Today’s Question: Is there any reason you would recommend adding all photos to a collection during the process of importing photos into Lightroom Classic? I always skip over this option in the File Handling section, but wonder if I’m missing out on something.
Tim’s Quick Answer: In general, I don’t recommend adding all photos being imported into your Lightroom Classic catalog into a collection as part of the import process. However, there are a few scenarios where you may find this option helpful.
More Detail: Collections in Lightroom Classic provide a way to group photos together beyond the folder structure that provides a basic organizational structure for your images. For example, you might create a collection containing photos for a slideshow presentation or some other project involving your photos.
In most cases a collection would contain a subset of photos from a folder, and potentially photos from multiple folders. Based on the way collections tend to be used, it isn’t generally very helpful to add all photos you are importing to a single collection.
However, there may be times when it can be helpful to add photos to a collection during import.
For example, you may want to add all imported photos to a collection so you can more easily review those photos to identify favorites versus outtakes later. Lightroom Classic uses collections as the mechanism for being able to synchronize photos to the cloud, so that all photos in a collection that has synchronization available would be accessible from anywhere in the Lightroom ecosystem. You could, for example, add all imported photos to a collection with synchronization enabled, so you could then review those photos on a mobile device using the Lightroom app or by using Lightroom in a web browser (https://lightroom.adobe.com).
You might also be importing a relatively small number of photos that you want to include in a collection. For example, you might be working on a family history project, featuring a variety of photos. If you scan some old images and import them into Lightroom Classic, you might also want to add them to a collection based on the project you’re working for.
Ultimately, my experience has been that for most photographers it is somewhat rare to have a situation that warrants adding all photos being imported into a collection at the time of import. However, when it makes sense for a specific situation, it is certainly helpful to be able to easily add all the photos being imported into your catalog to a collection.
