Collections are yet another way that we can section off certain types of images. Creating a collection is a grouping of images that are lumped together.
To get started with building collections, make sure that you are working in the Library module. On the left side of the Library module, press the plus button on the panel titled “Collections” to create a new collection, and choose “Create New Collection.”
Press the plus button to the right of “Collections” to start a new image collection in Lightroom. Choose “Create a New Collection.”
After pressing the button, you’ll see another list of options that pop up. Go ahead and give your collection a name. I’m going to work on putting together venue images from this wedding, so I’ll call it “Venue Photos.”
Go ahead and give your collection a name – I chose Venue Photos in this case. I usually leave all of the other options at default.
Okay, so now we’ve got a collection! You’ll see that because we left the “Include selected photos” box checked, that two images are already in the collection.
Your collection will pop up on the left side in the Collections pane. You can press the minus button to delete that collection.
To add images to the collection, we can simply drag and drop images into that collection.
Do I use collections? Sometimes. I will use them typically when I’m delivering images for a special purpose. I might put together a collection for “Angie’s Corner Florist” or a collection for a particular family member. For me, this use of collections really boosts my workflow and lets those images live in a sandbox separate from all the rest.
On a side note, I want to also say that you may get a little overwhelmed with how to approach a task in Lightroom. If you want to tag your venue photos, you could do it in a ton of ways:
- With tags, adding “venue” to each venue image
- With color labels that signify criteria, like blue labels for venue images
- Using a collection to group venue images in one, easy to find collection
What’s the best way? The good and bad news is that there’s no right way to do things. Design a system that fits what you want to do. I spent so much time searching for the “right” way to do things that I was crippled by planning.
How about you? Are you using collections or will you now that you know about them? Feel free to leave a comment to let me know how you feel.