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Les_Wilkins
Participating Frequently
August 19, 2020
Answered

Workflow to view collection and a folder simultaneously

  • August 19, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 838 views

I cannot get a useable workflow for how I use Lightroom Classic. I use it for photos of wildlife, so let's take 'Moths' as an example. I have a 'master' collection of moth photos, which includes my best photos of each species. When I take a new photo I want to see if it is better than my existing master, and if it is, want to replace the existing master, or I might want to add it to the 'master;' collection as well if it is different enough.
So I need to be able to view my 'master collection' and my new photos alongside each other.


Previously I had been keeping a separate folder, rather than a collection, for my 'master' photos, and if I wanted to add a new photo to the collection, I copied it in Bridge, as this can't be done in LR, and virual copies cannot be moved to a separate folder to the original. I need to easily compare the same time of year in different years (LR does not enable sorting photos by e.g. month taken), so I could not put my original photo in the 'master' folder as I could no longer compare trends by year, which I can do (clumsily!) if I keep the originals in their original folders (named to include the date). Doing it this way, I could open my 'master' folder in Bridge on a second monitor, and compare the photos with the new ones in Lightroom.

As Lightroom 'collections' cannot be viewed in Bridge, I can no longer compare photos without jumping between folders and collections to compare, and even then I cannot view individual photos - one in the collection, one in a folder - side-by-side.

If I view the master 'collection' in Lightroom and the new photos in Bridge, if I decide I want to add a new photo to the exisitng collection, I cannot do this in Bridge so have to navigate in LR to the new photo, add it to the collection, then go back to the collection to continue the process - too much clicking around between folder / collection to make this practical when there are maybe e.g. 150 new photos.

I have tried tagging all the photos in my LR master Moth 'collection' with the same keyword that I use for nothing else, in the hope that I would be able to select by this in Bridge, but I cannot find a way to do this.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I could achieve what I need to do? i.e. compare two photos side-by-side, and if necessary, add a new photo to an existing master folder or master collection?

Maintaining a 'master' collection of images is quite a common thing to do amongst people who study insects and plants (and possibly other work/hobbies), and this master collection needs constant updating, either with additions or replacements. It was easy with printed photos, and in spite of the many advantages of the digital world, this seems to have got more difficult!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Rob_Cullen

Suggestions that may help-

I need to be able to view my 'master collection' and my new photos alongside each other.

With both panels open (Folders & Collections)- Hold down the [Ctrl] key as you select the Master Collection and then the Folder of new images. Now you will see all images from both. You could also be more selective by Flagging or Star Rating photos and filtering for these only.

compare two photos side-by-side

Now Select (highlight) two photos to compare and press [C] or click the [X/Y] icon under the Grid view.

 

 

4 replies

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 21, 2020

Suggestions that may help-

I need to be able to view my 'master collection' and my new photos alongside each other.

With both panels open (Folders & Collections)- Hold down the [Ctrl] key as you select the Master Collection and then the Folder of new images. Now you will see all images from both. You could also be more selective by Flagging or Star Rating photos and filtering for these only.

compare two photos side-by-side

Now Select (highlight) two photos to compare and press [C] or click the [X/Y] icon under the Grid view.

 

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.3, Photoshop 27.5, ACR 18.3, Lightroom 9.3, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.3 .
    L
    Les_WilkinsAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    August 21, 2020

    Thanks, very useful!

    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    August 19, 2020

    Comment, Opinion

     

    Coming from a Landscape perspective, with some knowledge if how some actual Pro Landscape Photographers handle photo file management.

     

    Consider renaming photos using the syntax YYYYMMDD_hhmmss

    Consider not creating a date specific folder structure, instead a subject based one

     

      L
      Les_WilkinsAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      August 20, 2020

      Thanks again for your suggestions.
      I had considered using the date as the first part of the file name, but decided against it, instead using the species name as the first part of the file name. This is more to do with making my file names more meaningful if I ever move away from Lightroom for any reason, rather than an internal aid within Lightroom.

      I do not use a date-specific folder as my main file structure, but do use it for subfolders within a subject-based file structure, which goes part way to what you suggest - though this is still quite clumsy for year-to-year comparisons.

      What I have recently started to do is to include year and month keywords in all my photos, which is easy to do in bulk each time I download from the camera, and I'm going to see how this works out.

      GoldingD
      GoldingD
      Legend
      August 19, 2020

      Fairly complex, probably best if a solution came from someone in the same field, however.

       

      1. Consider an additional Collection, perhaps Moth_Compare. Add the Masters you want to compare, and the new ones you want to compare to the Collection, Select that Collection and work within it for your grading.

       

      2. Add additional keywords, like Master, then while grading, you can add that keyword to the new ones you desire to move to Masters, Then when ready, move those new ones with the keyword Master.

       

       

        L
        Les_WilkinsAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        August 20, 2020

        Thanks David, that is one option I'll try. I'm going to try all the suggestions and see what works best for me.

        dj_paige
        dj_paige
        Legend
        August 19, 2020

        Keywords can be written to the metadata for the photo, so Bridge can read them. This does not happen by default. You have to turn on the option at Catalog Preferences->Metadata->"automatically write changes to XMP" (and this doesn't work for collections, only keywords)


        Also, since you have two monitors, you can make one of them Lightroom Classic's secondary monitor, and then "lock" the image you are comparing to in the secondary monitor, and then maybe you don't even need Bridge.

          L
          Les_WilkinsAuthor
          Participating Frequently
          August 20, 2020

          Thanks for the suggestion. I had already turned on that option in Lightroom, but had failed to find out how to make use of it in Bridge. After your suggestion, I have now had another go at it, and think I have figured it out - in the 'Keyword' panel, I can see the keyword that I have used only on all my 'master' photos; I had previously tried to tick the selection box next to it, but it won't allow this; now I have found that I can right-click on the keyword and select 'Find', which seems to do the job. Is this the best way to use it or do you know of a better way?

          dj_paige
          dj_paige
          Legend
          August 20, 2020

          "I had previously tried to tick the selection box next to it, but it won't allow this; now I have found that I can right-click on the keyword and select 'Find', which seems to do the job."

           

          I'm afraid I am not following this. I can't right-click on a keyword and select "Find" in LrC.

           

          "Is this the best way to use it or do you know of a better way?"


          If it works for you, then do it that way. But really, I'm not understanding what you are doing.

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