Bobcat87

I have watched numerous videos recommended on uhh and elsewhere, as well as bought a book and read articles about the importance of organizing photos on the hard drive prior to importing into Lr. The more I read, the more questions I have. I have over 4,000 photos and am finding the thought of organizing all these daunting. I have decided that it might be easiest to organize the photos by year after creating a parent folder, then under each year, by month. Since I haven't done this, could someone tell me if the photos would automatically be organized that way on my Mac? Beyond this, I am confused: do I then label each photo (I can't imagine doing this), or could I label the month folder with a couple of descriptive words (the problem with this is that I often take lots of random photos per month, covering different topics). Other questions: 1) If I decide to keep all my photos on an external hard drive, I have read that the Lr catalog isn't saved on that. I do have an external hard drive on my iMac that stays connected and backups continually. Would the Lr catalog be saved on that? 2) One presenter (I think Tim Grey from B&H) commented that Lr by default does not import JPEGs. If this is the case, how do I change that setting? All my 4,000 photos are JPEGs (I now have a DSLR and will begin shooting in RAW, once I get going with Lr). I could go on with more questions, but I think this is enough for now. Thanks in advance for the help!

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

If you save your images on an external HD, you will always need to have it connected to the system when you use LR.
LR, by default, doesn’t import anything. It will import whatever you select. The difference is, with RAW files, you can do a Convert to DNG. If you try that with JPEGs, you will only copy and get a pop up box telling you it could not convert the JPEGs.

To start, arrange your images on whatever storage device you choose the way out outlined above; year, month, etc. Then create a new catalog in LR and import these. With over 4000 files, you would be better off having 1 catlog for what you are working on currently and another with archival images. Will speed up your workflow. Consider adding key words to images, it makes searching easier.

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

Which raises a question for me? As in are DNG file sizes noticeable smaller than JPG files?

Bobcat87

Thanks for the clarification about the JPEGs. Regarding the 4,000 existing images, I had thought of doing something like that, since I don't plan to modify them (I had already done some modification in my Photos program anyway). So, if I understand you correctly, I could archive the 4,000 photos in their own catalog, and on the same hard drive have another catalog of my newer photos that I plan to modify in Lr. And there would be 2 "parent folders" on the hard drive. Regarding the older photos, I could add key words as I have time, just like I would be adding key words to the newer ones.

Regarding the saving of the Lr catalog, I probably didn't state my question clear. I know that any external hard drive that I save my pictures to would be available only if that hard drive is connected to my computer. What I was referring to is, for example, if my computer crashed, would the Lr settings (such as custom import settings) be restorable from the hard drive that I keep connected to my computer all the time (which is a different hard drive than I would use for storage of my photos). Hope that makes sense.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Have LR store its backups on a different drive than the current LR catalog is stored on.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Perhaps I need to be enlightened: I import directly into Lightroom from memory cards, and let Lightroom organize the images according to dates and folders that I designate.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

I see that you are concerned with organizing the 4000 photos prior to their import, not fresh imports.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

You are asking about Lightroom Classic, correct?

Only 4000 images? That should be easy to import. Where are the images on you Mac? Are the 4000 images all under one folder or are they in subfolders?

As for how they are sorted in the Mac, you can use finder and the list view to sort the files by date if you wish.

It sounds like you have a Time Machine backup? Is that correct? If so then your LR catalog will be part of that backup and if the main drive fails you will be able restore everything, including the LR catalog, to the date of the latest backup. And time machine backs up frequently so it should not be a problem.

I have a great file renaming program that I use a lot. Its called Name Mangler, and made by Many Tricks software. I download pictures directly to my hard drive, into a folder I have created, then I rename the images. THEN I pull them to Lightroom using the ADD import option. I find that to be easier than using Lightroom to rename them but you can import and rename them using Lightroom (Classic) as well.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

No.

But from your question, you <PaulBrit> probably should research DNG in more detail. A DNG can be used to capture all LR / PS edits into a single file on disk for compatibility with other Adobe products and any 3rd party products that understand Adobe's DNG format. A typical use of DNG is to encapsulate a RAW file that is propriety to the vendor and the specific camera model. Whenever a new body enters the market, Adobe and the other software vendors need to update their products to process the new RAW files from the new camera. At a technical level, a RAW file is the image data that cannot be modified and meta (aka "header") data that describes the image data and the camera used to create the image. A DNG version of the same RAW file has that image data but the camera's original header data is replaced with Adobe information for the Adobe software products. The header data is relatively small as compared to the image data so an initial DNG conversion may be a file that is only slightly smaller than the original RAW file. As edit data is added to the DNG during post processing, the DNG may grow to be larger, perhaps significantly larger, than the original RAW file. If you have an Adobe product that can't read and can't be updated to read new RAW files, converting the RAW to DNG is a way to enable the older product to process those newer RAW files.

A DNG "wrapped around" a JPEG would exhibit a similar relative size depending on the edit-history payload within the file. A JPEG, by nature of the format, has a universal upward and downward compatibility for products that can process JPEG images. So, there isn't a issue that Adobe needs to update to products for JPEGs of new cameras as they do for RAW files.

From Wiki you can find a history of the DNG format. You might google and read some photography blogs of people who started with DNGs back when Adobe introduced the format, but have since realized the format didn't become a universal standard and their workflow is simplified by skipping the DNG-conversion step in their workflow.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

REF: One presenter (I think Tim Grey from B&H) commented that Lr by default does not import JPEGs. If this is the case, how do I change that setting?

You seem to have misunderstood the topic being discussed in that video presentation as LR will import JPEGs directly with no special actions on your part. Possibly, the discussion was related to photographers who capture in both RAW and JPEG? Here, LR users typically import only the RAW files into LR, although both can be imported and used within LR.

Bobcat87

Thanks. Yes. I have been advised to store my photos on an external hard drive and a backup on another one. I think this is what I'll do.

Bobcat87

It's entirely possible that I misunderstood the presenter.
Glad to hear that I don't need to worry about problems importing JPEGs. Thank you.

Bobcat87

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Yes. I am using Lr Classic. And yes, I use Time Machine, so it's good to know that I have the catalog backed up on Time Machine. The images are stored in one folder in Pictures on the Mac. I will check out the Name Mangler program you mentioned. Thanks for your help!

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Lightroom can perform that function.

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

Thank you! Had no idea there was so much to be learned about that!