A catalog is a folder in Lightroom that stores all of your photos and videos together. You can create and manage your catalog using the Catalog panel in the Library module. A folder is a single location where you store your photos and videos. You can view and manage your photos and videos in a folder using the File Browser panel in the Library module.
There is no definitive answer to this question as it depends on your individual workflow and needs. However, generally speaking, you should have at least one catalog per type of photo (landscape, portrait, food, etc.), as well as a “master catalog” that contains all of your photos.
There are many options for where to store your Lightroom catalog, but the most popular locations are on your computer or on an external hard drive.
In Lightroom Classic, you can organize folders in a number of ways. You can create folders in the Library module, or you can use the File Handling commands to move photos and videos between folders.
To open a Lightroom catalog, go to File > Open Catalog. You can also open a catalog by pressing Cmd+O (Mac) or Ctrl+O (Windows).
Yes, a Lightroom catalog can get too big. If you’re using it to store all of your photos, it can become quite large. Additionally, if you’re using it to store photos and videos, it can take up a lot of space on your hard drive.
Lightroom catalogs are essentially a database of your photographs. They store everything from the metadata (such as the filename, exposure, and camera model) to the photos themselves. This information is used by Lightroom to make it easy to find, organize, and share your photos.
Yes, you can move your Lightroom catalog to a new hard drive. To do this, open Lightroom and select File > Export Catalog to File. In the Export Catalog to the File dialog box, navigate to the new location and click Save.
Yes, you can delete your Lightroom catalog and start over. However, it is recommended that you back up your catalog before deleting it in case you need to recover it.
No, you don’t need to backup your Lightroom catalog. You can save your photos to a hard drive or another storage device, but you don’t need to back up the catalog.
