This is the best explanation on this topic I've come across. Almost cancelled Lightroom in frustration until I saw this - now I understand how this works. Many thanks!
I have watched not less than 10 UA-cam videos of how to use Lr for beginners, Yours are the best for me, a non English first language speaker to understand so clearly understand the whole idea of Lr picture files organizing structure. Thank you so much!
OMG. You are the first instructor to clearly explain the difference between "Copy" and "Add" importing modes! I have been confused for years. Thank you!
Thanks for this, it's very helpful. You previously stated that you store your images on an external hard drive but you stored the imported images in your Pictures folder. Do you do both? I have a huge mess to clean up because I saved images everywhere and created multiple LR catalogues. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing this video. I have watched 8 different videos very slowly over the span of hours learning how to do this on my new MacBook since it was never an issue on my HP. The frustration literally led to a 4 hour long anxiety attack til 3:30 am. So thank you thank you THANK YOU for creating straightforward videos for us not techy people! ❤
This is my 4th time watching this video. Thank you so much. Still not trusting myself but I will try to work with 10 pictures of anything not important just to practice. Thank you
Great video! How long does it take you to import around 1,000 or more pictures from your hard drive to the Lightroom catalog? I’m finding it takes 2+ hours for around 2,000 photos. I am thinking of just backing them up (copying) to my hard drive before I import them to Lightroom, and then importing the files from my hard drive folder to my catalog on Lightroom, which is also stored on my hard drive.
You can, but make sure that your computer doesn’t delete those files off of the internal (and keep them on the cloud) to free up space. That would create issues.
Is there a good way to reorganize your catalogs later? I started importing without really understanding this format and some of my photos are scattered all over the place. I'd like to reorganize them, but does that mean I need to redo all of my lightroom catalogs?
That was very good. I’m a long time LR user and know all this. However I got a new laptop with a Microsoft OS and nothing looked the same. I was at a 4 day event and took about 8000 shots. Plan was to import to laptop each day, cull and flag and then export catalogue to my main desktop PC when I got home. What a mess, synced with one drive, which I didn’t ask for, didn’t always import all files from the memory card. At least this has refreshed me on the basics.
I have a question that I've not found the answer to yet: If my SD card has multiple vacations on it and I only want to import one trip, will I download duplicates onto my hard drive each time I connect my card, EVEN THOUGH I only check the current trip to import and all other trip photos are unchecked. Thanks so much and I love your teaching method!! Angie
Your are the best teacher, I used Lightroom more than 6 years, now i realize I made a lot of mistakes due to I moved the files, so I can not find any more. Please teach me how find it again. Thanks
You can try and find your files by searching in your hard drive for their file name. If you can't find the actual photo then you can't reconnect them to your lightroom catalog. Once you find them, you can go to your lost files in LRC and right click and say "Show in explorer". Then manually click on your files that connect with them. Once you locate one, sometimes it will see the rest. I hope this helps!
Hi Forest, thank you for this video! I have a question. You mentioned that you only want to change info for the photos in Lightroom. Is there ever a time that you import photos from a card (or iPhone) straight to your destination and not go through Lightroom? Or do you always use Lightroom as a bridge for the photos to go from source to destination. I am trying to conceptualization a good process for uploading and organizing my personal photos from my iPhone as well as photos from a DSLR (personal and professional). I do not have a process in place yet and I do not consistently use Lightroom. I am just trying to get an understanding on what is the best practice for uploading my photos into one place. My destination will be a large hard drive and my source will be my iPhone or card from DSLR. Do you recommend me always uploading/importing through Lightroom? or importing directly to my hard drive? Currently my photos from my phone just automatically upload to an Google Photo iCloud. But now I have the photos on my phone as well as Google Photos. Should I stop the automatically upload and manually upload phone photos? Lots of question... thanks in advance for your expertise and advice!
Yes, I always use Lightroom as my importing bridge as it gives me the options I need to get things (at least partially) organized. As for your iPhone photos, it might be easiest to go iPhone -> Google Photos -> Lightroom as iPhones don't play nicely with Lightroom Classic so using Google as an intermediary might be smoother.
Yeah good but very basic explanation. What if I store my photos on an external hard drive and want to import a folder of photos from there. How do I define that folder in Lightroom so I can find them to build a collection? I’ve been doing this for a year based on a book I read and I just had a folder that imported to the catalog but did not define the folder. Current research seems to say I’ve been doing it wrong for year even though it worked smoothly. Ready to drop Lightroom and go back to DxO Photolab where I have more control than Adobe.
