Lightroom 6 standalone set-up new system

[Susan Taylor Brown]

Lightroom Version Number

6

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Hi all. I am wandering lost and confused. I had an ancient LR on an old computer, maybe 7 years ago. Which was about the last time I used LR so my mind is blown with all the changes. I need to set up a new LR 6 (bought the standalone version at Frys) That old computer, license, etc. are gone to me (long boring storing)

I do have my old catalogs but it seems like it would be best for me to just start from scratch. I am not that worried about losing edits. But I am confused/conflicted about how to set things up.

I still have a master folder for all the graphics to go into when I upload them to my computer. I also have a mess of photos all over the place that I am thinking of just dumping into a general folder. I think some of my old LR folder structure is still there but it is a mess and I am thinking, again, of just dumping everything into a master folder. In the years without LR on a computer I have also amassed a lot (thousands) of digital graphics for my artwork that, currently is sorted into folders by broad topic. I wonder if I should import them, folder by folder, and let LR move them to the master folder? (I was thinking if I imported folder by folder I could use my broad topics for the initial keywords) Unless there is a better approach I should consider.

I think I remember, in the past, letting LR move images as it imported things into my master folder. Still a good idea?

I would like to set up so that LR imports to a year then monthly folder, not an individual folder by the day. I seem to remember that is an option but I don't remember how to do.

So I guess I am asking, even though I have some odd bits of old LR stuff on this new (and much more robust) computer, I think I want to start from scratch and spend the time to clean it all up as I go. Is this a good idea and what best practices should I consider?

Thank you.

 

[Replytoken]

There are a number of ways to approach this. If your file structure has not changed since you used your old catalogs, you could use them and not lose your edits. If things have changed radically and you were not concerned about the edits, then starting fresh is not a bad option. If you do the latter, I would try to set up your desired folder structure first, outside of LR. This should be a bit quicker and easier at the high level (master folder, year folders). Then you could import (Move , Add or Copy) you images into the catalog as appropriate. If the lower level folders with the images fit neatly into the file structure and you can move them at the desktop, then Adding is not a bad idea. If they are not organized as you wish, then Moving or Copying them into the folder structure inside of LR may be better.

A lot of folks do a dump of everything into a master folder and then just sort things out into their preferred structure as time permits. I understand this logic, but am a big believer that this works best if you have the new structure developed, and you add new images within the new structure, keeping the old stuff somewhat isolated in the master folder so it does not cause confusion with the new file structure. Try and pick an approach that seems logical to you. You can always run the details by folks here for confirmation/feedback.

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[Susan Taylor Brown]

Ken,
Thank you so much for this quick reply as I was really wanting to dive into the for the day. Just talking it out is helping me remember how things works.

I think I really like the idea of starting fresh and setting up the folders correctly outside of LR makes perfect sense. Thanks for outlining it for me.

I just took a look at my mess (I have been so afraid) and ohmygoodness, it is a disaster. My old system was dying as we were moving so we were just grabbing things and shoving them onto new systems and external systems and basically broke every good computing rule - ha! So making a clean slate will be a lot of work upfront but should result in less work once it is done. (Also I have sooo many duplicates. No need to import all of them.)

The worst loss will be tags but even that is not horrible, just time consuming. A good TV project.

So what I am thinking is a folder structure something like this, with perhaps 2 masters (I would like to keep just one catalog, I think. Is there an image limit number I should be concerned about with a single catalog?

Master Photos
>Year
>>Month

I am actually wondering if even need by month? Perhaps just by year is enough? I am not shooting much photography anymore, mostly with my phone, working more with graphics.

Master Graphics
>Topic 1
>Topic 2
>Topic 3

Then what would be the procedure when I have new graphics, do I sort them into the folder under Master Graphics via the computer and then ask LR to look for what is new? Or, would it be better/smarter/easier to create a dump/import folder in Master Graphics and then have LR import from there? But then how do I get things into the proper folders? This is important for me to understand before I start (and I don't understand it yet) because I will be adding a great many photos at a time (working with public domain images where I might grab a huge set)

Thanks so much for the help.

