Lightroom is so DAM confusing...

[David Mantripp]

How come when I select "All Photographs", and set the filter to "Picks", I only see Picks which are NOT in a Collection ?

(Just one of the many weird things in Lightroom....)

[DavidB]

How come when I select "All Photographs", and set the filter to "Picks", I only see Picks which are NOT in a Collection ?
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Flags (Picks/Rejects) are definitely confusing for many people, as they're maintained on a per-collection basis.
If you set a flag on an item in a global (e.g. folder) view then add the item to a collection, the flag goes with it.  But any further changes to the flag within the collection are only within that collection (the item can have different flags in different collections).
Unfortunately this means that you can't use the Reject flag within collections to mark things for removal from the library: I use rating=1 for this as it will always be visible from the global views.

Currently flags can be used at EITHER a global level OR within each collection, but not both.

[madmanchan]

One way to think about it is that flags/picks/rejects are "local" whereas stars and colors are "global". If you want something to stick, use stars or colors. For example, I label everything I want to reject as "red".

[David Mantripp]

One way to think about it is that flags/picks/rejects are "local" whereas stars and colors are "global". If you want something to stick, use stars or colors. For example, I label everything I want to reject as "red".
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Harumph.  Another way to think about it is "designed by engineers".

I'm not a LR hater - I've more or less stopped using anything else - but this sort of thing where it gives me a feature and then imposes eactly how I should use it drives me nuts.  I mean, why should I use "red label" for reject when there's a "reject" flag ?

This collections thing is really not well worked out. The thing about collections & stacks is another example. Why the (insert appropriate expletive) can I not have a stack in a collection ?

I hope 2.0 will benefit from a bit of _unbiased_ usability testing....

[madmanchan]

Well, the thinking is that the 1st thing that normally gets done after importing images is selection / rejection. i.e., make picks / rejects before doing anything with collections. After all, the rejects are just going to be deleted. So while you're in the default view, do your picks / rejects (e.g., using 'p' and 'x'), then delete all the rejects. Then you can take what you have left and organize them further to suit your needs (e.g., via collections, color labels, etc.)

[CatOne]

Well, the thinking is that the 1st thing that normally gets done after importing images is selection / rejection. i.e., make picks / rejects before doing anything with collections. After all, the rejects are just going to be deleted. So while you're in the default view, do your picks / rejects (e.g., using 'p' and 'x'), then delete all the rejects. Then you can take what you have left and organize them further to suit your needs (e.g., via collections, color labels, etc.)
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That's how I've often seen it used.  A good first whack to cull 1000 images to 500 (or whatever your kill percentage typically is) before doing any rating.

[Nat Coalson]

One way around this limitation would be to make a "top-level" collection of your own called All Collections, or whatever, and nest all your other collections underneath it; then you can use your collection-level flags there.

My workflow involves making picks/rejects from Folders views and then making star ratings "ratings" in Collections (I think it should be Ranking; "ratings" are for movies, and rank has a long association with stars...)

But I've also been annoyed by the differences in functionality between Folders and Collections, especially stacks. And I rarely use those three sources under the Library panel, I'll be surprised if they last in the UI.

But I do often select Previous Import (and other locations) from the source indicator in the filmstrip, which I find very useful. I especially like how the source indicator does not give preference to folder or collection etc. but it might be helpful to have the ability to filter that dropdown menu...

Or how about a Recent Sources panel? With user-defined number of recent sources?? And the ability to filter by source???

[julian_love]

I find it irritating that if i alter the sequence of images in a collection it changes the sequence of images in any of the sub-collections. Why can't the sequence be independent in each collection?? Argh!

Oh, and an unwelcome change between 1.0 and 1.1, there is now no view where I can see all the keywords to be exported as I enter them. Now I have one view for entering keywords and another for seeing which will be exported. Who thought this was a good idea? Now when I enter a keyword I can't see which other keywords in the hierachy are going to be exported....for a stock shooter who needs comprehensively keyworded images this is a big deal.

LR is a great piece of software and it is my primary imaging programme now, but these two things have been put in by people who clearly don't understand how a power user will make use of the application.

Julian

[DavidB]

I find it irritating that if i alter the sequence of images in a collection it changes the sequence of images in any of the sub-collections. Why can't the sequence be independent in each collection?? Argh!
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When you're looking at a parent collection you're actually looking at everything in that collection and all its sub-collections at the same time.  If you have the same image in multiple sub-collections you'll only see it once.

With this paradigm, I suppose the question of what you're trying to achieve when manipulating the parent collection directly is open to interpretation.  LR's current behaviour does things like when you remove an image "from the parent" you're actually telling it to remove it from the collection tree.  There are other possible models for this behaviour but as it is, this does suit some people.
Re-ordering the contents of the collection tree does make sense in this model, although obviously it's not the way you inferred it would work.  Not your fault, not necessarily Adobe's fault.

[madmanchan]

Oh, and an unwelcome change between 1.0 and 1.1, there is now no view where I can see all the keywords to be exported as I enter them. Now I have one view for entering keywords and another for seeing which will be exported. Who thought this was a good idea? Now when I enter a keyword I can't see which other keywords in the hierachy are going to be exported....for a stock shooter who needs comprehensively keyworded images this is a big deal.
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That depends on how you enter your keywords. I always have my Keywording panel set to Will Export. So I'm looking at all the keywords that will be exported. But I don't use that field for typing in new keywords -- not efficient. Instead, I use Keyword Sets. Once I have Keyword Sets established, assigning keywords to images becomes very fast: just hold down the alt/option key and use the numeric keypad values from 1 through 9, or type 0 to rotate through keyword sets. As keywords get added via this process, the Will Export field will show all the keywords to be exported.

If I need to manually enter a new keyword, I type ctrl-shift-k to enter a new keyword. Then I press 'k' to assign this keyword to an image, or usually multiple images at once. Or occasionally I'll use the painter tool, where you can also type in a keyword.