Organizing in Lightroom with Scott Kelby |

Scott Kelby will be speaking at B&H Bild Expo. Learn more and RSVP: www.bildexpo.com
Scott Kelby (@KelbyOne) shares his 7-step process called SLIM (Simplified Lightroom Image Management) to help utilize the organizational tools built into both Adobe Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC.
Sponsored by Adobe
A readable version of SLIM: bit.ly/DOF2023
More from Scott Kelby
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- kelbyone.com/
- / scottkelby
Watch more presentations from B&H Depth of Field 2023: • B&H's Depth of Field 2023
0:00 Overview
2:59 Storing You Photos
10:43 Catalogs and Collections
27:51 Organizing a Shoot
42:55 Traps to Avoid
48:51 Adding Automation
53:55 Organizational Tools
56:32 Missing Images
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[@BandH]

ICYMI: Here is Scott's Depth of Field presentation on What Makes a Great Portrait: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o36Vo3ybrbWIis0

[@rudyr5396]

Scott, Fantastic video, thank you for helping creating good habits with LR and organizing our images. I have a question regarding the external drive: which would you recommend…. A WD My Cloud external drive or just a regular non-cloud drive like the one in your video? Thank you in advance for your suggestion.

[@francoisdugois3634]

Great video indeed!

[@simonryan6850]

My images aren’t going into my collections, I don’t understand why

[@montananorthern]

Probably the best Lightroom organizational videos I have ever watched. Scoot Kelby makes everything so easy to follow along with. Brilliant.

[@DebraThornton]

Where have you been all of my life as a photographer, Scott Kelby???!!!! 🤗This was the most thorough, helpful and easy to understand tutorial on Lightroom organization EVER! And your humor made it all the better. 😁After using Lightroom for 13+ years I feel like I can finally get a handle on my digital library. Thanks a million to YOU and to B&H for making this presentation free for us to watch.

[@elmofromtheelmstreet]

This is probably the most useful photography videos I've seen in the last 5 years

[@BandH]

Glad to hear it, thanks for watching!

[@nathitappan]

Probably the best lightroom video out there. A must watch.

[@marcomark8]

One of the most comprehensive videos I've ever seen about LRC Organization.

[@robertqwerty]

I am new to phtography and to Lightroom. I cannot imagine a more helpful hour of instruction, with awesome pdf handouts, than Scott Kirby's class in organizing Lightroom. Thank you Scott and B&H for bringing this to us. My worfflow is no longer a disaster.

[@iandavis1355]

I wish this hour was available years ago. Now its hours and hours and hours of work to get my catalogue organized.

[@DLeRoux]

Search everything he has presented. He is literally the guru of Adobe products for photographers. And I mean that in all seriousness. There is no one that comes close to him in his explanations.

[@joncole1445]

It's like everything in life, once you know, it's simple but first you need to know. Thanks to you Scott I now know how to organise in Lightroom. THANK YOU! 😃

[@mlandres]

Just diving into Lightroom for the first time and this is THE BEST intro video online. Direct and to the point with all of the info you need to get started correctly! Thank you soooooo much for this!

[@motomeninaROOTS]

There is no one like you Scott Kelby! Thanks for making this make sense!!!!

[@OdetteCavill]

OMGawd! I finally understand this cataloging . Thank you so much Mr Scott Kelby !!!!

[@user-bb9kg9gt8p]

This is brilliant. Thank you so much! I’ve started taking photos as a hobby and I was panicking about LR organization literally last night. Wasn’t even looking for videos about it just yet but then yours popped up on my feed and I’m so thankful for that 😊 To the people saying “don’t follow his advice for this or that”: please share your opinion without discrediting his beautiful video. If it doesn’t work for you, that’s great, stick to what you like and if you really want to share with others the way it works for you, there are ways of doing so without sounding condescending ☺️

[@aphotoessay]

Thank you for posting this fantastic introductory Lightroom course. I am already seeing the results of an organized photo catalogue!!

[@johnluff3097]

Thank you Scott! This is the best Lightroom organization video I have seen. It’s very easy to understand and will help me so much with my Lightroom work.

