Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

Okay I am about to make Lightroom my primary organizer/editor and would like suggestions starting with the Library. Let me lay it out:

> I have an existing folder structure housing 9,000 JPEGs
> My guess is I have 500 photos that are 'Keepers' buried somewhere in there, that I would like to keep and eventually take to my grave
> I plan to 'grow-up' and begin taking photos in RAW for any situations where photos could be a potential keeper (or maybe just bite the bullet and go all RAW)
> Going forward I may either a) download camera photos to my folder structure directly, vet and then import into LR or b) just bring into LR directly and start vetting there

So my questions are:
1. do I start importing via 'Move' each folder, one by one and then vet in LR
2. do I set up another folder under My Pictures named Lightroom and anything organized using Lightroom be placed there - under a new (duplicate) folder hierarchy
2a. from one class I took, I learned the search features using meta data, collections etc. may eliminate the need to create Year subfolders under catagory folders like Family, Vacations, Landscapes etc. (however I light belt and suspenders and if LR gets too much for me ... I could go back to the old folder way)
3. re: finding 'Keepers' do you suggest I bring in the first folder and begin using Stars rating to tag potential Keepers one by one (knowing that whatever Stat rating I chose means that's a Keeper to check, edit and save.

As before - I am open to (all) suggestions
Bogin Bob

donnahde Loc: Newark, DE

re:#3
Hi Bob, I take a LOT of photos for the schools for yearbooks. I generally take up to 1000 images per event that I have to cull down to about 200-250. The easiest way I've found to do this is to load them all to LR with an auto white balance develop preset. I then star the keepers (you could also use color or flags, etc) and when I've gone through all of them I select filter - unrated - and delete all those from LR and my hard drive. Now I have ONLY those I want to keep left. I hope this helps you to see one way of dealing with your images. It works for me. My s/o (dealing with the same # of images) does his differently and it takes him a whole lot LONGER!! You lead a horse to water but...... lol Some day. We don't get paid for THAT part of our job so I want to git 'er done quickly!! ~Donna

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

Your preference on organizing your photos - each has his own idea -
I like mine by date and the use of keywords and ratings.

Here's some info that should help...

Videos
LR4 - Complete training package
http://en.elephorm.com/tuto-lightroom-4-complete-training.html

Adobe Lightroom 5 - Training Videos by Anthony Morganti
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLllFqBuTM0WI0fC_PujkGoLMyXWXd3yF7

Learn Lightroom 5 - Adobe TV
http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-lightroom-5/

LR Catalog FAQ
http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html

10 Tips for Optimizing your photos with LR
http://petapixel.com/2015/02/08/10-tips-optimizing-photos-lightroom-primer-basic-techniques/

Text
Photo Editing in Lightroom 101
http://photographypla.net/lightroom-101/


Training from Light Stalking

How to Get Better at Lightroom and Post Production

The Modules of Adobe Lightroom

A Killer Collection of Adobe LightRoom Tutorials

3 Lightroom Tweaks to Get Your Landscape Photographs to Sing

3 Easy Lightroom Adjustments to Add Drama to a Landscape

5 Simple Lightroom Tactics to Improve Almost Any Landscape Photograph

Create Perfect Portraits in Lightroom Using These 6 Classic Retouch Techniques

The Ultimate List of Keyboard Shortcuts for Lightroom with Free PDF file to download...

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Step 1: Back Everything Up.

Step 2: Start using LR.

Seriously, Lightroom is a great program for (1) making a catalog of your images in such a way that you can easily find things later (2) doing basic edits and interfacing with Photoshop for more complex edits. But it doesn't back up your images. If you want them to be around for your old age and beyond, make sure they're backed up, and backed up in several places.

But, important as it is, backing up is not the subject of this thread, so I'll just advise you to look into the subject and leave it at that.

You don't need to move your images. The Lightroom catalog is a database, not a file full of images. It tells LR where the original image is. If you move an image later, LR will not be able to find it and you will have to explain to it where you put it. (Of course it would be nice if you have a folder structure that is constant so you can keep the photos in the same place forever).

There are several ways to organize your images. IMHO, keywords are the best and most flexible way and make it easy to look for a particular subject. When you import images, put keywords on them. Keywording is a skill that you really should develop so that the keywords form a complete enough description of the image that you have a good way to look for it later.

