Starting using Lightroom for 1st time. Advice please

Magic_x_uk · 12 Jan 2013 at 13:28

Lightroom set up, new user. Advice please

Hi. I plan this weekend to sort out all my photo's that I have on my Hard Drive.
I am slowly getting into photography and would like to know the best way to organize my photos etc and use Lightroom.

My Photo's (as well as full Back up on ext HD) are organised as follows.

(D) Drive -----> My Pictures ------>Then Folders for each year.

Within those folders I have Folders called the following: Pets / Christmas / Motorbike / Golf / Geoff Bloggs visit etc

Hope someone can shed some light on it for me. Thank you

--- Z --- · 13 Jan 2013 at 09:35

I would be interested in how others organise their photos as well.

King Damager · 13 Jan 2013 at 10:52

I'd put a folder within my pictures called 'my LR photos' or something along those lines. It means if you ever need to move your LR photos over to a new drive you'll probably find it a much more pleasant experience.

kd

Magic_x_uk · 13 Jan 2013 at 11:27

Ok, I have now imported all my photos (as above) from D drive. A few thousand photos I believe.

I will go through them slowly (will take a while). Name them (is that best?) Or just add 'words' to the metadat field?

But what is the Export button for ?

Also when I add NEW photo's that for example I take today, I usually just add them to the current year folder & particular catergory. Do I have to them 'import' all the photos again or what.

Some basic help would be great please people.

Thank you.

DB_SamX · 13 Jan 2013 at 14:14

Organisation aside, I recommend watching the video tutorials on Adobe TV.

"Photos" doesn't need an apostrophe.

Nexus · 13 Jan 2013 at 14:28

There have been threads on the subject before, so you could do a search.

But ultimately how you organise photos is entirely up to you.
The two most common options are by theme and by date.

julianhj · 13 Jan 2013 at 19:06

I took an LR course at a local camera shop, and the tutor recommended a minimum three tier folder system, i.e. Year > Month > Date. I use a reverse date and subject naming system, e.g. "20130113 OCUK" but I might change to the former system. The difficulty for me is that using the three tier system you need to ensure your metadata is up to date and comprehensive. Mine isn't, so I'd need to sort that out.

ianh · 13 Jan 2013 at 19:40

I go "Location" - "Date" as I know where I was when I was taking the pics and the "DMY" tells me when i.e a folder named "Chester Zoo - 120113" but I only take lots of pics which requires a folder about once a month so it's not too bad!