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Where do I find pictures that I have previously imported to Lightroom?

Community Beginner ,
Dec 25, 2016 Dec 25, 2016

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I am a relatively new user of Lightroom. I imported some pictures earlier today, saved them on my Mac, worked on them, went out, took some more shots, imported those and worked on them too. Now I want to go back to the first lot I imported. Where do I find them? I just save everything in my Pictures folder under dates. When I try to import them into Lr once again, I can't because Lr tells me that they have already been imported. That may be so, but I can't find them. Where do I look for pictures that have previously been imported to Lr, so I can work on them some more in Develop mode?

Thanks for helping this poor fool!

David

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Dec 29, 2016 Dec 29, 2016
I also removed most of the files from Lr, because they are now located elsewhere and I don't want to use up more space than necessary.

This is a mistake, there is no reason to remove the photos from LR. You can store the photos on any disk you want where there is enough space.

So the proper workflow is Import photos into LR, telling LR to store the photos on whatever disk has enough space and whatever folder you want the photos to be in. Edit, add metadata, etc. Do not remove the photos from Ligh

...

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LEGEND ,
Dec 25, 2016 Dec 25, 2016

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You can click on All Photographs and then scroll up or down to find the previously photos.

2016-12-25 11_44_50-Lightroom 5-2 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library.png

Or you could click on the folder name to find them.

Or you could assign keywords and metadata to photos when you import them, and then use the keywords and other metadata to find the photos.

There are plenty of ways to do this.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 25, 2016 Dec 25, 2016

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Many thanks dj for your superfast help!

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 29, 2016 Dec 29, 2016

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Hi dj

You kindly sent a message to this poor incompetent user a few days back, but I can now no longer import any previously edited pictures into Lightroom. I imported, worked on, made JPGs of my edits and exported both the CR2 Raw files and the JPGs to another external drive. I also removed most of the files from Lr, because they are now located elsewhere and I don't want to use up more space than necessary. Now when I open Lr and want to import those same CR2 files from their new location, they are all greyed out, as are half the JPGs. Under the All Photographs menu item you showed last time, the pictures look like they are there, but they're not, because I have moved them, and Lr does not not know where the photos are now stored. Also I have not assigned keywords or metadata to anything. I just store under date folders - I find it easy. So, question is - once again unfortunately - how do I reimport into Lr? How do I tell Lr where to find pictures I want to work on?

Thanks for your advice.

Kind regards

David

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LEGEND ,
Dec 29, 2016 Dec 29, 2016

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I also removed most of the files from Lr, because they are now located elsewhere and I don't want to use up more space than necessary.

This is a mistake, there is no reason to remove the photos from LR. You can store the photos on any disk you want where there is enough space.

So the proper workflow is Import photos into LR, telling LR to store the photos on whatever disk has enough space and whatever folder you want the photos to be in. Edit, add metadata, etc. Do not remove the photos from Lightroom! Close Lightroom. Next time you return to Lightroom, you will find all of your edits and metadata.

Now, since you have removed the photos, the only way to get the photos back into LR is to import them again, and Lightroom will assume these are new photos it has never seen before, and they will have no edits and no user-supplied metadata.

Now when I open Lr and want to import those same CR2 files from their new location, they are all greyed out, as are half the JPGs.

This means you didn't really remove the photos from Lightroom, so you are prevented from importing a photo a second time. Do not import the photos a second time! You have to find the photos in LR, clicking on All Photographs, and then you will be able to make use of them.

Under the All Photographs menu item you showed last time, the pictures look like they are there, but they're not, because I have moved them, and Lr does not not know where the photos are now stored.

If the photo thumbnail is there, you should see an exclamation point icon in the rectangle surrounding the photos, click on the exclamation point icon and then you can direct Lightroom to the proper location of the file.

Also I have not assigned keywords or metadata to anything. I just store under date folders - I find it easy.

This has a major drawback. Today, you may be able to remember what date the photo was taken and go to the proper folder. But when you have thousands of photos, you will not remember the dates the photos were taken. This is why assigning keywords and other metadata is so important, the keywords and other metadata will enable you to find the photos when you are no longer able to remember the date the photo was taken.

Please take some time and read or view some beginner material on Lightroom. This will make your life much simpler. The investment of time will be well worth it.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/quickstart/

Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 | Adobe TV

Please take some time and make changes to your workflow. Please read my second paragraph at the start of this message, please try to conform with the best-practices workflow that I have described, you will make your life so much easier and get a lot more out of Lightroom.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 30, 2016 Dec 30, 2016

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dj,

You are now officially the man of the Lightroom year, well my vote goes to you. Thank you soooo much for your patient, accurate, understandable instructions. I will follow them in future, and am sure all will become easier.

Thanks again and have a happy new year. may sanity make a comeback in 2017.

Kind regards

David

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New Here ,
Oct 20, 2023 Oct 20, 2023

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This may be the "correct" way to do it. However, it's still a major pain in the you-know-what when you're trying to edit a group of pictures quickly. To have to go back through every picture you've ever stored in Lightroom just because you clicked out of the original editing process for a moment isn't very user friendly. 

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LEGEND ,
Dec 29, 2016 Dec 29, 2016

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I might be wrong, but I think your Adobe technical support person gave you some bad information (It wouldn't be the first time). I did just a little reading on the web, and I think you have a free version of Lightroom 6. Apparently, in the paperwork that you have, you have a TAN code that has to be redeemed. I don't know any more about that because I don't use Leica Cameras. From what I understand, that code has to be redeemed in order to obtain a valid Lightroom 6 serial number. The serial number has six groups of four numbers and the first four are always 1160. You use that number to activate  your installation of Lightroom as Lightroom 6.

There is only one version  of the Lightroom installer. There is not a separate installer for Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC. It's unfortunate, but a lot of people are confused about this. When you install Lightroom you have the full program installed on your computer. If you activate Lightroom using a serial number then it will run as Lightroom 6. If you activate using your Adobe ID and password, and are paying the subscription fee, then the program will activate as Lightroom CC. You will have the extra features that are available to CC users. But the thing to understand is that IT IS THE SAME PROGRAM. Lightroom CC does not run in the cloud. It installs and runs locally  on your computer just like Lightroom 6. So again, there is only one installer. Any updates that are released will update the program the way it is supposed to be updated. It's all controlled by how you activated Lightroom.

It's important for you to understand also that your images are not in Lightroom.  The images are in folders on your computer. The only file that Lightroom opens is the Lightroom catalog, which is a database. That database keeps track of adjustments that you make to your images as well as where those images are located on your computer. If you remove images from the catalog you are not removing copies of your images. You are simply removing pointers from the catalog that allow Lightroom to keep track of the work you have done on those images. There is no need to ever import images into Lightroom again. And it's not a good idea to remove images after the work is "done". The adjustments made to the images only exist within the catalog So if you remove images from Lightroom all you are doing is throwing away all the work you have done to them.

I think it would be a good idea for you to take the time to watch a few videos about how Lightroom works. The link I am providing is for Lightroom CC, But everything is the same for Lightroom 6. All you have to do is ignore any video that talks about newer features or Lightroom Mobile. The information about importing and working in the develop module is the same for Lightroom CC and Lightroom 6 because it is the same program, installed the same way.

Lightroom Training Videos « Julieanne Kost's Blog

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LEGEND ,
Dec 29, 2016 Dec 29, 2016

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Apparently, in the paperwork that you have, you have a TAN code that has to be redeemed. I don't know any more about that because I don't use Leica Cameras. From what I understand, that code

Are you replying in the proper thread? There's no mention of TAN codes or Leica cameras here ...

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LEGEND ,
Dec 29, 2016 Dec 29, 2016

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Senior moment, I guess. I thought I was in the right discussion.

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