Menu
ART by JUDI LAPSLEY MILLER
  • Home
  • Artworks
    • Photo Artistic Prints
      • All prints
      • Birds of Aotearoa/New Zealand
      • Flights of fancy
        • The Selfie (kākā)
        • It's about time
        • Two Minutes to Midnight (kākā)
        • Professor Polly
        • The big idea
        • A quick study
        • The web of life (toutouwai)
        • The reckoning
        • The scenic route
        • The bird watcher
        • Uncharted waters
        • When I sing my heart ascends
      • The beloved tūī
        • His magnificence (tūī)
        • Her Mystery (tūī)
        • In fine feather (tūī)
        • Portrait of a tūī
        • At what cost forever (tūī)
        • The Sign of the Southern Cross (tūī)
        • Nightlife
        • I shall ride every storm (tūī)
        • From Whence Cometh Evil (tūī)
        • Sad wings of destiny (tūī)
        • The Collector (tūī)
        • The Spy (tūī)
        • Unfurling (tūī)
        • Forever calling me (tūī)
        • A portrait of a tui 2
        • A portrait of a tui 3
        • In all his glory (tūī)
      • A cacophony of kākā
        • An urban jungle
        • Imagine
        • Visions of Zealandia
        • Break on through...
        • Baby kākā
      • Incredible kererū
      • Superb owls
      • Awesome forces
        • All at sea
        • He came to me...
        • Adrift
        • The emergence of flight
      • Support Forest & Bird
      • Support Zealandia
      • Birds of the world
        • Bathtime in Bella Vista (crimson-rumped toucanet)
        • Over the moon (red-tailed black cockatoo)
        • The helper (red-rumped parrot)
        • Contented (kookaburra)
        • Dreams of Freedom (dollarbird)
        • Her Majesty (eclectus parrot)
        • Whirlybird (scaly-breasted lorikeet)
      • Wildlife Photography
        • Terms of Endearment (korimako)
        • A new view
        • His resplendence (tūī)
        • The Sweetheart (kākā)
        • Portrait of a tūī
        • After midnight (kiwi pukupuku)
        • Dreaming big (takahē)
        • Baby Takahē
        • Watching over you (kākā)
        • The Poser (scaly-breasted lorikeet)
        • The Watcher (blue and gold macaw)
        • The Fighter (rainbow lorikeet)
      • Extra-large prints
    • Original Artworks
    • Framed Art
    • Framed TinyArt
    • Skrark Art Prints
      • Tūī in Pōhutukawa
      • Aberrant Brown Tūī
      • Kākāriki Portrait
      • Nocturnal Kiwi Pukupuku
      • Rare Black Tern
    • Galleries & Exhibitions
    • Postage stamps
    • Buying Art FAQ
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards
    • TinyArt Gifts
  • Commissions
  • Blog
  • About
    • Subscribe
    • Bio & Resume
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Artworks
    • Photo Artistic Prints
      • All prints
      • Birds of Aotearoa/New Zealand
      • Flights of fancy
        • The Selfie (kākā)
        • It's about time
        • Two Minutes to Midnight (kākā)
        • Professor Polly
        • The big idea
        • A quick study
        • The web of life (toutouwai)
        • The reckoning
        • The scenic route
        • The bird watcher
        • Uncharted waters
        • When I sing my heart ascends
      • The beloved tūī
        • His magnificence (tūī)
        • Her Mystery (tūī)
        • In fine feather (tūī)
        • Portrait of a tūī
        • At what cost forever (tūī)
        • The Sign of the Southern Cross (tūī)
        • Nightlife
        • I shall ride every storm (tūī)
        • From Whence Cometh Evil (tūī)
        • Sad wings of destiny (tūī)
        • The Collector (tūī)
        • The Spy (tūī)
        • Unfurling (tūī)
        • Forever calling me (tūī)
        • A portrait of a tui 2
        • A portrait of a tui 3
        • In all his glory (tūī)
      • A cacophony of kākā
        • An urban jungle
        • Imagine
        • Visions of Zealandia
        • Break on through...
        • Baby kākā
      • Incredible kererū
      • Superb owls
      • Awesome forces
        • All at sea
        • He came to me...
        • Adrift
        • The emergence of flight
      • Support Forest & Bird
      • Support Zealandia
      • Birds of the world
        • Bathtime in Bella Vista (crimson-rumped toucanet)
        • Over the moon (red-tailed black cockatoo)
        • The helper (red-rumped parrot)
        • Contented (kookaburra)
        • Dreams of Freedom (dollarbird)
        • Her Majesty (eclectus parrot)
        • Whirlybird (scaly-breasted lorikeet)
      • Wildlife Photography
        • Terms of Endearment (korimako)
        • A new view
        • His resplendence (tūī)
        • The Sweetheart (kākā)
        • Portrait of a tūī
        • After midnight (kiwi pukupuku)
        • Dreaming big (takahē)
        • Baby Takahē
        • Watching over you (kākā)
        • The Poser (scaly-breasted lorikeet)
        • The Watcher (blue and gold macaw)
        • The Fighter (rainbow lorikeet)
      • Extra-large prints
    • Original Artworks
    • Framed Art
    • Framed TinyArt
    • Skrark Art Prints
      • Tūī in Pōhutukawa
      • Aberrant Brown Tūī
      • Kākāriki Portrait
      • Nocturnal Kiwi Pukupuku
      • Rare Black Tern
    • Galleries & Exhibitions
    • Postage stamps
    • Buying Art FAQ
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards
    • TinyArt Gifts
  • Commissions
  • Blog
  • About
    • Subscribe
    • Bio & Resume
  • Contact

