How many images do you normally keep in your Lightroom catalogue?

[ancient_mariner]

I've been using Lightroom since before christmas, and understandably, have hundreds of images, both finished and unfinished in there. Is it generally considered best to work on your images ASAP, export as a finished 16bit TIFF and then remove the image from the catalogue, or is it OK to just keep them in there in case you fancy further edits? The impression I get is that some people have tens of thousands, but that could be *just* an impression.

 

[Jimmy_Lemon]

I start a new catalogue every year, but most of them are around 25,000 in each (some much more, some less).

 

[ancient_mariner]

Thanks Tom. I've become a little nervous because I began using Cyberlink Photodirector around the same time as Lightroom, and after a couple of months that particular application 'forgot' all the images and changes that had been through it and reset itself. Not a disaster because I'd mostly moved to LR, but it did some effects (has a pseudo-HDR setting) that had been really useful, and I'd not exported a finished image at that time.

So as a general rule, do you just leave your 'finished ' images in the catalogue or do you export them too, even if you don't need to use them yet?

 

[Jimmy_Lemon]

I just leave them in there. Export them if I am sending them to a client or uploading etc, then delete the exported ones when send/uploaded and just keep them all happily in the catalogue....never had it go wrong or forget anything

 

[boyfalldown]

I have one catalog for each type of job - weddings, boudoir, portraits etc etc but they're now in the 50k+ images range.No problems, I do delete rejects from both the catalog and storage though

 

[Stevie-]

I have a seperate catalogue for each and every shoot.
All serial numbered so they can be cross references against the diary and paper forms.

 

[boyfalldown]

I have a seperate catalogue for each and every shoot.

Doesn't that cause you issues with portfolio type tasks, or at least slow you down. I also guess it may cause you processing time issues- you can't work on another job while the first is exporting for example

 

[Jimmy_Lemon]

I have a seperate catalogue for each and every shoot.
All serial numbered so they can be cross references against the diary and paper forms.

Would just putting each shoot into a new collection in one catalogue not make things much easier/quicker? As Hugh says it would allow you to work on other stuff while one job is exporting etc.

 

[Stevie-]

Doesn't that cause you issues with portfolio type tasks, or at least slow you down. I also guess it may cause you processing time issues- you can't work on another job while the first is exporting for example

Definitely slows down Portfolio type tasks for sure. Thats why the website etc doesn't get updated as often as a like but its more beneficial to have things in nice tidy boxes. I turned over 67 portrait sittings and a wedding in 14 days recently, we are up to 1500+ shoots. Organisation is key.

The exporting of 30-50(+) jpegs after processing does take up some time but doesn't slow the process down that much. There is always something else to be doing!

Exporting wedding photos just gets done overnight.

We also have the importing of files done on a different computer that puts them in a drive that all
computers share. duplicate catalogues are not an issue as the import computer is never used for editing.

 

[Byker28i]

I currently have around 120K images in my catalogue without issues...

 

[Stevie-]

Would just putting each shoot into a new collection in one catalogue not make things much easier/quicker? As Hugh says it would allow you to work on other stuff while one job is exporting etc.

Say i import 300 images from a shoot. The process is this.


New catalogue created named ALS1569 (unique shoot ref number)
Files imported to shared drive placed in folder ALS1569 RAW and renamed ALS1569-**** according to camera naming system.
When it comes to processing for viewing on editing machine a new LR cat created ALS1569 and files added from shared source.
Take a pick from files by flagging 'good' ones and a smart cat created with these.
Edit images and export to "shoots" folder, again shared.

This means that everyone on staff (5 of us) knows where things are, where they should be, can fix mistakes in naming etc.

It also means that going back to images to re-edit for print etc is much simpler.


I'm not saying this is THE BEST way to do it but its a process that work for us.

Raw files are never touched or moved until the are eventually bumped after a period of time.

 

[dinorock]

28000 in mine no problems, as above just start a new year. all folders are saved by date/ file numbers as i'm not a pro so can just work around the dates and usually find stuff pretty quick, hth mike.

 

[bass_junkie83]

I have never really got my head around the catalogues and collections. All I know is that every photo I have ever taken has been imported into lightroom, and is still there.

 

[droj]

Everything of mine to date has gone into the one catalogue - not sure what the point might be of having more. And I keep my RAW's AND any tiff conversions. Storage is relatively cheap.

The catalogue as I understand it is just the database for LR's internal purposes rather than for the direct purpose of the user? Image files however are structured in FOLDERS, thus to work on a file in LR you open up its FOLDER, not the whole blooming catalogue.

