Best way to Re-Organize my photos in Lightroom

Question

I started using Lightroom years ago on Version 1 or 2, and back then, I told it to import my photos into a folder, and put the photos into a folder for each day (for example 2006-01-07, etc.).

It has now gotten to a stage where I have a LOT of folders with photos set out this way and I have begun thinking about converting them to a folder structure by month and year (above would now be in a folder called 2006/01/07).

Since all my photos are in one major directory, and since all my RAW Files have a XMP file associated with them, I am wondering if

• creating a new Lightroom Library,
• importing my photos to that new library,
• moving the photos to a new directory and
• working on the new structure that way

would be a good approach.

Is there a better way of moving photos and folders around in Lightroom? By the way, I am currently on Version 4.

Asked by TiernanO

Answer

You can reorganize folders quite easily within Lightroom -- just drag and drop. The trick is simply to do all of the work in Lightroom so that it understands where you're moving photos to and can keep the database updated. (That is, do not go to Finder or Explorer and start dragging folders around.)

In the Folders panel in the Library module, I'd go about this by creating the folder structure 2006/01 then dragging 2006-01-07 into it -- creating 2006/01/2006-01-07. A little redundant, but very fast and easy!

Answered by Dan Wolfgang

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Is there an EXIF standard for tagging people in photographs?

Question

There are a number of websites that let you tag people in photos, such as Facebook and now flickr, but is there an EXIF standard for tagging who is in a photo, and where they are?

Answer

There is not. IPTC, another image metadata standard, also does not contain a "People" field. There's a Contact field, but that is used for contact information for the photographer.

Most people I know will store people as keywords. The main debate is whether or not to include spaces (would a photo of me be tagged as aaronhockley or as "aaron hockley"?). I don't use spaces since that simplifies things at times, but it's pretty subjective. I think the main thing is consistency... pick one method and stick to it.

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Is Lightroom-style hierarchical tagging available in any other applications?

Question

I read this article on tagging and am in love with the idea of tiered tags as an efficient way to apply multiple, related tags. Being a cheapskate and photography amateur at best am looking for the free path to do this. I'm afraid Picassa does not support this feature. Has anyone that uses digikam or itag seen this feature? Is it available anywhere else?

Answer

f-spot and shotwell can do this. Unfortunately, they are available for linux only. You don't mention your Operating System, but I don't think these will work for you. It seems shotwell had a version for windows long ago, but can't find anything about windows on their website now :(

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