Sort Photos the Smart Way in Lightroom Classic

I’ve been curious, but also not curious, about “Smart” Collections in Lightroom for a bit. I finally took the time to explore so lemme show you what I figured out that could save you time sorting your photos.

See the video here:

If you’ve ever wanted an easier way to create collections in Lightroom Classic, you’re not alone. Manually dragging images into collections can take forever—especially when you’re working with hundreds of wedding or portrait shots.

But guess what? Lightroom has a built-in tool that can do the sorting for you.

I started experimenting with Smart Collections recently, and I was honestly surprised by how helpful they are. They let you automatically group images based on criteria you choose—no dragging and dropping images.

Here’s how to set one up:

Step 1:

In Library Grid view, go to the Collections panel on the left.

Click the + icon and select Create Smart Collection.

Step 2:
In the popup box, rename your collection (otherwise it defaults to “Smart Collection,” which gets confusing fast!).

Choose where you want it to live—inside a collection set or on its own.

Then, set the rule. If you haven’t set up a Smart Collection before you’ll see “Rating” as your criteria. Just click on it to bring up the pulldown menu of options you can sort by.

For example, you can sort by:

Note: Smart Collections pull from the entire catalog.

In the video, you’ll see I created a Smart Collection that sorted all the images with a red color label. Lightroom instantly pulls all red-labeled images across your catalog into that Smart Collection.

Want to remove an image from the collection? Just remove the red label from it, and the Smart Collection updates automatically.

This is such a great way to sort sneak peeks, anchor images for your editor, or any part of your workflow that relies on color labels, ratings, etc. No more dragging images into a Collection that eats up your time. 

It’s like having the Metadata filter but in your Collections panel instead—except you can access it from the Develop module too!

Happy editing,

Erika