Organise Your Lightroom Catalog!

[@nigelgambles4398]

Julia, Thank you so much for an easier to understand and follow method to organising my LR Catalog (Thats is all over the place) Im going to start from scratch and hopefully end up with something as organised as you have. Thanks again.

[@Shooter1444]

Backup video!!! I’m needing some tips on backing up photos to various places.

[@okidoke4822]

Buy an external SSD and drag them to it, simple

[@Shooter1444]

Okidoke I have multiple and years worth of client data. I’m looking for tips on long term archive and backup automation.

[@blomquist.j]

@@Shooter1444 Check out Backblaze! :)

[@mrrrgonzal]

Creating main topics within collections and collection sets is a major game changer to keep my work organized. Thanks!

[@bklynmet]

Great job with this Julia. It was clear, thorough, and had useful tips. I have a very similar flow - but I developed it through trial and error and listening to more long-winded podcasts and incomplete video tutorials. Your video here is one of the best on the topic. Thank you.

[@sahilgambhir582]

Yes would love to see a backup video

[@fashiondanielle]

That was so helpful!! Would also love to see a video on your back up system!

[@aprilespinoza88]

Organization goals

[@oliviawoodward6645]

Oh gosh I learnt so much. I had to stop, take notes and relisten. I have implemented quite a bit!

[@nathanrodrigues6530]

Great tip about import only pictures that’s you’re editing, I’m gonna start doing that from now and then

[@leewatson1525]

great tips and I would like to see a video on backing up your photos

[@shawnpemrick4303]

Great tips. I have mine organized pretty well, but this give me even more access and detail.

[@johnrwallace]

THANK YOU! Great advice and there are definitely some things that I will implement!

[@daliran]

I think this is a great way of organizing photos, great video! There is something you didn't mention. When you decide to edit your selected photo in Lightroom, do you export them in jpg and then make the final corrections in Photoshop (directly on the export folder) or you use the "edit in Photoshop" Lightroom feature? Because if you use that, then you need to manage also generated Tiff files, in that case, do you keep them into the selected folder with the raw files?

[@georgealexb3940]

This was great Julia I absolutely love your videos, every single one is so easy to follow and understand. You’re a really great teacher. I have one question though, how do you manage personal photos, like family snapshots and just all those photos we take during the day that aren’t part of our business? P.S. I would love to see a video of your backup process!

[@smalltalk.productions9977]

still relevant, especially to a newbie lightroom user. thanks for the effort and the sharing. thumbs up.

[@cinnematicx]

Just came across this video and pshhhhh.. this is a huge game changer for me thank you!

[@MultiJanfi]

As I am pretty new in LR, ok like 1-2 years in it is very helpful, thank you

[@ktwo08]

I implemented your file naming and saving method into my process and people think it was so tedious and extensive. But when it came to tracking down old work, it was SO EASY! Your tips have helped my workflow so much 🙌🏽😩❤️ I’d love to see how you market/promote your photography. Any tips on the business side?

[@lolaschiel2030]

Thank you for sharing your organizing methods 😍

[@mueslibrah]

Another great video! Thank you Julia ✨- constantly learning new things from you, even in areas where I thought I knew what I was doing 😂 (like this video)

[@MichelleKalgren]

Could you go into more detail on saving the lightroom catalog. I want to be able to take off all the photos I don't need! Thanks

[@ragtop63]

Organizing your catalogs is completely up to your own personal preference but one thing in this video I must address is the idea that Lightroom's photo selection tool is any different than what was described for Photo Mechanic or Bridge. Lightroom offers the same tools for selecting photos as PM or Bridge. In the main import screen you're presented with previews of your RAW images and can choose to include or disregard images from your import. You can also keyword, sort and metadata images during import as well. These same tools are available after import and LR offers even more organizational features to an established catalog, if you feel the need to drill down even further. Essentially, you don't need any 3rd party software to do what Lightroom already has built in.

[@ievamarija5386]

I think the reason Julia suggests reviewing and selecting your photos externally is because many people including me find Lightroom to be super slow so it takes ages just to go through pictures you'd normally only need 2s to decide if they're right for you or not. That's what I got from it anyway :)

[@ragtop63]

@@ievamarija5386 That's interesting because your photo selection process shouldn't be done during the import stage. The vetting tools in Lightroom are far better used on an established catalog. As far as performance, that's a simple matter of knowing how to optimize your catalog settings to suit the hardware you're using it on.

