LR Collection Q

mercphoto

So I've downloaded the LR 30-day trial and I'm using it on my honeymoon photos to see how much quicker the workflow is over my current one, which involves running .dng files into iVMP3 to sort and toss, then into ACR and finally into CS3. Seems most of what I do in ACR and CS3 can be handled just fine by LR's Develop pane, as well as handling the organization chores of iVMP3, so I'm hopeful.

But I have a question about Collections. I can see how to create a collection, and how to add any currently selected photos to that collection. I cannot figure out how to add a new photo to an existing Collection though. In iVMP3 I would simply drag the thumbnail onto the Catalog name. But I do the same in LR and nothing happens. And a Help search on "add photo to collection" only talks about adding to the quick collection.

arodney

mercphoto wrote:

I can see how to create a collection, and how to add any currently selected photos to that collection. I cannot figure out how to add a new photo to an existing Collection though. In iVMP3 I would simply drag the thumbnail onto the Catalog name. But I do the same in LR and nothing happens. And a Help search on "add photo to collection" only talks about adding to the quick collection.

You have to import the images first before you can add them to a collection of course. You'll notice there's actually one special collection built every time you import called "Previous Import". You can drag from that into any pre-existing collection or just click on the images and build a collection (tell the new collection to use the selected images).

mercphoto

arodney wrote:

You have to import the images first before you can add them to a collection of course. You'll notice there's actually one special collection built every time you import called "Previous Import". You can drag from that into any pre-existing collection or just click on the images and build a collection (tell the new collection to use the selected images).

Well, not quite what I'm trying to do. I have a collection already made. It has some photos in it that were added when the collection was created. Now I want to add a new (already imported) photo to the existing collection. So I click on the thumbnail for the photo. I can't seem to drag it to the existing collection. I see no menu option for "add to collection" with the exception of "add to quick collection", which is not the collection I want to add the photo to.

arodney

mercphoto wrote:

Now I want to add a new (already imported) photo to the existing collection. So I click on the thumbnail for the photo. I can't seem to drag it to the existing collection.

You're in Grid mode, in the folder or collection of images you wish to move to the collection and can't now move them to the collection? Make sure you select the IMAGE area, not the border and drag. Works here.

mercphoto

arodney wrote:

You're in Grid mode, in the folder or collection of images you wish to move to the collection and can't now move them to the collection? Make sure you select the IMAGE area, not the border and drag. Works here.

I thought it should work. I'll try again when I get home tonight.

mercphoto

Well, it appears that SOMETIMES it will let me drag into a collection, sometimes not. What is strange is its acting like that photo is already in the collection, and maybe it is. When I view the collection, it tells me I'm seeing "55 of 95" photos, but I can't figure out where the missing 20 photos are. AND, if I do successfully add a new photo to the collection it then says "55 of 96". Very odd and frustrating!

jfriend

mercphoto wrote:

Well, it appears that SOMETIMES it will let me drag into a collection, sometimes not. What is strange is its acting like that photo is already in the collection, and maybe it is. When I view the collection, it tells me I'm seeing "55 of 95" photos, but I can't figure out where the missing 20 photos are. AND, if I do successfully add a new photo to the collection it then says "55 of 96". Very odd and frustrating!

My guess would be that you have a filter active that is filtering out some of the photos in the collection. Go to the lower right corner of the screen right above the ribbon of photos and click the far right icon to turn all filtering off. At that point, you should see all the photos on your collection. Or, you can go to the File menu, select Filters and disable all filters.

PhilCollum

jfriend wrote:

My guess would be that you have a filter active that is filtering out some of the photos in the collection. Go to the lower right corner of the screen right above the ribbon of photos and click the far right icon to turn all filtering off. At that point, you should see all the photos on your collection. Or, you can go to the File menu, select Filters and disable all filters.

I agree. Lightroom won't let you drag a photo into a collection in which it already resides. And, if your filters prevent you from seeing the photo in the collection, it's very easy to think something is wrong. The filters are easy to overlook. I periodically forget to turn off the filters, and similarily think I have the same problem.

You can turn off the filters by clicking the "switch" located at the far right of the filter toolbar.

mercphoto

Filters was indeed the problem. Funny, I don't remember turning a filter on. Aside from some clumsiness I did sort, catalog, keyword, and process a large number of RAW files much faster than I did before.

jfriend

mercphoto wrote:

Filters was indeed the problem. Funny, I don't remember turning a filter on. Aside from some clumsiness I did sort, catalog, keyword, and process a large number of RAW files much faster than I did before.

Glad that fixed it. As I understand it, the filtering UI is being revamped in LR 2.0. Let's hope they make it a little more obvious when you have one turned on.