Im at photo workshop in Maine. Im learning to use PS. One of the participants, very accomplished, feels the same way about LR catalog system as I do. My workflow is very simple and I have a good organizational system on my external drive. I want to ditch LR and use Bridge (browser capability) and Adobe Camera Raw. I understand It can do most of what LR can do. I don't batch edit. I also use Luminar 4 and am learning PS. Also I won't have to worry about LR losing photos or not recognizing a drive. Your thoughts? In an earlier post I thought my master photo disk was corrupted. It was an LR issue. I don't want this ajada.

If it makes more sense to you to waste your limited time creating complex and information-laden folders and file names instead of embedding all that same data and the time doing it inside the LR catalog, software you pay to use, well it's your time and money to use (not use) as you please.

LR lets you use the simplest folders and file names such as "YYYYMMDD <Description>" for your folders and retain the original 12345678.xxx file names, The files don't mean anything until the LR edit data is merged with the original image and "export" to a target file. Worry about renaming the files, if needed, when you export the edited version.

The effort spent trying to 'describe' the images via complex folders and / or file names just needs to instead be performed inside LR so you can find those images instantaneously via the catalog search / filtering. You don't have to remember your shooting dates, just put that descriptive data into the keywords.

The reality of using a database to access your images is you just have to behave differently. You access your images via LR, not the computer OS / file system. Use a simple file system that uniquely organizes the images and don't spend time trying to move the images around afterward. LR is much more efficient and capable. Yes, it's different. It's modern-ish. Just like LR is superior to ACR. If you don't want to use the most popular software in the industry to work smarter and faster, it's your choice and your loss (and your money).

The point is: yes, it's critical to organize and identify your images. The LR catalog is the way to do this entirely inside a searchable database, again with much more robust tools and capabilities vs the OS file system. Yes, penmanship was important. But today, your typing speed and accuracy is the relevant skill. Both are communication skills, but one doesn't really matter anymore. That's the same as the unimportance of folders and filenames in the modern LR environment.

If it makes more sense to you to waste your limited time creating complex and information-laden folders and file names instead of embedding all that same data and the time doing it inside the LR catalog, software you pay to use, well it's your time and money to use (not use) as you please.

LR lets you use the simplest folders and file names such as "YYYYMMDD <Description>" for your folders and retain the original 12345678.xxx file names, The files don't mean anything until the LR edit data is merged with the original image and "export" to a target file. Worry about renaming the files, if needed, when you export the edited version.

The effort spent trying to 'describe' the images via complex folders and / or file names just needs to instead be performed inside LR so you can find those images instantaneously via the catalog search / filtering. You don't have to remember your shooting dates, just put that descriptive data into the keywords.

The reality of using a database to access your images is you just have to behave differently. You access your images via LR, not the computer OS / file system. Use a simple file system that uniquely organizes the images and don't spend time trying to move the images around afterward. LR is much more efficient and capable. Yes, it's different. It's modern-ish. Just like LR is superior to ACR. If you don't want to use the most popular software in the industry to work smarter and faster, it's your choice and your loss (and your money).

The point is: yes, it's critical to organize and identify your images. The LR catalog is the way to do this entirely inside a searchable database, again with much more robust tools and capabilities vs the OS file system. Yes, penmanship was important. But today, your typing speed and accuracy is the relevant skill. Both are communication skills, but one doesn't really matter anymore. That's the same as the unimportance of folders and filenames in the modern LR environment.