Confusing Cataloging Conundrum

[j_reid1]

<p>Hi all,<br>

For years I have been scanning film as TIFFs and saving them into date based folders. I've lately been going through these foldrs using Bridge and rating images and adding metadata and keywords etc in the process of bringing a few photographic projects to fruition in 2010. There are some RAW digi images as well, about 15% worth. As such there are some .xmp files in there too.<br>

I find Bridge quite good for this and am comfortable with it however I also enjoy viewing the images in Extensis Portfolio, as I find it a bit cleaner for viewing and grouping images.<br>

I use Aperture for my work photographs, all digital RAW, on another computer so I thought I'd try Aperture with this bunch of photographs to see if I liked it as a viewing/grouping/cataloging tool. I imported some, leaving metadata as is and files in the same location only to find that Aperture wasn't recognising the ratings I'd given some pictures.<br>

So I downloaded and installed a copy of Lightroom and imported the lot into that, again leaving the files where they were. I then used the same criteria as in the saved searches in Extensis Portfolio and Bridge Collections ( keyword contains 'Foo' and rating is equal to or greater than x stars) to make a colelction in Lightroom.<br>

Now to my conundrum. <br>

Bridge is showing (re-cataloged not to catalogue .xmp files) 833 images and 177 images in the smart collection.<br>

Extensis Portfolio is showing 833 images and 134 in the Smart Gallery<br>

Lightroom is showing 820 images and 165 in the Collection<br>

I also downloaded a contextual menu plugin called Calculate size which reports 1128 files (11 hidden) in 54 folders below the root Photographs folder on my RAID box. obviously some of these are the .xmp files.<br>

In order to accurately edit this body of work I can't have a situation where I'm not being presented with the whole picture.<br>

I don't really have a question to ask, other than to invite you all to share thoughts and experiences on what might be causing the variations. i've double checked the criteria for the various smart finds/searches and am convinced they're identical in concept.<br>

Over to you,</p>

<p>Jon</p>

 

[robert_hall2]

<p>You are not the only one confused about catalogs. I find Lightroom cataloging confusing. </p>