Finally understood the the difference between "folders" and "collections". Just getting started with Lightroom. This was a very comprehensive overview!
overwhelmed with a few thousand photos scanned from my late mom's albums that span a few decades, i came across this video while researcing how to make sense of them all and organize them in a way to share with the rest of my family - thanking the heavens that this video now gives me great hope i'll actually get this task completed efficiently.. cheers for the inspirational content!
Thank you for this excellent video! Your teaching is easy to understand...even for this 68-year-old! I will incorporate what I've learned going forward, and over time, redo the thousands of pictures that were store improperly! Thanks again!
You talked about GPS. This is very powerful and I use it a lot. Phone images are tagged unless you turn it off. Some cameras have the ability for GPS but usually by some external means. As a tip, Google Maps will take either Degrees/minutes/seconds or Decimal Degrees. Lightroom will also take either format and convert. So use Google Maps, click on a location to get the coordinates and past in either format into LR Maps. If you drag an image in LR to LR Maps, it will be tagged with that GPS coordinate. If you have a group of images with coordinates, it gets messy trying to 'unstack' the coordinates, but it can be done. Would love to see a full video on the subject.
Thanks. Just adding that keyword search is not case sensitive. They are great and you can use dynamic smart collections that use them plus other attributes with Boolean logic. you can also rename or delete keywords if needed.
What a fantastic video I thoroughly enjoyed watching and will use it for referral purposes when I need to refresh my memory. I hope you continue producing videos. You are a terrific presenter and great enunciation Forest. Top video.
I recently indexed thousands of photos into Lightroom Classic and was seeking some guidance of where to start in organizing them. This was very helpful and I took notes! Thank you for taking the time to explain the five points so effectively.
There are a lot of folks out there trying to tell people how to organize files in LRC who don't understand database construction. This guy gets it! Well done. The only thing I might add is that keywords could be standardized and organized in an excel sheet and imported for use in LRC. I previously made the mistake of making up KW's on the fly in LRC and things quickly spiraled out of control. Best to be deliberate and carefully think through KW structure in advance IMHO. Fantastic job and thanks for this video!
Forest, You have a wonderful talent for instruction. I appreciate your thoughtful and organized approach. My Lightroom catalogs are now indispensable. Lisa
You brought my organisation level to over 9000. Never really cared about lightroom organisation. Made a new folder for every single project and so on. switched to a year-folder for everything 2022 is happening and thats nice. but now i really know how to organize the pictures in LR and of course also on my external ssd. Great video and thank you very much
This was a fantastic video! I recently downloaded Lightroom and was looking for a concise explanation of organizing my photos. This was exactly what I needed.
Amazing video on lightroom organizing...I have been using lightroom for years, but had a real mental block when it comes to organizing...I found this unbelievably helpful! Thank you much!!! Look forward to other videos and am very interested in the mapping functionality you briefly touched on.
A very clear explanation of folders and what you can and can’t do. Thank you. Very clear - I have been struggling with this as to what folders can do and what catalogues will do.
I've watched a bunch of videos on photo organization. This is the way I would like to do it! Lightroom Classic seems to be the best balance between professional product and accessibility
I just subscribed to Lightroom Classic and was at first overwhelmed with organization. I am very happy I found your video. You made something that was potentially very confusing into a simple explanation of how to go about organizing. Thanks very much!!
Great Concise Video! QUESTION: How do I get LRC to organize my photos on the HARD DRIVE into sub folders by date. They are all just lumped together in 1 folder. THANKS!
