HOW TO Manage your photo collection
1 IMPORT
The first step toward becoming organised is to use the app to import your photos, rather than just copying them from a memory card. This way, you can use the import options to create folders with a consistent date-based naming structure, and even create a backup on an external drive at the same time. You can do this from an existing hard drive folder as well as a memory card.
3 ADD KEYWORDS
Adding keywords to your images’ metadata makes them easier to find. Click the folder you wish to keyword on the left, then use Ctrl-A to select every image in it. Move to the right-hand side of the Manage interface and click the Organize tab. In Keywords, above, there are pre-set suggestions, or type your own into the box, separated by a comma.
2 RENAME
By importing in this way, you made things easier to find by date. But can you remember where you were on a given day last year? We can’t. By adding a few words to the folder name, you’ll be able to pick out the day you shot steam trains from the day you spent on the beach with the grandkids. Just right-click a folder name on the left of the interface and choose ‘rename’.
4 SEARCH BY KEYWORD
Get into the habit of keywording your images, and you’ll be able to search your database of images for photos of owls, or of family, or motor racing, or whatever keywords you’ve decided to use. In Manage mode, the quick search box is at the top right. Search a keyword, then click an image and click the Organize tab to see which other words it’s associated with.
5 QUICK SEARCH
Drop down the menu button next to the Quick Search box in Manage mode and you’ll get a set of options. You can choose what is searched, including filenames (useful if you have multiple cameras that save files with recognisable names), folder names (useful if you’ve followed Step Two, above) and faces. Image metadata, which includes Keywords, is always searched.
6 GPS DATA
Click on the map pin icon at the bottom left of the grey surround of an image thumbnail in Manage mode, and you’ll be taken to a map view (if your camera embeds GPS information into the metadata, that is). This shows you how many of your images were taken in specific places. Zoom in, and you’ll be able to follow your path as you walked around and took pictures.
7 MAP NAVIGATION
Each pin on the map is marked with a number, showing you how many images are associated with that spot. Red pins are individual locations, while blue ones are combined locations created because you’re not zoomed in far enough. Click on a pin so it turns yellow, and the thumbnails at the bottom of the screen update to show the images taken in that area.
8 GROUPING
Toward the top left of the Manage window are menus that allow you to change how your images are displayed. You can sort them by rating, if you’ve rated them, but the one we find most useful is Group, and its Processed State setting. This sorts your folder into images that are untouched, those that have been developed, and those that have been edited.
9 COLLECTIONS
If you’ve got photos that were taken over the course of several days, you can group their folders into a Collection. Open the Organize tab, then click the ‘+’ by Collections if you need to. Right-click on one of the existing Smart Collections, and choose Create Collection. Give it a name, and you can add images to it by selecting them and ticking the box by the Collection’s name.
10 SMART COLLECTIONS
It’s not open by default, but by going to the Panes menu and ticking the Collections box, you open a new tab on the left which shows your Collections as if they were folders. Smart Collections automatically gather together things like recently imported or modified photos for you to view, and you can move them directly from here into Develop or Edit mode.