[@danevarkevisser4670]

By far the best presentation I have seen or read on organising and managing your photos in LR and generally.

[@BandH]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@fearlessmadamex5685]

Perfect timing! I'm literally spending my day doing this. Thank you!!

[@anupamphotography_official]

I've purchased Lightroom 2 months ago but was stuck with the initial step to understand how to import and organize the photos so never used thinking it's a big drama. Not any more!! this video is a life savior and a Gem 💎. [Full shoot >> Picks >> Selects] is a game changer. Thank you Scott for such a nicely crafted video. Didn't feel that it's a 1 hour video and your sense of humor is at its best. Loads of Love ❤

[@FarmGirlChronicles]

Much love to you Scott thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge. Keep on doing what you’re doing. It’s great thank you

[@tensing89]

This video is amazing! I've been watching so many "workflow" videos and most of them are terrible or are super specific to their work. This workflow works for everyone and super clear and easy to understand. Thank you!

[@BandH]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SheilaKarner]

Thank you!! I have a new laptop and spent the whole evening organizing collection sets/collections from folders. This was a HUGE help!

[@BandH]

Glad this was helpful for you, thanks for watching!

[@michaeljenner1795]

This is so helpful. I have thousands of photos and this will take forever, but this really makes sense to me. Now I know what I'll be doing for the next few months. Thank you!

[@dady1981]

this is absolute gold, i'm starting using LRC and this video explained me everything i needed to do it the right way, simply thanks!

[@tprice01]

Thank you B&H and Scott Kelby

[@pclabots]

Brilliant. I was organizing it by years. I will keep it for my folders because it eases managing backups, but I've reorganized my collections by thema. Much better. In fact I'm rediscovering pictures taken years ago. Thanks !

[@RVNmedic]

By far the best LR organization video I've seen. Bar none. Thank you, thank you!

[@BandH]

Glad we were here to help, thanks for watching!

[@josephortizcruz7020]

The most perfect introductory Lightroom course. You have given the best explanation of how to organize Lightroom. Thank you so much for clearing up all my doubts.

[@veece7846]

Scott you have no idea how grateful I am for this video thank you !!!!

[@stevebanks484]

Brilliant - thank you Scott. I’m not a pro and maybe won’t use everything here but there are certain events I do for friends, or wildlife using bursts, there is so much I can use to make life easier using LRC and some of the functions/organisational methods you have described. 👍👏

[@BandH]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@bl8550]

Wow! I have used folders for years. Scott presented the best argument to use collections instead: photos are available in any module. Excellent presentation.

[@GirdHerd]

Incredible, Scott. Thank you so much.

[@JohnRussellHodge_progtwit]

Great presentation. I have taken abourt 4 weeks to sort ALL my photos as per this approach. I feel in control of my digital library for the first time!!

[@BandH]

Yes, we love to hear that! Glad it was helpful for you.

[@michellethomas1379]

Thank-you this was the best video and instruction on how to organize your photos. I've been struggling with this for about a year and I know feel focused and feel I can do this. Very helpful. 🙂

[@AnandKumar-zj3me]

Just what one needs to keep things in order. Wish i had seen this earlier. Thanks much

[@pukimaa]

Always struggled with organizing my photos, since I am a Lightroom Noob. This Talk is really good and truly teaches you the best practices. Also loved the dynamic of the whole talk by Scott Kelby, and his humor.

[@BandH]

Scott always brings it.

[@davidalanmedia]

Awesome Scott. This is exactly what I needed to organize Lightroom. Thank you!

[@jab9100]

This was an excellent video. I have been using LR for years, but in an unorganized manner & I finally decided that I would like to organize everything. This video was exactly what I needed. Good to know somethings I was good 😊 & what I need to improve on.

[@roconn4u]

Uber professional master of photos who shares insightful and critical wisdom all to the benefit of others!... Thank you, Scott, the video plus the pdf sets you apart from the rest...

