Lightroom for organising kits

[Bellerose]

Okay so I have been using iPhoto to organise all my kits. I am beginning to get quite a collection and don't like the fact that I can't see stamps as iPhoto has a default black background for png files which I can't change. I have a creative cloud subscription and noticed some people use it to store their photos and kits in Lightroom.

I was wondering if people could tell me how they store all their pieces or if there is a thread on here someone can direct me to?

Hope your having a nice weekend

Samantha.

[carriesmom]

Personally, I use Picasa. It is a free program from Google. By far, it has been my favorite way to store and organize. I never got the hang of ACDSee.

I have heard of people loving Lightroom to organize. However, the last thing I heard was that you had to convert pngs into tiffs. I am not sure if that is still the case.

[zakirahzakaria]

I use Picasa too. It's easy to use and works smoothly.

[mrshobbes]

Long ago I did a post on how I organised my stash on LR. It's pretty much the only system I have stuck with for so long (I've tried Picasa, ACDSee and just plain Windows Explorer.). It still worked even when I switched to a Mac back in 2012

http://mrshobbes.wordpress.com/2011/...-im-organized/

[Bellerose]

Thank you, I will definitely have a look at your Blog Alexis. I tried uploading Picassa and I think I chose the wrong option as it started to import every single photo I had in all my IPhoto libraries, so I Uninstalled it, as it would have taken me ages to go through all the folders. Will have a look at Lightroom first as I have heard good things about it, before trying Picasa again.

[lorryfach]

You do NOT have to convert PNGs anymore. LR5 handles PNGs just fine. And it lets you change the background color so viewing stamps is no problem.

I tried Picasa and I hated it but I am having great success with Lightroom.

I use LR for photos too but I have a separate catalog for my stash. This isn't required at all, but I like it that way because then they keywords and labels and smart collections are all separate. I'm never going to tag a photo "Lliella Designs" or a scrapbook paper "Mom", yk? And I never need to look at both at the same time so it's not a big deal to just close one and open the other when I'm going to scrap.

I have the following keyword hierarchies:
BYOCs (Build Your Own Collabs, which some other stores besides SS do)
-- StoreName 2014-01
-- StoreName 2014-02
-- etc.
Designers
-- Erica Zane
-- Traci Reed
-- etc.
Product Type
-- alpha
-- elements
-- -- frames
-- -- journal cards
-- -- etc.
-- papers
-- etc.
Theme
-- Birthday
-- Christmas
-- etc.

I'm not going to list them all out but you get the idea, I hope.

I don't have a tag for stores because designers come and go too much and that's a PITA. Instead I use a Smart Collection for each store. When a new designer comes, I edit the smart collection to add that designer. When a designer leaves, I edit the smart collection to remove them. Easy peasy.

[KristinCB]

I would recommend picasa too. I use picasa for my kits. You just need to go into your preferences and choose the folders you want it to import So click off iphoto pictures etc It really works great.

[GraceLee]

I use LR to organize too. I upgraded to LR5 because of the png issue. I only tag the previews so I don't need to tag a zillion files, and it works great for me.