[@silvioc.2883]

Thank you, Julia, for another great video. Quick question, if I may: what brand of external ssd drive do you use, and what capacity? Thank you so much for replying.

[@damiankru]

Julia i would like to thank you for everything you doing you help me so much with photography i bought also lots of your presets and i love them lots of my friends told me my photos are way better and my skills got improved thank to you ! I will always support your work 🙂

[@jessysanchez4954]

I loved this video Julia and am going to implement this workflow into mine as it's easy, simple, and clean :] I would love to see how your back up workflow ! :]

[@highamnj]

Superb advice! And using the reverse date in part of a file or directory name is handy in other contexts, not just photography. For serious keywording (e.g. for stock), there is nothing better than Photo Mechanic.

[@juliatrotti]

Thanks! I appreciate it 😊

[@KoenvanderLeeFotografie]

Thanks for this video! Straight to the point and very helpfull :).

[@spencer_gray]

Thank you so much for this video. I had been so confused with Lightroom catalogs and this helped so much. When importing photos into Lightroom do you select Add, Copy, or Move? Additionally, I know that when you close a Lightroom catalog it prompts you to backup the catalog, do you back it up in a folder?

[@juliatrotti]

Glad it was helpful! When I import photos I just go to File > Import photos and video. And then for me personally I don't back up a 2nd copy of my catalogue, only because I never go back to it again once I'm finished with a shoot. If you use one catalogue for a lot of things then I would definitely recommend backing it up! Since you are opening it all the time, adding, removing images, etc there is more chance for something to go wrong and you don't want to lose all the information in that catalogue :)

[@spencer_gray]

Julia Trotti thank you so much! This cleared up a lot of information!

[@mr.continuity]

Hi Julia, huge fan. I was curriose how you go about proofing your photos with clients. Do you use pixeset or do you send clints proofing at all?

[@markharris5771]

Oh heck! I knew I’d feel guilty about my slovenly ways! Admin has always been my week point, and I count cataloguing as admin work. I still see the retired CEO of the company I was working for when I became disabled. We now go to many of the same meetings due to the roles we now have. She has said that I had one of the best reputations for my hands on work with some very dangerous people. I never used breakaway or restraint in 10 years and I was frequently sent to work with the most challenging people. My notes in the moment were spot on, but I had to be forced into the office to do my monthly summaries. Cataloguing is the photographer's version of monthly summaries. For some reason my analogue negatives are much better catalogued than my digital stuff. I have them all in arch lever files separated into B&W formats, then colour formats and within each file divided into different films with a list at the front of date, subject, developer and recipe. Perhaps it’s indicative of the type of photography I’m growing more and more to prefer. Another great video, I suppose it’s time to walk into my office/darkroom, look at my computer and the six squillion uncatalogued images, then say "Nah, I’ll do it later!"

[@Snowboardgymnasiet]

Julia wuuhuu!!! Love your workd

[@gavinfulton1361]

I've always implemented the date/location/subject for my import folders (it's saved so much time looking for something later) but I got in this bad habit of only having one catalog for the whole year and I definitely feel it's slowing things down. Good tip on the monthly/per shoot catalog idea. I may need to reorganize. Also, I always used the Library tab for culling, but I think that may contribute to the slowness I've been noticing within LR. I'll try your Photo Mechanic method! Great video as always, Julia! Organizing your stuff is crucial, and you helped a ton. Thank you!

[@neiladams3956]

Yes I would like to see a video about backing up

[@fakesticks817]

Thought my file management was great until I watched this. Thank you for the tips!

[@yawarok.8004]

Love your videos!

[@carolinamiranda3505]

AMAZING VIDEO!!!

[@breonnawalker7704]

Hi Julia I love your videos because I always learn something new. Could you please make a video on basic terms and technical knowledge, as well as how you became so knowledgeable about photography technicalities (what does what, and what means what). Thank you 💜

[@liam4184]

Hi Julia. I've currently been using lightroom as a way to edit my photos, but also as a way to view photos. My catalogue has started getting pretty big however and was wondering if using Lightroom as a photo viewer was the best idea. Do you have a way of storing and viewing your photos after the lightroom process? Maybe something like the windows or apple's photos app? Or do you just leave them in folders? I'd love an easier way to view my photography which doesn't slow my computer down so much.

[@sharpi22]

How do you store catalogs and reopen them when you want to use?