Not sure what you mean. If you imported a folder, you should see it in the Folders panel on the left of the Library module. If you click on it, you will see the images and be able to add them to a collection.
Ok I just cleaned up my computer in a shop and I cleaned up my picture and deleted a lot. Question if there is a ? And ! Is it possible I deleted them completely. Still looking for them
It’s definitely possible that they were deleted. Lightroom only references the images that are stored on your computer. It doesn’t store any images itself.
Thank you you kept it simple. Zoom in when you’re doing things online rooms so people can see better. I myself use my iPhone to look at these as most people do. When it’s very interesting I didn’t go to my computer. Just a suggestion. I listen to other people they made it seem so complicated. Again thank you
Question - I’ve recently had my LaCie formatted which has caused the files to be missing. My question is, how can I get those images to be on Lightroom again?? I don’t have any older files on my laptop or LaCie just backups of catalogues. An Adobe engineer somehow set my LaCie up to see these files and my 2020 and 21 are on the Macintosh.
Formatting deletes files on a hard drive. If that drive was formatted, those images are gone. There are some recovery programs you could try but they don't always work. Also, you could send it to a professional like Drive Savers: drivesaversdatarecovery.com/home-alt-header-btn/ I think it would be good for you to watch this video and learn a bit more about how Lightroom's catalog structure works to prevent any further issues. Here's a link: ua-cam.com/video/Hy5orapjc-A/v-deo.html
So, when I change the settings in the printer option, they do not save. I change to US letter size, save, and it keeps printing 5x7. Any suggestions? I have turned everything off at least twice. 🙄
Hey! I’m so frustrated editing on my hp. How do I find a laptop that can give me everything I need to quickly import, export, edit, and etc. it’s adding so much time to my work flow that i want to throw my computer out the window!
This was great! I'd love to see a tut on culling in lightroom and the different methods to do so and then dispose of the photos you're not going to edit after. My hard drives are stacking up with these D850 file sizes xD Thank you!
Perhaps you should consider explaining the catalog as only having "pointers" to where the actual images reside rather than saying the images aren't in the actual catalog?
I feel like you're teaching everything but what I did the searched for. lightroom classic 2020 how to get picture in it from a pc - you are not teaching that why be under that
This is the best explanation on this topic I've come across. Almost cancelled Lightroom in frustration until I saw this - now I understand how this works. Many thanks!
I have watched not less than 10 UA-cam videos of how to use Lr for beginners, Yours are the best for me, a non English first language speaker to understand so clearly understand the whole idea of Lr picture files organizing structure. Thank you so much!
Wow, thank you!
OMG. You are the first instructor to clearly explain the difference between "Copy" and "Add" importing modes! I have been confused for years. Thank you!
You are welcome!
the best intro I have ever seen on importing with LR !! Thanks!!
Yay! Thank you.
Bro I was literally so confused by this importing thing in Lightroom classic, your video cleared my concepts. Thanks
Glad it helped!
Amazing and clear explantation on the way to import! Thank you so much!
You're very welcome!
finally a good explanation of the import process that makes sense
Thanks!
Thanks for this, it's very helpful. You previously stated that you store your images on an external hard drive but you stored the imported images in your Pictures folder. Do you do both? I have a huge mess to clean up because I saved images everywhere and created multiple LR catalogues. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing this video. I have watched 8 different videos very slowly over the span of hours learning how to do this on my new MacBook since it was never an issue on my HP. The frustration literally led to a 4 hour long anxiety attack til 3:30 am. So thank you thank you THANK YOU for creating straightforward videos for us not techy people! ❤
You are welcome!
I just want to give a hug, man! Thank you so much for this. I was so frustrated.
This is my 4th time watching this video. Thank you so much. Still not trusting myself but I will try to work with 10 pictures of anything not important just to practice. Thank you
This was so clear. A great tutorial for a beginner. Thankyou
So glad to hear!! Thank you for watching!
Great video! How long does it take you to import around 1,000 or more pictures from your hard drive to the Lightroom catalog? I’m finding it takes 2+ hours for around 2,000 photos. I am thinking of just backing them up (copying) to my hard drive before I import them to Lightroom, and then importing the files from my hard drive folder to my catalog on Lightroom, which is also stored on my hard drive.
That sounds about right. A lot depends on how fast your hard drive is and how many megapixels your camera is.
Thank you for the overview and thoroughness of your instructions; it will be very helpful.
