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march52368065
Participant
March 7, 2024
Question

Keyworded images in Lightroom - Searched in Bridge

  • March 7, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 641 views

Hi,

 

I have been using Lightroom as a catalogue to keyword and quickly find/view images. These keywords are only written to the catalogue and not to the actual image metadata.

 

I would like to be able to use Bridge to search by keyword and quickly find/view these images.

 

I have tried using the dropdown in Lightroom (see screenshot), this assigns the keywords to the image metadata. However, I can't search for the image by keyword in bridge until I have opened that specific folder/image in Bridge. Once opened I am able to search and view by keyword.

 

The issue is I have a over 10k images that are in various folders that I need to quickly access in Bridge via keywords. Is there a more time efficient way to assign the keywords from the Lightroom catalogue to the images and view in Bridge without manually opening each file in Bridge.

 

I hope this makes sense and appreciate any ideas.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    gary_sc
    Community Expert
    gary_scCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 7, 2024

    Please, which LR are you using: Lightroom Desktop or Lightroom Classic?

    M
    march52368065Author
    Participant
    March 7, 2024

    Classic

    M
    march52368065Author
    Participant
    March 8, 2024

    Hi, @march52368065, I was focused on everything else and missed your statement of wanting to keep your catalog on your iCloud drive. Like Lumigraphics said: do not do that. 

     

    What is your goal of accessing your files at both work and at home? Just to see them? Do you plan on continuing to enhance the images? Do you wish to use the images for other projects?

     

    Either way, I can think of two ways to achieve that, but neither is perfect, and one of these might be better for you or neither. 

     

    #1) Before the internet, I used to lug my Fat Mac (the 512 kb Mac, circa 1986) back and forth from work to home to work to home. Later, when I got a Mac for work, I then lugged my external hard drive back and forth. Back in those days, it was not light, but this worked. Nowadays, you can get external drives that are small and weigh nothing. Consider putting your files and catalog on an external drive and carrying that back and forth with you. I STRONGLY suggest if you use this approach that you have a (at least) 2nd external drive that you back up every day (which you should be doing anyway).

     

    #2) If you do not need EVERY file, consider putting any necessary files in a Collection and sync that to the clouds. I do that with photos that I wish to share. When you open these files in Lightroom for Web, you can still make the same adjustments, that you can do in LRC, and those adjustments will be passed on to the same files on the primary computer. However, the web version cannot export to PS for further enhancements, you cannot download the original file, and any export of a jpg will be at a smaller size than the original (2408 x 1365). (If the file came from your phone, you can export the original DNG from that image but without any enhancements you made in LRW). Yes, this is a bit complicated. FWIW, I use Collections to share my travel photos with friends, but not much else. However, my needs are much less than yours.

     

    I'm sure there are other options out there, but at least these give you some room for thought.

     

    I hope this provides some ideas for you. 


    Gary thanks so much for taking the to help with this. 

    I only need to view the images but quickly. I can download any file at home from the NAS using a VPN. But sometimes I need to reference images I've done in the past to organise shoots of the same category. 

    Option 2 sounds like a good idea for me. I will give it a go when I get more time.

     

    many thanks

     

    Marc

    L
    Lumigraphics
    Legend
    March 7, 2024

    Assign all the keywords and export in LR. Use View->Show items from subfolders in Bridge to display everything and wait until the Bridge cache is build anfd everything indexed.

    Be aware that there are bugs between dc:subject and lr:hierarchicalSubject (where keywords are stored) so only use one app or the other to make changes to keywords. Otherwise you can end up with a huge mess.

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