This probably means a box named something like, Make a second copy…, is checked which makes a copy of files as input from the memory card before the import. And it places them somewhere on in the pictures folder like you are seeing. The location can be changed somewhere. About every four or five years I think maybe it is saving a copy after import which would useful for immediate backup. Wishful thinking. Now I do change the destination to the Dropbox folder which gets a copy of the card offsite and I can release the card from protective custody for immediate formatting.i have a little script that does all that so I won’t screw it up.

I’m a rebel so I reformat the card in the computer right after import and a copy has been backed up off site via DropBox. I increment a a count in the volume label so if one ever fails I’ll know how many times it was formatted. Unless the label is also unreadable. DUH

I guess you don’t struggle with this question.

I use the ones in my bag which the camera estimates are 1.1K. Since many are years old I bet they are much cheaper now.

I didn’t get very far through this before I thought “Ask Bill! He has forgotten more about printing than I ever knew.”

Unless the last “Photoshop Virtual Summit” is pure hoax the generative fill in Ps is the answer to fill out after crop. I have dozens of uses for it after I return home in January.

I suggest you misunderstand my suggestion. In no way would I suggest eliminating its flexibility. Nor do I believe its flexibility is problematic. And I originally bought Photoshop Lightroom about a dozen years ago BECAUSE IT IS A DATABASE interface.

So what is the point? Well, due to decades of experience putting together some complex systems in defense of our country I am very familiar with database management man machine interfaces. So the Library module including the import were natural to me. (And it was my instinct to organize the File structure by date shot only. Which is now one of the canned destination choices. But let’s not go there.) But about a dozen years ago I signed up for a workshop intended to introduce Lightroom to photography students and the community at large. The instructor was a local photographer who is I assume an Adjunct Professor. I went with a buddy who was not yet retired and a lead EIS guy. Six weekly evenings which turned out to be very through. About three weeks in we were asked try it out. I brought in a thumb drive with a catalog creates with my best attempt of 15 photos from a 2010 Africa Safari. There were three girls that knew each other and the instructor. I assume students or camera club members. Well the fell flat basically over the import. Granted they only had access to Lr during class. So the two of us huddled with the instructor to figure out how to help. My buddy put together a set of slides trying to use the library catalog analogy. Guess what? They had never use a library catalog! Crash and burn. I have subsequently given up. If I were to sit down at someone’s keyboard for a few hours I can break through. The thought that import was hiding their files was a universal stumbling guide. Apparently they had tried Aperture which apparently did just that. So I think the bare bones nature of the Import module exasperates the problems. That is all. If you like to organize folders before import I would not choose argue with it. I like a mindless import that I can’t mess up. Then leave the folders alone and use collections for all orginization. My latest computer rips through the import process for a batch of a few hundred images so that I don’t get bored and wander away.

Peace?

The discussion so far illustrates my conviction that the design of the Import dialog could be revised to reduce the number of accidental problems such as we see here and diagnose and repair problems when they occur.

First, the name Import is a common name within the database community but nearly everyone else assumes it means putting your camera files inside of the program and you must export it to ever access it again. Not at all! The verb catalog might be a better choice but anything else.


Second, LrC doesn’t have ESP. You have to give LrC the following instructions all in the Import dialog.

A) Where the files are located. Which can be on a memory card accessible with an USB interface to a camera or memory card reader or a folder in internal or removable memory;

B) Where you want the files to be located after the import process is complete. Do you want (COPY) a second Copy made to a storage Folder, (MOVE) the files removed from the input location and moved to a storage Folder or (ADD) just tell the catalog where the Folder. For COPY or MOVE you need to specify the location (name of) the destination Folder(s) and, optionally, if you want and how the files themselves are remained.

C) LrC is going to build previews that will be displayed in the Library Module so you need to choose the size and type of previews to build during import.

D) Actions you optionally would like to perform in bulk to the image they include:
A Collection you want including them all in.
Meta data such as copyright info, key words…
Develop actions like white balance, auto tone,…

Third, The dialog layout is good. A) in the left panel, B) in the top panel and C) in the right panel. Yet there are no summary labels telling you what each area is about. Worse. The choices default to something (last import, maybe) possibly not what you want. It would be much better if they were blank or highlighted and the import not processed until you confirm they are what you want. The presets seem to work but I admit to screwing up the import carelessly.

