Lightroom Image Library Management

[TheSkySpy]

I'm Looking for input.


I've been using elements since 3 and love the power of tagging and searching images, using stacks and collections etc... Seems so much more powerful in that regard than Bridge or Lightroom, BUT I do make more use of the editing capabilities in the other apps, so now I'm using 2 or 3 applications which feels clunky in my workflow - PSE to organize images, LR for 'tweaks', and PS for hard core editing.



What is the most efficient way to manage collections in Lightroom? 1 Giant collection? Tons of small ones? How many shots to a collection???

Is LR at the point yet where I can shelve PSE?



Thoughts?

[Elemobe]

Hi, to be honest, I am not really in a position to comment because as a Mac user, we don't have The Organiser, I used Bridge for a short while, but I like iPhoto. However, having said all of that, LR is brilliant for tagging, stacks and searching and I will probably be using that as my primary "organiser" and Photoshop for editing.

[Elemobe]

Whoops, didn't see the last bit of your post. Collections can hold as many as you want. I used LR this weekend to run a slideshow of the renovations of our house. We had a party here for the contractors, previous neighbours and new neighbours. I initially put nearly 300 photos in The House collection (and shortened it to 164). It ran for 3 hours continuous, no problems.

LR is not editing software and is not intended to replace Elements or CS3.

I set collections up as I need them. I have some for my dogs, some for individual dogs, my favourite photos, landscapes. However I see fit at the time. Whenever there is a set of photos I want to re-visit, I set up a collection.

Hope that makes sense

[bayhli]

I don't know what the most efficient way is but I can tell you how I've set mine up to suit my organizational needs.

I organize all my images in Lightroom and do the basic "development" processing there. I eventually want to do all my printing from LR as well but not there yet with my knowledge. In other words, I want to do as much as possible all within Lightroom.

Like you I export to Elements only for any further editing I might want to do. I am also still sharpening in Elements rather than using what LR has to offer. I have Photoshop to install but will still manage the same way and use both editing programs I expect.

I import my images into a general folder, with the original sub-folder by date, where they stay until I've done the initial weeding out, key-word tagging and development processes on any I intend to. When that's done I transfer the images to the "permanent folders" I have set up by broad topic/category, and delete the empty date folder. For example I have Family, Events, Travel, Nature, Landscapes, etc., keeping them as few as possible. Under family I have sub-folders again by family member name for quick retrieval. Some of the folders do not have sub-folders but I will initiate those as needed, as the volume grows in each folder.

My key words are set up in much the same way; I find I access my organized folders more than searching by key words so it's perhaps an unneccesary duplication. But I'm a bit of an organization freak so it works for me.

I don't use collections much for permanent filing, moreso use it to temporarily sort images while I'm working on them.

I see I've now got about 2700 images in LR.

What I don't have in hand is what to do with my exported edited images (Elements files) - right now I keep it back in LR with the original which is what I'd prefer. I find I'm always going back to weed out the different editing versions. But I also keep a copy in a folder not associated with LR, just in case I screw up and the version in LR is no longer layered for some reason.

I never did use the Organizer in Elements so I can't comment on which application is better for that. I am very happy with LR's capabilities for my purposes. And I love having LR as my main photo program; I hope it never becomes too much of an editing program as I think that would dilute the developing aspect which I like so much.

Hope this helps. It will be interesting to hear how others are organizing...