Managing your stash of creative goodies using Lightroom Classic

4/1/2018

2 Comments

 
PictureShould this texture by Sebastian be filed under watercolor texture, cracked texture, fabric texture…?
I'd like to offer up my method for managing my stash of textures, elements, overlays, and masks that I've acquired through courses like AWAKE, Kaizen, and from content I've purchased. It's a bit different to what Sebastian Michaels' suggests, but each to their own. It's a big decision to make, so considering various strategies allows you to make an informed decision before taking the plunge to get organized. This overview assumes you already know a bit about navigating your way round Lightroom Classic and how to import images.

Just considering textures alone - I have over 4000 textures after the AWAKE and KAIZEN courses, along with creating my own. Too many to search through if they were all in one folder. One option is to create folders for each type of texture: grunge, paint, black and white, cracks, urban, concrete… but that quickly makes for some hard decisions. How would you file this texture on the right? You certainly don't want to duplicate the image and put it into multiple folders!

Rather than fuss about which folder an image should be filed in, forget about filing entirely. Let Lightroom work for you instead, with keywords, searches, and smart collections. When you get a new content bundle, unzip each content package into a main folder for all your goodies. I usually let the folder be autonamed by the package name, which also makes it easier to trace back to the source (e.g., "2LO Artist 11", "FS_Cloudy_Day_background_"). Within my main folder, I also have separate folders for AWAKE, Kaizen, and my own content, but that doesn't really matter. Once the content is unzipped, import it into your Lightroom catalog. Then (and this is the only painful bit), keyword every image.

How to keyword
Ctrl-K or Cmd-K gets you to the Keywording panel quickly. Simply type in your keywords, separated by commas. As your collection of keywords builds up, Lightroom will autosuggest and autocomplete for you. For the above texture, I've tagged it as "fabric, cracked, watercolor, texture". I can then easily find it (and others) by simply searching for "texture fabric" or "texture watercolor", or whatever. It's up to you as to how detailed you get, but once keyworded, you will more likely be able to find your goodies in the future. Keyword all your photos too, not just your stash. Even if you have a big collection already, start like you mean to go on with new images and knock the rest off in 15 minute chunks each day till they're all done. It will save you more time in the long run as your images will be so much easier to find. I have over 45000 images in my collection, and they are finally all keyworded.

HINT: Lightroom can keyword hierarchically and you can add synonyms which can make it easier to add multiple keywords at once. But I don't always bother.
​The benefit of keywording over filing is that one image can belong in multiple categories so you no longer have to angst over whether a texture should be filed under "black and white", "urban" or "grunge". It can be all three, and more!

Some images I've keyworded in more detail than others - you can only do so much. But I figure with at least one keyword, it stands a chance of being found again. And with so much wonderful content out there, it's so easy to get overwhelmed and not be able to find anything.
Potentially useful keywords:
texture, overlay, mask, element, brush, grunge, urban, mixed media, illustration, vintage, antique, black and white, bird (or if you're like me, specific species including their Latin names), location (ie specific place),... and on and on... 
Screenshot of the Lightroom Collections panelSome of my smart collections, filed into collection sets. The same image can belong in multiple collections without duplicating the image.