Finally, they could itemize the settings to make it easier to check. They do show the destination drive at upper right corner. And please please log date, time and all import settings to a file that could be used to investigate and correct the crime.

I was aligning the question with my mind when I saw this post which hopefully solves the problem AND aligns with my thoughts.

I have been using panoramas for wide angle shots for a number of years since I learned the technique from this forum a few years ago from posts by Gene (I forget his handle) who always gave great advice. He moved from NYC to Delaware and then disappeared. I fear the worst but never heard for sure and miss him. I digress but for years I used a i7 with 16G RAM which would be way underpowered by today’s standards. I also used LrC because Ps was exorbitantly priced before the subscription plan. But I assume, with no evidence, that the Pano merge is identical and I never saw the behavior you are seeing. Joining the others who responded, I guess memory size is the issue.

As I’m reading this for the first time I was wondering if someone was going to ask raw or jpeg and compression choices for either. Otherwise, just a meaningless random number.

Good question. I am 82 and have come to believe I am in the fat spot of the demographic for this site. I suppose the mysterious administrators know. I believe they collected our birth date and I only lie for security purposes a yearish from the actual date.

Upon reflection we are a reflection of our birth year as much as our family tree and where we lived during or formative years. Even though my earliest clear memories are post war I am certain the War influenced mylife greatly. Sadly our “leaders” seem to have forgotten that history.

My interest in photography stemmed from a combination of the engineer gene and the all the interesting knobs on my father’s Argus C2. I’m sure I bugged him unmercifully to tell me what they were all about. At any rate our first big vacation after the war was to the far away land of California and at Yosemite he handed me the camera directed me to take a photo of half dome including reading the f/ stop and shutter speed from the paper with the Kodachrome film, setting the knobs and focusing. I have that slide and after my mother died and I went through her archives I found the Conoco “trip tick” for that trip along with her log. It turned out we were there ten days berfore my 10th birthday in 1951. So that is when it started. In High School a few years latter I noticed a darkroom in a storage room and the Year Book staff was nearly all girls I became the yearbook photographer. My first and last pro assignment. And even though it was possible I did not encounter Ansel Adams nor would I have known who he was.

Chin strap?

I think a monkey wrench has smooth jaws hence not a pipe wrench.

It is my computer. I am the sole user. I never but never accept the default locations for user data files without a defensible reason. And the only reason is I have no further use for them. Program files like plugins, presets and version history usually are candidates for accepting defaults.

I never use “Pictures” for my photo files that I own the copyright. I happen to use LrC for management of all photo stuff and I now place its Master Folder and catalog files on dedicated drives. That is a one time setting so not a big challenge to set this up. (I’m not recommending LrC just saying that is what I do.)

Much of the complication of Windows is because it is a multi user OS for Enterprise use. Apple doesn’t choose to serve that market and Linux was prevalent in certain application specific work stations. So the OS is often not the tail that wags the dog.

My experience as well. The exception is Win 11 was installed by Puget Systems who built a new machine for me.

It took me longer than it should have to work through adding the new machine to my network simply because I hadn’t done that for years and the razor sharp mind of the research scientist was dulled by age. That part of 11 Pro was totally identical to 10. The timing was about 2 years ago shortly after Intel released the 12th generation processors and both Puget Systems and The Lightroom Queen blessed the switch. The new machine was configured with a substantial increase in speed and quantity of RAM so I took the opportunity to manually move everything from the old to the new. Lightroom Classic was first and the easiest to transition to the new configuration. Although I use a utility called Vice Versa to copy files to the new configuration without fuss Win 11 has added tabs to explorer which would have been useful in this endeavor.

In whole Win 11 is solid with only changes to the look and feel which I don’t like because I’m old and hate change but I may get over it.

I agree. Steve is the best especially for Nikon and now Sony but useful for any brand just not sorting out the specific details. I am not an avid wildlife guy but I still buy some of his ebooks if only for the spectacular photos that illustrate in his books. His “wrong” illustrations are better than my best. If nothing else check out his site.