Hi all,I'm looking for a particular feature that I am sure must be there somewhere.I shoot a bunch of photos, and then create sequences with collections. One photo can end up in several sequences/collections.I usually add a bunch of photos that might fit, and then filter out the ones that don't. I found the flags feature very useful, but for two reasons it didn't work at all:It's not useable at all if a photo is in several collections. It might work well for one, and not fit into another. I would like to keep the photo in the collection while I'm still deliberating.The flags and rejects also appear in the main catalogue, which was not my intention, and it only makes browsing confusing.Same with color tags.I get around that problem by just using two collections - "Series X" amd "Series X - Publish". But this gets tedious fast if I want to keep the 2 in sync.Isn't there a per-collection flag feature? LIke if you clicked the flag/reject button, but it only saved for the current collection.Thanks!

Participating Frequently

Question

Per-collection flags, or alternatives?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
August 10, 2018
3 replies
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Hi all,

I'm looking for a particular feature that I am sure must be there somewhere.

I shoot a bunch of photos, and then create sequences with collections. One photo can end up in several sequences/collections.

I usually add a bunch of photos that might fit, and then filter out the ones that don't. I found the flags feature very useful, but for two reasons it didn't work at all:

It's not useable at all if a photo is in several collections. It might work well for one, and not fit into another. I would like to keep the photo in the collection while I'm still deliberating.
The flags and rejects also appear in the main catalogue, which was not my intention, and it only makes browsing confusing.

Same with color tags.

I get around that problem by just using two collections - "Series X" amd "Series X - Publish". But this gets tedious fast if I want to keep the 2 in sync.

Isn't there a per-collection flag feature? LIke if you clicked the flag/reject button, but it only saved for the current collection.

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.

B

bhousto90

Legend

You can try smart collections with keywords:

I first created a keyword set called 'sequence' with individual keywords s1, s2 ..s9 (keywords are set to be non-exporting)

Then created a regular collection "sequence folder" with photos for the initial folder name I was working with.

Add 9 more smart collections with rules for each keyword 's#' plus a rule to select only from the collection with words "sequence folder"

I am then able to use the keyboard shortcuts (Alt-#) or mouse click in the 9 keyword set options in library.

(the 'keyword set' panel allows you to see what sequence has be applied to each photo and toggle them on/off, it gives you 9 virtual flags)

As you work on different projects/folders you only need to remove/ add photos from the main "sequence folder" collection without need to redo all the smart collections each time.

(You can use more than 9 keywords but then you lose the easy keyword shortcuts for 10+)

You can then move photos into other collections and remove these keywords once you have finalized your selection process.

DwarfVaderAuthor

Participating Frequently

Very interesting throughts. Thank you. This is better than using color tags because it allows for working on several collections simultaneously.

However, it's not very easily distinguishable. I tried using this method, but I don't think it's increasing productivity nor decreasing headache by too much.

The idea with stacking is useful - I didn't realise stacks were per-collection. I am using that often now.

In the end, I will stick with the simplest method. I'll have 2 collections for each series/sequence I want:

Series - Birds
Series - Birds ✓

I'll put all candidates into the first folder and filter out only the good ones in the second. I can set the second one as a target collection and just pick and choose which photos to add/remove. It's a shame that the order is not perserved.

In a sense, it is good to have 2 collections like this. I end up not just using the tick mark, but for example have a convention where:

✓ means complete, finalized and published/ready to publish
✓+ means and published, but could use more photos if they appear
✓? means complete, but not sure if should be published, etc.

Just as an example for how I ended up using these.

In the end, I wish Lightroom had:

tags for collections, including som evisual feedback (color labels?)
per-collection flags

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. It seems as if there's not much demand for features like this, since perhaps people are using the software a bit differently. I think if the features existed though, people could discover new ways to use it and be more productive. Maybe?

john beardsworth

Community Expert

DwarfVader wrote
In the end, I wish Lightroom had:
tags for collections, including som evisual feedback (color labels?)
per-collection flags
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. It seems as if there's not much demand for features like this, since perhaps people are using the software a bit differently. I think if the features existed though, people could discover new ways to use it and be more productive. Maybe?

You may be amused to learn that Lightroom used to have per-collection flags!

I forgot about it when I replied earlier, but I remember that they worked just fine. It was changed in version 4 (2012) when per-collection stacking was introduced. I'd still prefer it the way it was!

john beardsworth

Community Expert

You might try stacking in collections - they are per collection.

cmgap

Community Expert

Have you thought about using color labels? Each derivative of a flagged image might have a different color based on the collection it is in?

DwarfVaderAuthor

Participating Frequently

Unfortunately, color labels have the same issue of only being 1-per-image.

But what you are saying, is to create Virtual Copies of each image for each collection I put it into? That makes a lot of sense, actually.

Even if that helps, I'd still like to know if something like what I described is available.

cmgap

Community Expert

You might set up a master smart collection with the base level criteria (flags) to cull the master images and then select a sub group for collection A (red), collection B (blue), collection C (green) etc. while each of these collections will already have the flag you can then add a star rating, a color label or a key word etc.

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