Finding content using Find/Search
Once you have keywords, you can then start finding your stuff:
  • Start in the top level of your catalog in "All Photographs" if you want to search over your entire Catalog.
  • Ctrl-F or Cmd-F to get the Find field.
  • Type in what you're looking for and hit Enter - Lightroom will display the photos/images meeting the search term.
  • You can constrain the search to things like "keywords", "filename", and "any searchable field" - I usually use the latter as it will pick up more possibilities. (Many content creators already use useful keywords as filenames, and some content comes with keywords already.)

Finding content using Smart Collections
This is where the magic lies… A Smart Collection is essentially a saved search. You don't have to manually add images to the collection; instead the collection is automatically created through search rules. Not only can you set up and save specific keyword searches, you can include information about the images, like aspect ratio and size. One of my favourite collections is "Textures that are square and greater than 4000px" - the starting point for most of my composited images.

A black and white square texture by 2LO
A texture that fits into multiple categories.
The same texture can therefore be in multiple smart collections. This texture automatically shows up in my Texture - 2LO, Texture - all, Texture - square, Texture - square >4000px, and Textures - B+W collections, all without duplicating the image.
​
​
How do you create a smart collection?
​Click the + icon  on the top right of the Collections panel and choose Create Smart Collection. 
Give it a name then create rules to define the search. 
Screenshot of the Create Smart Collection window
Once you've created the collection, you can edit it. This smart collection looks in any folder called "Compositing resources" and looks for square images greater than 4000px with the keyword "texture":
Picture
You'll quickly come up with smart collections to suit your purposes.
FURTHER HINTS:
  • Just have one Lightroom catalog for everything. It's too much of a hassle opening and closing multiple catalog.
  • Adobe evangelist Julieanne Kost has tutorials on smart collections, keywording, and using Lightroom in general. Well worth your time. Google her.
  • If you're using Lightroom CC, you can harness its keywording AI. I've not tried it, because for me, it is too painful to move 45000 full-res images into the cloud so I'm sticking with Lightroom Classic.
  • In Lightroom under "Catalog Settings", go to the Metadata tab. Turn on "Automatically write changes into XMP". Along with other settings, this will also add your keywords to the image files themselves and not just the Lightroom database - that way they're available to other programs too. And if your Lightroom catalog is corrupted, you won't lose everything. (Now is a good time to consider on and off-site back-up strategies too!).
Do let me know in the comments how I can improve, clarify and/or correct any of this information. Hope this helps someone! I wish someone had told me much earlier :)
2 Comments
Mandy
18/7/2019 11:38:47 pm

Wonderful and so helpful - going to give this method a go. A print/download button would be a bonus on the page

Reply
Judi link
19/7/2019 12:08:17 pm

Thanks Mandy - I'm glad to hear it's helpful. Will look into a download/print feature too - good idea!

Judi

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Access Octomono Masonry Settings

    Judi Lapsley Miller

    Fine art inspired by the stories of birds and the natural world. Starting with photographs, I let my imagination take me on flights of fancy. What is real and what is imagined is blurred. What is physical and what is virtual is disrupted. Bursting with colour and life.
    ​Welcome to the Art of Birding...
     

    Bird letters

    Art, birds, photography, wildlife - be the first to find out what's happening...

Categories

All
Adventures Birding
Art
Behind The Scenes
Birds
Climate Crisis
Digital Photography
Donations
Framing
Fungi
Kākā
Lightroom
Photo Artistry
Photography Challenge
Photography Techniques
Photoshop
Product Review
Tūī
Tūī
Volunteering
Watercolour Doodles
Zealandia EcoSanctuary

Archives

June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
September 2021
June 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
October 2020
September 2020
July 2020
March 2020
January 2020
November 2019
July 2019
June 2019
April 2019
January 2019
December 2018
September 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
October 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
February 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016

RSS Feed

Instagram

Photo of Judi Lapsley Miller

ART by ​JUDI LAPSLEY MILLER

hello@artbyjlm.com
021-180-9633 (text)
​Wellington, New Zealand

Fine art photo artistry, mixed-media,
& wildlife photography ​
Get joyous bird-art stories in your inbox!

© COPYRIGHT 2016-2022
Judi Lapsley Miller,
​except where indicated.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Privacy Policy
Shipping Policy
Returns & Refunds Policy
Cookie Policy