Beginer help needed, Lightroom?

[Marc1548]

Hi
I need some help/ gidence ?
Im completely a new beginner in Lightroom & although iv sort of got my head round the develop module Im struggling in Library. I thought I had organised my photos into some sort of order & Iv watched lots of YouTube videos, Still confused, but after updating the Lightroom app on my computer everything seems to be in a right mess & not where it was prior to updating, a lot of images when moving to the develop module displays a msg "This file could not be found" could anyone explain in easy language what I might have done wrong or maybe suggest a way back to my normal LR Library life.
Thanks so much
Marc

 

[BillN_33]

Hi
I need some help/ gidence ?
Im completely a new beginner in Lightroom & although iv sort of got my head round the develop module Im struggling in Library. I thought I had organised my photos into some sort of order & Iv watched lots of YouTube videos, Still confused, but after updating the Lightroom app on my computer everything seems to be in a right mess & not where it was prior to updating, a lot of images when moving to the develop module displays a msg "This file could not be found" could anyone explain in easy language what I might have done wrong or maybe suggest a way back to my normal LR Library life.
Thanks so much
Marc

The (basic) main thing to do is "to do all your movements", deletion, additions etc., etc., in LR - once you have your images in LR do everything to them in LR NOT elsewhere on your computer.

so if you delete an image delete it in LR, if you are moving them from one place to another do it in LR etc., etc.,

 

[the black fox]

Your best bet is to set it to load in date order . Everything is then listed by time/ day/ week / month etc

 

[Marc1548]

The (basic) main thing to do is "to do all your movements", deletion, additions etc., etc., in LR - once you have your images in LR do everything to them in LR NOT elsewhere on your computer.

so if you delete an image delete it in LR, if you are moving them from one place to another do it in LR etc., etc.,

Thanks. I think iv made some sense of this. So Im guessing if I change something in LR iv not altered any of my images on the hard drive? but what if I delete an edited image in LR before iv exported it will all my editing be lost? Also am I right in asuming if I change the location, file name of a folder /images on my hard drive im guessing LR might not be able to locate them, hence the lost image msg? I think I might have done this?

 

[ST1]

Have a look at the folders that should be visible at the left side of the screen in library. You should see "?" against the folders that do not match the Lightroom catalogue. You can right click on the folder with the "?" And then locate the missing folder on the hard drive that you may have moved outside of Lightroom.

Should all of the missing folders reside on one hard drive you should be able to locate the root missing folder, rather than having to locate each separate folder.

Have a look at the linked website below, there are some really helpful people on the associated forum. Plus some free ebooks that you may find useful.

Link

 

[BillN_33]

Thanks. I think iv made some sense of this. So Im guessing if I change something in LR iv not altered any of my images on the hard drive? but what if I delete an edited image in LR before iv exported it will all my editing be lost? Also am I right in asuming if I change the location, file name of a folder /images on my hard drive im guessing LR might not be able to locate them, hence the lost image msg? I think I might have done this?

Hi Marc,
If you import an image/file into LR and then edit the image in LR and then export that edited image/file from LR ......(the exported file) is not the same image/file as the pre edit original........it has adjustments and usually you give it another file name and (reduce) it's size to suit what you want to do with the image, (e..g. post to the internet or print, etc.)........your original image remains on your hard drive/storage media and your exported image/file is usually saved to a folder on your hard disk that you have chosen to put the exported image into. LR will not register where the exported image is, (with the new name), LR can only register where the exported image is if it is imported into LR.

If you import an image into LR and then want to delete it you will be given two choices - "delete from disk" or "remove from LR" - if you "delete from disk" the image/file is transferred to your "Bin" and when you empty your Bin it is gone forever........... if you "remove from LR" .......the image/file stays where it is and all that you are doing is to tell LR to forget the location of that file.

When you import an image into LR .....LR registers were the file is, (its location) .........if you change that location outside LR, LR has no idea were the image/file is and if you delete that file outside LR, the same applies

 

[Marc1548]

Thanks this is very helpful

 

[Brentor]

LR will not register where the exported image is, (with the new name), LR can only register where the

I export my edited images to the same folder as the original images. If I then synchronise that folder, the edited images will be imported into LR.

 

[BillN_33]

I export my edited images to the same folder as the original images. If I then synchronise that folder, the edited images will be imported into LR.

I export all my "exported" images to Untitled Export - I then periodically "cull them" and then I import the images I want to keep back into LR into named folders so that I know what I have used that "exported" image for.

BUT, what I am now finding is that with the "improvements" and "upgrades" that are periodically made in LR, that images I used years ago can be "improved" by using the new functions in LR ... so it's start again editing the original files