I'm At A Loss

Lawrence

Senior Member
I really need to master LightRooms cataloging,keywording, rating and search functions

Not to mention the "Import" presets etc. to make my life easier

I must do it ...
I need to do it ...
I have the time to do it ...

But I don't feel like doing it right now!
 

nikonpup

Senior Member
50,000 photos in lr, i have no interest other than post processing. Photography for me is fun, post processing is
a necessity evil the other stuff is "work". When i am gone they will most likely chuck my computers into a landfill.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
Good to know I'm not the only one.
But I think I am probably the worst because I only have them in date order and finding any particular photo later is a mission that even Tom Cruise would fail at.
The worst part is i know that it is a result of me being lazy.
As broing as they are foundations are essential to a good building. I am not good at detail but if I can set-up a slightly better step-by-step import routine things may be easier down the track.

For those interested: https://youtu.be/kI53yc0kJVY

Be warned it is 2hrs 10 minutes long. But it is very good, simple and detailed enough but not too much.
 
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nickt

Senior Member
I've been lazy with photography in general. Miserable summer here, hot humid. Lots of home projects too. Thoroughly soaked my clothes most days. So I spent most of my spare time on the couch enjoying the air conditioning when not working my projects. So I know the feeling of not wanting to mess with things.
Anyway, I like to add keywords in stages. It seems like less work. You can tag multiple pictures and apply keywords or use the spray tool to apply. I might tag a whole folder with something like 'lake', school', 'vacation', or a town name, etc. Whatever you can think of that applies to all. Then I break it down from there trying to group as many as possible for a given keyword. After tagging all with a general word, I might go back and add 'bird', 'bug' or people names. You can continue to tag in bulk even if previous key words are already applied, it won't overwrite previous words. So for something tagged 'lake', you can go back later and add 'duck' to a subset of those without affecting the previous words added. And lightroom remembers previous words you have used, so when you start to type the word it comes up as a suggestion. It goes really quick and doing it in waves makes it less tedious for me. Go for one general word, then rest, lol. Then add a few more words when you feel like it. Surprisingly, even one or two words can help you find things later. Once you get started, I think you will get more into it and maybe even enjoy it. I love being able to find stuff.
 

RON_RIP

Senior Member
Would it not be great to have someone who loves to file and sort and catalogue for us. Sorta like a photographer,s secretary. As soon as I hit the lottery I will hire such a person, if such a person exists.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
Would it not be great to have someone who loves to file and sort and catalogue for us. Sorta like a photographer,s secretary. As soon as I hit the lottery I will hire such a person, if such a person exists.

Oh yes wouldn't it - and have them think exactly like us and not tag something the wrong way. ;)
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
I've been lazy with photography in general. Miserable summer here, hot humid. Lots of home projects too. Thoroughly soaked my clothes most days. So I spent most of my spare time on the couch enjoying the air conditioning when not working my projects. So I know the feeling of not wanting to mess with things.
Anyway, I like to add keywords in stages. It seems like less work. You can tag multiple pictures and apply keywords or use the spray tool to apply. I might tag a whole folder with something like 'lake', school', 'vacation', or a town name, etc. Whatever you can think of that applies to all. Then I break it down from there trying to group as many as possible for a given keyword. After tagging all with a general word, I might go back and add 'bird', 'bug' or people names. You can continue to tag in bulk even if previous key words are already applied, it won't overwrite previous words. So for something tagged 'lake', you can go back later and add 'duck' to a subset of those without affecting the previous words added. And lightroom remembers previous words you have used, so when you start to type the word it comes up as a suggestion. It goes really quick and doing it in waves makes it less tedious for me. Go for one general word, then rest, lol. Then add a few more words when you feel like it. Surprisingly, even one or two words can help you find things later. Once you get started, I think you will get more into it and maybe even enjoy it. I love being able to find stuff.

Thanks Nikck - I think I will have to do that with my existing photos but from now on I want to be a lot more organised with imports.
That video I watched was an eye opener and if things are done on importing makes finding them later a whole lot easier.

