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Been playing around with Lightroom 3 trial version, I have loads of photos on my HD, I have the usual system HD but also a second physical 1TB HD inside the tower where all my photos are stored.
Folder setup is year then 12 folders (each month) inside the year folder, I have folders going back to 2001. This could mean 10 different catalogs using the method described by some wedding togs, a catalog for each wedding shoot.
I am not a pro tog or do weddings etc, all pics are just family and hobby.

Providing I create a tag/keyword for the photos I import into Lightroom 3 and catalog 2007 is open should Lightroom be able to find that particular photo from whatever catalog it's in whether it be in 2002 catalog or 2010 etc catalog using the "Find" tool.

I'm probably doing something wrong but I have created 3 catalogs, if I'm in catalog 2010, using the "Find" menu Ctrl+F entering a keyword for a photo I know is tagged in the 2007 catalog then lightroom cannot find it. Does this mean I have to have the catalog open for the photo I'm looking for..

Hope that makes some sense to you cos my brain is getting scrambled at this unearthly hour. I want to try and get this part sussed out before I consider buying Lightroom.
 
If you create too many catalogues you lose one of the great features which is searching! I'd keep everything in one catalogue until if gets to the point where it is too slow to work with. My current cat has approx 30,000 pictures and it works well. You can search by date - keyword, meta data - alsmost anything in fact. Don't throw away that feature.

Don't ponder any longer - LR is the best photo softwareout there - no I don't work for Adobe! :) Just ask if you need more help. You're just up the road from me!
 
If you have 2010 open then you won't find anything outwith 2010.

If your catalog encompasses say years 2005 to 2010, then your search will show up an image from 2007.

Despite the hype, I have found LR3 visually slower than LR2.

I have one catalog for all my photos (over 90,000) and a separate catalog for each year.

The yearly one opens and works much faster.
 
Thanks guys, Ive been creating catalogs and experimenting, before sorting it all for real, I remove/delete all the catalogs and start from scratch with a single one.
 
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I have one catalog for all my photos (over 90,000) and a separate catalog for each year.

The yearly one opens and works much faster.

Now that's a very smart thing to do :thumbs: :clap: :thumbs:; never thought of it.

Tonight, I'll make sure to do that :)

Thank you for the great tip; but just one question, if I may, which of the two catalogues do you work from? Since, doing any adjustment from one catalogue will not show in the other (except for deleting photos) :shrug:? Personally, I think I'd use this as Catalogue One (Everything) to be used just for searching & retrieval; Catalogue Two (Each Year Independently) to be used for any post production ... would love to hear your thoughts.
 
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Now that's a very smart thing to do :thumbs: :clap: :thumbs:; never thought of it.

Tonight, I'll make sure to do that :)

Thank you for the great tip; but just one question, if I may, which of the two catalogues do you work from? Since, doing any adjustment from one catalogue will not show in the other (except for deleting photos) :shrug:? Personally, I think I'd use this as Catalogue One (Everything) to be used just for searching & retrieval; Catalogue Two (Each Year Independently) to be used for any post production ... would love to hear your thoughts.

I work the way you postulated and mostly I find I am searching for stuff the same year I took it, so searching is faster too!

The only wee problem is you have to import the new photos into each catalog. I suppose you could keep Catalogue One up to date by importing any changes you make in Catalogue Two (I don't bother).

If you forget, have a wee roundup every month or so to update Catalogue One.
 
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