Locating a Photo in Lightroom (Page 2): Hard telling not knowing. You will have the answer after you reinstall.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

jaymatt wrote:

Ok--my son-in-law is an IT person, and he has found the photos on the computer. They loaded into my ON program, but refuse to go into LR. He can put them anywhere but in LR. He has determined that it’s a glitch in my LR 5.7 program. Next question: If I re-install my LR 5.7, will my old catalog automatically transfer into the re-install?

Hard telling not knowing. You will have the answer after you reinstall.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

jaymatt wrote:

Ok--my son-in-law is an IT person, and he has found the photos on the computer. They loaded into my ON program, but refuse to go into LR. He can put them anywhere but in LR. He has determined that it’s a glitch in my LR 5.7 program. Next question: If I re-install my LR 5.7, will my old catalog automatically transfer into the re-install?

Why not upgrade to. LR CLASSIC.

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

jaymatt wrote:

I need help! br br A few days ago, I imported som... (show quote)

In the Library tab of Lightroom, click "Find" (or just hit the Ctrl and F keys at the same time). On the upper right of the thumbnail panel you will get a search box. Type in the file name and see it.
Also, if you have done any other imports since the missing one, click the "Previous Import" label above the film strip at the lower left of the screen. Choose "All Photographs". You might just not see it because you are looking at the current import.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

If and when you find the files, back up and study how computers deal with files and how LR deals with files. It will be worth your while.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

I immediately stopped using Lightroom when I first fired it up and it started moving my photos around.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

jaymatt wrote:

I need help! br br A few days ago, I imported som... (show quote)

LR puts any files where you tell it to put them. When it does this they are permanently stored on that space, external or internal hard drive. Once images are linked to LR you need to work on them only from within LR. If you work on an image outside of the application then you run the risk of breaking the link to LR. Go to the place on your equipment where you actually store the files and look for the folder you want there. You might consider reading the online Help manual for LR, in particular the Library Module portions. This will provide you with long term useful knowledge to avoid these types of things in the future. It would seem, also, that you need to set up a structure and understand where everything is stored.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

sb wrote:

I immediately stopped using Lightroom when I first fired it up and it started moving my photos around.

LR does not do magic, it does not move photos on its own. The user sets up these parameters and the application simply does what you, the user, have told it to do. It always helps to understand a program we are using and know what it does and how we should manage it.

Dale Evans - Amaetur Loc: Baton Rouge, La

This is exactly why I stopped importing files from the camera to program.
Being simple minded, I now download all files to a folder I call Unprocessed Photos and copy them, one at a time, into the program I am going to use for processing.
This gives me a backup and the control I need to prevent confusion on my part.

Over the years I have used most of the photo processing programs out there and I have settled on 4.
Adobe Camera Raw,
Photoshop that has been on my computer since PS2,
Lightroom that I sometimes use,
and Irfan View which will open almost every graphics file out there.

My workflow is,
Camera to Dump File,
Dump File to Processing,
Processing to Save for Web or Save for Printing.

Works for me.

Traveller_Jeff

I see lots of good suggestions here. To prevent me from losing my original photos, before processing in Lightroom, I create a folder with the date and the name of the subject matter. Within that folder I then create two subfolders named NEF and JPG. I then download all my NEF files from the shoot straight into the NEF subfolder. Following that, I copy the new folder into both my external Hard Drives. Only after doing all that, do I open Lightroom and load in the NEF (RAW) files. After processing them I export them to the JPG folder on my computer. By then, I've likely reduced the number of NEF files. I then recopy the entire folder (NEF and JPG together) onto each external Hard Drive. At this point I feel completely comfortable deleting the original NEF images from my camera. Tedious? Yes. However, I've never lost a photo anywhere.

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

Dale Evans - Amaetur wrote:

...Over the years I have used most of the photo processing programs out there and I have settled on 4.
Adobe Camera Raw,
Photoshop that has been on my computer since PS2,
Lightroom that I sometimes use,
and Irfan View which will open almost every graphics file out there.

My workflow is,
Camera to Dump File,
Dump File to Processing,
Processing to Save for Web or Save for Printing.

Works for me.

If you're only using Lightroom "sometimes" you are definitely not using it to its full potential.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

jaymatt wrote:

I need help! br br A few days ago, I imported som... (show quote)

Between this message and the one later saying the images have been found, I don't understand what the issue is. Do the images display in the Library grid view with a small exclamation point (icon) in the upper right corner of the image? And if you right click the icon, doesn't a small window pop-up allowing you to <Locate> where the file resides? And, if you point / update the location to where the files have been found, doesn't that resolve the issue?

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Traveller_Jeff wrote:

I see lots of good suggestions here. To prevent m... (show quote)

I do this:
Originals from the SD card to an external drive into a NEF or JPEG folder labeled (yyyy mo description).
Copy that folder and it’s contents to my HD.
Import those photos into PS Elements for edits and tagging.
Do routine backups of the Elements Catalogue to an external drive so I can recover all edits if needed.
Do my prints using Elements.
Use Elements to make JPEG copies for emailing or other uses.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

Traveller_Jeff wrote:

I see lots of good suggestions here. To prevent m... (show quote)

...extreme to me, but obviously very thorough and solid. Other than the nuclear backup, this method assures that you know *exactly* where your files are. I've done pretty much the same motif, but now I just make dam sure to know where LR is putting my files *and* use the facility in the program to back up elsewhere. And knowing where "elsewhere" is, too! Over the years I've been jumping back and forth to Photoshop from LR more and more frequently, and, thusly, paying more attention to where Photoshop saves the PSD files. If I don't assign a folder, Photoshop defaults to put the PSD files back into the import catalog used by LR. More often than not, I want my PSD files in a specified folder so I can get at them easily so I create one...through repetition I've finally gained a working knowledge of just where all this stuff is! Bottom line, just know where your data is, and take the time to lock location(s) in. As previously mentioned, LR doesn't do anything it isn't told to do...

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

I have LR put all imports into the sub-folder "Lightroom" in my "Pictures" folder. Upon import, LR creates a sub-folder there that is the year, and then further sub-divides to put the import into a folder named for the month, day, year (for example: pictures/Lightroom/2019/2019-06-09) If I shoot for a client and want to easily find their photos, I can rename it - WITHIN LIGHROOM - and it will be easy to find. I don't always remember the year I took certain photos, but I can usually figure it out (and then rename the folder if I think I will be revisiting it). Adding keywords also is helpful, but that requires planning and organization...

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

mborn wrote:

Why not upgrade to. LR CLASSIC.

Because I don’t want to be saddled with a monthly fee and rely on my weak internet connection.
Besides, that doesn't answer my question at hand.