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fight_on!
Participant
July 11, 2023
Question

Pictures and Videos in separate folders?

  • July 11, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 816 views

Hello All-

 

I have finally decided to undertake the unenviable task of pulling together all my pictures and videos from what seems like a 100 different places/devices and consolidating everything into 1 Lightroom library.

 

I have been thinking through folder organization before I begin the process and I have seen where people have top level folders of;

 

Pictures>blah>blah>blah

Videos>blah>blah>blah

 

I don't understand why some are doing this.  I am leaning towards main folder is year, then month and then in each month have folders for different events like:

 

Kids 5th Birthday

Trip to Montana

1st Day of School

 

with both pictures and videos together in let's say "Trip to Montana".

 

Why would I want videos of my trip to Montana in an entirely separate folder, location versus being with the pictures from the trip?

 

Thanks in advance....

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
July 11, 2023

My personal opinion: no need for separate video and picture folders, and effort to create these is a waste of time. Why? Because LrC (and your operating system too) has no trouble showing you only the videos, or only the photos, even if they are all mixed up together in the same folder.

 

My second personal opinion: folders by capture date is a good idea, it is a LightrooM Classic default, it does this automatically and there is no effort on your part when you import images. It is a simple and brainless tool to help you put your photos in a good folder structure. But ... other metadata in the folder name is not a good approach, metadata goes in the LrC catalog, and this can be written into the photo files (or the sidecar files in case of a RAW image). This allows much more flexibility in organizing and searching, than if the metadata ("Trip to Montana") is in the folder name.

F
fight_on!Author
Participant
July 11, 2023

Thank you for the prompt response and clear explanation.

 

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.  I fully intend to put/use meta data in the catalog.

 

I am going to put meta data in EVERY picture.  I'm doing this once and doing it right that's why I am trying to think this all the way through so I don't get 1/3 of the way and realize I should've done it differently.

 

Thanks again...

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
July 11, 2023

Good to hear you plan to use metadata, and do this for every photo. I like it. 

 

I will point out that with metadata in the catalog (as opposed to metadata in folder names), switching things around is easy if you do happen to get 1/3 of the way through and then decide you don't like it, or then you decide you have thought of something better. That has happened to me from time to time, as my photography interests grow, I need to modify the keyword hierarchy, or move keyword XYZ to somewhere else in heirarchy, it's pretty simple, a lot simpler than renaming folders and moving photos from here to there.

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