As far as importing things, there are a couple ways to do it. (1) You can just import the keepers. That means you have to sort them out before importing them. (2) You can import everything and just mark the keepers. You can place ratings on the images (0-5 stars). Everything gets 0 stars to start so the 5 star images are your keepers. The 3 star images might be stuff that's important for family reasons but isn't a particularly great photo. You'll have to come up with your own system there. You can put color labels on the images. When I import things I generally put a red label on everything (in the library module highlight everything and press 6 -- that does the red label easily). When I go through and evaluate the images I put another label on the ones that I've rated (for example pressing 7 gives you a yellow label). That way you know which ones you've checked out and which you haven't. So you don't have to do all 9000 images at one time.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

This is a wonderful tutorial on Lightroom 4 ( it doesn't matter that it's 4 not 5) Don't buy it's FREE just scroll down.View preference and import sections .

lloydl2 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

bogin Bob. First there is no "right" way to set up the lightroom catalog. However, it is designed to handle huge volumes of photos. If this were me I'd start by importing your existing folder structure into Lightroom, no moving is necessary you just point lightroom to the existing folder structure or structures. Next I would evaluate my photos and using the starring system no stars not a keeper 1 star lowest possible keeper 2 stars useable and 3 stars a really good image, once edited you can use 4 and 5 stars to denote the outstanding ones. A simpler and less time consuming approach is using the flag picker to mark as keep or not. Lastly if you are so inclined add keywords which will make it easier to search and find photos with specific subjects or locations... Hope this helps....

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Congratulations on your decision!! Personally, I think you're headed the right direction.

My best recommendation for you is to purchase the book Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classroom in a Book. Honestly!!

An issue with Lightroom is simply this . . . if you don't have a clear understanding of where you're going with it (a clear understanding of the workflow you'll be using), you'll end up rebuilding your catalog more than once, with the possibility of losing your images in the process.

The book will give you the understanding necessary to do it all. It's well-written and intuitive. You'll thank me a year from now. :-)

Newsbob Loc: SF Bay Area

Here's my technique. I travel a lot. I create a separate folder for each day "Nov 2 Shanghai" and then two sub folders: JPG and RAW. That way I can easily view the JPGs while still away from home, and use in my travel blog. I don't touch the RAW until I get home.

Then, once I'm home, I deal with each day's RAW photos separately. I create a LR catalog, called appropriately enough, Lightroom Catalog, so I can easily find it again at a later time.

I look at each photo, work on the ones I like, flag them, and then export the flagged images into another sub folder for that date and call it "from Lightroom ". That way, I know the difference between those that are post-processed, and those that aren't.

Obviously, all of this means I have redundancy. But with large capacity hard drives, it's not a problem. At least not for me. And I feel secure knowing that I can always go back and find whatever I need.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

If you already have a file structure you are comfortable with, stay with it. In the import dialog you simply "ADD" them to the catalog. It would be helpful to have all the folders contained within a parent folder. When you take more photos, upload them to your folder structure before importing them to LR using the "ADD" function as noted above. The above works well if you are constantly adding new folders but not so well if you are adding photos to multiple existing folders.

Then, you can go through them and cull out the non-keepers using one of LR's star, color or flag systems. Starting with any new photos, you can add keyword tags to help you find individual pictures. As you have time, go back to the old ones and add keywords. The above is true unless you have a folder structure that allows you to find your photos quickly.

The advice you have received about getting some training is spot on! A good understanding of how LR works will go a long way to shortening the learning curve and increasing your enjoyment of this truly professional tool.

Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

Thank you all, I like the vetting using the Star option. This should allow releatively quick scrubbing. Now I just have to come up with a rating system .. I can say right now 5 are Keepers and 1 will be 'for-get-a-bout-it'.
Regards, Bogin Bob

Baysitter11 Loc: Cincinnati

I used this and shared with others. It is a great tutorial. I put it on my laptop next o my desktop so I can do the stuff right along with him. I highly recommend.

http://en.elephorm.com/tuto-lightroom-4-complete-training.html

Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

Looks good - tried a few already
Bob

Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

Followup (for those interested):
1. With wine and laptop poised - reviewing videos
2. Purchased Kelby Lr5 book - good reseource
3. Maintaining folder structure and bringing over to new main folder under My Pictures called My Lightroom Photos
4. Adding folders one by one and making first pass of screening photos using Stars

Opinions please: I am considering creating these first series of steps:
1. download photos FIRST to a folder named TRANSFER under My Pictures
2. during import name sub-folder appropriately i.e. 2015-0329 New Orleans
3. perform immediate/fast delete of non-Keepers WITHOUT any edits or changes
4. when time allows, copy this 2015-0329 New Orleans folder into My Lightroom Photos main folder (just in case something goes wrong with getting photos 'into' Lightroom)
5. delete original sub-folder (New Orleans) after confirming photos are now in Lightroom
6. do my Lightroom thing - rate, flag, color, edit

Make sense?
Bogin Bob

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

It should work. I don't fool with that in between step though. I create the new, named folder, copy images from card into it, import photos into LR, delete the culls ("delete from disk", not just from catalogue), and move on into key wording, collections and editing. Never lost an image in 8 years.