Let me add text notes to photo, stacks of photos, and directories of photos so that I can record shot and processing details. I'd like to be able to print the notes along with an image thumbnail.
There's no way to use LrC filters to find specific photos by folder name or aother folder annotation. Most people use YEAR_MONTH_DAY folder naming and then Keywords, Collections, Smart Collections and other searchable metadata for tagging their image files. Below is a link to a good video on the subject by Peter Krogh the author of the DAM book on digital assest management.
This was suggested ten years ago in the Photoshop Family forum monitored by Adobe staff. It has 86 upvotes, but clearly still not implemenetd. Read through the replies, which discusses some plugins that might be helpful.
Different photo clients have different needs, and this often changes the way I need to interact with the photos in a folder of images. The use of the star rating system and the color coding system is rarely executed under the same rules and parameters from client to client.
Additionally, after shooting a large event (thousands of photos), it is very rare that I would sit long enough to download, review, select & categorize, edit and render all of those photos in one sitting. I often take breaks and those breaks can be long and even overnight and it can be difficult to remember where in the process I left off.
Remembering each and every individual system I create of rating and categorization for each individual client is near impossible. And remembering exactly what step I am at in the process of rating and sorting and catorgorizing images is also very difficult.
I currently have to keep a paper legal pad next to my computer and handwrite notes for each client folder I am actively working with. The problem with this is the notes do not live with the catalog, so they can get lost or left behind when I travel. The notes also don't live in perpetuity with the catalog, so when I go back, maybe months later, I have no idea what the catagorization elements (star rating and color coding) mean any more.
My suggestion, in order to make LR a more comprehensive and responsive program that assists in image collection management as well as image processing, is to include a way that I can attach an editable note page to a folder of images, where I can write and update my own notes as I progress through my edit. I can tell myself what each color and what each star-rating actually means to me. I could write a note to myself as to where in the editing/culling process I am, so I don't end up repeating myself or worrying that I missed a step or missed images. And all these notes would exist with the folder of images in the program and be there for me no matter where or when I am working in the program. This feature would make LR an invaluable photo-processing management tool, as well as a processing tool.
You can add notes to photos using any of the text fields in the Metadata panel, such as Title, Caption, User Comment, Headline, Instructions. The new Customize button in the Metadata > Default panel makes it more convenient to access which field you choose.
How about a Catalog related area for notes. Notes about the Project, about Collections. About important Export Settings and so on. Just a Text Field that one can use… that would be super helpful, especially in a team environment.
I think something like this would be a good idea. Exactly how do you envision this working?
I use John Beardsworth's Big Note for making notes on individual images, but it seems it would be good to have something like this native to LrC. I would also like to have some place to make and display notes for collections and even folders, that would apply to more than just a single image.
Well since this has been going since 2011 i'm probably spitting into the wind. :). I would like to be able to add notes to individual files. For me they could just gen info on who, what, where etc. Since most are not printed it's not like older times where my mom or aunt would wrtie stuff on teh back of the photos. Geeting older now i think of what happens to these files and what will the kids want to know. I also wouldnt mind a brief note on what the heck i was thinking in cropping or porcessing. I see others have asked for notes on a folder. Not sure that's needed for me ( amature hobbiest) I was thinking it easier for me to do a word doc or something and add it to the file. Thanks
Usually, when taking pictures, it is often on a daily basis. Then, I would like to have a description field where I could describe the set of pictures (Where, When, Who, Why, anecdotes, conditions...). An option should be available to add the desccription to the pictures. It could be useful for photo book.
As a User I want to be able to create simple (post'it) notes on my images for ideas i get when culling or in the progress of editing an image, to remember ideas or where I left off an image.
Could also be sitting with a client talking about the changes that the client want. So i dont need a word doc with a reference number to the image.
Next step could be a very simple brush tool for drawing arrow from a post'it note.
Is it possible to add notes to a folder in Lightroom Classic? I often need to write notes that apply to a full shoot - say, about settings, or a client's preferences, or deadlines, or billing - that I don't want in the photos' metadata. I now keep these notes in Word files. I gather there isn't a Lightroom folder notes function - at least not one that I've found - so perhaps Adobe could create one?
p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.
There is nothing I know of in Lightroom for folder level note taking. If it were me and I needed to do that, I would make my notes in Word, take a "screen shot" with the Windows Snipping tool and save it as a JPEG in the folder. To make it visible in Lightroom, I would "synchronize" the folder. Saving the .doc file next to the JPEG might make it easier to find if you needed to change the notes. My suggestion is clearly a "work around" and not an intended feature.
It’s a good idea. You can post it as a formal feature request in the Ideas section of this community. In that section, you can see the votes that various feature requests are getting, and also, if a feature request gets a lot of interest, you can see if Adobe has assigned a status to it (such as Under Review, Planned, or Released).
[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]
To build on Bill's suggestions, some variants:
1. Make a dummy file called "__NOTES.jpg". Use the Metadata > Edit Capture Time command to set its capture date to 1900/1/1 and do Metadata > Save Metadata To File. Then to add notes to a folder, place a copy of that file in the folder and do Synchronize Folder to import it. The file's name and capture date will ensure it sorts to the beginning of the folder.
Select the photo and use the Large Caption to enter and view the notes for that folder, which will get stored in the catalog's Caption field (and optionally, to the caption of the dummy file):
2. If you want to continue using Word, use the Any File plugin to import the .docx files into the catalog.