Froggy Loc: Guernsey Channel Islands UK

Hope somebody can help you, sadly not me. I am in the same boat I enjoy the photography side of things, but computer skills not.

So good luck I am sure somebody will come to your rescue that’s what I love about the site.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Community colleges may have cheap computer classes. They do here.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

You’re on the right track. I view digital cameras as just another computer accessory. You have to be proficient in both to get the most out of your camera. When I got my first film SLR I just shot pictures, sent them in for developing, and looked at the prints. That’s like shooting with a digital camera and looking at thr photos on a screen. Now I can do so much more using digital wizardry.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Others have provided good answers to your question. However, a good longer term strategy worth your consideration may be to join a local photo club. It's a lot more fun (and reinforcing) to learn this stuff in a social setting, than it is solo in front of your computer screen. You'll get answers to questions you haven't even thought of asking yet.

phot0n0ob

Excellently said

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, dealing with photos in LR can be confusing. You have to forget about doing anything with them outside of LR. Otherwise, it can't find them. I use LR for processing, and that's all. I Import, Develop, and then Export to a separate folder. After that, LR shows me a string of ? in the left panel.

I wonder if there's a setting to have LR delete backups automatically. Backups keep accumulating forever, so I have to go back and delete all but the last two. That sounds like a question for a separate post.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Lynda has been a lifesaver for me. Refer to something there almost every day plus taken many courses on Lightroom, Photoshop, Audacity, Iphone and others. And free via my local library!

don1047 Loc: Colorado

Our local library district just sent an email saying we now have unlimited access. I haven't tried it yet, but will.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

Your first question was about downloading (copying) pics from an sd card to your Mac. Your next issue appears to be how to use LightRoom and its catalog.

Some people prefer to let LR manage the download.

Others do the download from the card to the computer and then, optionally, import the pictures into the application of choice (LR in your case). My personal recommendation is to do this, not the LR-managed way. That gives you just as much ability to use LR but it also gives you control and the ability, at any time, to use some other software on those pictures.

If your Mac has a card reader slot (older Mac) you can use that. If it doesn't then you can purchase a card reader that connects to your computer with USB. It will work best if the card reader is the highest level of USB (2, 3, 3.1) that your computer can use. Card readers are not expensive.

Once the sd card is connected to the computer it will show up on the left side of Finder and you can simply find the sub-folder that contains your pictures and copy them to the location of choice on the Mac. The most obvious choice is to create a folder inside Pictures for each date or place or some combination.

The Mac may try to start one of its own programs when you insert the sd card. You can simply close that program and use Finder.

Feel free to PM me if this is helpful but incomplete for you.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I use at least 5 different software titles with my images that are downloaded/imported directly into Lightroom Classic letting LR handle the process. I am not sure where you are having difficulty with LR managing the download/import process. I make a point of using a descriptive name for the destination folder. Also to ensure that applications that can read edited raw files - actually they can read xmp sidecar files, I turn on the option to write metadata changes to xmp in the catalog preferences.

Using LR to do manage DL/import does not preclude using those images in other applications at all.

But when I have a larger number of images, like an event or a long trip, I do find it faster to import using the operating system, then something like Irfanview or Faststone Image Viewer to quickly cull, then import the images in place using the LR import dialog.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

That's not exactly true. I manage images in and out of Lightroom. What you most definitely can't forget is to make sure that when you do file management outside of LR you update the changes to the files in LR by right clicking the pertinent source and destination folders and selecting the sync option. If you don't do this you will end up with LR not finding files, and those pesky question marks. If you only use LR for processing and not cataloging, you really don't need to use it at all, since the same exact capabilities are found in Photoshop Adobe Camera Raw.

amkras Loc: NY

A6k I want tp try your advice. I am a long time very comfortable PC user who acquired a Mac Book Pro for travel and never can seem to find where my photos went after uploading.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

See my PM

That's how I got into Mac's too. I got tired of Windows starting an uninterruptible update just when they would call my airplane for boarding!

azted Loc: Las Vegas, NV.

Why don’t you use Photos, the program that comes for free on your Mac? I use it, and it is very easy.