[@peterkornaukhov9990]

Wonderful video, thank you so much. It works 'out of the box' - for all the photo amateurs who want to really uprise their skill level.

[@BandH]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@MarkBTomlinson]

Perfect presentation, knowledgable, concise and above all fun. Thank you Scott!

[@BandH]

Glad it was helpful for you, thanks for watching!

[@kaitlinhorner9631]

This video saved my life lol. Seriously, my workflow has been so unorganized and this was soooo helpful. Thank you!!!

[@carlvanderweyden9527]

Wow Scott, after many tries I finally have organization of my LR catalog! Thank you for your great presentation!

[@BandH]

Glad this was helpful for you, thanks for watching!

[@gloriagrijincu6801]

This was incredibly helpful! Now I have a good system for organizing my photos. Thank you!

[@alanplatt888]

Wow !!! Lightroom will never be looked upon by me, in the same way again. "We always do it that way" is a poster from one of my work places. I tells me how static people can be. Scott you're a Lightroom Legend.

[@BandH]

Glad you learned something new, thanks for watching!

[@lakegirlroxy9852]

WOW! Great educational video. The best ever. Thank you

[@atephoto]

This is one of your best videos since ever. Thanks B&H and thanks a lot Scott :)

[@BandH]

Glad you liked it, thanks for watching!

[@sylvaindupuis5595]

I guess that I have been waiting for this a long time. I follow many of the organisation step mentioned, but not the collection and even if I saw other presentations about it, it never made as much sense as in this video. Thanks.

[@brianhetrick4167]

I watched this video. I downloaded the SLIM guide. I am from Cleveland and to the best of my knowledge I've never seen a hard drive die here :)

[@michaelspahn3675]

Used LrC so long with the date thing, your style with named collections is so helpful, thx a lot!

[@darrellkc48]

This was like getting a life saving emergency ring thrown to me when I had fallen overboard. And the presentation was not only important and to the point, but entertaining as well. Thank you Scott! I am off to buy a second new external hard drive and then connect it to the cloud.

[@michaeljernigan9800]

I am glad I watched this. This really simplifies my process. I was always struggling with picture management and disk space. This makes so much sense. I was going down the path of creating a new catalog for every trip that I went on (I do underwater photography mostly) mostly to free up disk space, but this works so much better. In just under an hour I have freed up so much space on my laptop.

[@BandH]

Glad this was really helpful for you, thanks for watching!

[@rockchester1]

Scott- I started out with LRC so long ago but switched to Capture One after getting frustrated with doubles problems and that C1 thumbnails seemed more vibrant. I hung on to LR for over a year but did not use it - with the exception of visiting PS occasionally- until I viewed this video. A game changer for me! I am one of those who used to separate folders by dates because I couldn't figure out another better way,. It cost me alot of effort and reaped very poor results. I now put all my pics in collections in LR where they should have been from the beginning and I am sorting all my collections into pics. 5-star, and full shoot! I dumped C1 that was 3xs the cost since LR does everything I need it to do... and more. Now, pressing on to sorting all my over 100000 pics into collections. I must admit that I still run my files thru duplicate files cleaner before I download them in LRC - just to be sure. If you are new to LR- you are lucky you viewed this video first!

[@syuganov]

I use a different approach to stars. 5-stars is the lifelong best of all portfolio stuff - what should be printed for the post-mortem show (shouldn't be more than ~40 in the whole catalog). 4-stars is what to choose from for open calls for juried shows submissions. 1-star is a first walk through the new shoot (same as you did P in your video). 1 is not garbage (garbage is X, and will be deleted, no stars could remain on disk, but wasn't selected for anything). 2-stars - the best among initially selected, and marked with 1s first (Selects in yours) - that will be edited and presented to the customer (if they want more, there are more - 1s). 1 and 2 is about one session. 3 elevates it to be considered for selection across different shoots - candidates for the topic/book about a particular subject (when you need more than 10-20 total).

[@WilliamBay]

I do something similar. 5 Star - best of the best. 4 Star - best of series. 3 Star - deliverable. I don't use 1 and 2 star. But now that I have 30+ years of photography, I might do something more along the lines of what you have.

