Starting again in Lightroom

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NaturalBritain

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Edit My Images
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Advice needed please :

I've been using LR and LR2 for quite a while now, but have never keyworded, added to collections etc etc.
About 6 months ago I also ro-organised all my folders on my hard drive, meaning LR can't find over half my images (perhaps 2000?)

So, I'm now thinking about totally emptying LR and starting again, from scratch, keywording every import, adding to collections etc...

Apart from the obvious workload, and the fact that I will lose all the editing details for the processed images (not too much of a worry as I have the Processed TIFFS filed elsewhere) can anyway tell me any drawbacks there are with this plan?

Also, bearing in mind I have a very good memory for when/where an image was made, is it worth doing any more than very basic keywording?

Cheers
Si
 
Looks to me like you've got the drawbacks covered - that would be workload and loss of editing details. Can't think of anything else which might arise - but to get the best out of the undertaking, you would need to have a coherent thought through plan for reimporting and keywording and filing. I can understand why you might want to do it, I have similar problems but can't face the huge undertaking of starting again.
 
Not quite. First right click on the missing folders in the left hand explorer tree and select the option to find the missing ones. Then show LR where they are.

If you want to preserve you editing details then you must either generate xmp files or convert them to DNGs. There's an option in preferences to create xmp files, which contain the editing info. Only once have I created these after editing and I don't know a way to do them all en masse. I think I had to open each folder in LR and wait for them to be created. Check the folder in a normal window to see if it is happening. Thereafter you must keep the pairs together -renaming, moving etc.

An easier option is to convert all the RAWs to DNGs. No separate xmp files to lose or manage as all editing data is stored within the DNG itself. LR can convert them for you. If you have sufficent inner strength you can delete the RAWs and xmps, burn them to disc, whatever.

I've found the standalone DNG converter to be much faster than letting LR do it. If you have the xmp files created alongside the RAWs, then the DNGs created will contain your edits.
 
If starting from scratch (or not) I'd strongly recomend using LR's ability to do hierachical keywords as this will save you time in the long run by making it quicker to apply keywords and the added bonus of not having the keyword box cluttered up by individual keywords (unless you select show keywords within)

If you arrange your keywords hierarchicaly within each other then for example as shown here, if you type in the keyword "robin" all the keywords above it that are hierarchicaly linked will be added to the image as well.

So in the example shown just by typing in robin into the keyword box six keyword in total are added, much quicker than adding six keywords individualy.:)

122674342.jpg
 
Thanks for your advice guys - this is probably a stupid question buuuuutttt...

Can you re-locate missing images in bulk - I've trawled every menu and can't seem to find a way to do any more than one image at a time...which will take a bl..dy long while! Quicker to delete and start again as I can upload folders at a time.
Ta
Si
 
Usually when you find one it looks at the others near it, so if you have moved folders as folders it will be quick, if you have separated folders out it could take a while, unless you move all the images into one folder...
 
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