Today’s Question: I am struggling with what may seems like a simple problem but is driving me nuts. In the Library module in Lightroom Classic I am unable to show all pictures with a color label of purple unless I am in a collection or folder that only has purple labeled pictures. Hopefully, you can help me could help in my workflow.
Tim’s Quick Answer: If you want to filter your photos based on all images in your Lightroom Classic catalog you need to first choose “All Photos” in the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module. You can then specify the filter criteria you want to use to locate specific photos.
More Detail: When you apply a filter in Lightroom using the options on the Library Filter bar (View > Show Filter Bar), you will only be filtering based on the photos in the current folder or collection. So, if you choose to filter based on a color label, for example, only images with that color label within the current folder (or collection) will be displayed in the search results.
If you want to filter based on specific criteria for all photos being managed by Lightroom Classic, you can first select the “All Photographs” collection from the Catalog section of the left panel in the Library module. This will enable you to view all photos in your entire catalog, which means if you then apply filter criteria the results will be based on all photos in your catalog, not just those in the current folder or collection.