[@denisemc607]

Expert presentation delivered with humor and style - you are a gem and a true talent. 💓 Tried LR4 and gave up - preKZbin where you can learn anything. BTW: I also said 2 star - 2 feet at home and love you gave the a tip xx

[@michaelmcmullan8039]

This is a game changer. Thanks for sharing this. The only thing I would hesitate with are picking my landscapes quickly, as for me they will need to be studied a bit more, but for everything else, I'll be using this system.

[@richardterrell5309]

I think this is really the most useful and practical, it so easy to error with a folder and not realise t ill after. I have got your point about, Categories…thank you!

[@yanniksteiger7286]

Thank you so much Scott, that video is just great. It was fun and informative and I learned really lots of useful stuff for LrC organisation

[@BandH]

Glad you found it helpful, thanks for watching!

[@dustyjackson586]

Scott, I will use this video as a reference as you did a great job explaining when, why and how to organize my photos in LRc.

[@BandH]

Glad it was helpful for you, thanks for watching!

[@KeithDouglasgoggle]

Thank you Scott.

[@RogerJones-mountfield]

Brilliant, just wish I had seen this video when it first came out, thank you so much Scott!

[@BandH]

Thanks for watching!

[@tisoyaga]

One of the best explanation I've watched on LRC Management.

[@BandH]

Glad this was helpful, thanks for watching!

[@GabrielFereira]

You are simple the best Scott...

[@joaquimsebastiao889]

Fantastic your video, man. Congrats. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 the first one that I could understand.

[@courtneyfoster4697]

Hi Scott, Dude, its been awhile since we last spoke. I remember when LR first came out and we talked over the phone, LOL, many moons ago.. and after watching this, I just went in and deleted all my collections except for two, and will start over. In addition to that, I shared your post, and advised everyone to watch it. As usual, you re still taking me to school every time i watch one of your podcast or post.

[@joemadden]

I have watched the organizing section 3 times now. Awesomeness!!!! THANK YOU!!!! I no longer have anxiety by staring at my library!!

[@BandH]

Glad Scott's presentation was able to help you out! Thanks for watching.

[@jacobusdegroot7557]

Fantastic, this will help me a lot!

[@toreaasland8085]

Amazing Scott. I will absolute change some in my workflow.

[@lesleyhickinbotham3876]

Thank you so much, what a fantastic presentation! I must have watched hours and hours of videos, but in this one it all finally makes sense. It's so easy when you know how. All I have to do now is make my LRC look like that.

[@BandH]

Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching!

[@jerianlewis1708]

This is a wonderful tutorial ... really learnt so much from organizing photos. I had wished he showed how to export Collections in LRC ...

[@brickmier]

I recently started using Backblaze for my whole system.CCC to back up my "photo storage drive" to a second external

[@EssexLadOutdoors]

Excellent video, really appreciate this being uploaded!

[@BandH]

Glad it was helpful!

[@AliasJimWirth]

Man did I need this! Hugh Thanks Scott..and B&H!

[@BandH]

Glad we got the right video to help you out.

[@theyellowsparks]

You are a life saver!!!!!

[@khaledanan59]

Thank you so much for the great presentation, I learned al lot from it and started to implement, it is really simple and perfect system

[@BandH]

Glad you learn something new, thanks for watching!

[@lynettemcg3899]

This will change my life. 23 years of photos by date 😂😂. B think it will be worth it. Thank you so much. Love your tutorials x

[@BandH]

Glad this video was able to help you out, thanks for watching!

[@odedia]

Great session, great information. Honestly, it just convinced me to stick to Apple Photos for the time being. The cloud sync and not having to manage the actual location of the files, plus the "Optimize Storage" option makes it so much better at organizing. It's not as powerful in adjustments but it's 80% there.

[@edwardbarbieri5283]

Exactly what I needed to organize my photo storage confusion! Many thanks Scott.

[@BandH]

Glad we're here to help you out, thanks for watching!

[@HighClassTupsi]

Really great video! You're right! I really learned everything I needed to know. Bye bye folders!

