Craig Meyer Loc: Sparks, NV

I'm of a similar mind to both the OP and you. I lament the CC Catalog structure but still attempt to use it. What's missing for me is what I'll call a "Back End Workflow" which would include the process from downloading through Key wording, starring and sub-folder naming. But excluding actual processing. What's missing for me is the basic file structure. like What, exactly does Adobe mean by a catalog. Same for collections and the rest. This process seems to rest heavily on intuition which seems to be fine for the majority. I'm the guy who can't figure out the Macintosh, for the very same reasons. I don't intuit that way. But I can adapt IF I could get a set of definitions to ground me in their quasi "ecosphere" definitions, relationships and assumptions.

Is there a good resource for learning and adapting? I love processing in LR, DETEST PS, for many of the same "ecospheric" reasons. I'd be thankful for a Tree Structure diagram or flow chart. I'm not a techno-phobe, I'm an industry sales veteran. I just need a set of definitions and charts to get an understanding of what, in a normal approach, would be a simple definitions. I appreciate your helpful posts, so I'm looking forward to your answer.

C

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Craig, for a respected, free and well known LR trainer (video), try Anthony Morganti in utube. Also at Adobe is a wealth of free written and video training on LR and all their products. You just have to be signed-in to find it.

I came slowly to LR after working for years in Canon's DPP. First I just added images for "finishing" in LR without much regard to the catalog. After upgrading from LR5 to LR6, I did my own comparisons and decided the results from a LR-only, RAW workflow was faster, less files and storage, and equivalent to DPP & LR combined.

Workflow has taken a while to develop. I've learned over the years to keyword my images after import and before culling and editing. That way, when I'm done, this admin is already applied to the images and not forgotten. I come from an IT background so clearly identified folders is important. But, I've also learned to not duplicate the effort of 'identification' in the folders and the files and also inside LR. Now, I just create a date-stamped folder with an identification title. I don't bother to remain my image files. Everything more I encode via keywords inside LR and rarely need to navigate the file system outside LR.

Morganti, Adobe and other free training can give more ideas on getting started and working efficiently and effectively in LR classic.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Agree with these suggestions. Will add that if you are in need of a book (I don't learn well from videos and there may be more like me), the latest book by Victoria Bampton would be a good choice. She puts out an updated version every year or two and they are named "Lightroom: the Missing FAQ". They are simple, direct, and involve pictures and diagrams and steps, my kind of stuff. Sign up for her website "Lightroom Queen" regardless. Lots of good info there, and a great message board where she and other experts will help you solve problems with LR.

Both programs suffer from what most software suffers from: they solve some problems while creating others. Lightroom is easier to figure out than PS, but both are worth attacking with persistence. LR Editing is pretty intuitive, but the cataloguing is not. I take a simple approach: photos go into folders by date on an external drive, keywords are applied while or just after importing, backup is automated to another external drive, nothing is moved around except through LR library module so LR doesn't lose it. Think of collections as stacks of stuff you accumulate for a purpose, and create them when you want/need them. They take up no space, don't re-copy anything, but just keep up with where the selected items are. So, I might create a collection to get ready for a class I'm teaching, or to choose pictures for a calendar or for a show. Nothing really moves, but clicking on that collection lets me work from a small set of pictures for a certain project. Right now I'm preparing for a photography class for a local garden club, so I will search keywords of "flowers" and "botanical garden" which is the topic. For those I'll make a collection within the collection set named "Classes", name it "Garden Club Class 10 20" and drag the photos I want in the collection folder. After the class I may delete the collection but that won't affect the photos which are still right in their dated folder as always, with their keywords. Learning lightroom is like learning any computer contrivances. You figure out what "they" meant and apply it to other things as you go.

Photoshop is more like learning a foreign language. You don't need but about a tenth of it to work on photos. Learning layers and masking is essential. Then learn the minimum necessary for the basic PS tools that apply to photography one at a time. Then learn more about what you want to do and can't with do with the basics. I use PS every day but only on about 5% of my images. Most can be done entirely in LR. But when I need PS, I need it. I abandoned it after a year of fiddling long ago, but eventually went back and figured it out. It was worth it.

bsmith52 Loc: Northeast Alabama

Thanks for all the comments. Lightroom is such a dichotomy in that it is loved and not loved (hated would be too strong) by so many and many times by the same person. This, and other threads, kind of proves the angst of my op. If you don't use LR extensively, it is just not that easy to have a consistent, understandable, and easy workflow.

I don't think there are many on here who would not love to be able to use LR as their main editing program.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

LR is my main editing program. Excluding dedicated noise processing and specialized effects like HDR or B&W conversions, Lightroom is my main and only editing program. Lightroom does take investigation and practice and training. The benefit of being non destructive and allowing for virtual copies allows for revisiting prior edits with new technical knowledge. The use of presets and syncing allows the advanced user to encode and replicate their own best practices so that every image is not / does not have to be treated as an entirely new edit from step-0.

If not considered already, I've created a few posts on specific usage areas:

Basics of noise processing

Basics of Lightroom Sharpening

Using the LR Compare View in Culling