LR ,catalogs,an idiot and a PC.... :)

[Hertsman]

So Ive been using LR for the last 6/7 months and enjoying using it. Ive never really undertsood quite what it was doing with catalogs, but since I have all my pics in my own "catalog system" Im not bothered what it wants to do.

Anyway, last week I discovered that LR had filled my 250gb SSD which I only use for programs. I have a larger internal drive (E) that I keep all my data on.

Somehow, Ive managed to wreck what LR has created and now I cant get anything to load into at all.

What Id like to actually happen with LR is :

If it needs/wants to create a catalog, can it not just import "my" catalog from the E drive ? If this happens does it actually duplicate everything ? (dont think so ?)

I have about 200gb of pics in my catalog, and its all sorted in date folders and then subfolders.

Hope this makes sense!

 

[gremlin16]

its tricky to solve without seeing your setup. however, i can say that if you just want to add your photos to the index, instead of importing the images, when you open the import window, along the top third of the page on the right it will sat 'add' click on that, and it will just make a note of where LR needs to look to find the file as opposed to moving the actual file.

ill try and explain that a bit better when my 4 year old isn't climbing all over me.

 

[EightBitTony]

There are three sets of data going on here.

1. The pictures. These can be anywhere.
2. The catalog. This is a single file (per catalog) and is basically a database of your images.
3. Previews. These can be huge, they go by default, in the same location lightroom creates the catalog, in a sub directory with the same name as the catalog.

The catalog doesn't hold any images.

You can create a new catalog any time, but you need to tell Lightroom where to put it, and you'll need space on that drive for previews. When you create a new catalog you tell it where your pictures are and to 'add them' to the catalog - it doesn't move the images, it just adds information about the existence of the image to the catalog.

So yes, Lightroom can work with your existing directory structure, that's the default behaviour when creating new catalogs, it depends from them on how you add new images to the catalog.

 

[BrynBoru]

Sorry I can't answer the reason why you are having these systems problems. However I hope the following is of help.
Why do you need to create new catalogs? LR doesn't need or want to create a new catalog, as that's the user's decision. I use only one catalog which currently has reference to about 13,000 images. I know a professional photographer who happily uses a single catalog referring to in excess of 120,000 images. You do not need to apply a Bridge style methodology to working with catalogs. It has sometimes been suggested that you should have one catalog for personal photos, one for studio, one for weddings, etc, etc. While this may seem sensible to segregate your photos into neat groups, it's quite unnecessary. It's much simpler and easier to segregate your images when everything is contained within a single catalogue. Apart from an old fashioned folder structure, you can, using key words, smart collections and other metadata, easily find any image, if you are using a methodical system, all within one catalog. I suggest that this is much simpler to operate than trying to juggle with multiple catalogs. You can always export a selection of photos from the main catalog if for some reason you need a new catalog.