Simple way is to just take an image with your cell phone and transfer the GPS setting from the metadata. I also have found an app for my Canon that not only can record the GPS but can act as a shutter release.

This may not be the most popular advice but with the volume you have to digitize THINK LIKE A PHOTO EDITOR. By that I mean you may not need to copy EVERYTHING. Yes, it would be nice but are you really going to do anything with the 12 images of little Bobby blowing out the birthday candles or the vacation shots of your shoes while you were getting the camera ready? Plus all those slides that are too over or under exposed. Yes look at each slide and frame and only put aside the ones you feel are worth keeping.

In the days of yore when I was shooting slides I would lay them out on my large light table all 36 slides and start to toss the ones I knew I would never keep. Then I would start to go through the ones that looked like others and only keep the best exposures. Then go through again and only keep the best of best. One time my wife walked in and saw the pile of slides in the trash. She pulled one and asked why I wasn't keeping this one. I showed her the one keeper that was just so much better. She still didn't like seeing all that film go to waste but maybe understood her crazy husband a little bit more.

In my camera classes, I have the students bring in the results of the last assignment. Then I tell them before I even look at them to pair them down to the best 20. When they have done that I tell them to now pair them down to the best 7 and Delete the rest. This empresses to them how to start to really see photography and not get caught up in just shooting.

So get a smaller box and a trash can and start to work. Or box everything up and send them off to be digitized and sent back to you. Once you have everything in ones and zeros then we will talk about how to organize and back them up them.

If you have been on YouTube last week and ever searched for videos on Photoshop or Lightroom or had your news feed with these subjects then you have seen everyone losing their minds on the latest updates. Well, just some highlights for you without the 30 min video or two page missives.

Yes both Lightroom and Camera Raw filter in Photoshop have improved Noise Reduction using Ai (all hail our robotic overlords)

In the past our choices for Noise reduction were sliders that didn't really do a good job on images with a lot of noise or had to purchase a third party software like On1 or Topaz. Both of these programs did a much better job for both noise reduction and sharpening of the images. However in the best tradition of Adobe seeing what others are doing better and then adding to Photoshop to crush them they have come out with their own version which I have to say is pretty darn good. Of course, it is not perfect but should get better over time.

How it works: Magic, well no but to my mind it is pretty darn close to it. It only works on RAW or DNG images and not Jpegs. So if you shoot in Jpeg you may still want to keep the other programs for now. But from playing with it and seeing what others are doing I am very impressed. It both removes Noise from the shadow areas and sharpens rather than an overall smoothing effect of the past. And it is just one button and a slider. The default is 50% but in most cases, settings of 60 to 80% seem to work best. Over that and you get a too smooth or cartoon look.

If you are an artist who likes to have Denoise in some areas and not others then still stick with Topaz because to do this with the new DeNoise it takes a few more steps and is not easy like just painting the areas for adjustment. You will need to create layers of different Noise reductions then using masks paint over or in the different adjustments But knowing Adobe this will be in the next upgrade.

So should you dump the third party software? Maybe not right now. This is the first release and will have updates coming soon after the masses have broken it a few times. But keep in mind that Topaz is stopping the upgrades for DeNoise in favor of their PhotoAi software, so if they see the writing on wall we should too.

When I upgraded I got a gaming computer at a mid-range price. Most have a fast processor and a up graded video card for the games. Just make sure you get enough RAM. Remember both Lightroom and Photoshop use 8 gigs of RAM each so if you are running both 16 gigs will not be enough since you will also have an OS running on RAM along with any other program that is open like Email or Browers.

PS The hardest part of finding a good gaming computer is one that does not have a light show going on like an 80s Disco Floor.

You guys are welcome to pick my brain anytime. Well whats left of it.

I tend to go with physical and not so much cloud. The reason is I was using Dropbox but due to their update I had to sign back in. The problem was they had an old email address that I do not have access to anymore. They would only send the authorization code to that email. I have been going back and forth with them in this real Catch 22. With cloud companies a belief that they will always be there may not be the most practical.

One Universal truth is that ALL HARD DRIVES FAIL. I hate to be one to break this to you but it is true. Plus they will always fail at the worst possible time. Mostly at deadlines and important jobs.