You’re welcome!
can I add from my sever drive to make a second copy to an external drive
Question: can you choose iCloud as a destination iso internal/external harddisk?
You can, but make sure that your computer doesn’t delete those files off of the internal (and keep them on the cloud) to free up space. That would create issues.
Thanks! Made no sense before I watched this. Now it makes so much sense.
Super clear and helpful. Thanks
Thank you!
Is there a good way to reorganize your catalogs later? I started importing without really understanding this format and some of my photos are scattered all over the place. I'd like to reorganize them, but does that mean I need to redo all of my lightroom catalogs?
My file numbers from camera are no longer on Lightroom files. Can you advise? Thank you, Van
Possibly the most helpful video I have seen to date! You touch upon some of the mistakes I’ve inadvertently made. Thanks.
Thanks Gavin! That's great to hear!
Thanks Forest, trying to watch all these before my private lesson on Friday!
You're welcome Richard! That's a great plan. I'll see you on Friday at 1pm MDT!
Duuuude, 6 years old but this was super well explained, I was, before finding this vid, going mad. haha, thanks man. All the best.
Thank you!
I like how you present information.
That was very good. I’m a long time LR user and know all this. However I got a new laptop with a Microsoft OS and nothing looked the same. I was at a 4 day event and took about 8000 shots. Plan was to import to laptop each day, cull and flag and then export catalogue to my main desktop PC when I got home. What a mess, synced with one drive, which I didn’t ask for, didn’t always import all files from the memory card.
At least this has refreshed me on the basics.
Oh no! I’m sorry it’s turned into a mess. We can help you fix it! Just check the “private instruction” section on our website!
Such a great tutorial, really clear, thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much for this video. Lightroom has been super confusing for me.
Glad it was helpful!
Thé best video on this topic. Thank you!
You're welcome!
I wish I would’ve watched your video a longgggg time ago!!! You explained everything so well, thank you!!
Haha we wish that too, but glad you found us! Thanks for watching!
You made LR make sense! So wish I would have found this 2 years ago! I lost a lot of pics!
Yay! I’m so glad to hear that. More Lightroom videos to come!
I have a question that I've not found the answer to yet: If my SD card has multiple vacations on it and I only want to import one trip, will I download duplicates onto my hard drive each time I connect my card, EVEN THOUGH I only check the current trip to import and all other trip photos are unchecked. Thanks so much and I love your teaching method!! Angie
Nope. It should only import the checked images.
I don’t recommend using a card for multiple trips though: ua-cam.com/video/NyiM6ZQ8bKM/v-deo.html
Fantastic! That was so helpful thank you.
So glad!
the best tutorial and explanation 👏👏 thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Good explanation of the basics. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Great info easy to understand
Thank you!
Your are the best teacher, I used Lightroom more than 6 years, now i realize I made a lot of mistakes due to I moved the files, so I can not find any more. Please teach me how find it again. Thanks
You can try and find your files by searching in your hard drive for their file name. If you can't find the actual photo then you can't reconnect them to your lightroom catalog. Once you find them, you can go to your lost files in LRC and right click and say "Show in explorer". Then manually click on your files that connect with them. Once you locate one, sometimes it will see the rest. I hope this helps!
Another great video. Thanks!
Thank you!
Very nice, very complete, thank you!
Thank you!
Hi Forest, thank you for this video! I have a question. You mentioned that you only want to change info for the photos in Lightroom. Is there ever a time that you import photos from a card (or iPhone) straight to your destination and not go through Lightroom? Or do you always use Lightroom as a bridge for the photos to go from source to destination. I am trying to conceptualization a good process for uploading and organizing my personal photos from my iPhone as well as photos from a DSLR (personal and professional). I do not have a process in place yet and I do not consistently use Lightroom. I am just trying to get an understanding on what is the best practice for uploading my photos into one place. My destination will be a large hard drive and my source will be my iPhone or card from DSLR. Do you recommend me always uploading/importing through Lightroom? or importing directly to my hard drive? Currently my photos from my phone just automatically upload to an Google Photo iCloud. But now I have the photos on my phone as well as Google Photos. Should I stop the automatically upload and manually upload phone photos? Lots of question... thanks in advance for your expertise and advice!
Yes, I always use Lightroom as my importing bridge as it gives me the options I need to get things (at least partially) organized.
As for your iPhone photos, it might be easiest to go iPhone -> Google Photos -> Lightroom as iPhones don't play nicely with Lightroom Classic so using Google as an intermediary might be smoother.