Great video! You are good methodician! I've learnt in one video, what I'm strugling with, started using Lightroom...I thought it was going to take several videos to understand organizing..thanks
Personally, I think keywords or collections (these are pretty much equivalent from the point of view of organizing your stuff) are best for organization. They are more flexible than folders. You can attach multiple keywords to images or put images in multiple collections. And they can both be organized into hierarchies. I would advise using one or the other. (I am using both and its just confusing.) Right now, I think collections have an edge as lightroom mobile syncs collections but not keywords. And while it's easier to add new keywords than new collections, this has a downside. Just add keywords at random and you will never be able to search on them. I think of folders as just defining where things reside on your computer. Its good to have different folders merely to divide up your images into chunks of storage. That allows you to move stuff around if necessary, put some stuff on a NAS, some on the main drive, or whatever. (But if you need to move stuff around, its best to do that from within lightroom. Otherwise lightroom loses track of where things are. You can recover from that, but its extra work.) BTW you can also search on metadata. Date, time, cameras or camera lenses. Lightroom is really great for organization.
Wow! I'm relatively new to Lightroom and this was by far the best all around organizational description I have found, and I've been looking for months. Liked and subscribed. Really helpful content. Thank You.
By far the best and easiest to understand video on this subject. Thank you for making something that was very daunting to me look easy to understand and do! Best wishes from a sunny Scotland, UK.
Once again, an excellent tutorial video! The best bit for me? "Collections are like Spotify playlists" - that makes things so much clearer for me. Now I need to find some videos on the interchange between LR and Photoshop. Cheers!
Wow this is so helpful. I have been using Collections as folders…desperate to get organised but I have some on external HD and some internal..grrr..Thanks!
This was a great video. Perhaps you can clarify further.....I am at the beginning phase of deciding whether to use Lightroom or Photoshop. I find that Lightroom is confusing with all the collections etc. whereas Photoshop does not have all that (from what I've gathered). I am starting a food blog and so my photos will be only of food. Of course these photos will be on my hard drive but I don't see the utility to have them in collections etc....Could you comment on that?
Thank you so much - Excellent presentation validating my approach to organization, but also provided tips that I am not currently using to enable more reliable searches and reduction of duplicate photos! I am wondering if you have presentations on the management of the LrC catalogue location and maintenance of same? Thanks again - John
Your videos are just super, clear, concise and I have learnt a lot from these, thanks. I do have a question, when you edit an image in Lightroom, is the image on the hard drive say, also edited ? I mean can I just use that 'edited' image or do I have to export that image to see the effects of the edit. Sorry for sounding so dim, I just need to understand the process as I don't want 2 sets of images, edited and unedited. Hope that makes sense. Sorry, one other question, how did you create the folders in Lightroom that replicate the HD??
You will need to export images out of Lightroom to get an edited version. The version sitting on the drive will always be original (as it was out of the camera). Those folders that replicate the drive were created on import!
Just watched the video. Excellent information. I do have a question though. Would you suggest one catalog for all of your photo work with individual collections or different catalogs for different shoots? Say I shoot a wedding one weekend and a sports event the next, would you keep them in the same catalog or create different ones for each event? If you suggest keeping one catalog, how often would you suggest creating a new catalog, if at all (yearly?)? Thanks for any information you can provide.
Great video! this was a subject I didn't want to tackle, and thanks to this video, it all makes sense :) Q: Will the keywords and metadata transfer with the photo when it is outside of Lightroom? Q: What happens to the folders and the photos if I no longer have Lightroom? Do they disappear? Thank yo so much!
Thnx! That’s very helpful. I just installed Lightroom, so I have to figure everything out from scratch. I really like the keyword function. Now I have to take my time to reorganize my whole harddrive first 😃
Really useful. Havent started using lightroom yet for my thousands of now adult kids’ photos but your video has simplified the concept for me and makes sense and ill ask hubby to add lightroom to my laptop. I also need help with my thousands of hours of kids’ videos to make compilations, nothing fancy. No idea which is the best and easiest video editing program for me to use.
Thank you! Glad to enjoyed it. As for video editing, I would look into Adobe Premiere Pro. It's fairly simple to use once you get the basics down and super affordable at only $10/month.