[@Candy-lv7kd]

Hello. firstly thank you so much for making such a helpful detailed videos. I being a passionate photographer feels blessed to see such content and absoultely your knowledge is been used very much in a right way! I would like to know more about Lightroom retouching if you can do?

[@rogerc.campbell1978]

Very informative video and your teaching style is exceptional. Please provide a video on backing up, that would be great. Thanks.

[@SimonBastin]

This might be a really useful approach for a professional photographer who never revisits older photos, but for most amateur, or semi-professional I would have thought multiple catalogs undermines the whole LR CC approach to image asset management.

[@neiladams3956]

Julia, thank you for this video. My workflow is a bit different from yours, but I have adapted 85% of your method.

[@allthecommonsense]

I do something similar but I use a 4 digit year (i.e. 19980601 vs. 20100701) because I have shoots that pre-date the year 2000. Otherwise the '98 folder would be sorted AFTER '10 folder in the container directory. And yes... I have every photo shoot I've ever done in 1 Lightoom catalog so I can easily review/search/sort all my files any time I want. It's not that slow.

[@ryut]

Same! I've been shooting digital since 1998.

[@ninafiaschi]

Thanks Julia! If you aren’t importing directly to Lightroom, what program do you use to upload onto your Mac? I was using image capture but find it struggles with video.

[@uweautor571]

Please can you make a video about your backup workflow. Thank you.

[@john-gavin]

You can build 1:1 previews or standard sized previews on lightroom so that it goes faster & smoother.

[@ShaunieMcNeil]

Yaaaas queen. So many helpful tips. Thank you 💜

[@samanthamackie4577]

Just a question re SSD. Why do you choose these over external hard drives?

[@luclauwers61]

I use Dropbox for storage no external devices, no cables etc. Easy to find you’re photo’s and other personal documents where ever you are. Its Linked to my iPad, iPhone desktop and laptop

[@jansim0n]

very useful ty

[@juliatrotti]

Glad it was helpful!

[@andysmith8031]

I literally create a folder to dump my photos in. Then import folder to Lightroom as a folder, not a catalogue. Edit what I need, export and then remove folder from lightroom.

[@gabrielevans9016]

Hey, as long as it's backed up on the sad and HD you're good right? I have a lot of folders on my LR atm

[@Candy-lv7kd]

and I would also like to know if your app is now available for android users or not ? if yes then please so share the link, thank you !

[@nadeto0]

Great Video! I remember you have mentioned your folder naming a long time ago and I use it since! Do you ever delete any photos? Rejected or just out of focus? Love you

[@maggienguyen3817]

I do the same with the dates and names 😄

[@_Rahul__chandran_]

Love from india 🇮🇳

[@juniorrc6414]

Your preset works un lightroom cc?

[@Palmike]

Yes backup

[@1114mbr]

I don’t understand the part about needing to create a catalog for each photo session. If you never need to go back to the photos in Lightroom again after editing them then can’t you just delete the folder in Lightroom that points to those photos? Also, isn’t saving all 4 of those folders on the external drive taking up more space than necessary? Like, why is there a need to save the “selects” folder when you are saving the catalog with the selects in it?

[@ivanrossetto8683]

Thank you!!!!!!!! :)

[@cliftonjohnson9147]

Really liked your presentation.. Clif Johnson (new t.o Lightroom)

[@bsdgffishtuna5186]

i have a lightroom catalogue with over 30k images; how do i break it up into smaller catalogues?

[@nathangreen7312]

An awesome video. I have a habit of just keeping all my photos in lightroom. Also where those ads cut in is horrible because they keeping coming in in the middle of your sentences

[@harinsss]

Thanks heaps :))))

[@chipcurry]

Thank you very much, I watched this video three times. Needless to say I am not that well organized…

[@KazuyaMASUDA1982]

👍

[@nataleemullen8178]

Backup video pleaaaseeee!!!!

[@GerrickTaylor23]

Please make a back up video!!

[@fotowave]

Why not to try C1? Much easier to work your way with sessions

[@kipasangin200ribu.4]

Whos Watching 2020 Guys?.

[@limvo1260]

Firstly, I find your voice is too sexy, very distracting. As a result, I have no clue what the video is about. That said, why not export both photos and presets back to your external storage and then delete everything from the catalog? I currently backup all my photos onto my SSD drives. It's painful to manage the replications between the different drives I have though. Any suggestion?