Now I need to get out and shoot just to test it out.
 

nickt

Senior Member
Oh yes wouldn't it - and have them think exactly like us and not tag something the wrong way. ;)
I could trust my wife or daughter with this. Lightroom missed the ball with the tablet version. I have no urge to edit on a tablet. But to tag or organize on the run would be great. Or better yet hand the tablet to my daughter to earn some gas money
 
I just got started with Lightroom recently in preparation for my vacation. We shot everyday for 2 weeks. Normally a morning shoot, and an afternoon shoot. On several days we had late night shoots. A lot of rocks!!! Keywords and cataloging was very important. I started recently renaming all my files on important. I use the date and number shot that day like this 09-14-15_0004. The last number is sequential starting at 0001 every day. The number is meaningful to me this way. I also keyword the shoot on import with at least 1 keyword like the location. One thing I did on this vacation was to geotag all my photos. With Lightroom it is go easy. I was using GPS4Cam but changed over to GPS tracks during my vacation. These are both iPhone apps. The nice thing about it is that LR makes it so easy. When you get through shooting for the day you stop the app and export it in GPX format to Dropbox. Then in LR you import all your photos as usual. Then select all the photos and go to the map module and load the GPX file and tag the photos.

This is what Lightroom shows you. the is the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.

Capture1.jpg

Here is a zoomed in look at the last stop on the far right. As you see it breaks it down even more as you zoom in.

Capture2.jpg

With the geotag I can go back after the fact and find all sorts of information on where I was.

Also it is great for uploading to Facebook. you can tailor it to whatever size you want and also rename it with custom naming with the EXIF data like this.

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]NIKON D7100 - 24.0-120.0 mm f-4.0 - 1-90 sec at f - 13 - ISO 100 - 36°2'34- N 111°49'42- W[/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]This is all automatic once you upload. [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]What I am doing is getting it right on all new uploads as I go and as I revisit old folders I update them. Also doing a couple of folders every day. This way it is not so overwhelming like it would be to try to get it all done NOW.


[/FONT]
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
Now that is what I call organised [MENTION=6277]Don Kuykendall[/MENTION]

Have to smile though because for me 99.99% of my shots would be in one location.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
This plan was set up due to desperation of years of doing nothing and never being able to find a photo that I needed.

The exact point I am at.

Just tried to do what was done in the video but it (I) messed up. So i went to test my new lens again. Much more fun than getting frustrated. :)
 
I read several different methods of cataloging in LR and talked to a few people who use LR and they told me how to do it. None of them worked for me though. I finally just sat down and decided what I wanted it to do and then set it up that way. What I have decided is that each one of us needs to set it up in a way that makes sense to you


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

SteveH

Senior Member
I have around 15000 shots in my Lightroom catalog and I have a set routine which works for me and is pretty quick.
Before I start the import off, I add all keywords that are applicable to each shot of the import and apply an import preset which applies the lens correction profile, CA removal and automatically corrects the exposure. Once the import is complete, I add keywords that are appropriate to each individual shot.

I then go through and give the shots a star rating - Anything that is 1 star get deleted then I edit the remaining shots. After editing, I revise the star ratings again deleting any 1's.

Like Don, I like the Geotagging too, but I only use it for wildlife - Over time I can build up a picture of where I have taken my best Red Kite / Buzzard shots etc and it has helped with learning their hunting areas etc too.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
I have around 15000 shots in my Lightroom catalog and I have a set routine which works for me and is pretty quick.
Before I start the import off, I add all keywords that are applicable to each shot of the import and apply an import preset which applies the lens correction profile, CA removal and automatically corrects the exposure. Once the import is complete, I add keywords that are appropriate to each individual shot.

I then go through and give the shots a star rating - Anything that is 1 star get deleted then I edit the remaining shots. After editing, I revise the star ratings again deleting any 1's.

Like Don, I like the Geotagging too, but I only use it for wildlife - Over time I can build up a picture of where I have taken my best Red Kite / Buzzard shots etc and it has helped with learning their hunting areas etc too.

This is exactly what I want to do but have yet to work out how to do it all prior to import; such as the keywords and a preset import with lens correction, CA removal and auto exposure.
And I seem to have hidden my star rating.

It sounds like a lot of work but I am sure it saves hours
 

SteveH

Senior Member
This is exactly what I want to do but have yet to work out how to do it all prior to import; such as the keywords and a preset import with lens correction, CA removal and auto exposure.
And I seem to have hidden my star rating.

It sounds like a lot of work but I am sure it saves hours

The Keywords can be inputted on the right hand side of the Import view... Otherwise, you can import without keywords and enter them in the "Library" view by reviewing the pictures in grid mode rather than one pic at a time, and select all the photos, then edit the keywords in the right-hand pane. This will edit the keywords for all the selected photos.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
The biggest problem I have with keywords is trying to establish and use the same ones ... something standard instead of having Landscape, landscapes, views, outdoors ... etc. It's part of the organization process that I'm not as good at, that would make searching easier for me.
 
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