Multiple catalogs in the Lightroom.

I was wondering if the keywords in lightroom would read from more than one catalog at a time. Say I have a catalog for this year and a catalog for last year with photos in both with the keyword cat. If I am using this years catalogue and select the keyword cat will it also show photos in last years catalog? If not is there a way to view pics from different catalogs at the same time? Thanks for any information.

I am not positive, but I don't think so. Lightroom must completely close before it can open another catalog, so it is doubtful that it can search across different catalogs.

I'm sure someone can confirm (or deny) this though.

sharrowm wrote in post #12185596
I am not positive, but I don't think so. Lightroom must completely close before it can open another catalog, so it is doubtful that it can search across different catalogs.

I'm sure someone can confirm (or deny) this though.

Confirmed. One catalog at a time and you can't open multiple instances of the program

alann wrote in post #12185551
I was wondering if the keywords in lightroom would read from more than one catalog at a time. Say I have a catalog for this year and a catalog for last year with photos in both with the keyword cat. If I am using this years catalogue and select the keyword cat will it also show photos in last years catalog? If not is there a way to view pics from different catalogs at the same time? Thanks for any information.

Lightroom can only view images from one catalog at a time. If you have more than one catalog, then you must close the one that is open, before opening another catalog. Curious why you would have a catalog for each year, when Lightroom will allow you to store images using a date stamp, or both a date and time stamp...alternatively, you could include the year as a key word.

WesternGuy

WesternGuy wrote in post #12186309
Lightroom can only view images from one catalog at a time. If you have more than one catalog, then you must close the one that is open, before opening another catalog. Curious why you would have a catalog for each year, when Lightroom will allow you to store images using a date stamp, or both a date and time stamp...alternatively, you could include the year as a key word.

WesternGuy

I have read that if you get too many images in a catalog it will slow down LR. I have been having a problem lately when editing photos. If I move a slider in Develop mode the entire screen will often go blank then come back. I thought it may be because my catalog is getting large (12000 photos). If that is not it I am at a loss as it is quite frustrating.

alann wrote in post #12186586
I have read that if you get too many images in a catalog it will slow down LR. I have been having a problem lately when editing photos. If I move a slider in Develop mode the entire screen will often go blank then come back. I thought it may be because my catalog is getting large (12000 photos). If that is not it I am at a loss as it is quite frustrating.

I was considering doing just as you did, a catalog for each year. I take enough images that I could easily have up to 25,000-30,000 images per year.

So, my question would be the same. Also, I store the original images on exterior hard drives, and I can usually store approximately the same number as above per exterior hard drive.

Well, you could have a "main catalog" for viewing all your photos, and then a "working catalog" for each year -- I've never tried this, but you can use different methods. The Write Metadata to File and the Read Metadata from File is one approach. Have your "working catalog" where you work on images and then at some point import them into your main catalog -- you can either directly do an Import from Catalog or use the above Metadata approach to read in the metadata. Just do this after each shoot.

alann wrote in post #12186586
I have read that if you get too many images in a catalog it will slow down LR.

My smallest catalog is 100,000 images and my largest has topped 600,000 images. The larger one is slower to open, optimize or back up, but doing normal work in smaller folders or collections runs at the same speed as long as it's optimized from time to time.

There was an issue with the early 1.x releases, that did slow down with larger numbers, but they did a major overhaul and it shouldn't make a huge difference these days on all but the slowest hardware. Certainly not enough of a difference to deal with the hassle of multiple catalogs, anyway.

alann wrote in post #12186586
I have been having a problem lately when editing photos. If I move a slider in Develop mode the entire screen will often go blank then come back. I thought it may be because my catalog is getting large (12000 photos). If that is not it I am at a loss as it is quite frustrating.

I don't think that's catalog size related. What type of file, and has it been through an external editor? And are you updated to 3.3 or 3.4RC?

A slowdown in the Develop mode wouldn't normally be solved by limiting catalog size unless you also took the step of designating a different ACR cache folder for each catalog, a step most people wouldn't think of. In the Develop module data is drawn from and written to the ACR cache as you edit and even if you have multiple catalogs they would all be using the same cache. Each catalog does have its own Previews folder, but that is used only in the Library module, so it is there that there might be a difference in performance.
The ACR cache is however self-limiting in size and when it reaches its limit will start discarding old data. The amount of space it uses can be set in Preferences and you should try increasing that setting to see if it helps. You can also purge the cache from there if it is clogged with old data.

I hope that is right, Victoria.

Thanks all. Using dng files in RC3.4. Will try clearing the cadge.