# Help Requested: Need to Select Photos from Multiple Folders for Project



## sm4him (Aug 7, 2015)

Okay, so:
I don't really know how to use my LR very well. I've managed to import the photo folders on my hard drive and put in a few keywords on a FEW photos. That's about it so far.
I also have PS which is what I usually use for processing, and Bridge, which is what I usually use for sorting through pictures.

But now I have this project I need to work on. It will require creating a composite of photos, using photos taken over a five-year span. That means the photos are in a whole bunch of different folders. I really, REALLY don't want to go through every folder, pick the ones I want, then have to copy those into a new folder for the project.

Yesterday, I had what I *thought* was a good idea. I went through, in LR, and gave all the photos I want to use for the project a "blue" color rating.

But now: How do I get LR to find JUST those "blue" rated photos again and show them all? When I open it and go to Library, then "filter by color label," all the color choices are grayed out. 
Am I going about this back-arse-wards?  This is why I haven't really started using LR yet; I'm so completely befuddled by the organizational system.

Does any of this even make any sense?


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## astroNikon (Aug 7, 2015)

Create a new Collection

Then go to  the Library, and then your Custom Filter for your search stuff. 
then add those individual photos (or a Virtual Copy) to that new Collection.


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## sm4him (Aug 7, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> Create a new Collection
> then add those individual photos from all the years to that new Collection.



I'm telling you, I am not even skilled enough at LR to be a novice.  So, I just created a new collection, but is there any way to find all those pictures that I designated with the blue color label yesterday and put them in this new collection, or do I have to sort through ALL those d**n pictures again? Because it's thousands of them, and if I have to go back through them all again, I'm probably gonna cry. Or go home and start drinking. Maybe both.


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## astroNikon (Aug 7, 2015)

In Library mode from the top menu Library / Develop / Map / Book etc
select LIbrary

in the left, make sure you have a year selected -- you might have to do one year at a time - or how ever you have the pictures stored on your computer.

then in lower right
select Filter to "Flagged"  then the left is a small square to select the filter color (you can see the small cursor in the below pic)

then the results should be in the main section ...
at least that's what I see


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## sm4him (Aug 7, 2015)

Thanks, Astro. That made sense, and I thought that would do the trick, but it doesn't find anything. All I can figure is that maybe it didn't actually save the color label to any of the pictures I selected yesterday, but it definitely indicated that it had.

I think I'm just gonna have to drop back and punt and go back to my old-fashioned method. Ditch LR and go through folder by folder, copying the ones I want to a new folder for the project. What a PITA, though.


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## astroNikon (Aug 7, 2015)

select a photo, then change it's color label
then do a test search.

that's what I did .. i didn't know you could do a Color Label until I tried it, then made it work with a search.


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## sm4him (Aug 7, 2015)

Well, something definitely wasn't working right. I did a test on 5 photos. Then did the filter...nothing.
Then I googled and found a video on doing it. Did it exactly like it said in the video (select the folder in Library, then click "attribute" in the middle of the gray bar at the top of the photos and then select the blue color filter. Got nothing.
Then I tested a few in yellow, and got a result. Weird.
Then I went BACK to blue, clicked on three photos...and now it's suddenly found ALL the photos I'd labeled blue yesterday!!  What in the jam is that about??

I just went to label another photo. I clicked on the blue, and it labeled it yellow. I think my LR is wonked.


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## JacaRanda (Aug 7, 2015)

Make sure you have the top folder (parent) selected in the left column to be sure the filter is being done on all the photos you have given the blue attribute to.  If they are in different folders, you will have to do the filter on the parent of each folder; from there make a collection.

Sorry, I think I just repeated what Astro mentioned already.


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## astroNikon (Aug 7, 2015)

sm4him said:


> Well, something definitely wasn't working right. I did a test on 5 photos. Then did the filter...nothing.
> Then I googled and found a video on doing it. Did it exactly like it said in the video (select the folder in Library, then click "attribute" in the middle of the gray bar at the top of the photos and then select the blue color filter. Got nothing.
> Then I tested a few in yellow, and got a result. Weird.
> Then I went BACK to blue, clicked on three photos...and now it's suddenly found ALL the photos I'd labeled blue yesterday!!  What in the jam is that about??
> ...


