How Do You Organize Your Collections in Lightroom Classic?

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TheLRC said:
I’ve been thinking a about how people use collections in Lightroom Classic and was curious to hear your thoughts. Do you follow a specific structure for your collections, or is it more of an organic mess that evolves over time?

For example, do you organize by project, date, location, or something else entirely? Maybe you have a mix of Smart Collections and regular ones?

Personally, I’ve seen so many different approaches—from super-detailed hierarchies with sub-collections for every occasion to a single flat list with no particular order. It’s fascinating to see how others organize their workflow!

So, how do your collections look? Is it a structured masterpiece or organized chaos? And has your method changed over time as your library grew?

Also, one thing I find interesting is how Lightroom Classic is designed to prioritize collections over folders. While the folder panel is only available in the Library module, collections can be accessed across all modules. What I have understood is that Adobe intended collections to be the core organizational tool. Does that influence how you manage your photos?
Click to expand...
I think in terms of collections, although I have a bit of organization in the folders. I have the catalog on my fastest drive, an internal SSD. Photos are on a fast external SSD. On that SSD, I have a folder for year and "event." I.e. Photos/2024/Sometrip.

I always import into a collection; for example, Sometrip 2024. I rename all photos using an import preset, to SomeTrip_date_time.

I use keywords. I have a variety of local places where I go for birding excursions, with a collection for each place - e.g. NicePark. All the birding excursion locations have their own collection, but I place all of them across locations in the same folder , e.g. Photos/BirdingWalks. I keyword most of the birding excursions, ie. Avians/Great Egret, Bald Eagle, etc. The combination of keywording and renaming the photos mean I can search for Great Egret and get all the Great Egret pictures, with the location, date and time in the photo name.

I also use smart folders. I have one that includes all pictures with keyword Avian and also has the color blue set (color is just an arbitrary choice of "I like this photo" marker). These are my current "best" bird shots. Or I can have a smart folder that includes all "Bald Eagle" keyworded pictures with a blue color. I have another smart folder that includes all pictures with a keyword for Back country gallery forums -- all the pictures I post here come from that collection, so I know which ones I've posted here.

After a trip, I usually create a flickr album of my favorite shots from that trip, using the LR plugin to publish to flickr. This has become part of my editing workflow. As I go through the shots in the imported collection, the better ones get placed the flickr-bound collection as a first cut (via setting the flickr bound album as the default collection and using B to select as I edit). Then I edit, prune that set, etc.

It's not essential since the metadata is in the RAW file, but I've found the import renaming to event_or_place_date_time to be one of the most useful things I do, really. Whether viewing a collection or folders, the name of the picture gives me immediate context.

When traveling with a laptop (which has LR), I'll create a collection and import files during the trip. Back home, I'll import from catalog on the laptop to the main catalog at home, or, if I haven't done much editing (maybe just a bit of culling), simply import directly the photos (they will have the name change already).

I don't use sidecar files, but I do have both cloud and local backups of the LR catalog.
 
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PhotoLover said:
I think in terms of collections, although I have a bit of organization in the folders. I have the catalog on my fastest drive, an internal SSD. Photos are on a fast external SSD. On that SSD, I have a folder for year and "event." I.e. Photos/2024/Sometrip.

I always import into a collection; for example, Sometrip 2024. I rename all photos using an import preset, to SomeTrip_date_time.

I use keywords. I have a variety of local places where I go for birding excursions, with a collection for each place - e.g. NicePark. All the birding excursion locations have their own collection, but I place all of them across locations in the same folder , e.g. Photos/BirdingWalks. I keyword most of the birding excursions, ie. Avians/Great Egret, Bald Eagle, etc. The combination of keywording and renaming the photos mean I can search for Great Egret and get all the Great Egret pictures, with the location, date and time in the photo name.

I also use smart folders. I have one that includes all pictures with keyword Avian and also has the color blue set (color is just an arbitrary choice of "I like this photo" marker). These are my current "best" bird shots. Or I can have a smart folder that includes all "Bald Eagle" keyworded pictures with a blue color. I have another smart folder that includes all pictures with a keyword for Back country gallery forums -- all the pictures I post here come from that collection, so I know which ones I've posted here.

After a trip, I usually create a flickr album of my favorite shots from that trip, using the LR plugin to publish to flickr. This has become part of my editing workflow. As I go through the shots in the imported collection, the better ones get placed the flickr-bound collection as a first cut (via setting the flickr bound album as the default collection and using B to select as I edit). Then I edit, prune that set, etc.

It's not essential since the metadata is in the RAW file, but I've found the import renaming to event_or_place_date_time to be one of the most useful things I do, really. Whether viewing a collection or folders, the name of the picture gives me immediate context.

When traveling with a laptop (which has LR), I'll create a collection and import files during the trip. Back home, I'll import from catalog on the laptop to the main catalog at home, or, if I haven't done much editing (maybe just a bit of culling), simply import directly the photos (they will have the name change already).