 

[Jimmy_Lemon]

Say i import 300 images from a shoot. The process is this.


New catalogue created named ALS1569 (unique shoot ref number)
Files imported to shared drive placed in folder ALS1569 RAW and renamed ALS1569-**** according to camera naming system.
When it comes to processing for viewing on editing machine a new LR cat created ALS1569 and files added from shared source.
Take a pick from files by flagging 'good' ones and a smart cat created with these.
Edit images and export to "shoots" folder, again shared.

This means that everyone on staff (5 of us) knows where things are, where they should be, can fix mistakes in naming etc.

It also means that going back to images to re-edit for print etc is much simpler.


I'm not saying this is THE BEST way to do it but its a process that work for us.

Raw files are never touched or moved until the are eventually bumped after a period of time.

Sounds like a nice setup As you say if it works then no need to change it.

 

[hollis_f]

The catalogue as I understand it is just the database for LR's internal purposes rather than for the direct purpose of the user? Image files however are structured in FOLDERS, thus to work on a file in LR you open up its FOLDER, not the whole blooming catalogue.

Er, nope. I open up the catalog, then I might open a collection, or a folder (sorry FOLDER) or I may search the catalog for a particular image, or set of images. However, whichever method I choose, the first step is to open the blooming catalogue.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Brilliant, thanks guys. I'll leave 'em where they are then & just extract images as required.

 

[Mikesphotaes]

165,070, so far.

Mind you I had to build a computer that would cope with speed issues!

 

[meonshore]

Just over 180,000 - but then that is just most of the last 4 years. I have a catalogue for work before then, which I'm less likely to refer to.

That is backed up automatically by LR, and so I'm unlikely to lose catalogue information as that is also mirrored as are my images, and other important files.

I'm not significantly worried about the performance at that volume.

 

[Byker28i]

The catalogue as I understand it is just the database for LR's internal purposes rather than for the direct purpose of the user? Image files however are structured in FOLDERS, thus to work on a file in LR you open up its FOLDER, not the whole blooming catalogue.

Not quite sure that's right.

The catalogue stores:

1. A reference to where the photo is on your system
2. Instructions for how you want to process the photo
3. Metadata, such as ratings and keywords that you apply to photos to help you find or organize them
   

As such you will indeed require to open the catalogue. When you import photos into Lightroom, you create a link between the photo itself and the record of the photo in the catalogue. Then, any work you perform on the photo — such as adding keywords or removing red eye — is stored in the photo's record in the catalogue as additional metadata.

Within Lightroom I import with keywords, to help with metadata searches. Lightroom imports into a folder of the date the image was created, so I have yearly folders (2012, 2013, 2014 etc) with the date subfolders with the raw (unprocessed) images in underneath.

Within Lightroom I use Collections. These have Main Collection sets of Car, Sport, Family, OCA etc, then sub collection sets of year and the sub collections itemised by event. i.e. Car, 2014, Castle Coombe, TVR photoshoot etc.

Usually I find images by drilling through the collection sets, but can also search by metadata, keywords,, date etc.

For the physical disks I have 3 x 600Gb WD Raptor drives (operating system, Lightroom cache and catalogue, and this years raw) & 2 x 3Tb Sata drives for splitting the other years raw files onto.
I then have another 2Tb drive for exported Jpegs and other data.

All this is backed up to a 12Tb Nas system weekly, and two other 3Tb removable USB drives taken offsite monthly.

With a pair of 6 core Xeon processors and 20Gb of Ram and my disk setup, I don't find I have any performance issues running my 120K catalogue.

 

[droj]

When you import photos into Lightroom, you create a link between the photo itself and the record of the photo in the catalogue. Then, any work you perform on the photo — such as adding keywords or removing red eye — is stored in the photo's record in the catalogue as additional metadata.

Yes, of course, but when I open a folder in LR I'm just opening that folder - and that folder (as do others) refences the catalogue, but isn't itself the catalogue ...

 

[hollis_f]

Yes, of course, but when I open a folder in LR I'm just opening that folder - and that folder (as do others) refences the catalogue, but isn't itself the catalogue ...

But you have to open the catalogue before you can open the folder?!

 

[Byker28i]

Yes, of course, but when I open a folder in LR I'm just opening that folder - and that folder (as do others) refences the catalogue, but isn't itself the catalogue ...

Try moving your catalogue in file explorer and see if you can use Lightroom. (hint-you can't, it'll ask you where the catalogue is or ask you to create a new one)

 

[droj]

Try moving your catalogue ...

