Question about sorting in LRC

[SeaKoast]

I recently photographed a series of auto races.  I created a folder on my hard drive.  I'll simplify the names here.  I created a folder called 'Auto Race'  Inside that folder I created folders such as Race 1, Race 2, etc.  Each race has a different set of cars, so Race 1 is all Porsches, race 2 is all Lamborghinis etc.   When I moved the photos from my camera to the hard drive, I moved the cars into their respective folders.  Then I imported into LRC.   So far so good.

Now I'd like to create a subfolder in folder 'Race 1" named '12' and put all of the images of car 12 into that folder.  I gave all the photos one star, sorted by attribute to see just car 12.  I can't drag them into the new folder, but I can right click the folder and click 'move selected photo to folder'.   This does add the photos to the new folder '12' but the images remain in the original folder "race 1" .  I do not want them to remain in the original folder, just in folder '12"

I'm trying to seperate the cars into individual folders so that eventually the folder "Race 1" has no images, just sub folders for each car.

I don't want to use collections for the following reason.  Some folders such as "Race 4" have 3000 images.  By adding a series of photos to a collection they obviously remain in the main folder, so each time I sort for the next car, I still have to scroll thru 3000 photos.  I'd like to the sorting to get faster each time due to having less images in the original folder.

What Am I missing?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Bob Somrak · Accepted solution]

Turn off "Show Phots in Subfloders". I am not sure about the exact wording

[richardplondon · Accepted solution]

yes, to expand on this - when this option is active, photos directly in a given folder AND photos in its subfolders will appear together. When this option is inactive, you can only see the photos in a given subfolder by clicking into that. 

[richardplondon]

Suggestion: make and apply keywords such as "car12". This has many advantages. Including that you can deal elegantly with photos that show multiple cars. You can click on the race folder, then do a keyword filter on "car12" and find photos that either include just Car 12, or that plus other cars. And then do same for "33car" - or whatever. So this is much more flexible than using subfolders. It won't matter if there are 3000 photos, since LrC can show just those photos keyworded for Car 12, by temporarily hiding all which do not have that keyword.

Incidentally, you can also keyword the car manufacturer in parallel, and do all kinds of other clever stuff too (such as Smart Collections). The idea is to apply various meaningful virtual information to the individual photo - that you can then use in open-ended ways that you may never have foreseen.

This is more productive IMO than implementing a pre-conceived folder organisation, which restricts you to that one way to view the photos.

As an example: once everything is properly keyworded you could create a smart collection that finds all the Maseratis that raced during 2023, where the photo is rated more than 2 stars, regardless of whether the photo also shows other cars or not.  Keywording can be done in the batch: it does not have to be very laborious.

[dj_paige]

Now I'd like to create a subfolder in folder 'Race 1" named '12' and put all of the images of car 12 into that folder.  I gave all the photos one star, sorted by attribute to see just car 12.  I can't drag them into the new folder, but I can right click the folder and click 'move selected photo to folder'.   This does add the photos to the new folder '12' but the images remain in the original folder "race 1" .  I do not want them to remain in the original folder, just in folder '12"

My opinion: You are working against the benefits of Lightroom Classic, and this will cause you to perform unnecessary work and possibly lead to frustration. So what should you do? In my opinion, assign the keyword 12 instead of moving photos. Do not further organize using folders; do not require that folders have the stated requirements; do the rest of your organization inside of LrC. If you want a folder with all the 12 in one place, export all the photos that have keyword 12 to this folder.

PS: I see @richardplondon has essentially the same advice; you don't have to listen to me, but he knows what he is talking about.

[SeaKoast]

Thank you Bob, that did what I was looking for.  I've used collections/keywords since they've been avaiable (V1 ?) They work great but in this particular instance I need to accomplish things this way.