@@forestchaput Thanks for the advice, but i think here in spain it's much more expensive (and taking into account that we make less than half of what an american makes in salary...). I wonder if my husbannd's creative cloud account includes premiere pro....ill ask him.
Very interesting teaching I am a beginner for Lightroom Classic would you please indicate me when you want to select and drop in folder what shortcut do I have to use.
Excellent and concise. I already do this in most cases. Admittedly I get lazy and skip a few. Is there a way to automate some of these on input? Also, I use Photo Mechanic to save on two redundant hard drives. I do my metadata input there and then select only some to process in LrC. Do you know if the metadata flows to LrC even though I cannot see it?
Thanks! You can make an import preset although I find them to be pretty unreliable. I think that's a great plan using PM with LrC, and yes, your metadata should import with the images in LrC.
Newbie question. When do YOU decide to delete "unwanted" images after shooting? Like the image of your foot that was accidently taken or if you took 10 shots of the same thing and you uploaded all 10 to lightroom and then decided the best one to develop and edit. What, how and when do YOU decide to delete the extraneous, unneeded, unwanted yet uploaded images?
What tool(s) do you use for organization in Lightroom Classic?
Thank you for sharing such a well-explained, concise explanation of these tools. I can use these to help me find my brain's best process.
YES, PLEASE CONTINUE MAKING THESE FANTASTIC VIDEOS! Your teaching is extremely clear and concise!
Thank you! Will do!
This is the best Lightroom Organizing tutorial I've come across. Thank-you so much.
Wow thank you!
Finally understood the the difference between "folders" and "collections". Just getting started with Lightroom. This was a very comprehensive overview!
Glad to hear it!
overwhelmed with a few thousand photos scanned from my late mom's albums that span a few decades, i came across this video while researcing how to make sense of them all and organize them in a way to share with the rest of my family - thanking the heavens that this video now gives me great hope i'll actually get this task completed efficiently.. cheers for the inspirational content!
Awesome! I’m so glad I could help 😀
Thank you for this excellent video! Your teaching is easy to understand...even for this 68-year-old! I will incorporate what I've learned going forward, and over time, redo the thousands of pictures that were store improperly! Thanks again!
Awesome! That is so great to hear Susan! Thank you for watching!
Just finished watching 5 videos about organizing in Lightroom. This is the first one that made sense! Thanks so much.
You talked about GPS. This is very powerful and I use it a lot. Phone images are tagged unless you turn it off. Some cameras have the ability for GPS but usually by some external means. As a tip, Google Maps will take either Degrees/minutes/seconds or Decimal Degrees. Lightroom will also take either format and convert. So use Google Maps, click on a location to get the coordinates and past in either format into LR Maps. If you drag an image in LR to LR Maps, it will be tagged with that GPS coordinate. If you have a group of images with coordinates, it gets messy trying to 'unstack' the coordinates, but it can be done. Would love to see a full video on the subject.
Roger that!
Thanks. Just adding that keyword search is not case sensitive. They are great and you can use dynamic smart collections that use them plus other attributes with Boolean logic. you can also rename or delete keywords if needed.
Definitely would be interested in a video on the map module!
Awesome. I will add it to the list!
What a fantastic video I thoroughly enjoyed watching and will use it for referral purposes when I need to refresh my memory. I hope you continue producing videos. You are a terrific presenter and great enunciation Forest. Top video.
Thank you for the kind words! I appreciate it.
hey, great video, would be great if you zoomed in more on the lightroom menu's. Found it quite hard to see what you were clicking on.
I recently indexed thousands of photos into Lightroom Classic and was seeking some guidance of where to start in organizing them. This was very helpful and I took notes! Thank you for taking the time to explain the five points so effectively.
Glad it was helpful!
There are a lot of folks out there trying to tell people how to organize files in LRC who don't understand database construction. This guy gets it! Well done. The only thing I might add is that keywords could be standardized and organized in an excel sheet and imported for use in LRC. I previously made the mistake of making up KW's on the fly in LRC and things quickly spiraled out of control. Best to be deliberate and carefully think through KW structure in advance IMHO. Fantastic job and thanks for this video!
