Today’s Question: I saw in a recent Lightroom [Classic CC] update that you can add a color to a folder. Do you recommend using this feature, and if so how?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I do think the new ability to add a color label to individual folders can be a great help in a workflow for organizing photos in Lightroom Classic CC. You can see this new feature in action on my Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/FE6q1MASRhQ
More Detail: It has long been possible to add star ratings and color labels to your photos, such as to identify favorite photos. With a couple of recent updates to Lightroom Classic CC, you now have similar options for folders.
The “Favorite” feature for folders is essentially a star rating for a folder, but without the ability to assign a set number of stars. A folder is either marked as a favorite (with a star), or not marked as a favorite. Color labels are similar, except that you have the full range of color label options available for folders.
I have been using the “Favorite” feature to literally identify folders that contain images I’m most likely to use in the near term. I can then filter the folder list to see only the favorites, in order to more quickly find the specific folder I’m looking for.
The color label adds some new possibilities in the context of organizing your folders. For example, I’ve started assigning a red color label to folders that I have not yet completed a full review of my photos. For example, while leading a photo workshop in the Palouse region of eastern Washington State, I simply didn’t have enough time to properly sort through my photos each night. So instead I marked the folder for that trip with a red color label to clearly identify it as a folder I need to go back and review.
As with the “Favorite” feature, you can filter folders to only show those that have a color label assigned to them. At least for the current version of Lightroom Classic CC you aren’t able to filter by a specific color label for the folder list, but even being able to filter the list to only those that contain a color label (versus no color label) is very helpful in my view.
You can get a better sense of how the color label and “Favorite” features work for folders in Lightroom Classic CC in a sample lesson from my “Lightroom Quick Tips” course from GreyLearning, which we have published to my YouTube channel here: