Participating Frequently

Question

Creating a folder which will mirror a Collection

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 28, 2021
3 replies
777 views

My project: Create a folder (which will be used in a slideshow for a photo frame) which shows the photos in chronological order. In this particular instance I am actually creating 5 folders because the device I'm using will only allow 1000 images in a folder, and I want a total of 5000 images in the slideshow. I know I can create 5 collections in LRC and add the photos (based on creation date) to the appropriate collections.

What I want to know is if there is an easy way to copy to corresponding files to the 5 folders I have created, based on the images in the collections? At this point, the only way I know is to use the collections to identify the appropriate files, then to move the files - one by one - into the corresponding folders. Does LRC have any functionality which will allow you to create a folder that mimics a collection? Thank you

How to

This topic has been closed for replies.

ManiacJoe

Inspiring

Viewing edits inside vs outside of Lightroom is the catch. To see the edits outside of LR, you need to export the images to a new file, JPG or otherwise. The fun part about the export folders is that it they can be organized differently than the folders of the original images.

Since my final outputs end up on Smugmug.com for both family and the public, my temporary export folders are next to the original images folders. However, if I was outputing edits for local viewing, I would create a network-shared folder/drive that was organized best for the viewers, which may or may not resemble how the images are organized in Lightroom.

R

randymaddenAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hmm. This is intruiging. So if I understand correctly: I keep all originals in one big, lumped-together folder - for my use only. Then I create collections via LRC for whatever reasons (my photoframe, my wife's viewing, etc.). Then I export those collections to folders organized for my wife's optimal viewing? That could work. Thank you!!

dj_paige

Legend

I'm not sure anyone here (or anywhere else) has suggested one huge folder with all of your photos. One parent folder with many subfolders is a good idea but not one huge folder with all of your photos.

Very large folders will result in slowdowns, this is the operating system causing it, it has to do more work to find files or display files in folders with huge number of files.

ManiacJoe

Inspiring

Jao has you pointed in the right direction.

Folders are where the images permanently reside on your hard drive. Organizing by date seems to work best for most people. Do it once and leave them there. Any other associations are best left to keywords and collections.

In your case, creating collections to represent your output folders is the good answer. Then just export each collection into the desired folder.

R

randymaddenAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you both for your replies. Ultimately I will implement your suggestions. As for the "base" organization of my collection - if it was only me using them, that's exactly what I'd do (lump them all into one folder and organize simply by LRC collection). Unfortunately that's not an option. I only have LRC on my computer and it's already killing me that I have to give Adobe $10 a month to use it. I'm retired on a fixed income, I'm not a professional photographer, just an ordinary user with over 39,000 photos to manage (yeah, I like to take pictures and the advent of digital means I have no natural contraints).

But my wife will frequently want to view certain photos and 1) I'm not about to pay for a second license, and 2) having her come to my computer every time she want to look at photos isn't practical (our whole uses desktop computers, not laptops). When she wants to find pictures she'll typically ask something like: "Where are the pictures from the boys' 2nd birthday?", or "Where are pictures from last Halloween?". Things like that. So I have no choice but to organize them on disk in an easily findable manner.

Thanks again for your suggestions. I didn't know you could create on-disk folders simply by exporting collections. This will make things much easier for me. Now I only face the "simple" task of assigning about 15,000 missing or incorrect creation dates, ONE AT A TIME, so that I can sort them chronologically. Good thing I have a lot free time on my hands right now!

dj_paige

Legend

The suggestion from @Jao vdL does not require a second license, and will work even if you let your current subscription end.

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

Why would you want to do this? Just use 5 collections and export your files from there into separate folders and copy trhose onto your device. No need to put them into folders inside Lightroom.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded