Need help organizing photos and updating lightroom

[Wendy1792]

Hi Everyone,

So I need to take this step by step, however I feel it's best to share my ultimate goal - so this will be wordy sorry. I really struggle with the computer/tech side of photo so need simple terms. I currently have LR 5.7.1. Originally I wanted CC but for some unexplained reason it would not function on my (then) brand new laptop - so I bought LR outright.
I started by uploading my photos directly to into Lightroom storing them on a portable hard drive. That worked quite well for some time. Then one day it suddenly would no longer upload to the drive. I had just done a LARGE amount of mini-portrait sessions so panicked and just started uploading right to my laptop. That was about four months ago. Everything has been working fine - but I want photos off my laptop and back onto a portable hard drive. Also - I want to try again to get CC (I want updated LR and the ability to use PS when needed). That is my ultimate goal.
SO - I bought a new portable hard drive with 4TB. My plan is to move ALL of my LR photos to this hard drive (and make a back up copy on another hard drive). I'm also going to change my workflow and stop uploading directly to LR but create files instead.

Anyway - I've been able to copy all of my photos off of the old portable hard drive and onto the new one. But I'm struggling to even FIND my photos on my Mac (OSX Yosemite) to move them to a portable hard drive. And when I do find them, I don't want to mess anything up. Once they are safely moved, I want to delete them off of my Mac.

****Current issue I'm hoping for advice on now: How to find and safely move photos from Lightroom 5.7.1 on my Mac (OXS Yosemite) to a portable hard drive - then delete. Will moving them save all the work I have done to them? I'm sure hoping so.

I appreciate any help offered. Since I get tech overwhelmed easy, I'm hoping to just answer my current issue..lol...then I can address others along the way. :/ Maybe I will learn lots during this process. Sorry this was so long.

 

[davidedric]

Hi Wendy, and welcome. I'm not a Mac user, so I'm not the best to give advice, but i can promise you there are many experts here who can talk regular English, and I am very confident we can help you out. In fact I'm a bit surprised no-one's shown up yet. Come on guys

Dave

 

[Wendy1792]

Thanks so much for the welcome Dave, I appreciate it! I think I was just flat out too wordy. LOL!!

 

[bob chadwick]

My practice is to create a main picture folder called Lightroom Pictures on the drive of my choosing. I then create one folder for each year under that folder and move the images within Lightroom from their existing location to the new location. As long as you move within Lightroom there should not be any reason to have to delete any images unless you have duplicates already within Lightroom. As you are moving them, not copying them, from the existing location to their new location no new images will be created. If you move them using Finder, Lightroom won't know what happened to the images. This can be fixed but why create the issue in the first place.

 

[Wendy1792]

Thanks Bob, that sounds like just what I'm planning to do. But I'm not sure how you 'move' them as opposed to copying them? I know I will need to help LR 'find' them once I've got them all on the new portable hard drive. But right now - I don't know where the photos that are on my laptop actually are to move them...how do I find them? And then - how to I move them 'within lightroom'?
Thank you!

 

[bob chadwick]

I'm at the office doing this off memory so I may be a little off but don't think so.

First off, go into Finder and create the folders you want. Then go into the Library view in Lightroom. In the left hand side there is a bunch of tabs. One of them is Folders (or a similar name). Hit the Arrow and it should open the list of folders (It may already be open and in this case, disregard this step). Chances are your new Folders are not there as Lightroom has not used them previously. Hit the + icon and add the folders that you have created. Then using the Grid view in the Library module, select the folders and move them to the Folder you want them in. They will move and not copy so you don't have to worry about that.

 

[Replytoken]

Hi Everyone,

So I need to take this step by step, however I feel it's best to share my ultimate goal - so this will be wordy sorry. I really struggle with the computer/tech side of photo so need simple terms. I currently have LR 5.7.1. Originally I wanted CC but for some unexplained reason it would not function on my (then) brand new laptop - so I bought LR outright.
I started by uploading my photos directly to into Lightroom storing them on a portable hard drive. That worked quite well for some time. Then one day it suddenly would no longer upload to the drive. I had just done a LARGE amount of mini-portrait sessions so panicked and just started uploading right to my laptop. That was about four months ago. Everything has been working fine - but I want photos off my laptop and back onto a portable hard drive. Also - I want to try again to get CC (I want updated LR and the ability to use PS when needed). That is my ultimate goal.
SO - I bought a new portable hard drive with 4TB. My plan is to move ALL of my LR photos to this hard drive (and make a back up copy on another hard drive). I'm also going to change my workflow and stop uploading directly to LR but create files instead.

