Workflow to cull LR catalog using PM?

[JimskyD]

Longtime LR  user and recent PM user.  When I started in digital in 1995 I had a policy of keeping everything.  Storage is cheap, right?  After about 100K photos and 2TB in LR photo store, everything is bogged down.  The last few years I have been shooting grandkids sports and a typical shoot is 500-1000 photos.  Somewhere I discovered PM.  PM is great for quickly finding the keepers, so going forward I am pretty clean on what gets saved.  I have appreciated the workflow threads and it really helps for the new image import process.

Now I'd like to do the same thing kind of in reverse.  I'd like to use PM to cull through the 100K existing LR photos and delete the ones that are clearly not keepers.  Of course I no longer have the "keep everything" policy.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Jim
Seattle WA

[mbbphoto]

You won't want to hear this  and I hope someone corrects me but ultimately it is much easier to delete files directly within lightroom.
You could color or rate them in pm , update the xmps and filter in lightroom before deleting if you like, but ultimately to keep your catalog clean you should delete from within lightroom.
Marc

[Kirk Baker]

You won't want to hear this  and I hope someone corrects me but ultimately it is much easier to delete files directly within lightroom.
You could color or rate them in pm , update the xmps and filter in lightroom before deleting if you like, but ultimately to keep your catalog clean you should delete from within lightroom.
Marc

I agree, if the photos are already in Lr then deleting them from Lr will be your best bet.  You can certainly browse each folder and delete images with PM.  PM will be fast at this, but then you'll have to deal with Lr not being able to find the photos that you deleted outside of its "knowledge."

-Kirk

[Hayo Baan]

You won't want to hear this  and I hope someone corrects me but ultimately it is much easier to delete files directly within lightroom.
You could color or rate them in pm , update the xmps and filter in lightroom before deleting if you like, but ultimately to keep your catalog clean you should delete from within lightroom.
Marc

I agree, if the photos are already in Lr then deleting them from Lr will be your best bet.  You can certainly browse each folder and delete images with PM.  PM will be fast at this, but then you'll have to deal with Lr not being able to find the photos that you deleted outside of its "knowledge."

You'll anyway have to tell LR to look for metadata updates when you made changes in PM, so if you combine this with also looking for removed files (which is just a simple application of "synchronise folder"), you can delete and move files in PM just fine

[JimskyD]

Thanks all.  Here's the workflow I think I need based on your inputs:

1. Scan LR folders with PM and mark those to keep (or delete).
2. Somehow update LR catalog with PM "marks"
3. Go to LR and select marked photos.
4. Delete selected photos (from LR catalog and storage)

Here are my second-round questions:

a) In #1 above I have probably 2000 folders (everything is organized by capture date)  scanning those with PM one folder at a time sounds very tedious.  Is there a way to use PM over many folders?
b) What's the best way to do #2 above?

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks all.  Here's the workflow I think I need based on your inputs:

1. Scan LR folders with PM and mark those to keep (or delete).
2. Somehow update LR catalog with PM "marks"
3. Go to LR and select marked photos.
4. Delete selected photos (from LR catalog and storage)

Here are my second-round questions:

a) In #1 above I have probably 2000 folders (everything is organized by capture date)  scanning those with PM one folder at a time sounds very tedious.  Is there a way to use PM over many folders?

You can open a folder and its subfolders from the Navigator by right clicking on a folder and choosing the appropriate menu item, but beware, PM is not going to work well trying to scan your entire hard drive of 2000 folders at once.  Take them in smaller chunks and you should be fine.

b) What's the best way to do #2 above?

I suggest choosing a color label that will stand out in Lr and setting that label on images you'll be deleting.

HTH,

-Kirk