Photo-Al Loc: Sonoma County, CA

Question for Elements Users: I have always understood that I should make all the file movement (move to new folder, create new folder, etc.) on catalog folders from within Elements itself. I'm wondering, however, if I can use Windows Explorer to move a large group of files and then use Elements Organizer to re-establish links or whatever. Here's the scenario:

I have 562 pics I took this AM (headshots & couples photos). I shot in RAW + Jpeg for the first time. What I would now like to do is to move the CR2 files into a separate folder and work on only those that the people select as the ones they want copies of or included in their portfolio. The Jpegs will be placed in an online folder they can view to make their selections.

From within Elements Organizer, all the files are listed by filename, so I have one CR2 then a Jpeg, another Cr2 and a Jpeg, etc. etc. I can't find an easy way to sort them by file extension instead of filename, so moving the CR2's would involve a lot of manual work. If I did it in Windows Explorer, I would sort by extention, putting all the CR2's together, then move all of those to a new folder. I could easily make that a "watched" folder so Elements would recognize the files, but I'm thinking that Elements will still think there are a number of CR2 files in the original location because I didn't use Elements to move them. Is that correct?

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Is there an easier way to separate the files? What do some of the more experienced folks do? This is my first attempt at trying to work with RAW files. Thanks in advance.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

sort by size.

Photo-Al Loc: Sonoma County, CA

I can't locate any "sort" option in Elements Organizer. Or were you referring to sorting in Explorer?

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Well. I am a Mac guy. Try going straight to the folder where the images are - forget any browser. Surely Windows allows you to sort contents of a folder by file size. (After all, they have copied everything else from Apple.) :-)

Once sorted there, just select and drag the ones you want to another folder.

Photo-Al Loc: Sonoma County, CA

OK, yeah, Windows does allow it. I just didn't want to mess up Elements cataloging, but I'm sure there is a way to "re-organize" things if it does happen. I'm guessing that you probably use the full Photoshop, not Elements, yes? Does the full PS allow for different file sorting, or do you do all the organizing in a Mac program outside of Adobe?

Thanks for responding, I admire your work, and especially the work you do for grieving families with the loss of a newborn. Your heart is really in the right place.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

if you attempt to reorganize your photos directly in my pictures, it will mess up pse ortganizer to where it will search your entire hard drive trying to relocate those photos. I learned that the hard way. When you download from your camera,, with adobe downloader you can set a primary and a secondary location for your photos. I would in the future make august 2012 raw (for example) the primary and august 2012 jpeg the secondary. The only suggestion i have is to open your organizer create a new album of just those raw files open the folder and manualy put the cr2 files in the album. . Maybe you can use the search function. do not know if it can search by file extension.

Photo-Al Loc: Sonoma County, CA

----- Yeah, I finally did move them in Windows Explorer, then I had to go back into Elements and "Reconnect", so that doesn't work real well.

----- This is interesting. I'll need to look the next time I download and see what settings there are. I tried to see if I had to download Raw separate from Jpeg but it didn't look like that was an option. However, I also posted a question on the Adobe Elements Forum site, and someone said I could do a "search" for CR2, or JPG, or whatever, and it should display only files matching that search. I'll have to try that.

I'm just learning how to use Raw files, and so far I DO like the range of tweaking I can do, especially on photos that are a little over- or under-exposed. But getting a set of pics to let the clients look at them has been a little time consuming. I'm sure I'll get this figured out with the help here (much more helpful than Adobe so far on things!!)

Anyway, back to the primary and secondary locations .... does that mean the files are saved in two locations and I can just delete the Jpeg from the Raw folder and vice versa, or can I direct which type is saved in each folder or ??? This is news to me so I'm going to check it out. Thank you for the info.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

i do not have raw + jpeg ability so i cant answer your question. I too am learning to shoot and process in raw. I would look at any books on adobe cameraw raw for photoshop elements.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

You can reconnect in elements yourself. Ask PSE to search for missing files then as it searches you have the option to locate the files yourself. Do a test of a few files.

Al McPhee Loc: Boston, Massachusetts

I do this all the time, in a different fashion. With a card reader, open the card. in VIEW select by kind (separates RAw and Jpg) Set up a folder wherever you want to keep them on your computer. Drag all JPG to that folder. Inside that folder create a "RAW" folder. open it and drag the raw files in.
At that point you have a folder that you can preview wiht PSE of your Jpg, as well as the enclosed folder of RAW files for when and if you need them.
If I am doing, as you do, posting them as proofs I usually make a copy of the JPG file and have PSE do a quick "auto" processing with levels and resizing for posting. Keeps the original JPG intact.
After doing it a couple of times it becomes quick and easy.
Hope that helps.
Al

bvm Loc: Glendale, Arizona

Cliff, Nice work.

zerobeat

There is a free very helpful program out there that will handle your issue plus a ton more. It is named "Faststone". Just search the name and you will come up with the four different programs they offer. One of them has a search program and you can search by size. It will seperate jpg's from cr2 in a few seconds. Plus its the best viewer I have found to date.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I can't see any other way to do it so I think you did good. Reconnecting isn't that hard. You just don't want to let Organizer search the entire hard drive or it will take forever. I think when importing images from the card you will have to select the jpgs and import them first and then import the cr2 after that to a different location (folder). I don't know if Organizer will do it all at once. This is the reason I didn't like shooting jpg's and raw's. It's a pain to separate them and a pain to cull through them and delete (both) of the matching image files. I gave up and just shoot raw now. The only time I shoot jpg is if I know that I'm going to use the image for an ad on eBay or Craiglist or just a quick image to send via email to someone.

stevebon Loc: Originally, the East Coast, now California.

Hello

I have simplified all of this by never using the Organizer in PSE.
1] I download into a "Processing" set of folders--using Xnview.
2] I make a backup copy on another hard drive.
3] I pull the culls and rename the keepers and possibles--in XnView.
4] I distribute the images into various category folders--in XnView
5] I re-evaluate and pull more culls--in XnView
6] I do the serious editing work in PSE--just opening the regular Windows folder containing the images.
7] When I do my weekly whole-system backup, I discard the copies made in Step 2 above.
This is easy and works well.
Regards
stevebon

ALYN Loc: Lebanon, Indiana

Capt. This is on a different topic. Sorry. But--I sure would appreciate your comments on three pix a recently submitted, titled County Fair Pix---under Photo gallery. One is a walkway beside a canal in Indianapolis, IN; another is a skyline in Indy and the third is in a museum.
You seem to be one of--if not the--more knowlegeable fotogs on the forum. ALYN