How do you keep it organized?

Always keep backups. No software program is perfect.

(This is my second attempt and a MUCH shorter response. I decided to spare everyone from a TL;DR and I'm going to make a blog post out of my first, MUCH more detailed attempt!) Hi Brittany...YES, the multitude of files in different states of edit and formats can be overwhelming. I'd venture to guess that the issue you are experiencing isn't with the PROGRAM itself, but with how the file structure hierarchy has been set up. An efficient workflow is heavily dependent on an logical file structure hierarchy. Also, if you are using LrC daily but not editing in it, you may not be using the right program for the right task. I have been a professional photographer and in my current position as Digital Marketing Manager, one of my responsibilities is as the photographer/videographer and I have been charged with is organizing the plethora of digital assets. And let me tell you, it's a HOT MESS! RIGHT TOOL FOR THE RIGHT TASK: If you are using LrC as your primary viewer for all your work, your Lightroom catalog file must be ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE. -- STOP-- using it that way. You should only be doing basic equalizing of images (WB, exposure, etc), basic spot healing, and setting the lens profile in LrC. To view/explore your files, you should be using Bridge. To start, you need to make sure you have created a logical file folder hierarchy. I'm able to break my folder structure down by product. If you cracked open one of my product folders, it looks like this inside: (...and yes, I do use the numbers to keep the hierarchy.) [PRIMARY FOLDER NAME] (every product has it's own folder just like this) 1-ProductName-LrCat (storage for product specific LrC catalog) • productname.lrcat 2-RAW Originals - No subfolder. Just RAW files from the camera 3-TIFF Masters - FINAL edited MASTER images 4-JPG Finals • HiRes • Product Images • Details • In Use-Lifestyle • LoRes • Product Images • Details • In Use-Lifestyle 5-PSD Files - No subfolders. MASTER layered files created from MASTER .tif file. ***For the most part NO-ONE but me is allowed to access to the MASTER files (the LrC catalog, RAW, .tif, .psd) files. If those are altered or "disappear", I'll have to do work I have already done. Others can grab a 'copy' of the file, but not an original!! Here is my suggested workflow and Adobe product use: 1) Using Bridge - View RAW camera files directly from CF/SD card. Make your selections using Bridge color labels. My Bridge color labels are: Red=Reject, Yellow=Review, Green=Approve, Purple=EDITED. Red, Yellow, Green are only used for pre-edit, Purple is only used post-edit. Rename in Bridge based your standard naming convention. MOVE the selected (and renamed) images to the 2-RAW Originals folder. 2) Open LrC. You should ONLY use this for your RAW files and ONLY basic editing needs. Create a new catalog and save it inside the 1-ProductName-LrCat folder you created. Next, click on "import" then navigate to the 2-RAW Originals folder and import the images. Perform the basic editing that needs to be done. Then reselect the images and click export. Select the export destination of 3-TIFF Masters and setup renaming if you need to (I add MASTER to the end of my file at this point). Set File Settings and Image Sizing to TIFF, None Compressed, sRGB, 16 bit, 300 ppi resolution, and click Export. 3) Use Photoshop on the .tif files to perform detailed edits and express your artistry. When done editing your ...MASTER.tif file, save it. Then pop into Bridge and label it with the purple EDITED label. Now, when looking in Bride you know which of your MASTER files is fully complete and which need to be worked on. Use the "edited" ...MASTER.tif file to create ALL your final image versions. If you need to do a color change, drop out a background, etc., save the layered .PSD in the 5-PSD Files. Keep the standard naming and the MASTER to indicate it is your MASTER.psd file. The MASTER.tif/.psd files are often HUGE and you don't always need/want to deal with a 25MB to upwards of 180+MB file, so use them to create your JPG Finals. Our standard FINAL .jpg is a 2000x2000px, 300ppi, sRGB on a white background with (approx) 85% product fill & 15% whitespace that usually hits under 2MB. LoRes is the is the same guidelines but at 72ppi. So yes, still a long response but WAY shorter than my original. However, now you have organized your images in a purposeful, intent based structure. The structure allows you to have finished images at your fingertips, keeps you from RE-doing work you have done before, and now you'll know exactly where something is when you need it. Hope that all makes sense because I've given myself a headache trying to articulate it!!

I don not like Lightroom. I prefer to use Brdige and Camera raw ;-)

Hi Brittany, Andrew has good suggestions for finding files in lightroom. I have a more general suggestion, that is not specific to software applications, but more projet related. In this digital age, I still keep a log book, that follows pre-production meetings, shoots, edits and fulfillment with dates and details. If looking for a specific shot, scene, preson, or product (sometimes a year or more later) the logbook gives dates to search, making it alot faster than scanning files. The other thing I do is archive everything in several places, including off-line, and off-premises. This has sved me a number of times, (I have worked for three diferent businesses that lost data due to fire, water, lightening damage.)

Hi Brittany: If I'm understanding your question, assuming that you are not speaking about files that you edit in Photoshop that are originally in Lightroom. If that's the case, you can just click on the folder name in the Folders panel on the left side of the Lightroom Library module to see the images that are inside the folder. You can also sort by choosing a sort option from the toolbar under your photos. This video explains that and shows some info about Collections and Target Collections, which are useful for segmenting photos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDXb7uO0kBE . I also have some Lightroom videos and resources available on my site at https://imagingbuffet.com/newsletter/ All the best and I hope that helps! Andrew Andrew Darlow Pixel Coach, Andrew Darlow Images Intl. https://imagingbuffet.com https://lightroomtips.com