Lightroom File Management Query

NorthernNikon

NorthernNikon

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Name
Barney
Edit My Images
Yes
I'm just about to start using Lightroom as my work flow program of choice however I'm keen to get things right from the beginning.

Currently, I store my photos under My Pictures in two separate folders, Comedy for my comedy shots and D70s for everything else.

In Comedy I have subfolders for each shoot, e.g. Comedy Carnival with each Act's name as a further sub folder. I have since had to change this slightly by adding the date of the shoot after returning to a previous venue.

In D70s subfolders are named after the date I uploaded them e.g. 08-01-02 would be the title for any I uploaded today.

Going forwards, what I want to do is change things slightly. I'll have three main sections, Comedy, Projects, Family Under Comedy I think I should simply file under the comedian's name and then let the Metadata allow me to search for particular venues, dates etc. Under Family, I'd rather have sub-folders named after the date or month the shots were taken. I'll be importing shots my wife will have taken on her Ricoh R6 too. Finally Projects will be everything else, from competition entries, to anything with a theme. I’m also hoping to use this as an opportunity to sort the wheat from the chaff and delete a lot of dud shots.

If you're still with me, thanks, and here's my questions:

• How should I assign the new folder names to Lightroom and where should I store them on my hard drive for easy non-Lightroom access?
• What’s the best way to sort my old shots and import them into Lightroom?
• Are there any potential pitfalls in managing my photos as I’ve suggested?

TIA
Barney
 
I would consider using seperate databases in LR to split the 3 types up. In the long term this will prove useful as the more picures you store the slower LR will get.

I do something similar so I have a Commercial, Race Photography, Lifestyle, Misc, etc. databases and open LR by double clicking on the LRCat file.
 
Thanks, I think I will. It's manageing the sub folders of existing files that I'm wondering about though. From what I can gather, I'll have to set the foders up before I import into Lightroom.
 
Depends how you import, LR can copy the files to a new location during import (say from a card) or just import from the current location. I just put all the raw files on the same HD ordered as:

2008
January
02
img_1234.cr2
03
img_1235.cr2

Then I backup all my raw files each month taken from the same folder.

The location of the files doesn't matter so much as it's LR that handles the database side of things for indexing and searching and it's there that I go for finding stuff.
 
Okay. Is it relatively easy to rename files in Lightroom or should I do this before importing? It wasn't an issue until I went round the clock on the old D70s!!
 
Importing is probably the best point to rename as you can get a whole batch done at the same time. But I have to ask why bother? Once the files are in LR think of them as records in a database, the filename is just the index number for the record but not something you need for searching or finding a particular image is it?
 
The files (well some of them) will be uploaded onto websites for sale. To avoid any confusion it makes sense to rename. Also, when I get my D300, I will be using two bodies for one shoot. Having a unified file naming system will kae things easier. Plus, I like things to look right ;)
 
In that case get LR to rename during import, maybe use the job title and sequence number for the new name to make it easy for identifying later.

I sell shots online but I don't need to worry about identifying just by filename as the orders also contain the gallery path so I know which job it's from :thumbs:
 
If you need to rename files after import, it's easy in Lightroom. In the Library module select the images you want to rename. Press F2 and a renaming box appears. Add your new name and numerical sequence if you want and press OK. LR renames and updates it's database.

It's worthwhile sitting down and working out what workflow is best for you. What I do may not be ideal for your requirements. A few minutes ( or maybe longer ) now thinking things through can save hours later.

You can practice with a dummy catalog just to see how things work out. Hold down the Control key when you start Lightroom and it asks you which catalog you want to use or start a new one.
 
Chappers said:
It's worthwhile sitting down and working out what workflow is best for you. What I do may not be ideal for your requirements. A few minutes ( or maybe longer ) now thinking things through can save hours later.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I'm trying to do so thanks for the reply. Once it's sorted it should free up a whole load of time, it's just investing the time first.
 
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