Checking Keywording (exclusions perhaps?)

[hannahb26810959]

I have a folder with about 14,000 photos. I have gone through and keyworded them by the names of about 7 people who appear in most of those. Is there a way to check that have not missed keyword naming some of them by viewing by exclusion?  Meaning can I ask Lightroom to display "not+Tom", "not+Dick", "not Harry," and "not Marry" -- so that I can then see if any of the remaining <1,000 photos still have any of them so I can add their name keywords ? Or is there some other way?

Thanks

[johnrellis]

If you haven't added any other keywords (e.g. for places or events) other than the people keywords, you could use the following Text filter in the Library Filter bar:

Keywords Are Empty

Otherwise, if the keywords each consist of a single word (Tom, Dick, Harry), then you could use the Library Filter bar with the Text criteria:

Keywords Don't Contain Tom Dick Harry

But if you have added non-people keywords and you have people keywords consisting of multiple words (e.g. "John Ellis"), things get messier.  LR's search facilities are confusing and weren't well-thought out. The simplest thing to do would be to create a parent keyword "People" and, using the Keyword List pane, move the people keywords under People.  Then you could use this filter:

Keywords Don't Contain People

[hannahb26810959]

John, thanks so much for the reply! It sounds like I;m kind of stuck. We have already keyworded the pictures, thousands, and they have multiple entries (frequently containing more than one person, or other keywords like "behind the scenes" and such.)

It is surprising an organizational tool for sets containing thousands does not have amore pliable negative entry function.

Again, thanks for the input!  I am going to give it a shot in case I am misunderstanding your answer and this is actually possible.

Oh!  I could add "people" to all of the pictures that have these names and then create a non-people set.  Thanks!

[johnrellis]

I could add "people" to all of the pictures that have these names and then create a non-people set.

To clarify, you don't explicitly add People to all the photos. Rather, create a keyword hierarchy, with People at the top and Tom, Dick, and Harry underneath:

Just by putting those keywords underneath People, LR implicitly adds People to all the photos.

[hannahb26810959]

And then "keywords don't contain people" would reveal UNkeyworded photos... if I understand you correctly?

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

Right -- it would show all photos that don't contain People or any of the subkeywords of People.

[hannahb26810959]

Thanks you so much for such thoughtful and clearly articulated answers!

I am going to put your help to use shortly.

[hannahb26810959]

Hi, Ihave been attempting to execute your suggestion. I dragged and dropped a name under a new keyword I created to create a keyword hierarchy.  All good. Works just as you said.  i have been racking my brain and googling to see how to enter "does not contain ".  I have the Library filter open. under keywords i have a list of all my keywords -- but I do not see a window in any column to enter "does not contain." I attempted to enter "does not contain into the keyword list and this does not work. I looked under "custom" and on teh library filter top line and couldn't see an entry window that seemed related... Not sure how to do your last step.

[hannahb26810959]

Sorry. My bad. I needed to looking under text.