Lightroom 4 - importing photos into folder by date - how to add keyword??

futureal33

futureal33

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Hi all,

What I am trying to do is very simple, yet I cant seem to figure out how to make Lightroom do it!
Basically, I import my photos in a folder structure like the following:

D/Photos/2012/2012-06-26 Keyword

I do this using the basic Windows photo import wizard!

However, Lightroom doesnt allow me to add a keyword at the end of the date?
Is there an option I am not seeing, or does Lightroom really not allow this?

Help much appreciated!
Thanks
 
Not sure if this is what you want to do, but in the Destination section there is a tick box next to "Into Subfolder." If you check that, you can enter text as the subfolder name. That would create a path D\Photos\2012\2012-06-26\Text. If your need is for ...\2012-06-26Text then as far as I am aware there is no way to actually add keywords to the end of the path.
 
Are you tying to add keywords or just the word 'keyword'?
 
With the path you show I do not add this descriptive keyword on loading the pictures as I would almost certainly forget to change it next time I imported some, I do add keywords at this time though.

To get the folder name you require, once they are imported into lightroom I just right click on the file name to change it, and add a descriptive keyword(s) at the end that I can see as I am scrolling though the files
 
Kerioak said:
With the path you show I do not add this descriptive keyword on loading the pictures as I would almost certainly forget to change it next time I imported some, I do add keywords at this time though.

To get the folder name you require, once they are imported into lightroom I just right click on the file name to change it, and add a descriptive keyword(s) at the end that I can see as I am scrolling though the files
Click to expand...

The trouble with doing this is, if you rename the folder where you imported them AFTER importing them, Lightroom gets confused and cant find it!
Even though its right there, its something to do with importing the photos into a catalogue and then changing the location name (adding a keyword at the end) it doesn't like.

Basically all I want to do is add a word next to do the date which identifies what the photos are of

Such as

2012-06-26 Ryan Karen Wedding
2012-06-27 Elizabeth model shoot
2012-06-28 Lee Michelle wedding

etc

Rather than just

2012-06-26
2012-06-27
2012-06-28

As I can never remember what date was what event!

Hope this makes sense :)
 
What I do is import the entire folder 100EOS (or whatever it is) into my computer using a card reader.

Once done, right click folder and rename it to whatever you want.

I then scan the photos and discard the rubbish ones.

Remove card, open Lightroom and import the entire, now usually much smaller, folder.

Thus you have the folder name, as you want it, in both your PC and in Lightroom.
 
Last edited:
futureal33 said:
The trouble with doing this is, if you rename the folder where you imported them AFTER importing them, Lightroom gets confused and cant find it!
Even though its right there, its something to do with importing the photos into a catalogue and then changing the location name (adding a keyword at the end) it doesn't like.
Click to expand...

It's easy enough to locate the folder for lightroom after changing the name. Just right click the folder it can't find and click the option that says find missing folder, then select it and it's fine again. This is because lightroom has it's catalog of imported folders and images that it locates on the drive using the folder name. If you change the folder name out of lightroom, it can't find the folder it's looking for so you have to locate it again yourself.
 
squishy said:
It's easy enough to locate the folder for lightroom after changing the name. Just right click the folder it can't find and click the option that says find missing folder, then select it and it's fine again. This is because lightroom has it's catalog of imported folders and images that it locates on the drive using the folder name. If you change the folder name out of lightroom, it can't find the folder it's looking for so you have to locate it again yourself.
Click to expand...

Ok fair enough... but was hoping there was an easy automated way of importing the photos into a dated folder + keyword, cant believe LR hasn't got that facility. I appreciate you could just tell LR to relocate the folder afterwards.

I guess importing through windows is the alternative, but again that's a bit annoying as its not as straight forward.
 
futureal33 said:
Ok fair enough... but was hoping there was an easy automated way of importing the photos into a dated folder + keyword, cant believe LR hasn't got that facility. I appreciate you could just tell LR to relocate the folder afterwards.

I guess importing through windows is the alternative, but again that's a bit annoying as its not as straight forward.
Click to expand...

What's not straight forward about it?

You need to get your photos from card to HDD's first anyway.
 
futureal33 said:
The trouble with doing this is, if you rename the folder where you imported them AFTER importing them, Lightroom gets confused and cant find it!
Even though its right there, its something to do with importing the photos into a catalogue and then changing the location name (adding a keyword at the end) it doesn't like.

Basically all I want to do is add a word next to do the date which identifies what the photos are of

Such as

2012-06-26 Ryan Karen Wedding
2012-06-27 Elizabeth model shoot
2012-06-28 Lee Michelle wedding

etc

Rather than just

2012-06-26
2012-06-27
2012-06-28

As I can never remember what date was what event!

Hope this makes sense :)
Click to expand...

Are you editing the file name in Lightroom? That is where I do it and there is no problem with finding them

LR1.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mikesphotaes said:
What's not straight forward about it?

You need to get your photos from card to HDD's first anyway.
Click to expand...

Because at the minute, as soon as I stick my card in, LR opens and imports the files automatically onto my D drive, and also into the LR catalog - no user interaction required.

By doing it through Windows I need to first import them through windows onto my D drive, then open Lightroom, point it in the direction of the photos, click import to catalog.

Its a few extra steps and ideally I was hoping LR could handle the whole import process
 
Kerioak said:
Are you editing the file name in Lightroom? That is where I do it and there is no problem with finding them
Click to expand...

File name or folder name? I haven't tried changing the folder name through Lightroom - will give that a try tonight :)
I know when you change the folder name through Windows, LR gets confused!
 
You can edit the folder name in Lightroom. Simplest would be to import them into dated folders and rename. You could also import each set of files into a named folder and apply a tag, but this isn't automatable - how would LR know what tag to use?

The reason LR doesn't do what you want is that LR is a cataloguing system and assumes you will tag and search inside LR. TBH, I never look for stuff outside LR as everything is tagged appropriately on import. I just use the database tools to find what I want inside lightroom and if I want pics for something, I'll export (normally through a preset) with the settings I want for that data.
 
I'll look into doing what you do Andy - Ive never considered using LR as my search engine for photos, I generally browse through my folder structure in the "library" area of LR (hence looking for Date+Keyword to find what Im looking for) and then open that folder to view/develop the files.

So for instance, you'd tag an import with a keyword such as "ryan wedding" and then just do a search on "ryan" or "wedding" to go straight to those photos?

Does it still display them in chronological order etc? Like it would do if browsing by folder
 
futureal33 said:
Does it still display them in chronological order etc? Like it would do if browsing by folder
Click to expand...
Yes - if you set it that way. The advantage is that you can subset things easily. Lets say you do lots of weddings and you tag all of the pictures taken of the cake with the word "cake" as well as the names of the people in the wedding. You can then search for all cake pictures in one go by specifying the word cake. Try doing something like that if they are organised in a folder based on the wedding... Or you can find all pictures of Sue at a birthday. It's all about tagging the data on import.

The other thing is you can combine the subsetting of tags with camera information so you could do a search of "all pictures of Sue at birthdays taken on a 5D2 with a 24-105 lens at ISO 1600 and f4" if you really wanted to...

I never worry about directories now. I like my stuff ordered so always import into directories that are: <year>/<month>-<date> but that's only the slightly OCD part of me coming out ;)
 
Like Andy, I'd say don't worry about what you call the folders/files (mine are all date order as sub folders of the year i.e. 2012>01-01-12) and I now use keyword search to find the shots I need.

I used to stress as to where the files were - now I know they are all on my master <photos> drive and LR does the rest for me - believe me, it is a far better place than before :)
 
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