LR seemed wonked to me until I got used to it.  Now it's normal.
For me LR was intuitive when I first tried using it.  After a while it started making sense.


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## sm4him (Aug 7, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> sm4him said:
> 
> 
> > Well, something definitely wasn't working right. I did a test on 5 photos. Then did the filter...nothing.
> ...



Thanks for all the help, Astro--I've at least got it working well enough to do what I need to do right now.

So far, LR is just not intuitive to me, AT all.  For some reason, I simply cannot wrap my head around how to get things imported and organized correctly. I know it's got to beat my current system all to pieces (you don't really want to KNOW what my current system is, but it involves pencil and paper, and a lot of file copying), but LR just totally befuddles me.  And I generally pick up most new software very quickly.

Maybe I really AM too old to learn new tricks now.


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## JacaRanda (Aug 7, 2015)

I know you probably have already checked out several videos.  Try these if you haven't already.  Lightroom Tutorials by Julieanne Kost


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## astroNikon (Aug 7, 2015)

It took me a while too until it finally "clicked"

essentially .. the menu is broken into 4 areas - Top, Left, Right & Bottom - your image is right smack in the middle of those 4 areas.

the top is your "work flow" which is from one stage to the next
Library - for importing and organizing data
    which uses the "menu" for folders and collections to the left

Develop - where you fix the photos, etc.
   which uses the menu to the right for exposure and all the other controls

to select images to Export you select them on the bottom bar .. you select one or many photos based upon your Search criteria .... then you can Export them - I use right click then get to the export feature.

after I figured that stuff out then it made more sense.
I was totally lost trying to even export images until then.

You'll have to learn about how to use Collections.  That is extremely helpful.


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## sm4him (Aug 7, 2015)

JacaRanda said:


> I know you probably have already checked out several videos.  Try these if you haven't already.  Lightroom Tutorials by Julieanne Kost



Thanks, Jaca. Yeah, I actually have a very good instructional video on using LR, I think it's from Scott Kelby, I don't remember. I got all gungho back at the first of the year about learning it (I've had the program for very nearly two years now...), started the videos...and then got distracted by other things to do.

That's really the problem; I need to sit down and experiment and LEARN it when I'm not NEEDING it to get something done. But that just never seems to happen, so then when I need it and know it could be really useful--I also know it's not really setup yet and I don't have time then to learn how to do it.  Going to have to be one of those things I just finally decide to make the time to learn.  But I'm not used to finding software that I can't just learn intuitively.


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## sm4him (Aug 7, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> It took me a while too until it finally "clicked"
> 
> essentially .. the menu is broken into 4 areas - Top, Left, Right & Bottom - your image is right smack in the middle of those 4 areas.
> 
> ...



Yeah, see I haven't really "exported" anything. Why import all these pictures, just to export them again?  And when do I use Develop and when do I "export"? And how in the blue blazes do I find the stupid photos that I keyworded already? And....and...and...All I know is that I don't know much about it, and I wish it had been around 20 years ago when my software-learning capabilities were still at their best.

I'll either grit my teeth, do some of these tutorial videos and determine to LEARN it eventually, or I'll give up and go back to my pencil and paper.  It's a toss-up right now as to which way it'll go.


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## JacaRanda (Aug 7, 2015)

sm4him said:


> JacaRanda said:
> 
> 
> > I know you probably have already checked out several videos.  Try these if you haven't already.  Lightroom Tutorials by Julieanne Kost
> ...



I know the feeling.  Every time I watch and learn something in PS, I don't use it enough (mostly because I don't have to having LR) so I lose it.

If you dive in now, you will wonder why you did not dive in earlier.  In my very best opinion, LR is fantastic; probably more for file management than it is for processing.  Many if not most will use it for 90% or more of what they need regularly before needing to open PS.


