ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

by Julieanne Kost

 Comments (8)

Created

February 23, 2012

• The difference between a Smart Collection and a  regular Collection is that the Smart Collection is based on the search criteria you specify in the Smart Collection dialog. Once you set up the criteria, Smart Collections constantly monitor your entire catalog looking for any photograph that meets the criteria set in the Smart Collection – which is why they are smart  – they can add and delete images dynamically if you make changes to an image.

• In order to organize your collections, use the plus icon on the Collections panel and select Create Collection Set, name it and then drag and drop your Collections and Smart Collections into the Set.

• In order to target a collection (as oppose to the Quick Collection), Control (Mac) / Right Mouse (Win) -click a  regular collection. And choose “Set as Target Collection”. Then, tapping the “B” key will add the selected images(s) into your targeted collection instead of the default Quick Collection. Caps Lock (or add the Shift key) will auto advance to the next image while adding to the Quick/Target Collection.

COMMENTS

  • By Lladro@Swarovski Figurines - 2:49 PM on February 23, 2012   Reply

    Can someone answer why after setting up a Smart Collection would I want to go back and use the regular or Quick collection method again. I understand I may want to add something outside my settings but would it be almost as fast just to change and add through Smart.

    Thanks
    Lladro

    • By Julieanne Kost - 3:21 PM on February 24, 2012   Reply

      For one thing, you can create a custom sort order when using a regular collection which I find helpful when I am telling a story using multiple images. Also, quick collection is an excellent way for me to collect images that I might want to work with, but at the end of the day, I won’t use the same images again so I don’t need to “keep” the collection of images but it’s handy to have them in a “temporary” collection.

  • By al dampier - 1:51 PM on March 4, 2012   Reply

    thanks for the tips and I enjoy your blog. what i haven’t figured out is how to organize the thousands of photos over the last 6 or 7 years prior to lightroom???

    • By Julieanne Kost - 7:51 PM on March 7, 2012   Reply

      I would suggest that you import the files, maybe a few folders or a year at a time (as your schedule permits) and organize them using ht eLibrary module in LR.

  • By David McGill - 4:19 AM on April 16, 2012   Reply

    I have collections set up in CS5 Bridge and have just recently bought LR4. Is it possible to copy the collections from BR to LR iwthout having to create new collections in LR and add each image to the “new” collections?

    • By Julieanne Kost - 1:25 PM on April 16, 2012   Reply

      Unfortunately there is not an automated way to copy collections back and fourth between Lightroom and Bridge.

  • By Tim - 5:50 PM on May 19, 2012   Reply

    Hi,
    I love Smart Collections, but I also love collection sets. I often have a collection set for an event, and then a number of collections underneath for different things at that event, such as a collection for each band at a gig in a single collection set for that gig.
    I set up some Smart Collections for things like ‘Videos’ or ‘Rated’ or ‘Published’ inside the collection set to quickly find items.
    I use the limiter ‘Collection’ in the filter, but it would be a lot better if I could use ‘Collection Set’ or just set a Smart Collection to only process down from where I add it in the hierarchy.

    Will this feature being included in an update of LR4?

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