So it goes without saying we should all be doing Backups. In today's world these can be on thumb drives, separate Hard Drives, or in the cloud.

All have advantages and drawbacks. So let's look at them.

First if you have just a dozen images or hundred of thousands you need to backups. BG rule of thumb is one is good, two is better, three lets you sleep at night.

Thumb drives are convenient and cheap but can be buggy. Some have failed from heat or getting too close to magnets which can happen on your desk or a shelf. Plus I know that there have been cases of a family member or coworker picking up a thumb drive and erasing the contents for music or other documents. (I'm looking at you Shirley)

In today's world the SSD Solid State Drive is king. This is true for internal and external drives. I have two in my computer and they work great for now. (See my first sentence). One drive is for the operating system and programs and the second is for my images and documents. This makes my desktop computer very speedy and makes it easy to find what I am looking for. That would be the first location for my images. SSD drives have really dropped in price and increased in size. I have seen them for just over $50 and at 3 to 5 terbites.

External Hard Drives. As mentioned above they are dropping in price and can now be found everywhere. Most are a USB connection and some even have carrying cases. I have one connected to my desktop and can also move it to my laptop too. I backup to it every 4 months with just a drag and drop. Very easy and quick. This is my number two.

Three is some external drives which can be another SSD or even some SSD from older computers and plugged into an external hard drive reader. These are kept offsite in our safe deposit box. I know it sounds like overkill but we have it anyway. You could go with a fireproof safe but HD may not stand up to the extreme heat of a house fire.

Well that is enough for now. Keep creating.

Good points. I too rarely if ever use Move too. One thing I have done with slower computers is copy the images from the camera card onto the computer before importing them into Lightroom. This speeds up the process and allows for backup to a separate HD. As mentioned setting up your file structure in a logical way makes this process so much easier. Sometimes I will even copy the images to a subfolder that I already have in place. For Example: Let's say I have some additional images from a client already in my system. I might just drag and drop them into that subfolder then in the Libary tab go to that subfolder and right click to bring up the menu for Synchronize Folder. This is the same as the ADD command and they will then come up and be in Lightroom.

(Sub Note) Yes this can be done for any folder or a folder with sub folders but be warned. If the folders contain a ton of images this will slow down the computer and sometimes even make them hang up or crash. It is better to use the Import feature for large folders both to help out Lightroom and let you add Key Words, Clear Folder Names and even to add them to Collections on import.

Always happy to help.

Preaching to the choir. As someone who teaches Lightroom and Photoshop, I have to say while my first love was Photoshop I am married to Lightroom. I do about 80 to 95% of my work in Lightroom and just head to PS when I need to push some pixels around like the removal of objects or replacement of skies.

One of the first things we go over in class is how to organize your images (I.E. files). Most problems come in when the photographer (and you know who I am talking about) just drop their images onto the computer with no rhyme or reason. I prefer broad categories in my file structure like clients, family, and locations. Under these will be sub folders for people, events, or places. However I know some photographers prefer dates and that works too. Though I do suggest if you are doing a lot of images to maybe do quarters and under them rename the folders as to what they are (Rockey Mountain Park, San Diego, Uncle Burt's Birthday) because very few people are going to remember dates and what was done.

Keeping to this will make your life much easier and reduce the need to move things around. Also the import feature of Lightroom is helpful if you keep this in mind.

Copy will just copy the images from the Camera Card to a new location on your hard drive. As mentioned set up your folders in a logical manner and you can't go wrong. Then put the card back in the camera for format.

Move will take the images off the card and place them in a folder. You will still need to format in the camera.

Add is for when the images are already in a folder in your computer. This adds the location of the images to the Lightroom Catalog but does not move them to any new location.

Copy as DNG This is for the photographers who are shooting RAW images. While these other commands will relocate RAW files this command converts the Camera RAW (Canon, Nikon, Sony) into the open format of DNG which is Archival and does not lose any of the information of the RAW image. This will leave the images on the Camera Card in the Camera format

Wow that is lot for just one person but I do teach Lightroom and Photoshop along with digital photography. My personal work is both normal landscapes and people along with some major pixel pushing for art like images. I do both classroom and over the internet instruction which hopefully keeps me out of trouble with my wife. I am one of these people always willing to help others. After all aren't we all here to learn to be better at our craft.