Getting my images into lr2, and/or into collections

[joemontana57]

I watched Seans excellent intro to collections. However, his images were already imported into LR.
I own LR2 and have only very briefly messed about with it. Generally, I just dump all the pictures into BB Pro and make web galleries to post on my site.
Here's my site, so you can get an idea of what I need to accomplish.

http://dogshots.biz

It may be that I really don't need LR, that's fine. But it would be nice if I could use LR to (edit pictures when necessary), then import them into web galleries.


Here's my situation
-I have several thousand images
-They are in folders on an external hard drive, sorted by where they were taken
-I would like to import them into LR and keep the organization the same.

i.e. I want a Butte collection, Helena collection, Corvallis collection.

That would work for me because people request photos from me by filename, that's simple enough to find if all the pictures from the same event are together.

EDIT: I would like to convert them to DNG, there doesn't seem to be a downside to that.

EDIT #2 Is there a downside to converting raw to .dng, then working from the .dng file?

 

[Sean McCormack]

Joe, if you using Add to Catalog without Moving (used to be Import at current location) Lightroom imports them where they are.

There's no way to automatically generate a collection from an import.

I don't use DNG, so I can't comment on the other ?s.

 

[joemontana57]

Thanks Sean. I was hoping that there was some way to add to a collection from an import.
Oh well...
Joe

Joe, if you using Add to Catalog without Moving (used to be Import at current location) Lightroom imports them where they are.

There's no way to automatically generate a collection from an import.

I don't use DNG, so I can't comment on the other ?s.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Could you add a specific keyword to the images at import time, select on the keyword, to create the collection, and then delete the keyword (if it doesn't fit the rest of your keyword strategy?)

Raw vs DNG? Mac vs PC, Nikon vs Canon vs etc. , Miller vs Budweiser ...
Lots discussion of pros and cons. Read this thread.

 

[joemontana57]

Leave computer on all the time vs. turning it off at night...;-)

Raw vs DNG? Mac vs PC, Nikon vs Canon vs etc. , Miller vs Budweiser ...
Lots discussion of pros and cons. Read this thread.

 

[stasber]

The quickest way to put imported images into a Collection from my experience (as there's no automated way of doing it currently) is to go to the Previous Import folder and select all (Cmd+A or Crtl+A), create your new Collection choosing to include all selected photos.

 

[johnbeardy]

Hey, you're all too focussed on dumb collections when you could use smart collections for exactly this sort of thing. For example, add a specific keyword upon import, and have a SC which targets that keyword.