Thank you! That’s a great point for advanced keyword users!
I’ve watched way too many other videos on this subject…..you made it the easiest and made the most sense. Thanks VERY much
You're VERY welcome!
Great video, the simplest I've ever seen it :)
I watched so many videos on organizing in lightroom and yours is by far the most clear and easy way! Thanks so much!
Great to hear!
Forest,
You have a wonderful talent for instruction. I appreciate your thoughtful and organized approach. My Lightroom catalogs are now indispensable.
Lisa
You brought my organisation level to over 9000. Never really cared about lightroom organisation. Made a new folder for every single project and so on. switched to a year-folder for everything 2022 is happening and thats nice. but now i really know how to organize the pictures in LR and of course also on my external ssd. Great video and thank you very much
Wow that is outstanding! Great job!
This was a fantastic video! I recently downloaded Lightroom and was looking for a concise explanation of organizing my photos. This was exactly what I needed.
Glad to hear it.
Amazing video on lightroom organizing...I have been using lightroom for years, but had a real mental block when it comes to organizing...I found this unbelievably helpful! Thank you much!!! Look forward to other videos and am very interested in the mapping functionality you briefly touched on.
Excellent teaching style. Clear, concise, friendly, engaging. Thanks!
Appreciate it! Thank you for watching!
A very clear explanation of folders and what you can and can’t do. Thank you. Very clear - I have been struggling with this as to what folders can do and what catalogues will do.
You're very welcome!
Very informative and excellent presentation! Thanks!
I discovered your channel tonight. Fantastic. I'm a new subscriber. Your a very good teacher. Thanks.
Thanks for subbing we really appreciate it!
Great easy to follow tutorial !!
the BEST LR tut vid ive watched so far (and ive watched MANY). looking forward to seeing what else u've posted TY!!
Wow, thanks!
I've watched a bunch of videos on photo organization. This is the way I would like to do it! Lightroom Classic seems to be the best balance between professional product and accessibility
I just subscribed to Lightroom Classic and was at first overwhelmed with organization. I am very happy I found your video. You made something that was potentially very confusing into a simple explanation of how to go about organizing. Thanks very much!!
Glad it was helpful!
Wow, this is the best of tutorials I have been looking for, thanks for sharing!!!
Great information! Thanks for posting! Total LRC Rookie here and learning quickly! :)
so glad to help!
Thank you! Direct and simple. Keep up your excellent tutorials.
THANK YOU 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 Definitely continue these videos as you are really good at it 😊
Thank you, I will
Fabulous communication skills - you do not miss a beat and it was very clear. Many thanks - great work.
Glad you enjoyed it!
It's the first time I see your videos... and I loved this one, I hope to continue seeing you.. 🙂
Thanks for clarifying so many details that were colored "grey' for me. I would love to see more videos in greater depth on using collections.
Noted!
Damn, you are a good teacher Forrest.
Really appreciate the advice and recommendations!
Happy to help!
THANK YOU for the organized, simple explanations. There are so many confusing videos out there on this subject; yours is one of the best. Grateful!!
Thank you!
Very eye opening for this newbie. Thanks!
Glad to hear it!
you were so clear. finally, I know the difference between folders and collections. now im gonna look for how best to import
Clear information and good demonstrations!
Thanks so much!
Thanks really useful summary- esp collections as playlist! Finally get it !!
Very nicely done. You are very clear and knowledgeable
Thank you!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. You just made my life a whole lot easier.
Glad I could help!
Great video, very informative and concise. I loved that you referenced the keyboard shortcuts as you were doing things. Thanks!
great video, super useful and short! watched before even starting LR !
Great to hear!
Great info, understandable and very useful. Thanks
Great Concise Video! QUESTION: How do I get LRC to organize my photos on the HARD DRIVE into sub folders by date. They are all just lumped together in 1 folder. THANKS!
