P: Limit Smart Collections to a Collection or Collection Set

I would really like to see the ability to filter based on collection set as a source when adding a rule to a smart collection.

For example i have the following collections structure:
- Private
- Party (45 flagged photos)
- Shared
- Party (60 flagged photos)

If I now want to create a smart collection to get all flagged photos from the party collection inside the private collection set, I have no way to distinguish between both party collections. In other words, I am not able to have collections with the same name, even though they are distinguishable by their parent collection set .

The ability to select a collection set as a source in combination with nested a nested rule that filters the source based on the collection would solve my problems. Without going into more detail, not being able to do this has made it very clunky/labor-intensive to use workflow Lightroom for me.

I would really like to see the ability to filter based on collection set as a source.

For example i have the following collections structure:
- Private
    - Party (45 flagged photos)
- Shared
    - Party (60 flagged photos)

If I now want to create a smart collection to get all flagged photos from the party collection inside the private collection set, I have no way to distinguish between both party collections.

Being able to choose collection set as a source when adding a rule would solve my problems. Without going into more detail, not being able to do this has made it very clunky/labor-intensive to use workflow Lightroom for me.

So how do I apply then smart criteria to all my photos and put that smart collection into the collection set? I think the problem here is the absence of ability to filter location not only by collection and folder, but also by collection set and especially (what is most important to me personaly) - SMART COLLECTION.

I agree, it's not very convenient to setup this extra filter rule, especially having to type the collection name.

It would be more user friendly when you make a smart collection within a collection, this automatically limits it to that collection.

I really hope this will soon be added as a new feature in Lightroom, I see a lot of people with a workflow where they make a collection for a shoot, and make sub-collections with the picks, color labels, ratings. This would be a very appreciated feature.

You will notice the first bullet mentions this, but the process is very clunky. For example, when selecting a smart collection within a collection set, why can't a simple indicator be selected to indicate you want the smart collection to reference ONLY the photos within the set?

Smart collections can be limited to a collection:

Choose Source>Collection

Yeah, many people are frustrated that you can't interactively apply a smart collection to a subset of sources (a folder, collection, collection set). Over many years, Adobe has shown no inclination to improve the mediocre (at best) search features in LR. You used to be able to intersect a smart collection with particular folders, but Adobe removed that in LR 4!

Alternatives that are clunkier but can get the job done, some you are probably aware of:

- You can add the criterion Source > Collection to a smart collection to limit to a particular collection. But you'd have to edit that each time you want to apply it to a different collection. And inexplicably there is no Source > Collection Set criterion.

- You can limit a smart collection to another collection/set or folder in 3 steps: Click on the smart collection in the Collections panel, to display its results. Type Cmd/Ctrl-A to select all of the pics. Then click on the collection/set/folder. At this point the selected photos are exactly those in the collection/set/folder that match the smart collection. Clear the Quick Collection if necessary, and then type "b" to add the selected photos to the Quick Collection.

- Filter presets aren't that inconvenient. Define a filter preset that's equivalent to your smart collection, and you can then freely apply it to a collection/set/folder or even a smart collection. There are three main differences between filter presets and smart collections: 1. Filters have significantly fewer criteria and don't allow for arbitrary and/or combinations. 2. To invoke a filter preset takes 2 mouse clicks, whereas invoking a smart collection takes one click. 3. Filters intersect with the current source, whereas smart collections union with the current source.

- My Any Filter plugin lets you define smart-collection-like searches, with more criteria than smart collections, and you can apply those searches to any collection/set/folder. But it takes 3 keystrokes/clicks to invoke a saved search.