Adobe LrC

[Sudhir Shivaram]

1️⃣ Collections

A Collection in Lightroom Classic is a manual group of photos that you create and manage.

• You choose which photos to include — by manually dragging them into the collection.

• The photos can come from any folder or drive; collections are purely virtual (no file duplication).

• Think of a collection like a playlist — you pick the tracks (photos) you want.

Typical use cases:

• Grouping images for a project, client, or theme (e.g., “Panna Tiger Reserve Workshop 2025”).

• Creating sets for printing, exporting, or syncing to Lightroom Mobile.

• Organizing shortlisted images after culling.

2️⃣ Smart Collections

A Smart Collection is automated — Lightroom fills it for you based on rules or criteria you set.

• You don’t add photos manually. Lightroom dynamically includes any image that meets your conditions.

• If you later import or edit new images that meet the same criteria, they’ll automatically appear in that Smart Collection.

Example criteria:

• Rating (e.g., 5-star images)

• Flag status (e.g., flagged picks)

• Keywords (e.g., “Tiger” or “Kabini”)

• Camera/lens used (e.g., “Sony Alpha 1 + 400mm f/2.8”)

• Capture date range

Typical use cases:

• Automatically grouping top-rated or edited photos.

• Finding images taken with specific cameras/lenses.

• Tracking work progress (e.g., “All images edited in 2025”).

• Creating dynamic collections for competition submissions or social media exports.