All these years of using lightroom, I'm still learning. Thanks!
You’re welcome!
Great video! You are good methodician! I've learnt in one video, what I'm strugling with, started using Lightroom...I thought it was going to take several videos to understand organizing..thanks
You’re welcome!
Wow this video cleared up so much for me as a new user of Lightroom and got you a new scriber. Thanks for the video.
You're welcome!
I like your clear explanation. I’d like to see how you use maps. I want to tag locations but my cameras don’t have GPS.
Outstanding tutorial! I've watched many videos on organizing Lightroom and this one was the best by far.
Wow, thanks!
Very clear, very well done! Thank you so much
You're very welcome!
Personally, I think keywords or collections (these are pretty much equivalent from the point of view of organizing your stuff) are best for organization. They are more flexible than folders. You can attach multiple keywords to images or put images in multiple collections. And they can both be organized into hierarchies. I would advise using one or the other. (I am using both and its just confusing.) Right now, I think collections have an edge as lightroom mobile syncs collections but not keywords. And while it's easier to add new keywords than new collections, this has a downside. Just add keywords at random and you will never be able to search on them.
I think of folders as just defining where things reside on your computer. Its good to have different folders merely to divide up your images into chunks of storage. That allows you to move stuff around if necessary, put some stuff on a NAS, some on the main drive, or whatever. (But if you need to move stuff around, its best to do that from within lightroom. Otherwise lightroom loses track of where things are. You can recover from that, but its extra work.)
BTW you can also search on metadata. Date, time, cameras or camera lenses. Lightroom is really great for organization.
i bought a Crehana online course and it was so confusing. You made much easier to understand. thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Good job explaining LR!
very well done! thank you for the effort and the sharing. thumbs up.
Many thanks!
Wow! I'm relatively new to Lightroom and this was by far the best all around organizational description I have found, and I've been looking for months. Liked and subscribed. Really helpful content. Thank You.
Glad it was helpful!
By far the best and easiest to understand video on this subject. Thank you for making something that was very daunting to me look easy to understand and do!
Best wishes from a sunny Scotland, UK.
You're very welcome!
Yes, please would like to see more on collections, the maps with metadata as well. I am originally from Missoula now in Boise, ID
Awesome! I'll add it to the list!
congratulation , excellent material
Once again, an excellent tutorial video! The best bit for me? "Collections are like Spotify playlists" - that makes things so much clearer for me. Now I need to find some videos on the interchange between LR and Photoshop. Cheers!
Glad to hear it!
Totally agree with the Spotify analogy!! Thank you RMSP!!
Wow this is so helpful. I have been using Collections as folders…desperate to get organised but I have some on external HD and some internal..grrr..Thanks!
Great video! Clear, easy to understand, and follow. Thanks so mcuh.
Glad it was helpful!
This was a great video. Perhaps you can clarify further.....I am at the beginning phase of deciding whether to use Lightroom or Photoshop. I find that Lightroom is confusing with all the collections etc. whereas Photoshop does not have all that (from what I've gathered). I am starting a food blog and so my photos will be only of food. Of course these photos will be on my hard drive but I don't see the utility to have them in collections etc....Could you comment on that?
Best video I have ever watched. More info about locations without gps pls. Thanks
Awesome! Thank you.
Thank you so much - Excellent presentation validating my approach to organization, but also provided tips that I am not currently using to enable more reliable searches and reduction of duplicate photos! I am wondering if you have presentations on the management of the LrC catalogue location and maintenance of same? Thanks again - John
Very Good Explanation! Thank You
Glad it was helpful!
You explain things really well. Thank you!
You're very welcome!
yes please... would like info on: 1- the map module 2- more details on organization.
thanks a lot!!! so nice reverb
Fantastic! Very well explained!!…..Subscribed!!!
Awesome, thank you!
