2 Replies Latest reply: Feb 16, 2014 4:53 AM by dj_paige RSS

    Import workflow: should and can LR manage my folders as I previously have or is there a better way?

    MD Optofonik Community Member

      I like having my actual photographs in separate folders named based on various criteria but having a catalog from which to access all my photos via an attribute of keyward search regardless of what folder their in. For instance, I took pictures on a hike in the San Gabriel wilderness on 14Feb14 that I would like to keep those photos on their own folder and use them in a single project. On another date I took some photos for a volunteer group that I work with regularly and those pictures will be used on several projects but, again, I would like those photos to be in stored their own separate folder. However, I may someday have use for a photo from either shoot and want to be able to access them from within a single catalog using a keyword search for "outdoor" (in addition to any other appropriately descriptive keywords)

      :

      All my photos thus far are kept on a single external hard drive and that structure looks like this.

       

      File structure for photo drive.JPG

      The "editing" and "developed" folders are pre-LR and look like this, respectively:

       

      File structure for edit folder.JPG

      File structure for developed folder.JPG

       

      Now that I have LR I want to improve this structure (it is the result of experimenting with several ideas before purchasing LR).

       

      The "SD camera cards" folder is redundant and the result of a forgotten abandoned experiment. The separate "Lumix" and "Pentax" folders were originally used for copying the SD card files from the respective cameras to my HD and due to the Lumix producing video and JPG files and the Pentax producing RAW files and wanting to keep the formats separate. The Lumix is gone, my next P&S will support RAW, and any video files will be saved on my Premiere media drive so those folders will remain as legacy folders and be imported into my LR "Master Catalog". That brings me to my question.

       

      I'm looking for opinions on whether I should continue to copy photos from my SD cards into their own separate folders using the system's "copy" function then import those photos into my Master Catalog using LR or is there a way to do this, or something much improved, from within LR?'

       

       

      Thanks,

       

      Mick

       

       

       

      PS To moderator: If this isn't a "beginner" question please move to the appropriate forum.

        • 1. Re: Import workflow: should and can LR manage my folders as I previously have or is there a better way?
          99jon Community Member

          I would recommend copying from your SD card to a folder on your external hard drive. For your hike and other projects use collections. Collections can contain photos from any number of folders. It’s simply metadata stored in the catalog database; so it takes up no extra space on your drive. If you add keywords as you import you have an additional search method, regardless of folders.

          • 2. Re: Import workflow: should and can LR manage my folders as I previously have or is there a better way?
            dj_paige Community Member

            There is no reason why you can't keep intact some folder structure with regards to your first screen capture, as 99jon explained.

             

            In particular, subject-based folders such as "Fire Lookout Photos for Pam" and "Adam & Ardis ..." and "Tree People" make sense if that's what you want, but in my opinion, keywords are also a good way to go and any folder structure you have should be supplemented by keywords.

             

            But the idea of having folders for steps in the process (transfer and pre-edit and post-edit) doesn't really make sense in Lightroom, as there are other mechanisms to keep track of whether or not you have or have not edited a photo. So creating folders and moving photos into folders based upon where they are in the process is simply extra and unnecessary work. In fact, Lightroom will automatically indicate to you which photos have been edited and which photos have been not edited (in other words, this takes zero effort on your part).

             

            Also, I hope you understand how Lightroom works, that when you finish editing a photo, the finished product does NOT exist as a separate file on your hard dirve. There is no need to place this into a different folder to indicate it has been edited, since there is no separate file!

             

            Thus, in conclusion, subject-based folders make sense in Lightroom, process-based folders are usually unnecessary and extra work.