Organising the Catalogue (Lightroom 5)

I have used Lightroom since Version 4 was first released. This was a bit of change as before I had been using Photoshop Elements 9. Now on Version 5.3 I have grown to really like Lightroom for its easy non-destructive editing, built-in tools and database utilities for organising my images.

Photoshop Elements 9

Starting my photography in 2008 my images were initially JPEGs organised in to Window Folders. The first software purchased to organise these was Photoshop Elements 6, then later with Version 9 with its increased abilities (particulary Layer masks).

As an Organiser it suited my needs at the time, but after following a lot of photography magazines, I swapped from taking just JPEGs to RAW (Olympus ORFs). Whilst the visibility of these was not an issue, I got a bit frustrated that to edit the ORF was 2 stage affair through the RAW converter. After this a new file was created, increasing the volume of items on the hard disk. 

After 4 years and thousands of photographs it was time for a change in the way things were organised.

Lightroom 4 & 5

On transferring to LR, I had only used Folders as a form of organisation and categorisation. LR offered many more options, but with lots of choice it is always difficult to choose! 

Initally using Keywords for the first time I used them for everything - People, Styles, Locations etc & it was getting a bit confusing and disorganised.

After a recent re-think I have gone back over all my images & now organise as follows:

• Folders still used as base sort. I now have fewer folders being:
• Days Out - Subfolders by Year/Month/Location - This covers all the weekend trips made.
• Holidays - Subfolders by Year/Location - Main holiday images
• Events - Subfolders by Year/Event - Family Birthdays, Weddings, Funerals etc
• General - All other photos of a non-specific nature
• Import - Used to import and do initial appraisal before moving to more specific folder
• Location - Using the Map tab in LR I have located all (well nearly all) images based on where they were taken. For most of the general photos I have located them at "Home". This makes use of the location metadata fields including the Sublocation which specifies some of the attractions visisted
• Title & Caption - I have used Title to record the specific attraction, event or theme of the image. Captions are still to be used. I am trying to think what is best here
• Colour Labels - I only use 3 of the colours. This helps me to quickl see the file types I use:
• Yellow for JPEGs
• Red for PSDs (Elements edited files); and 
• Blue for TIFFs
• Keywords - I have now removed all keywords relating to Location (the majority) and now have more based on content of the image. This still need to be developed further.

Next step is to think more about how various presets can be set up and used.

Lightroom 5 Metadata Tag Set

The following can be used to create a Metadata Tag (Field) set. The set will be available in the Metadata panel as a selection under the Library tab. 

To use it:

• Create a folder under the folder - C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Metadata Field Lists
• Use a text editor (e.g. Notepad) to enter the following text. This is scripting language and must be entered accurately or it will not be visible from within Lightroom:

-- Basic Metadata Template (Dashes denote a comment)

return {

title = "My LR Tagset - Basic",

items = {

{
formatter = "com.adobe.title",
topLabel = true
},

{
         height_in_lines = 5,
         allow_newlines = true,
         label = "Description",
         topLabel = true,
         formatter = "com.adobe.caption"
},



"com.adobe.separator",


{
"com.adobe.label",
label = "Location"
},
{
"com.adobe.location",
},
{
"com.adobe.city",
label = "Town/City"
},
{
"com.adobe.state",
label = "County/State"
},
{
"com.adobe.country",
},
{
"com.adobe.isoCountryCode",
},
{
"com.adobe.GPS",
},


"com.adobe.separator",

{
"com.adobe.label",
label = "Camera & Lens"
},

{
"com.adobe.model",
label = "Camera"
},
{
"com.adobe.lens",
label = "Lens"
},
},


}


This script just displays basic details on the Title, Caption, Location, Camera and Lens details for the photograph. Save the text file with the file extension ".lrtemplate" to the "Metadata Field Lists" folder. If Lightroom is already running, you need to close and restart it to be able to see the new set. Should any part of the format be incorrect, the list will not show in Lightroom.

More fields are available being:

"com.adobe.filepath",
"com.adobe.basename",
"com.adobe.filenameExtension",
"com.adobe.originalFilename.ifDiffers",
"com.adobe.originalFilename",
"com.adobe.fileFormat",
"com.adobe.metadataDate",
"com.adobe.audioAnnotation",
"com.adobe.rating.string",
"com.adobe.ratingAndLabel",
"com.adobe.combinedImageFileDimensions",
"com.adobe.filesize",
"com.adobe.megapixels",
"com.adobe.captureDateTime",
"com.adobe.dateTime",
"com.adobe.dateTime.dateOnly",
"com.adobe.dateTime.timeOnly",
"com.adobe.dateTimeOriginal",
"com.adobe.dateTimeOriginal.onlyIfUnique",
"com.adobe.dateTimeDigitized",
"com.adobe.subjectDistance",
"com.adobe.GPSAltitude",
"com.adobe.exposureProgram",
"com.adobe.exposureBiasValue",
"com.adobe.meteringMode",
"com.adobe.lensSetting",
"com.adobe.focalLength35mm",
"com.adobe.maxApertureValue",
"com.adobe.rightsUsageTerms",
"com.adobe.copyrightInfoURL",
"com.adobe.creatorWorkEmail",
"com.adobe.creatorWorkWebsite",
"com.adobe.creatorWorkPhone",
"com.adobe.creatorCountry",
"com.adobe.creatorZip",
"com.adobe.creatorState",
"com.adobe.creatorCity",
"com.adobe.creatorJobTitle",
"com.adobe.creatorAddress",
"com.adobe.filename",
"com.adobe.sidecars",
"com.adobe.copyname",
"com.adobe.folder",
"com.adobe.metadataStatus",
"com.adobe.caption",
        "com.adobe.title",
        "com.adobe.userComment",
        "com.adobe.headline",
        "com.adobe.provider",
        "com.adobe.instructions",
        "com.adobe.descriptionWriter",
"com.adobe.copyright",
"com.adobe.copyrightState",
"com.adobe.creator",
"com.adobe.dateCreated",
"com.adobe.intellectualGenre",
"com.adobe.scene",
"com.adobe.location",
"com.adobe.city",
"com.adobe.state",
"com.adobe.country",
"com.adobe.isoCountryCode",
        "com.adobe.supplementalCategories",
        "com.adobe.source",
"com.adobe.rating",
"com.adobe.colorLabels",
"com.adobe.captureTime",
"com.adobe.captureDate",
"com.adobe.imageFileDimensions",
"com.adobe.imageCroppedDimensions",
"com.adobe.exposure",
        "com.adobe.exposureAndISO",
"com.adobe.focalLength",
"com.adobe.ISOSpeedRating",
"com.adobe.flash",
"com.adobe.make",
"com.adobe.model",
"com.adobe.lens",
"com.adobe.GPS",
        "com.adobe.software",
        "com.adobe.userComment",

and new in Lightroom 5.0:

        "com.adobe.GPSImgDirection",

if you want to insert a separator, use

        "com.adobe.separator",

and if you want to put a heading under this separator, use

          {

         "com.adobe.label",

         label = "Put wording here",

        },

The line starting "label..." can be used with any of the above fields to change the text displayed as the field label.

My "basic" set is ideal as an amateurs reference to photographs as I don't want a whole plethora of information on each item as a professional might.

These instructions are found with a different field set under. Thanks to Malc as this has proved very useful

Malc Raggett's Photo Blog

Customising Adobe Lightroom Metadata Field Names