File Management In Lightroom

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Dr4ke

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Name
Simon
Edit My Images
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Hi All,

I have ventured into the world of Lightroom this evening; it's installed and ready to go! Before I start importing, though, I have a few questions...

I've got just over three and a half thousand photo's that I'd like to start with, in order to get used to the programme before I go fully LR! At the moment the photo's are on my external hard drive, and I notice I can import them straight from my it into Lightroom... here are my questions:

1) If I import from EHDD to LR - do the photo's store on the iMac hard drive, or will they only be accessible when I plug into my EHDD?

The other thing I want to raise, before I start my venture properly, is using the file management system. I want to have folders and sub-folders (obviously) but if I create my ideal file structure in Lightroom; what happens to it on my hard drive? Hopefully the answer is going to be that if I create a file structure in LR, it will replicate to my hard drive so the same structure will be apparent if I plug my EHDD into a PC for example.

Hopefully this makes sense....
 
Edit: Accidentally duplicated my post into a comment.
 
When you import photos into Lightroom they stay in their existing location and in the existing file structure on your external hard drive. The programme does not move them it simply recognises where they are currently located.

I am not sure I really understand your second question. How are the photos presently stored on the external hard drive? Do you not already have some sort of folder structure to divide them into collections or are they all stored in the same directory?

IMO you would do better to set up the directory/file structure in Windows Explorer not Lightroom.
 
Thanks :) that's what I wanted. I'll sort into folders on the finder.
 
Thanks for the link I have just got Lightroom 5 and need some guidance so this will be very useful :thumbs:
 
Seriously recommend a book to get the most out of Lightroom. I like Scott Kelby's :thumbs:
 
HoppyUK said:
Seriously recommend a book to get the most out of Lightroom. I like Scott Kelby's :thumbs:
Click to expand...

And thirded, read that before you do anything and it will set you on the right path.
 
RaglanSurf said:
And thirded, read that before you do anything and it will set you on the right path.
Click to expand...

I'll also back that up. You need to at least read the first section of the book on exporting photos so you can get an organised system going otherwise you will end up in a mess!
 
Last Christmas I learnt quite a bit about LR4 from:

http://en.elephorm.com/tuto-lightroom-4-complete-training/lightroom-4-introduction.html?html5

They did a special free access offer for a month. It's looks like these videos are free again to me but I'm not sure if anyone can play free? I found I learnt a lot more and faster from watching these videos rather reading a book. There is over 17hrs of tutorials so quite a bit to watch. I've also got a LR4 book and I now use it for reference rather than full learning. I found it was really useful to play the videos on my iPad whilst having LR4 open on my computer to do the tutorials at the same time.
 
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I'm about to do the same soon by importing all raw photos from 2012. I started in January 2013 by only importing new raw images I had taken but I'm soon going to put all my raw files into Lightroom. If you read up about it is easy to do. I went with setting up a file structure in Lightroom (there are a few choices), mine is year, month, date and then rename the date to include a place name. I also put a number in the month folder to make it into calendar order rather than alphabetically, I do this after after the month has finished so LR put all of that months photos in the same folder.

I find it's easier to let LR do the file structure on import than me do it. LR still puts an actual folder structure on your HDD. If you set it up right now you reap the benefits later. I found it was easy to transfer my LR catalogue from a PC to the new Mac I bought when it was set up right. I'm currently deciding on my storage and backup situation. The question is whether I should go for main files on Mac HDD and backup to EHDD or both 2 EHDD. I'm also thinking of keeping an off site backup EHDD elsewhere too, which I manually back up to each month.
 
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valb said:
When you import photos into Lightroom they stay in their existing location and in the existing file structure on your external hard drive. The programme does not move them it simply recognises where they are currently located.

I am not sure I really understand your second question. How are the photos presently stored on the external hard drive? Do you not already have some sort of folder structure to divide them into collections or are they all stored in the same directory?

IMO you would do better to set up the directory/file structure in Windows Explorer not Lightroom.
Click to expand...

This isn't strictly true. You can move the files to say, a lightroom folder. Just click import then find the folder, click the images you want then select move st the top then select destination on the right..
 
I'd agree re the recommendation to get some sort of training whether it be a book or a video from kelby.com or something.

In answer to your question though, as Christian has said, you can decided whether or not to keep the files in their current location, move them, or copy them to somewhere else. I leave them in their own files and use LR to import them and create collections and collection sets so I can easily locate them. You will find LR to be absolutely incredible when it comes to organising your pictures.

Yes, you can change your file structure via LR if you wish and it will be duplicated on your hard drive of choice.

A lot depends on how you set it up and here's where you need your knowledge before committing to a particular system.
 
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