Great info! Just updated to Lightroom Classic and needed help with organizing files..thanks!
Glad it helped!
Soooo helpful. Thanks you very much
Well done, thank you very much!
Your videos are just super, clear, concise and I have learnt a lot from these, thanks. I do have a question, when you edit an image in Lightroom, is the image on the hard drive say, also edited ? I mean can I just use that 'edited' image or do I have to export that image to see the effects of the edit. Sorry for sounding so dim, I just need to understand the process as I don't want 2 sets of images, edited and unedited. Hope that makes sense. Sorry, one other question, how did you create the folders in Lightroom that replicate the HD??
You will need to export images out of Lightroom to get an edited version. The version sitting on the drive will always be original (as it was out of the camera). Those folders that replicate the drive were created on import!
fantastically thorough video with well thought out advice for organization. Definitely what I was looking for.
Glad to hear it!
thank you for all the great info !
You bet!
Just watched the video. Excellent information. I do have a question though. Would you suggest one catalog for all of your photo work with individual collections or different catalogs for different shoots? Say I shoot a wedding one weekend and a sports event the next, would you keep them in the same catalog or create different ones for each event? If you suggest keeping one catalog, how often would you suggest creating a new catalog, if at all (yearly?)? Thanks for any information you can provide.
This is simply great. Thank you.
You're welcome!
This is a fantastic video, thank you!
You're very welcome!
Just found your video. Well done and appreciated.
Thank you kindly!
Thanks for another great, informative video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Love your video. Very helpful. Would love to see more on the map module.
More to come!
Great video! this was a subject I didn't want to tackle, and thanks to this video, it all makes sense :)
Q: Will the keywords and metadata transfer with the photo when it is outside of Lightroom?
Q: What happens to the folders and the photos if I no longer have Lightroom? Do they disappear?
Thank yo so much!
best video to organisation of Lightroom! Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thnx! That’s very helpful. I just installed Lightroom, so I have to figure everything out from scratch. I really like the keyword function. Now I have to take my time to reorganize my whole harddrive first 😃
Glad it helped!
So helpful - thank you!
Thank you!
Very clear and well explained. Please make a video on geo-location.
Will do!
Great video would love to see more on organising images.
More to come!
Really useful. Havent started using lightroom yet for my thousands of now adult kids’ photos but your video has simplified the concept for me and makes sense and ill ask hubby to add lightroom to my laptop. I also need help with my thousands of hours of kids’ videos to make compilations, nothing fancy. No idea which is the best and easiest video editing program for me to use.
Thank you! Glad to enjoyed it.
As for video editing, I would look into Adobe Premiere Pro. It's fairly simple to use once you get the basics down and super affordable at only $10/month.
@@forestchaput Thanks for the advice, but i think here in spain it's much more expensive (and taking into account that we make less than half of what an american makes in salary...). I wonder if my husbannd's creative cloud account includes premiere pro....ill ask him.
Very interesting teaching I am a beginner for Lightroom Classic would you please indicate me when
you want to select and drop in folder what shortcut do I have to use.
Useful and clear!
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent and concise. I already do this in most cases. Admittedly I get lazy and skip a few. Is there a way to automate some of these on input? Also, I use Photo Mechanic to save on two redundant hard drives. I do my metadata input there and then select only some to process in LrC. Do you know if the metadata flows to LrC even though I cannot see it?
Thanks! You can make an import preset although I find them to be pretty unreliable. I think that's a great plan using PM with LrC, and yes, your metadata should import with the images in LrC.
Great explanation!
Thanks!
Super helpful video thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
so clear and useful thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Newbie question. When do YOU decide to delete "unwanted" images after shooting? Like the image of your foot that was accidently taken or if you took 10 shots of the same thing and you uploaded all 10 to lightroom and then decided the best one to develop and edit. What, how and when do YOU decide to delete the extraneous, unneeded, unwanted yet uploaded images?