Anyway - I've been able to copy all of my photos off of the old portable hard drive and onto the new one. But I'm struggling to even FIND my photos on my Mac (OSX Yosemite) to move them to a portable hard drive. And when I do find them, I don't want to mess anything up. Once they are safely moved, I want to delete them off of my Mac.

****Current issue I'm hoping for advice on now: How to find and safely move photos from Lightroom 5.7.1 on my Mac (OXS Yosemite) to a portable hard drive - then delete. Will moving them save all the work I have done to them? I'm sure hoping so.

I appreciate any help offered. Since I get tech overwhelmed easy, I'm hoping to just answer my current issue..lol...then I can address others along the way. :/ Maybe I will learn lots during this process. Sorry this was so long.

You are really best served if you move your files within LR rather than outside of it as it avoids any issues of the program not being able to find the files. It sound like this may be a bit of late advice given what you said in your post, so I would make a backup of your catalog before doing any further moves or copies or asking LR to find any images. LR should show you your folder structure for your images, so this should help you understand where LR believes they are residing. Again, if you move them inside the program, you do not need to know their present location as LR knows it. You only need to show LR where you want to move them. If you have a large amount of images, you may want to move them in batches, and just move a small amount at first to make sure you get the hang of things.

I'm also going to change my workflow and stop uploading directly to LR but create files instead.

I am not sure what you mean by this sentence. Perhaps you could elaborate?

Good luck,

--Ken

P.S. Backup your images before proceeding with any major migration. You never know when a drive could act up. Better safe than sorry.

 

[rob211]

It's a bit confusing.

I'd recommend you spend a bit of time learning how Lr references files, how to find "lost" photos that appear in Lr but where Lr has lost its connection, its reference, to those photos, and how to move files using Lr, NOT the Finder (which will just lose more of them).

Do the photos you think you had on your Mac show up in Lr? do they have little question marks on them? what happens if you do a control-click on one and select "show in Finder"?

 

[Wendy1792]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the advice. I have not had a chance to try anything (and probably won't till next week) but I've been reading through. So to be more specific:
I am trying to change my workflow. What I've BEEN doing is plugging in my SD card and uploading directly into LR. I recently went to a training with Scott Kelby and he went over workflow and did it differently. IT seemed SO much easier to find work the way he did it so I want to try it that way. He uploaded his SD card into his hard drive using folders to catorgorize them. Then - he moved them into LR. I am moving slow but cannot seem to locate my files that I did not upload to my portable hard drive- but my computer. As- they are in LR.
As far as 'locating' them in LR I do know how to do that and can do that once all is said and done. I do plan to try to get LR on CC - so it will be a different version. So even if I move them WITHIN the LR I have now, won't I need to do it all again when I get the new version? PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong. I have no idea what I'm doing..lol...so I'd like to know if there is an easier way.

The photos that have been loaded to my Mac (instead of the portable hard drive) DO show up just fine in LR with no question marks or exclamation marks. So they are located by LR.

My plan has been to move them all onto this new portable hard drive (and so far I have just made 'copies' of them from my old hard drive...they are still backed up there). Then when I have all the images on the new portable hard drive; attempt again to get LR CC. Once LR CC is installed they will be (hopefully) accessed there. I know I will need to help the new version of LR find them. Please let me know if there is an easier way to move them within lightroom BUT have a new version of LR find them when it's loaded.

I hope this makes sense? Thank you for all the advice. My advantage is I can take my time to do this. But I want to be sure to do it right.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

I recently went to a training with Scott Kelby and he went over workflow and did it differently. IT seemed SO much easier to find work the way he did it so I want to try it that way. He uploaded his SD card into his hard drive using folders to catorgorize them

Don't go there. He's calling it the SLIM method i believe but you don't want to organize your images in folders, realy.
Ingesting directly with help from Lightroom is not that hard.

