalogue but felt that 20000 images in one catalogue was perhaps enough and was worried that the whole thing may slow down too much if I put everything in the one catalogue. I don't find it difficult to open the catalogue for a particular year and switch between them as most of the time I am working on current images ( but it would be easier all in one huge one). I guess if there is no performance slow down then one big catalogue would be best, but what size can you go to before things grind away too slowly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CM photo Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 For what it's worth, I use one catalogue for each year with collections for each month or special project I want to keep easy access to. I sometimes set up a catalogue for a special event if I know I won't be fishing around in that pool for general stuff (e.g. My daughter's wedding is in one catalogue which is proving useful now I am doing albums and books for her). I understand the logic of having only one catalogue but felt that 20000 images in one catalogue was perhaps enough and was worried that the whole thing may slow down too much if I put everything in the one catalogue. I don't find it difficult to open the catalogue for a particular year and switch between them as most of the time I am working on current images ( but it would be easier all in one huge one). I guess if there is no performance slow down then one big catalogue would be best, but what size can you go to before things grind away too slowly? I looked into this, too, and, when I started out (with Lightroom 1) it seemed that 30,000 images was the limit before the searches started to slow down, which is why I set up a couple of subsidiary catalogues (which I don't actually use very often). Having said that, I think that the system has become quicker all round, possibly due to the software and possibly due to a more powerful Mac (or a combination of both) so the consensus seems to be one big catalogue rather than several small ones. I think it will depend on what type of photography you do and how often you use the search facility. I certainly wouldn't want to have to open and close several catalogues for a single search term, so, if you do have separate catalogues they need to be mutually exclusive of subject matter. The most important thing is to back up your catalogues (mine are set for every day) and your image files (again, mine are set to back up automatically every day). Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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losdemas Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 One catalogue only: had a go once at adding another, then thought, "what's the point?". Just complicates matters unnecessarily. Use Collections and Smart Collections instead for ease of image location and searching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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