I don't use sidecar files, but I do have both cloud and local backups of the LR catalog.
Click to expand...
Where is the LR plugin for Flickr?
 
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njtrout said:
Where is the LR plugin for Flickr?
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Go to the publish services while in the library module. Click on add to go to Publishing Manager. Then if you add a publishing service, one of the options is the flickr plugin. Here is one link to a longer description (I haven't set this up in a while).

darkroomphotos.com

How to Export Photos from Lightroom to Flickr

Flickr is one of the most popular ways to share photos online. Here's how to get your photos from Lightroom to Flickr.
darkroomphotos.com darkroomphotos.com

That's using the "official" LR flickr plugin. Things can get buggy, but I'm never sure it is the flickr website or the plugin. It works well enough for me to use constantly.

There is also a 3rd party plugin:


But I haven't used it. I think some like it better than the official one.
 
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I'm a huge fan of LrC's smart collections.

Keywords and ratings/labels are at the core of my system. All keywords are organized in a handful of groups: activities, descriptors, natural world, people, places, and things.

I keep photography organized under things > arts, and in this area are stored keywords for the various genres of photography I've done over the years.

I probably have 60 smart collections. Each one begins with a three-digit code. The 000 smart collections are portfolios. 000 is all photos in the portfolio. There are portfolios for each genre, such as 001 Bird and 001 Wildlife.

Smart collection 010 is my Best of portfolio containing all genres. There are smart collections for each genre, such as 011 Best of Birds and 011 Best of Wildlife. The 020s are for photos that have been processed but aren't favorites.

The 030s are for photos good enough to be processed but haven't been processed. The 090s are for photos selected for display in an online gallery. I'm currently between galleries so, those are in something of a limbo.

During import or soon after every photo gets labeled with a genre, amongst other keywords. A photo with a star rating gets automatically added to the relevant "Ready for Post" smart collections. A processed photo labeled green gets added to the relevant collections of photos that have been edited but aren't favorites. If labeled red it gets added to the relevant smart collections for "Best of" photos. If labeled red and flagged as a pick, it gets added to the relevant portfolio collections.

No photo exists on more than one level of smart collections. It's either ready for processing, has been processed, is a favorite, or a portfolio shot. It might exist in multiple genre folders at its level but doesn't exist on multiple levels.

Needless to say it's a structure that's evolved over time. It's a bit in-depth but is one that works for me, automating my organizational workflow.
 
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Bill Ferris said:
I'm a huge fan of LrC's smart collections.

Keywords and ratings/labels are at the core of my system. All keywords are organized in a handful of groups: activities, descriptors, natural world, people, places, and things.

I keep photography organized under things > arts, and in this area are stored keywords for the various genres of photography I've done over the years.

I probably have 60 smart collections. Each one begins with a three-digit code. The 000 smart collections are portfolios. 000 is all photos in the portfolio. There are portfolios for each genre, such as 001 Bird and 001 Wildlife.

Smart collection 010 is my Best of portfolio containing all genres. There are smart collections for each genre, such as 011 Best of Birds and 011 Best of Wildlife. The 020s are for photos that have been processed but aren't favorites.

The 030s are for photos good enough to be processed but haven't been processed. The 090s are for photos selected for display in an online gallery. I'm currently between galleries so, those are in something of a limbo.

During import or soon after every photo gets labeled with a genre, amongst other keywords. A photo with a star rating gets automatically added to the relevant "Ready for Post" smart collections. A processed photo labeled green gets added to the relevant collections of photos that have been edited but aren't favorites. If labeled red it gets added to the relevant smart collections for "Best of" photos. If labeled red and flagged as a pick, it gets added to the relevant portfolio collections.

No photo exists on more than one level of smart collections. It's either ready for processing, has been processed, is a favorite, or a portfolio shot. It might exist in multiple genre folders at its level but doesn't exist on multiple levels.

Needless to say it's a structure that's evolved over time. It's a bit in-depth but is one that works for me, automating my organizational workflow.
Click to expand...
Great example of how Smart Collections can be leveraged to automate workflow and maintain a highly structured, efficient catalog. Thanks for sharing (y)
 
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I don't do any collections or any of that stuff requiring new structure. I have an archive starting in 2005 which is all under "personal RAW", folders by year, by date and key places or other words. This was all in place before LR existed.

Downloading a new card from a shoot, I make a new date folder NOT in LR, just on the finder like I always have. Then, I open LRC and "synchronize" the library.

Anyway, it took a while at first to sync this whole disk/parent folder but now it's quick because it's only dealing with the new days as I add them.

Editing to add: I do like and have utilized the intensive sorting to look for a bunch of shots from say an old camera like the canon 1ds or everything from a fuji gfx or everything using a canon 24 tse lens, etc.
 
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