Help with Lightroom Catalogues

[SwissJon]

I've got several dozen Lightroom catalogues and about 9000 photos on my hard disk. I really need to tidy up, but I'm not sure how.. I'm very good at importing images, but I've basically got a mess.

What I'd like to do is get all my photos into a central catalogue, then export the photos to catalogues based on their subject. Or alternatively go through the cataloges and export them individually (including the Lightroom steps) to new cataloges.

I know how to import an entire catalogue into another one, and I know how to export to hard disk, but this loses the steps, it's how to import individual photos without losing the history that I don't know.. I'd like to have one catalogue that contains all my 5* photos, one that contains all my 4* photos etc.

[lputman]

Does making collections help and subsequently creating catalogs based on the collection work?

[SwissJon]

I think I can create a Catalogue from a selection (or collection) but the problem with that creates a copy of the photos. And then I have to import that catalogue into the "5* catalogue", I was hoping there was a single step for importing multiple photos into a catalogue without the interim.. The fewer catalogues I have flying about, the better.

By the way Moderators, Can you change the name of this thread to "Help with Lightroom Catalogues" please? My keyboard doesn't understand what I was trying to type, as opposed to what my fingers actually typed.

[zona5101]

why have a catalog by stars? (or by date) you can filter by those easily. I have heard different opinions on catalog use but mostly I have heard use one cat and manage with collections and filters. Clearly that won't work for everybody.

As to your question...i would import everything into one super catalog and then export to your new desired catalogs.

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by zona5101

why have a catalog by stars? (or by date) you can filter by those easily. I have heard different opinions on catalog use but mostly I have heard use one cat and manage with collections and filters. Clearly that won't work for everybody.

As to your question...i would import everything into one super catalog and then export to your new desired catalogs.

The thing about filters is that I'd be going through 9,000+ photographs every time I want to look at something. (That's 3 months worth of photos.. So in another 3 months I'l have 18,000 photos!) That will make my work incredibly slow, and make my hard disk VERY full. What I'd like to do is move stuff that I'm only keeping for historical reasons on DVD's or Blueray disks or an external Hard Drive, still keep them organised via lightroom catalogues for ease of management, but for that catalogue to be completely independant of my computer, so that the next time I kill my machine I don't need to export so much stuff. Additionally, it means that my hard disk is not so full, and equally, I can transport my Lightroom stuff between computers easily, (I'm about to get a laptop for home use, and I want to leave my work laptop at work, so I don't have to cart it about everywhere.

Also, fewer files are generally easier to manage.

Hopefully that answers your questions about why I want to do what I want to do.. Any further clues as to HOW I might go about it?

[zona5101]

I have files on detached devices and LR keeps track of them. When they are not hooked up the file folders in the left margin have a "?" on them. I hook up the device and click on the folder and it reestablishes the link. Searches and such when the device is disconnected ignore the "missing" drive. I still see thumbnails, I just can't retrieve the file unless I hook the drive up and reestablish the link. This functions with out creating a separate catalog and it will be the same if you had separate cats too.
As you siad, adding the separate cateloges limits the search and management of files. ie if i'm in Cat "A" and searching for my 5 starts, LR will ignore Cat B, C, D etc. It will also ignore them if they are on disconnected devices.

back to how: i'd import them all to one big then export/move them to the individual cats on the separate drives/devices

[jdepould]

Import from catalog everything into one cat, then move the files INSIDE Lightroom to whatever drive you want. Use folders and collections to sort within the one cat.