Can I import files from different sources into lightroom/PSE?

[Dem55]

I'm not sure if this is the right place or this question, if not, please feel free to move it.

So, up to now I've imported all of my photos into PSE directly from the hard drive on my laptop. I also have 2 external hard drives which I use to keep backup copies. Problem is, the photos are eating up the memory on my laptop pretty quickly, so I was thinking that from now on having Lightroom import any new files straight from the memory card and copy them to one of my external hard drives.

I think that so long as I have the hard drive that Lightroom copied the files to connected to my laptop, it should be able to find them to work on - am I right?
Will this also work for PSE, if I specify the external hard drive as the drive to import new media from?
Or would this cause problems?

 

[Chappers]

Copying images from the camera card and storing them on an external drive is not a problem with Lightroom. In fact that's exactly what I do. A tip, to speed things up keep the Lightroom catalogue on the computers hard drive.

As far as PSE is concerned it should find the images on the external drive no problem. You just have to tell it to look at the external drive.

Not sure why you would need to import from the external drive directly. Simply set up PSE as you preferred external editor for Lightroom and you can then open the files from Lightroom direct into PSE. You can the resave the adjusted image back into the same directory that the original came from, plus Lightroom updates it's catalogue to include the adjusted image. You have the RAW image next to the manipulated one.

You can also get Lightroom to move the current images from your laptop to the new external drive. This way you regain disk space on your laptop plus Lightroom does all the work for you and updates itself with the new location

 

[Dem55]

Copying images from the camera card and storing them on an external drive is not a problem with Lightroom. In fact that's exactly what I do. A tip, to speed things up keep the Lightroom catalogue on the computers hard drive.

As far as PSE is concerned it should find the images on the external drive no problem. You just have to tell it to look at the external drive.

Not sure why you would need to import from the external drive directly. Simply set up PSE as you preferred external editor for Lightroom and you can then open the files from Lightroom direct into PSE. You can the resave the adjusted image back into the same directory that the original came from, plus Lightroom updates it's catalogue to include the adjusted image. You have the RAW image next to the manipulated one.

You can also get Lightroom to move the current images from your laptop to the new external drive. This way you regain disk space on your laptop plus Lightroom does all the work for you and updates itself with the new location

Sorry Chapper, I've just seen your reply to my question.

Thanks for all the tips, much appreciated.

I have the LR catalogue on the laptop, with RAW files on an externl drive. I'll probably move the files across from my hard drive over time.

I did get unstuck though imprting new files diretly from my memory card. LR seemed to create a couple of additional subfloders each time, even though I had selected the folder I wantd them saved to (or I thought I had). I've given up on that and now just put the files onto the external drive and import into LR from there. I know this isn't strictly the way LR was intended to work, but it does keep my images in folders where I can find them.

I do the RAW processing in LR, and export to PSE if I need anything extra (like a signpost cloned out), so hopefully that's me all sorted - for now at any rate