Key Words in Lightroom (Page 5): I am a beginner in the archiving journey. 20 years of digital photos. A year ago I was introduced to Lightroom. I had a huge number of digital photos...

Jan2019 Loc: CA, San Fransicso Bay Area

I am a beginner in the archiving journey. 20 years of digital photos. A year ago I was introduced to Lightroom.

I had a huge number of digital photos on my PC before I started using Lightroom Classic. My basic structure is by date, which I modify by adding a subject to the file folder, after import (renaming the folder to add a subject or event). But this still left me with major holes in finding images taken over the years, vacations, shoots.

Key words and using Collections are a great way to search your large number of photos. I have learned that I can add key words at several levels, which can decrease the time commitment for each image.

You can add a general key word to the folder if you are in Library View. If you go to the Grid View, you can click and drag to select a group of photos (or select all). In the Key words panel add the name, enter and it will be applied to all the photos. Then, within the folder add specific keywords to each image, (or group of images by selecting all).

JD750 Loc: SoCal

DirtFarmer wrote:

I have not read Kelby so I don't know his reasoning, but I use both keywords and folders and here is my reasoning:

The keywords are for me. They help me find things quickly and easily.

The folders are for my family. None of them knows how to use LR so the keywords are of no use to them. If I want my images to be passed down to my family I have to be sure they can access them.

Now that makes a lot of sense.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Jan2019 wrote:

You can add a general key word to the folder if you are in Library View.

??

How is this done?

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

JD750 wrote:

??

How is this done?

I'm thinking, select all.. Then either type in the keyword or drag the selected photos to the keyword in the list..... Which applies the keyword to all the selected photos at once..

If not, I'm curious to what he does also.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

There are sooooo many ways in LrC, not (not talking about mobil LR as I don't use it)to do one thing! It's crazy how the developers decided to almost always have more than one way to do something, especially key wording. Having said that, I am unaware of being able to actually keyword a "folder," as opposed to an "image." Perhaps the poster made a mistake, I find that easy to do!

There are about seven, maybe more, ways to keyword in LrC but as I know them they all apply to the image, although you can easily do multiple images. Would love to hear how to keyword a "folder."

bleirer

via the lens wrote:

There are sooooo many ways in LrC, not (not talkin... (show quote)

Keywords are, shall we say, robust? The only way I can see is to select just that folder in the folder panel, you might have to mess with checkboxes to display only that folder, select all, then either paste or paint keywords into the selected. I am very basic on keywords but it looks like there are many choices.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/keywords.html

Daryls Loc: Waco, TX

via the lens wrote:

There are sooooo many ways in LrC, not (not talkin... (show quote)

Consider renaming the folder with the keyword or some similar descriptive of its content to make it easier to search. It works for me.

Daryl

JD750 Loc: SoCal

frankraney wrote:

I'm thinking, select all.. Then either type in the keyword or drag the selected photos to the keyword in the list..... Which applies the keyword to all the selected photos at once..

If not, I'm curious to what he does also.

When Jan said add keyword to the folder I think she meant add to images in the folder. I don’t know how to keyword tag a folder.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Daryls wrote:

Consider renaming the folder with the keyword or some similar descriptive of its content to make it easier to search. It works for me.

Daryl

That could be a good idea at times, then the metadata search would pick it up! Yet another way to keyword.

Jan2019 Loc: CA, San Fransicso Bay Area

Now, I add key words to the folder before importing. These key words are applied to all the pictures in the folder. To folders I had already imported, I learned how to use the painter tool:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/keywords.html#add_or_remove_keywords_using_the_painter_tool

Laura Shoe also has a wonderful video series on keywording.

bleirer

Jan2019 wrote:

Now, I add key words to the folder before importing. These key words are applied to all the pictures in the folder. To folders I had already imported, I learned how to use the painter tool:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/keywords.html#add_or_remove_keywords_using_the_painter_tool

Laura Shoe also has a wonderful video series on keywording.

That painter tool is very cool. Once the keyword is loaded and the images from that folder are displayed, one could just drag the painter over the images to paint them all with the same keywords.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

JD750 wrote:

When Jan said add keyword to the folder I think she meant add to images in the folder. I don’t know how to keyword tag a folder.

Yup, that's what I was saying. Add too all the photos in a folder at once.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Jan2019 wrote:

Now, I add key words to the folder before importing. These key words are applied to all the pictures in the folder. To folders I had already imported, I learned how to use the painter tool:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/keywords.html#add_or_remove_keywords_using_the_painter_tool

Laura Shoe also has a wonderful video series on keywording.

Another way to add keywords to all the photos after import is:
(1) Select Grid View (G)
(2) Selecta all the images CTRL-A (CMD-A on Mac)
(3) Drag the keyword onto an image or click the box next to the keyword in the Keyword panel.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

If you have a bunch of images selected and one has the desired keyword the keyword panel will have an asterisk after that keyword. Highlight the asterisk and delete it. That will put the keyword onto all the selected images.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

DirtFarmer wrote:

If you have a bunch of images selected and one has the desired keyword the keyword panel will have an asterisk after that keyword. Highlight the asterisk and delete it. That will put the keyword onto all the selected images.

Thank you for posting that. I did not know that!