This is exactly what I needed to know. Thank you for the detailed explanation!
So glad! Thanks for watching!
Brilliant video Thank you.
Thank you for watching!
Well done. Thank you
Thanks for watching!
VERY VERY GOOD... did not know any of that info ..thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Yeah good but very basic explanation. What if I store my photos on an external hard drive and want to import a folder of photos from there. How do I define that folder in Lightroom so I can find them to build a collection? I’ve been doing this for a year based on a book I read and I just had a folder that imported to the catalog but did not define the folder. Current research seems to say I’ve been doing it wrong for year even though it worked smoothly. Ready to drop Lightroom and go back to DxO Photolab where I have more control than Adobe.
Not sure what you mean. If you imported a folder, you should see it in the Folders panel on the left of the Library module. If you click on it, you will see the images and be able to add them to a collection.
Ok I just cleaned up my computer in a shop and I cleaned up my picture and deleted a lot. Question if there is a ? And ! Is it possible I deleted them completely. Still looking for them
It’s definitely possible that they were deleted. Lightroom only references the images that are stored on your computer. It doesn’t store any images itself.
Excellent! Thank you.
How is it possible that every sentence is packed with the right information?
Thank you you kept it simple. Zoom in when you’re doing things online rooms so people can see better. I myself use my iPhone to look at these as most people do. When it’s very interesting I didn’t go to my computer. Just a suggestion. I listen to other people they made it seem so complicated. Again thank you
Question - I’ve recently had my LaCie formatted which has caused the files to be missing. My question is, how can I get those images to be on Lightroom again??
I don’t have any older files on my laptop or LaCie just backups of catalogues. An Adobe engineer somehow set my LaCie up to see these files and my 2020 and 21 are on the Macintosh.
Formatting deletes files on a hard drive. If that drive was formatted, those images are gone. There are some recovery programs you could try but they don't always work. Also, you could send it to a professional like Drive Savers: drivesaversdatarecovery.com/home-alt-header-btn/
I think it would be good for you to watch this video and learn a bit more about how Lightroom's catalog structure works to prevent any further issues. Here's a link: ua-cam.com/video/Hy5orapjc-A/v-deo.html
Brilliant. Thanks for your clearly explained videos.
You’re welcome!
You're amazing thanks a lot! Best tutorial on lightroom!
Thank you!
Best ever,thanks a lot
So nice of you!
Super Clear, thanks a lot!
Glad it helped!
Except video. Thank you 👍🏻
Thank you too!
So, when I change the settings in the printer option, they do not save. I change to US letter size, save, and it keeps printing 5x7. Any suggestions? I have turned everything off at least twice. 🙄
Not sure what you mean.
Well done , very helpful. Thanks
Thank you!
thanks for sharing
You're welcome!
Great job and Thanks for your very clear way to explain things about this topic.
I now understand it.
New sub and like!
Awesome! Thanks!!!
THANK YOU
You're welcome!
Hey! I’m so frustrated editing on my hp. How do I find a laptop that can give me everything I need to quickly import, export, edit, and etc. it’s adding so much time to my work flow that i want to throw my computer out the window!
Hi Ivy! Send me an email and I'll help you out. My email is my first name (with only one "R") and last initial "C" at RMSP.com.
Absolute G
Thanks
Welcome
My LR is nothing like that. Still lost.
This was great! I'd love to see a tut on culling in lightroom and the different methods to do so and then dispose of the photos you're not going to edit after. My hard drives are stacking up with these D850 file sizes xD Thank you!
I love the idea! I'll add it to the list and see what we can pull together.
Really good video - right up until you failed to show me where the bloody import button is. I have replayed that 4 times and cannot find the button!!
solid
Perhaps you should consider explaining the catalog as only having "pointers" to where the actual images reside rather than saying the images aren't in the actual catalog?
Great info, but your hand movement is super distracting.
U just explained an issue I ran into earlier in the first 2 minutes
Yay!
Hands!
Fingers!
I feel like you're teaching everything but what I did the searched for. lightroom classic 2020 how to get picture in it from a pc - you are not teaching that why be under that
Not sure what you mean. I cover exactly how to import images onto your computer.
thx but stop the ridiculous hands gestures !!!
Maybe I will!
Everything is cool! Thanks!
Excellent stuff - Thanks
Very welcome! Thank you for watching!
Brilliant! Thank you.
Glad that you like it!