Susan

There are a number of ways to approach this. If your file structure has not changed since you used your old catalogs, you could use them and not lose your edits. If things have changed radically and you were not concerned about the edits, then starting fresh is not a bad option. If you do the latter, I would try to set up your desired folder structure first, outside of LR. This should be a bit quicker and easier at the high level (master folder, year folders). Then you could import (Move , Add or Copy) you images into the catalog as appropriate. If the lower level folders with the images fit neatly into the file structure and you can move them at the desktop, then Adding is not a bad idea. If they are not organized as you wish, then Moving or Copying them into the folder structure inside of LR may be better.

A lot of folks do a dump of everything into a master folder and then just sort things out into their preferred structure as time permits. I understand this logic, but am a big believer that this works best if you have the new structure developed, and you add new images within the new structure, keeping the old stuff somewhat isolated in the master folder so it does not cause confusion with the new file structure. Try and pick an approach that seems logical to you. You can always run the details by folks here for confirmation/feedback.

Good luck,

--Ken

Ken

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I am actually wondering if even need by month? Perhaps just by year is enough? I am not shooting much photography anymore, mostly with my phone, working more with graphics.

No image limits to worry about Susan, the biggest one I've heard of recently was over 10 million.

LR won't mind how many photos you have in a folder. If you're not shooting much, one per year might be plenty for you.

Then what would be the procedure when I have new graphics, do I sort them into the folder under Master Graphics via the computer and then ask LR to look for what is new? Or, would it be better/smarter/easier to create a dump/import folder in Master Graphics and then have LR import from there? But then how do I get things into the proper folders? This is important for me to understand before I start (and I don't understand it yet) because I will be adding a great many photos at a time (working with public domain images where I might grab a huge set)

Will it be easier for you to sort those photos by topic before you put them into Lightroom or after? That's the only question here really. Personally I would have an "inbox" folder that I would dump new ones into and then categorize from there. That way I could organize them a few at a time, when I had time available.

 

[Susan Taylor Brown]

Thanks so much, Victora. Funny thing you say about the year - I realized just that thing last night - a year is just fine for me and then I can use collections and keywords once they are in LR. I need to commit to doing more of the sorting in LR because, of course, topics for folders will not be unambiguous, something I know is important.

This is the top level folder structure on my computer that I think makes sense to me. Easy to point to Photomaster for backups, etc. I am cleaning up duplicates as I move things into these folders.

MY PICTURES

>Photomaster
>>Photos
>>>Year
>>Graphics
>>My Art
>>>Year
>>Art Inspiration
>>Scans
>>>Year
>>Digital Designs

>>InBox ????

Next step is to install LR6 on the laptop. One question before I do that. When the laptop was setup they grabbed everything from the last computer and dumped it on this computer. As I see it, I shouldn't have any Lightroom folders on this machine if I want a clean install but there is a folder with previews and backups from LR3. I can delete all that, correct? (I started to freak out about deleting it last night because it was so big!)

I am still a bit confused about a couple of things:

One, once I install Lightroom I will tell it to catalog everything in Photomaster. No need to move anything since it all in the right place. Correct?

Possibly I need one more folder called In-box and then anything new goes to the in-box before being moved into the proper folder in LR. So after the initial set-up, I WOULD have LR move files from in-box into folders. Is that correct? Or do I move them from within LR after import?

I guess that's my big disconnect, trying to understand how to move things around. Can I please get a sanity check on this?

Files will be coming in from various place;

>From my camera card it's easy. Import and move to Photos.
>From my phone, connect phone to computer. Import from phone to photos.
>Graphics are downloads from places like the Library of Congress, etc, so they are in the downloads folder. Again, import and move to Graphics folder though I could also drag them to my in-box and import and move from there.
>My art might come from camera, phone, or scanner so if they don't get imported to LR right away, move to in-box and then light LR import and move to folder
>Scans are when I scan in the botanical papers I have made or flat physical objects that I scan. (I have a digital paper store.) These land in my documents>scanned documents so I can import and move them to my in-box at the end of each scanning session.
>Digital Designs are created in my graphic program but then will need to move into LR. So perhaps I will save the final copy to my InBox and then import and move.

Do I have that flow for getting images from various places into their proper folders on LR?

Then, how best to attack the keywording, etc, from within LR. I was thinking no stars means it hasn't been keyworded yet so I could just very slowly work my way though the catalog of images ?

