What are best practices for using Lightroom libraries?

Question

How do you organize your Lightroom library (libraries)? Since I am a casual photographer, I have a single huge library with all my photos in it. Then I create smart collections to be able to find my photos faster.For instance, I have a smart collection named *Trips* with the places I have been under it as sub-collections. Some of these photos are also tagged as *Family*, which is another collection.My concern is that in a few years this collection will grow so much that the software will not perform so well anymore. But, if I split my libary into many libraries, I will have to hunt for the photos I am looking for.What is your approach?---*>> Also asked by Igor Oks >>***How do you use catalogs in Lightroom?**Or perhaps, how do you organize your photos in Lightroom 3?I got a feeling that the way I do it is not very convenient. The flow that I do on every new set of photos is: 1. Copy the photos from the camera to a new folder on the HD (e.g. to C:\\Photos\\Bobs_bday_2010). 2. Create a New Catalog, and save it to the same directory where the photos are. 3. Import all photos from the directory to this catalog.Does it make sense? Should I use catalogs for photos organization, or should I rather use something else? Should I create a new catalog for each new set of photos, and where to save all these catalogs?Thank you!

Answer 1

I would agree, yes you only need one Lightroom catalog.

And I would also concur that year workflow is way too complex. I teach Lightroom at colleges and universities, camera stores, and other community settings, and have helped hundreds of people organized and efficient workflow so that they can spend more time photographing and less time figuring out where their images are in Lightroom.

From there, we can look at the sophisticated development tools to see how your images can be optimized to offer the best your your interpretation can produce.

Let me know if you would be interested in working together, so I can help you take your photography to the next level.

Thanks,

Reid

Answer 2

Answering Desirae first.

You would be surprised. I used a LR catalog on a laptop taking thousands of pictures a week for years without it slowing down. My advice would be to keep on trucking. Don't change anything. If the machine starts slowing down then it's likely HD issue. So you can delete old LR backups to help that. If you notice LR itself slowing down then you can experiment with making a new catalog and seeing if that helps. I don't think you will experience this for a long time.

Tio answer your question though, yes. If you make another catalog then all your smart collections won't work across two catalogs.

My approach is one catalog. This may sound like not taking my own advice. But I actually use multiple catalogs for work that does not need to cross pollinate. I used to edit for another photographer, and had a catalog for that, photograph for a newspaper, had a catalog for that, photograph for my own business, catalog for all client work, and a fourth for pictures taken as a hobby or of my family and friends. Those catalogs never needs to interact with each other. And keeping them seperate made it easier to find stuff while performing one of those tasks. That is the ONLY time I recommend having multiple catalogs.

Now file management is a separate issue. I have a workflow that works great for getting the originals off of the computer but still having this cataloged by LR.

For Igor. No, please don't do this. Just use the import feature on LR straight from the camera card to the main LR catalog. Your current workflow won't actually break anything. It's just ridiculously more complicated for no benefit I can see.