PaulBa Loc: Cardiff, Wales

tcthome Loc: NJ

Bird Dawg Loc: Georgia

Be very careful that you do not DOUBLE your pictures when you Import. I did and am still in the process of "removing" the duplicates with special software. It has made me want to quit LR on several occasions. Still hanging in there. Good luck.

bobburk3 Loc: Maryland

Lightroom Classic is a great program. I found the best way to learn was by watching tutorials on youtube and then experimenting. I started with Lightroom but now I do most of my post processing in Photoshop cc.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Check out Anthony Morganti. Has a lot of free tutorials on Lightroom, If you are really serious try Lynda. There is a 30 day free trial then it may be free via your local library.(Mine is) Everything you ever wanted to know about Lightroom, is available

Red Sky At Night

Thank you. That is great news and VERY encouraging. I will do it!!

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I'm computer literate but I ran into a similar problem when I started using Photoshop Elements 11. It's Organizer is structured like Lightroom's since they're both Adobe products. It relies on creating a database that catalogues the photos as they're "imported". It knows where each photo is located. To make a long story short, I use this workflow process: 1. Copy originals to an external drive in a folder named in the following format - yyyy/mm Descriptive Name; 2. Copy this folder and its contents to the hard drive; 3. Import the contents of the folder into Elements (Lightroom for you). Then I tag my photos with various categories and sub-categories for easy searching. I can also easily scroll down through the directory tree since everything is listed sequentially by the yyyy/mm method. My first error was importing directly from my SD card. Then when you remove the card from the computer you won't find those photos until you put it back into the computer. The more you know about your computer's file system the better off you will be.

Red Sky At Night

Great advice. Thank you.

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

For someone who is not a Professional and/or a graphic artist, LR maybe too much for most photographers, has far more features than you'll ever need. There are plenty of stand alone programs available to the amateur/hobbyist photographer that will proved all the power and capabilities you may need. Luminar, Gimp, Paint, Darktable, PhotoScape, Picasa, Capture One...the list goes on & on. Research all the programs out there, select one on your particular requirements and go for it. Many are free and some require a minimal payment, most under $100.....and as an amateur, you're not invested in a subscription program. Switched from LR to Luminar (purchased it) and haven't looked back.

Chief Rob

Yes, I can and will make a recommendation of materials for learning Lightroom. I suggest that you purchase Victoria Bampton's book; "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC/6 The Missing FAQ". This book provides specific instruction on using Lightroom, supplemented in many cases with the reasoning for specific approaches used in the application. Additionally to being, in effect, a "written tutorial" the reference also serves as a handy desk reference; the index provides specific page numbers associated with the functions. The book is available at Amazon for the listed prices (Jan 20, 2018) of $46.95 paper, $31.95 Kindle. I recommend the paper version as Ms Bampton offers a free electronic version (including formats PDF, Kindle/Mobi, and EPUB) if you register the purchase as described on page 576. Registering the book provides additional benefits.

The following is copied from her web site this morning:

Lightroom Classic book coming soon. If you purchase this CC/6 version from THIS website between October 18, 2017 and the Classic book’s release, you’ll get the update to the Classic ebook free of charge, so you don’t have to wait to order. Orders placed before October 18 or registered after purchasing from a third-party website will receive an upgrade discount code emailed on release day." Her web site is

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/shop/adobe-lightroom-cc6-missing-faq/

Respectively, Chief Rob

dmeyer Loc: Marion, NC

DITTO! Anthony Morganti's relaxed and methodical style makes him the easiest to follow, and the extensive number of videos provide the opportunity to learn in-depth without being overwhelmed with TMI.

Vienna74 Loc: Bountiful, Utah now Panama

There are also several good youtube videos that are free.

PeterBergh

I second that recommendation; her book is excellent.

williejoha

I have used Lightrlom for years and I am currently using the latest free standing version.
Just create a folder specific to just your Lightroom pictures, let's say "Lightroom pictures".
Within this folder you can create sub folders such as Family, Portraits etc. Now when you download your pictures into the folder " My Pictures " ( on a PC ) just transfer them to the proper sub folder within " Lightroom pictures " and you are set. When you import the pictures into Lightroom you know where to look. When you export the pictures after PP,
You are asked where to and the answer is to the same folder. Since Lightroom will now create a new sub folder within the folder where they were imported from you can name it anything you want, such as final. This folder will remain within the original folder ( the one with the original unprocessed pictures ). DO NOT move these two folders to a new location for Lightroom will not know where to look afterward.
Now after all of this you can buy a book and do it the Lightroom way which was not for me. Hope this helps, Good Luck
WJH

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

Have you tried creating a new catalog and then importing the old catalog where, I think, you'll get the option to ignore the duplicates?