Thank you, again. Typing all this out is super helpful to me. I am so excited to start organizing from within LR

 

[Victoria Bampton]

When the laptop was setup they grabbed everything from the last computer and dumped it on this computer. As I see it, I shouldn't have any Lightroom folders on this machine if I want a clean install but there is a folder with previews and backups from LR3. I can delete all that, correct? (I started to freak out about deleting it last night because it was so big!)

If ever in doubt, zip it up or move it to another drive. Then you delete it later if the world hasn't ended.

One, once I install Lightroom I will tell it to catalog everything in Photomaster. No need to move anything since it all in the right place. Correct?

Correct.

Possibly I need one more folder called In-box and then anything new goes to the in-box before being moved into the proper folder in LR. So after the initial set-up, I WOULD have LR move files from in-box into folders.

I'd import them into the Inbox folder (or drop them into the Inbox folder in Explorer and then import with it set to ADD at the top). And then once you can see them in Lightroom, you can drag and drop them into folders in the Folders panel as you see fit.

Then, how best to attack the keywording, etc, from within LR. I was thinking no stars means it hasn't been keyworded yet so I could just very slowly work my way though the catalog of images ?

In the Import dialog, I add a "@NotKeyworded" keyword to all new imports - and then I can remove it when I finish keywording. It means I can come back to photos in chunks when I have time.

 

[Susan Taylor Brown]

Oh duh...of course. Zip it and move. We have some NAS so I can move it over there for now. Sheesh. I have forgotten so many basic things. Total house renovation brain will do that to you.

Love the idea of @NotKeyworded. That's perfect. Especially since using stars didn't quite feel right. Hmm...I'm guessing it will take about 6 months to keyword everything. Maybe longer. Ha!

You said:
I'd import them into the Inbox folder (or drop them into the Inbox folder in Explorer and then import with it set to ADD at the top). And then once you can see them in Lightroom, you can drag and drop them into folders in the Folders panel as you see fit.

I am sorry...still a bit muddled here. So if I have things in the InBox folder, then import and ADD, everything that was in the InBox lives there until I move it into the proper folder from within LR? Is that right?

Thank you so very much for talking this out with me. This is super helpful.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Love the idea of @NotKeyworded. That's perfect. Especially since using stars didn't quite feel right. Hmm...I'm guessing it will take about 6 months to keyword everything. Maybe longer. Ha!

FWIW, I'm still trying!!!

I am sorry...still a bit muddled here. So if I have things in the InBox folder, then import and ADD, everything that was in the InBox lives there until I move it into the proper folder from within LR? Is that right?

Anything that's already in the Inbox folder, if you select Add at the top of the import dialog, it'll add it to Lightroom and leave it in the Inbox folder.
Anything that's elsewhere, you can set Lightroom's import to Copy or Move into the Inbox folder.

And then yes, drag it to the proper folder in LR.

 

[Susan Taylor Brown]

Thanks for the sanity check on moving things around within LR. Even better, it makes perfect sense to me. (sometimes, not easy)

Egads! You are still working your way through keywording? Yikes. hahaha I am always overly ambitious! Who knows if I will ever get done but I know I can set up collections right away that will help. Which brings up another question about collections and collection sets. I am thinking that within LR, they make lots of sense for me. Like tracking the native gardens from various houses we have lived in. So I would have a collection called House 1, House 2, House 3 and then, within each collection I would have collection sets Front Yard, Back Yard, Water Features, etc. Is there a best practice associate with collections/collection sets? Should I plan out some basic structures before importing?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

So I would have a collection called House 1, House 2, House 3 and then, within each collection I would have collection sets Front Yard, Back Yard, Water Features, etc. Is there a best practice associate with collections/collection sets? Should I plan out some basic structures before importing?

Personally I'd use hierarchical keywords for that purpose, because keywords are widely understood by a multitude of software, whereas collections are a bit more limited to the Lightroom family.

Collections I'd use for more temporary groupings, for example, I'm gathering a bunch of photos I might want to get printed to hang on the wall, or I want to share a bunch of family photos in a web gallery.

 

[Susan Taylor Brown]

Oh, that makes sense. I haven't done hierarchical keywords before but I am going to work out a light draft of an idea.

Thanks so much, Victoria.