[@markham56]

As a programmer, I was always amazed at how many names organizations gave to the same thing. As a result, those things got different names in the software.

[@mediapodio]

Thank you so much!

[@DeepSixCycles]

Wow! I am so glad I found this! My hobby workflow has been similar to this using folders locally and Photoshop Express. I am moving into Lightroom and was appalled by the thought of organizing by date or having just one catalog. One catalog makes sense and your collection system is similar to how I do my folders and sub folders. I love it! Thanks for the great video!

[@armadillawaxworks1248]

Found it. Great handout!

[@Yellowdragon316]

Thanks! I really needed this!

[@BandH]

Glad it was helpful for you!

[@laurenrupar4666]

This is excellent -- thank you! Only thing, and I have learned this is SO CRITICAL! Don't COPY your images from your card to your drive. CUT AND PASTE. You will never lose an image or wonder if you downloaded something by doing this! DO. NOT. COPY. you copy, you can never be sure that you actually off-loaded those images. thank you for this video! so helpful!

[@timfarrell426]

There is a lot of really sage advice in this workshop. It helped me eliminate my analysis paralysis mentality of organizing my work. Just curious if anyone has any insight on differentiating between Film and Digital with this workflow?

[@veeboogie2356]

I feel my LR is always organized I can’t wait to see what I can do more of.

[@StevenSmith-nq5xe]

Outstanding and essential. No refund necessary-this was brilliant!

[@BandH]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@jamilor]

I have all my photos on an internal NVMe drive, with backups happening to a NAS on my home network. This works well for me, as my internal drive is far larger than the total size of my photos, I get to pick the quality of the internal storage, and I can easily expand capacity in the future if I need to.

[@EZdollahs]

I haven’t even downloaded Lightroom yet but I watched this entire video. Bravo for great organization tips!

[@BandH]

You'll be starting off on the right foot then!

[@MarttiSuomivuori]

I wish I had the discipline to do exactly that. I think I'll watch this one again.

[@francoisdugois3634]

Great presentation Scott. In addition to your advice about not locating the catalog on an external drive: As a newbie who's migrated (back) from LR to LRC for catalog reason, for some reason the initial catalog LRC created (or found from a previous install?) was located on my Windows OneDrive. Not a good choice ! Onedrive ended up synching tens of thousands of miniature files and clog up the PC performance, which is not stellar to begin with. Perhaps this is not an issue to most, or a no-no for beginners... but I thought I'd share the experience

[@hiortintexasracing]

This was so good ! Thanks for all this tips!

[@BandH]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@abilashkp2243]

Thanks a lot for clearing my clutter in my LR workspace..🙂

[@mauriciogarfield7122]

I have 2 computers that I use, so that's the reason I keep the catalog on the external drive. Modern SSD drives on USB 3 or USB-C are quite fast. Alternatively some cloud storage providers allow synchronizing folders between computers. This could work for the catalogs although they are very sensitive and synchronizing may corrupt them. Therefore catalog backups are the ultimate rescue indeed.

[@ponymoore6140]

Brilliant! Now I have a lot of work to do :)

[@Vicvines]

In terms of backups, I use iDrive which isn't affiliated with Apple, it's just the name. If you live in an area with poor internet speeds, with an annual plan they will send you an HDD once a year and you can put all your stuff on it, ship it back, and in about a week you will have everything on their cloud. Then you will only have to upload current work rather than uploading years of work.

[@NeilSlater]

Thanks Scott. I switched to collections, but when I use "Enhance" or "edit in" I hardly ever then get that version added to the collection. I have to go back to folder, find it, and then add it manually to the collection. This is going to make me have to switch back if I can't figure out how to fix this

[@rsundram]

I learnt soooooo much. Thank you

[@darekpro6117]

great one. thanks a ton!

[@WeekendMilesx]

Excellent tips, great talk!

[@BandH]

Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching!

[@Clogmonger]

I love the editing tools but was going to give up on the mess I was creating with storage. Definitely going to try organizing before I jump ship lol