jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's the problem. I started keywording just a few months ago, and all those images are in the LR catalog. It's finding specific shots in my computer that's the challenge. I like your suggestion of importing them folder-by folder.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

All my pictures are in a folder called My Pictures. Under that I have Cars ? Honda > Ford > MG, etc. Very few of those old pictures were handled in LR, so they aren't in the catalog. Based on suggestions here, I think I'll import one folder at a time, keywording as I go.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

You can try to coexist but you are just looking for trouble. Play with one file outside of lightroom and your catalog gets screwed.

I have all my LR pictures separated from any others. I happen to have them on a separate device since I use only raw files and need big space(2 terabyte at the moment). I only keep the catalog on my C: drive.

Seems to me where you can do the same using your single drive with different directory structure.

If you are only using key words t find stuff you sure aren't taking advantage of naming directories.

For me I use Pictures -> 2016 -> Ashokan Reservoir 1-1-16
->Ashokan Reservoir 1-8-16
-> Kingston lighthouse 1-5-16
-> Joe's Wedding 1-21-16

I also have a 2014 and 2015 but choose not to expand them unless I'm looking for something specific

In my left panel I can keep just this year and visually find pictures quickly as the directories are alphabetical. I also use keywords to discern quality, ice, sunrise, etc etc.

Not that what works for me will work for you, but I get 95% of what I want with a 5 second peek.

Food for thought. I can't imagine how you have yours and can keep them separated.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Yes both are important Cataloging and developing that is why I use LR

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

FWIW - Seeing what is there and attempting to search by file name or image is the slow & inefficient way of doing things in my opinion.

It is a difficult task to begin, but to make use of Lightroom properly means you keyword religiously EVERY image that is cataloged, and once completed the benefits are worth the work.

Instead of relying on the file name or what the image looks like, you then rely on using the database the way it was meant to be used. Finding images by the metadata is efficient and accurate - who cares WHERE it is stored so long as you can find the needle in the haystack?

For me, no, my pictures are in my database and 100% accessible, usually instantly, using a metadata filter or search because of cataloging & keywording.


All that being said, I also have Lightroom place all images once cataloged into a file /folder hierarchy based on date, so my images are in one place on an external drive, not scattered throughout my externals and internal disks. Organized.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

In the future, will your photos be located in the same file? Will you still be using the same pp?

It's best to just file them in very basic folders and keyword only a few important ones.

In the future, you might want to refile them. To do that means hours or days or more. Judging from many posts I've read here on Ugly, that process could very likely mess something up in the process.

don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

If I remember right, that was precisely why Lightroom was developed and thrived. It was and is a tool to help professional photographers and we amateurs manage the thousands of images we take.

Professional photographers have a tremendous task of managing their client's photos and the need to be as productive as possible in doing this. That is what the Library module is all about.

It has only been in more recent versions that Lightroom has had its editing capabilities enhanced to the point that further editing in Photoshop is used less and less by many Lightroom users.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I have been a user of Lightroom for years, starting with version 3 when it was introduced. While I can't speak about version 1 and 2, from version 3 on its primary purpose is the enhancement of raw exposures.

daf40 Loc: Mesa, AZ

I have tens of thousands of pictures dating back over 15 years, all located in chronological folders. Since I acquired Lightroom a couple of years ago, I have been slowly importing folders into Lightroom, moving backward month by month. In the meantime, I can easily locate and view all photos, whether in Lighroom or not, with Faststone Image Viewer. I also imported all my photos into Picasa, only because Picasa has such an extraordinary facial recognition capability. If I am looking for old photos of an individual (one of my grandchildren, for example), I simply search Picasa for that individual. Once I have found the photo I can view it in any program that I like.

backroader Loc: Wherever we park our motorhome

I keep all my photos on an external hard drive through LR. I have a folder called old scanned photos and one called old slides. It is easy to import photos from My Pictures into folders like these. You can probably even set up folders in LR the same as you did in MP without needing a bunch of key words to find them. The added advantage as I see it is you can now work on old photos since they are in LR.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

It's going to be a lot of work, but you must make a folder for each set of photos. So if they are all mixed up on one folder i.e. My Pictures> then you could use Windows to sort them by date, Then cut and paste them into folder you make by date. Then examine the folders and keep the date first and the add an extension i.e. 2006 01 15 Grandmas house; 2007 06 12 Fishing trip; 2012 12 25 Christmas at Dannys etc.

Then import by using the Add feature in LR. Then apply keywords to each photo to help find certain photos faster. It's a lot of work but that's what is involved if you want well organized pictures.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

To help you keyword and organize your photos in LR create a smart collection that will find all photos without keywords. You can enter a single keyword that best suits the photo and that photo will disappear from the Smart Collection but is still in the LR catalog then go on to the next photo. If you have a number of the same photos highlight them all and insert the key word. It takes a while, I went from over 10K now down to 300 photos without keywords

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

It can be daunting, but once you get into it it becomes easy, and once done is a great help ;)

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Lightroom, the latest version, at least Lightroom CC, also has facial recognition built in. Not sure how it compares to Picasa since I turn it off ;)

edit:

I need to run a test ;)

alandg46 Loc: Boerne, Texas

I use LR to keep track of all my photos even those that I don't consider active anymore. They reside on various externals, I Import them, apply keywords, and then disconnect the external. LR keeps track and then if I want one of them, I attach the external. I label my externals so I have a rough idea of which is which.