1. FOCUS

2. Organizing Your Photos
Lightroom
Organizing Your Photos
and Smart Collections

3. There are many ways to keep track of your photos.
My workflow revolves around keywords
and Smart Collections

4. Workflow
Import Photos
Add Keywords
Use Smart Collections to find photos

5. Image Organization

6. Image Organization
Images are in folders by year

7. Image Organization
Each year is subdivided into
folders by date

8. Image Organization
Within a folder, the file name of each image includes the date
the image was taken and the file name generated by the camera.
NEF files are
RAW images
XMP files are
“sidecar” files
Date
Filename from camera

9. Image Organization
This image/file organization is created by Lightroom at the
time images are imported from the memory card.

10. Import: File Handling Not done because next step is to backup
entire hard drive.

11. Import: File Renaming

12. Import: File Renaming

13. Import: Develop Preset to Apply

14. Import: Destination This is what makes it work!
Verify that your images are
going where you want
them!

15. Next Step is to add keywords

16. Next Step is to add keywords
It is a bit of a pain, but the effort pays off in the long term.

17. Keywords
Keywords can be a MESS!!

18. Keywords
Keywords can be a MESS!!
Like Mine!

19. Keywords

20. Keywords
Can be organized hierarchically

21. Keywords Add keywords to what we just imported.
Find the keyword in the list, right click on it, and
Click on “Add this keyword to selected photos”
Or add new keywords as needed.

22. Membership is generated by Lightroom based upon
Smart Collections
Membership is generated by Lightroom based upon
selection criteria that you specify.

23. Caveat: Smart Collections are NOT synced to the cloud!
You must use regular collections.

24. Example of how I use a Smart Collection
March Salon topic is “Night Photography”
How do I find all my photos taken at night,
and choose ones to enter in the salon?

25. Create a Smart Collection
Click on the plus sign

26. Create a Smart Collection
Click on Create Smart Collection …

27. Create a Smart Collection
Give it a Name
To choose “keywords” …
Click on down arrow
Click on “Other Metadata”
Click on “Keywords”

28. Create a Smart Collection
Type in name of keyword
Then Save it

29. Smart Collection has been created
That’s a whole lot of images!

30. Refine the Smart Collection
Right click on the collection
Right click on “Edit Smart Collection”
Click on “+” to add new criteria

31. Refine the Smart Collection
That is a whole lot better!

32. Refine the Smart Collection
We don’t want to consider images that we have already entered in a salon!
Keyword assigned to images previously entered
in MVPC salon.
Removed 3 images from consideration!

33. Have I any images that I have already considered?

34. Have I any images that I have already considered?
Using Filters …
Filter
Pick Flag previously
assigned to image
Could also have used these

35. Have I any images that I have already considered?
Refine the Smart Collection …

36. Have I any images that I have already Edited?
Refine the Smart Collection …
One image with a pick flag

37. Have I any images that I have already considered?
Use a keyword?

38. Have I any images that I have already considered?
Use a keyword?
10 Images have had the keyword “Edited”
applied to them.

39. Many parameters are available for including images
into a Smart Collection.
Ratings, pick flag, color labels
Filename, file type
Date
Camera info
Location including GPS data
Edited?
Any searchable text

40. Hint: Do not use blanks in your keyword
Example: “SplitRock” not “Split Rock”
Beware: Keywords in Smart Collection may
match more than you want
Example: “night” will match “knightsbridge”

41. I hope I have given you some ideas on how you might
want to organize your images and utilize keywords in
your workflow.

42. Questions