I have no need to do that! Your test is pointless!

But you have to open the catalogue before you can open the folder?!

No - when LR opens, it immediately shows what's in the folder I accessed last. From there, I can access the whole cat if I want to, but why would I? I don't want to scroll through millions of images. The whole cat never needs to be visible as far as my work processes are concerned - it's just a background resource.

 

[Furtim]

I have no need to do that! Your test is pointless!


No - when LR opens, it immediately shows what's in the folder I accessed last. From there, I can access the whole cat if I want to, but why would I? I don't want to scroll through millions of images. The whole cat never needs to be visible as far as my work processes are concerned - it's just a background resource.

When you open Lightroom up, you are opening the entire catalog. Within that catalog, you are then viewing the contents of one folder.

Opening the catalog itself is not a big deal in terms of processing - it's not loading in the images or anything - just getting basic info about the database as a whole, including the last folder you viewed. It then pops you directly into the folder, and reads the detailed information for the images you want to display.

I think there's some confusion that you might be suggesting skipping lightroom and opening the underlying OS folder directly when you talk of 'folders' versus 'catalog'.

 

[Furtim]

I've been using Lightroom since before christmas, and understandably, have hundreds of images, both finished and unfinished in there. Is it generally considered best to work on your images ASAP, export as a finished 16bit TIFF and then remove the image from the catalogue, or is it OK to just keep them in there in case you fancy further edits? The impression I get is that some people have tens of thousands, but that could be *just* an impression.

I've just over 18,000 images in my catalog going back for many years. I keep them all in the same catalog.

My basic workflow is:

• Import into an 'unsorted' folder, letting Lightroom create data based folders (one per day).
• Cull quite harshly.
• Create a new folder in Lightroom, based on event type/location (Holiday/Cornwall, Outdoors/Snowdon etc), and move the photographs out of 'unsorted' into the specific folder and take the opportunity to tag them on the map too.
• I'll also tag the images with additional relevant info (names of people in them, other interesting notes etc).

It's important for me that they are all in the one catalog as I will make extensive use of the database capabilities to locate the pictures I want. If I want to see all pictures taken on a given weekend - use the date search; all the pictures with my wife in, use the tag search, all pictures taken with a particular lens? Use the meta data search.

I often go back too to re-edit old photos. Especially when it's raining! It also allows me to take a different view on an old subject so I would never remove a 'keeper' from the library.

 

[Byker28i]

I have no need to do that! Your test is pointless!

I think you are getting a little confused with the terminology and I explained a little in post 20. The problem occurs when using the word catalogue to describe the collection of images within Lightroom. The catalogue isn't the display of thumbnails you get when you select all photos in the library module. The Catalogue is the database that stores the metadata about the images and the information about the adjustments you make. This is why it is called collections within Lightroom.

The test wasn't pointless, but to prove that the catalogue is the first thing opened by lightroom. Without it lightroom will prompt for it's location or ask you to create a new one. I was trying to explain in response to:

Image files however are structured in FOLDERS, thus to work on a file in LR you open up its FOLDER, not the whole blooming catalogue.

Within lightroom, you are adjusting the metadata and showing a preview of the changes that would be made when you export and so create a new image. At that point your changes are applied

No - when LR opens, it immediately shows what's in the folder I accessed last. From there, I can access the whole cat if I want to, but why would I? I don't want to scroll through millions of images. The whole cat never needs to be visible as far as my work processes are concerned - it's just a background resource.

It does indeed show the last image you accessed. Thats a programming nicity.

So you have the lightroom catalogue (.lrcat) and the previews (.lrdata) and your images (wherever you told Lightroom they were when you imported them).
There's also the preview cache (and in Lightroom 5 smart preview). Lightroom stores the cache data for the Previews in a file next to your catalog in a filed named [Catalog name] Previews.lrdata. When you view or edit raw images in the Develop module, Lightroom will generate previews using the original image data and then updating the preview for any processing or adjustments that have been applied. The process is a little faster if the original image data is in the Camera Raw cache, so Lightroom checks there first to see if it can skip some of the raw processing.

I hope that explains more

 

[droj]

When you open Lightroom up, you are opening the entire catalog.

Ok - I yield gracefully!

 

[Jayst84]

Just shy of 200,000 images in the one catalogue. No exported images anywhere, they all get deleted after they're delivered to the client - no point keeping them as a waste of hard drive space. Think it's a few years since I last exported a TIFF file as well.