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## sm4him (Aug 7, 2015)

JacaRanda said:


> sm4him said:
> 
> 
> > JacaRanda said:
> ...



File management is definitely what I need, and that's the ONLY reason I persist in trying to learn LR. I have GOT to get some organization to this ridiculous digital pile of photos. Especially for work, where we are constantly needing "that picture of the trolley in front of the TN Theatre; you know, the one you took a few years ago" and then I've got to start hunting through folders, year by year, month by month, trying to find THAT photo.  And wishing I knew how to use LR. And wishing I'd already entered keywords for the giant digital mountain of photos.


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## astroNikon (Aug 7, 2015)

I'm sure there's better ways of doing it ...
but I broke things down into 
- Categories
- the folder were dates + event



 

Then as time went on and my collection list grew
I then had
- Category (example:  Planets)
- year + Sub Category  ( 2015_Moon)
- then the event which was Date + Subject  (not shown)


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## astroNikon (Aug 7, 2015)

When I started learning about Collections
I simply searched YouTube and regular tutorials specifically about Collections

such as:
8 Important Things to know about Lightroom Collections - Digital Photography School

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Help Work with photo collections

Lightroom 5 - Creating Custom Collections of Images Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Adobe TV


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## Dave442 (Aug 7, 2015)

Put some time into it and it will pay off. 

Try doing some tests on a small catalog that you can mess up and play around with before doing things with your main catalog. 

I just have all folders by date and then use collections. 
Will often use the Library Filter to find something if I don't know the date.

Also in the right hand pane while in Library mode you can search for many of the items just by clicking on the small right arrow. Also in this pane you can find the list of all the keywords you have used and search by any of those (by clicking on the arrow that will appear when you hover over the keyword).


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## Raj_55555 (Aug 7, 2015)

sm4him said:


> Why import all these pictures, just to export them again?


You import either Raw or Jpeg (or any other format), and then export them after retouching them to your desired settings. For example, if you export your office images to Jpg,  and prefer to keep the size shorter than 1 MB, with a specific naming format and specific image resolution and a specific watermark etc, all you need to do is go to Export, create a user preset with the above settings, save it and use it the next time you need to edit any of your office images.
Do the same for your non-office works, and now you have two presets and will save you a couple of minutes everytime you retouch an image. On top of that you can directly send emails, or burn them to disc from LR. I simply can't live without this feature, in fact I have one for every type of signature I can think of!

Summary: Import unprocessed files, and export (or save) the finished product.




sm4him said:


> And when do I use Develop and when do I "export"?


Library mode will only give you the basic editing options. When you move to *Develop *mode, you can crop, apply graduated filters or use adjustment brushes on your image. You will notice sliders in place of buttons that were there in library mode. You can adjust just about anything here, including individual colours, their hue, saturation and luminance. You don't need to touch Photoshop in most of the cases unless you're adding or removing something from the image, in which case you just right click the image and do "Edit in Photoshop". Remember that LR is non-destructive in it's approach, so any photograph that you edit here is actually never touched (unlike in photoshop) but the software remembers your edits and stores that info in a separate place. That way you can always fall back to your original image in case of any problems.



sm4him said:


> And how in the blue blazes do I find the stupid photos that I keyworded already?


Go to Library mode -> and press ctrl+F or Library in the menu and press Find. Set the text field to Keywords, and then enter the keyword. You can also search by date, title, folder name and so on.





TBH, I can live without Photoshop, but it'll be a nightmare without LR. I hope this helped, I'm sure you'll get used to it eventually!


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## sm4him (Aug 8, 2015)

Thanks very much, @Raj_55555, @astroNikon @JacaRanda and @Dave442.  I do need to spend more time with it, I just never seem to have that time to experiment with it.

I did finally get it to at least bring up the photos I'd selected previously, so maybe if I get some down time after this project, I'll try to starting really learning it again.


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## astroNikon (Aug 9, 2015)

FWIW, I had to spend some time with youtube videos, etc just to understand the basics.  After the basics then everything else just kinda fell into place.   So give yourself some "bootcamp" time to learn LR.  It will make it a lot easier.


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