dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Lightroom, by default, creates a catalog by year then under 2015, it has 2015-01-01 and the photos for that day then 2015-01-06 and corresponding photos.. then if you want, you can create groups, like all sunrise.. and they remain in their catalogs but also have a link to sunrise which has all of the sunrise images across all of the catalogs that you have assigned photos from.


There is a very good series (FREE) by Anthony Morganti on Light Room which has several (50 or 60 episodes) on all aspects of Lightroom which include both CC and disc.

http://www.anthonymorganti.com

also here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tseFToQuTBQ

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

You can import and export keyword lists between catalogs, FWIW, I have 1 catalog, and many years worth of photos.

Everything is within 1 catalog. 600GB worth of photos and the catalog is 600 MB in size. I doubt that there is a connection on the size - just a coincidence ;)

If you have spent a bunch of time on keywording techniques, look into Hierarchal keywording - it will take a little time to set up, but I have found it very beneficial for me.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

There may be some confusion here about the meaning of the word catalog.

I have one catalog. Every photo I have taken since I started lightroom in 2008 is in that one catalog. There are folders within that catalog by year, and within those by month and within those by date. LR does not create any new catalogs on its own, it only creates a new catalog when you tell it to.

I create various collections within my catalog which are such things as gallery, flickr, trips, ready-to-print, etc. These collections do not change where the real images are but are simply references. Collections can be temporary such as what I gather up to create a photo book or you can keep them over time.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

True, I forget what Lightroom calls it and I tend to generalize. Which is why I described how the folder system works and why I sent the morganti links

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Perfect! Thanks

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I knew exactly what you were talking about but someone just getting into LR could get tangled up :D

LR is a great tool but intuitive it is not.

Chief Rob

Dano
I highly recommend you consider buying the book, "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC/6 The Missing FAQ" by Victoria B Bampton. The book is a complete reference to Lightroom and has been formatted to make learning LR easier. Explains many facets of the software and its functions often missed by other references including Adobe's own LR manual. Miss Bampton also offers a number of additional support resources you may find valuable (I do!) At Amazon the Paperback book costs $44.08, Kindle $25.95 . . . but if you buy the paperback and register the purchase she provides PDF, ePub, or Mobi/Kindle free.
Good luck whatever your decision!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I've installed LR6 on a Windows machine and two Macs, but I've never run more than one at a time.

Dano Loc: North Carolina

I can't tell you how much this is helping me! It's easy to misinterpret things when reading and watching tutorials without having the software. You folks make it real.

Regarding where to keep things - the LR application, catalog & previews, original images. I've seen a number of strategies. I really like the idea of keeping the catalog with the original images on an external drive: limits links from getting broken, great for working between machines, but not accessible when traveling if I don't have the drive. Keeping the catalog on my laptop resolves the travel issue, but would limit working from a desktop (unless I'm missing something here). Maybe an external SSD would be the ticket like Dngallagher uses. I'm leaning toward keeping it on my laptop based on how I travel (i.e., when I'm not taking all my gear with me), but am concerned about the consequences. Thoughts?

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

It depends on how you want to use things. The best book I've found for discussing the various approaches to this is the Van der Eynde ebook.

I don't use my laptop for my serious editing but it is always with me when I travel. I download all photos every day into the laptop and a small external drive, do some culling day to day, and tinker with editing for any immediate use or just to see what I've really got. But I don't do final editing till I'm at home with my big pretty monitor, controlled lighting, all my editing programs and tablet where I can really see everything and do detailed work. So, I don't NEED my whole catalog on the road and it would scare me to have it. When I get home, I plug the small external to the desktop, copy the images to the desktop external and bring them into my base LR catalog for "real" editing. Eventually I delete the images from my laptop and its LR catalog. I use that catalog as a temporary workspace.

For people who like to do final editing on their laptops and keep one catalog across machines, a different plan, possibly involving a series of sturdy smaller thunderbolt drives might be preferable.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Here's too much information.

http://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS625US625&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=using%20lightroom%20catalogs

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Excellent! Thank you, Don! That's what I had hoped I could do.

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Thanks minniev, makes perfect sense. Exactly why I didn't want to be locked into my laptop.

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Sorry, I couldn't get this link to work

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

To use Lightroom on a laptop you MUST have a catalog on the laptop, or an external drive that you move between laptop and desktop, and anything that is edited/imported on the laptop would then need to be transferred to the desktop catalog as well. It is not difficult to do, but would need to become a standard procedure.

Carrying an external drive that included your entire image library and catalog is of course doable so the transfer of info is no longer needed, but that would put your images at a greater risk of being lost, so your backup procedures would need to be more bulletproof.

A very nice thing about Lightroom is that it will work your way. As long as you understand you are maintaining a database of where your images are stored.

I have a feeling the easiest method will be to have a catalog on your desktop and on your laptop - then import images in the filed to the laptop, work on them as needed, and when home export the catalog & images to be imported into the desktop system so everything on the desktop is complete.

I do not use Lightroom on a laptop at least not yet, so I am making some assumptions about exporting the catalog & images to sync the desktop.

Right now I make use of a Linux netbook to unload the SD cards when away, maintain a backup of the images on a small portable USB drive, that way I have 2 copies when I return. No editing in the field, just import everything when I return home to my desktop.

BUT, I would think a Macbook or Macbook AIR is in my near future, so I could elect to give the editing while in the field a try myself ;)