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Cover of Lightroom Classic Collections, a free PDF guide by Martin Sproul

Adobe Lightroom Classic Collections

£0.00Price

Organise your library without moving a single file

Every catalogue I have been asked to rescue had the same problem, and it was never the photographs. They were all there, spread across two or three drives in folders named after card numbers and dates. The trouble began when the owner wanted one frame in three places at once. They copied it or dragged it to another folder, and Lightroom Classic lost track of it.

Lightroom Classic Collections is a free 46-page illustrated PDF guide to the way out. A Collection is a list of references held inside the catalogue, so one photograph can sit in a client selection, a print order and a portfolio at the same time while the file stays exactly where it is on the drive. Nothing is copied, nothing is moved, and nothing goes missing.

I wrote it for photographers who use Lightroom Classic every week and have built everything around folders. It starts with why folders alone run out of road, then works through every type of Collection, the workflows I use for culling and delivery, and the Smart Collections that keep my own catalogue in order without my having to remember to look.

What the guide covers

  • Folders against Collections, and why organising with Collections carries no risk to your files

  • Every part of the Collections panel, including Collection Sets, the Quick Collection and colour labels on Collections

  • The Target Collection and the B key, for culling a shoot without taking your eyes off the photographs

  • A reusable template Collection Set that gives every job the same structure in seconds

  • Smart Collections in full, with Match all, any and none, nested rules, how text rules really match and every criterion in Lightroom Classic 15.6

  • Five Smart Collections worth building today, from a five-star portfolio to an editing backlog

  • Ready-made structures for weddings, landscape and travel, portraits and property

  • Names that sort themselves, safe decluttering, catalogue backups and performance

  • A Quick Reference of shortcuts and a one-page Collections Health Check to print and run each month

The wedding and landscape structures from Section 06

Every instruction has been checked against Lightroom Classic 15.6 on macOS and Windows. Interface labels keep Adobe's own spelling, so the Catalog panel in the guide matches the one on your screen.

Download it free, build the ten-minute Best of 2026 Smart Collection from the final section, and watch it fill.

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