Reference
Collections and metadata
Last updated November 10, 2026
Your folders say where the work is. Collections and metadata say what it's for. Gather photos and footage from any drive into a collection, record your picks with ratings, labels and tags, and none of it moves or rewrites a file.
Structure on top of your folders
Folders are fixed to a drive, and a drive holds whatever happened to be shot onto it. The selection you need for a client, a portfolio or a pitch rarely sits in one place.
Grain adds two kinds of structure that cross drives. Both live in Grain's catalog on your Mac, so you can build them up, change your mind and start again without touching a file.
Collections
- A named set of photos and videos, from any source
- Each item points to the existing file, wherever it lives
- Nothing is copied or moved
Metadata
- Ratings, color labels and catalog tags for your picks
- Title, caption, creator, copyright and fields of your own
- Read from XMP and IPTC, edited in Grain's catalog
Build a collection as you browse
Start a collection whenever a set begins to form. Choose New Collection… in the sidebar, or select some photos and footage and choose Add to Collection…. Dragging works too: drop a selection onto a collection in the sidebar, or onto New Collection or the Collections heading to make a new one from it.
Once you've added to a collection, ⇧C adds the next selection to the same one, so gathering selects across a dozen folders is one key per batch.
- Remove from Collection takes an item out. The file stays where it is.
- Renaming or deleting a collection never renames or deletes the files in it.
- Pin to Sidebar keeps a collection under Favorites, next to the sources and searches you return to.
A collection is also a place to search. Choose a collection suggestion in the search field and it becomes a filter you can change or remove, so "golden hour" can mean golden hour in this client's selects. See search.
Record your picks
Ratings, color labels and tags are how you mark what's good while the work is in front of you. Set them in the inspector, or press 1 to 5 for a star rating. Choose a rating or label's current value again to clear it.
Rating and color label
- Stars for how good a frame is
- One of the five standard color labels for what it's for
- Filter by at least, at most or exactly a rating
Catalog tags
- Your own vocabulary, added with Add Tag
- Existing tags appear as suggestions
- Filter by any or all of them
Catalog tags are separate from the keywords Grain reads from your files. Keywords from Lightroom or another tool stay searchable as they were, and your new tags sit beside them. With several items selected, you can add, remove or replace tags across the whole set.
Everything you record here becomes something to filter by. Filters and dates covers rating comparisons, color labels and matching any or all tags.
Fields for context
Some work needs more than a rating. Add Field in the inspector offers descriptive fields such as title, caption, creator, copyright, city and country. A field appears once it has a value or you choose to add it, so the inspector stays short.
For details specific to your work, choose New Field… and make a field of your own: Text, Number or Yes / No. A client reference, a usage window or a review status becomes a field you can fill in and filter on.
Shortcuts
| Keys | What they do |
|---|---|
| C | Add to Collection… for the selection |
| ⇧C | Add the selection to the last collection you used |
| 1 – 5 | Set a star rating on the selection |
| 0 | Remove the stars |
| ⌘A | Select everything in the current view |
Every shortcut in Grain is on one page: keyboard shortcuts.
What stays in the catalog
- Collections refer to your existing files. Adding, removing or reordering never touches them.
- Grain reads supported embedded and sidecar metadata, including ratings and keywords.
- Your edits are saved in Grain's catalog. They don't write back to your originals or XMP sidecars, so your other apps see your files exactly as before.
For what's stored where, see how Grain handles your files.
Every control, at a glance
- Collections across drives
- Build a portfolio or client selection from different shoots. Create a collection in the sidebar, or choose Add to Collection from selected assets. Membership refers to the existing files, wherever they live.
- Drag into a collection
- Gather selects as you browse. Drag selected media onto a collection in the sidebar. Drop onto New Collection or the Collections heading to create a named collection from the selection.
- Remove a selection without deleting files
- Refine a collection safely. Use Remove from Collection to remove membership. Renaming or deleting a collection does not rename or delete its original files.
- Ratings and color labels
- Record your picks while the work is in front of you. Set a rating or color label in the inspector. Choose its current value again to clear it.
- Titles, captions, credits, and rights
- Keep the context needed to use an image. Use Add field for details such as title, caption, creator, copyright, city, or country. Fields appear when they contain a value or you choose to add them.
- Your own fields
- Track details specific to your work. Create custom text, number, or yes/no fields for information such as a client reference or review status.
- Read XMP and IPTC metadata
- Carry useful information from your existing tools into search. Grain reads supported embedded and sidecar metadata, including ratings and keywords. Imported keywords remain distinct from Grain’s catalog tags.
- Catalog-only edits
- Organize without rewriting your source files. Grain saves its metadata edits in the local catalog. These edits do not write back to originals or XMP sidecars.