I do plan to try to get LR on CC - so it will be a different version. So even if I move them WITHIN the LR I have now, won't I need to do it all again when I get the new version?

No, that is not necesary. Wiht CC you can open the LR catalog you have made earlier. Just double click the LRCAT file and Lightroom CC wil open the catalog.

(and so far I have just made 'copies' of them from my old hard drive

Duplicating images could make things more complex as they are...

 

[Replytoken]

You have a lot of balls up in the air, but I would like to tackle one small thing up front so we are all on the same page as you try and address each issue. Files do exactly not "upload into LR". LR is a database that registers the location of a file so it knows where it is at, but the file itself is not in LR. Now, LR does offer the option of copying or moving your files to a location that you desire/select before it registers their locations, but again it does not "ingest" the actual files itself. It only records the file's location and other metadata. Move the file outside of LR and the program no longer knows where it is. I realize you may already know this, but in several posts, you have used language that leads to believe that this might not be the case. My apologies if this description is redundant, but many new users seem to operate with the assumption that the files are "in" LR, and that can cause lost of problems later on.

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[Wendy1792]

Thanks everyone for your help.

I finally have time to sit down and try to tackle this. I DO know that lightroom does not store the photos physically IN lightroom. I do know they are actually on my computer's hard drive somewhere (sorry if I have not been using correct terms, as I mentioned I'm far from a tech person..lol). My first order of business is to move the photo's that were loaded directly to my computer's hard drive onto a new portable hard drive (and get them off my computer). I don't know how to properly locate the files and move them off of my computer and onto the portable hard drive. Can someone help me with that step? My laptop is very low on space.

Thank you,
Wendy

 

[Replytoken]

Thanks everyone for your help.

I finally have time to sit down and try to tackle this. I DO know that lightroom does not store the photos physically IN lightroom. I do know they are actually on my computer's hard drive somewhere (sorry if I have not been using correct terms, as I mentioned I'm far from a tech person..lol). My first order of business is to move the photo's that were loaded directly to my computer's hard drive onto a new portable hard drive (and get them off my computer). I don't know how to properly locate the files and move them off of my computer and onto the portable hard drive. Can someone help me with that step? My laptop is very low on space.

Thank you,
Wendy

Hi Wendy,

The first thing I would recommend is that you create a folder on your external hard drive with a name like "Lightroom Images Files" or something similar directly on the disc (but preferably not within any any other folders). I would then recommend that you only keep files that you want to import into LR within this folder. How you arrange them within this folder is up to you, and I am sure that you will get plenty of suggestions from folks here, but let's keep things simple for the moment. I recommend this "top level" folder as it consolidates all of your LR images within one folder, and this makes migration or backup easier.

After you create this folder, and assuming that we are moving images that have already been imported in LR, open your LR catalog and begin moving images within the program into this new folder that you created on your external hard drive. If you take this approach, LR will know exactly where the images will now be residing as it moved them there. It also makes it easier for you if you do not know the current locations of images on your laptop's internal hard drive. My advice is is you have a large number of images is to do them in batches. First start with a few images or folders to see that all went well. Once confirmed, then move the remainder in batches (so as to avoid possibly tying up your machine for extensive periods of time).

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[Tony Jay]

Wendy, I have been keeping tabs on this thread for some time.
I have refrained from participating until now, in order that I could get a good idea of where the real issues are.

In my humble opinion the base issue is that you do not know enough of how your operating system works and how files and folders are organised on a computer.
This issue needs to be tackled well before any attempt is made to clean up your Lightroom workflow.
Any advice we give you assumes that you could actually carry out the instructions on your computer.
But that is not actually the case currently.

As an aside I would not follow Kelby's advice with respect to digital asset management in Lightroom.
Trying to organise and classify images in folders is destined for failure.
Think of a folder as an envelope. If you put something in an envelope then it can only live in that envelope and nowhere else.
Now if one has envelopes labelled "family" and "pets" then what happens to an image that depicts your favourite poodle sitting on the lap of your favourite grandmother?
The truth is that an image such as this properly belongs in both the "family" envelope as well as the "pets" envelope. The only way to achieve this with folders in a computer is to duplicate that image.
Duplicating images is a very bad idea even when done by individuals who are real computer mavens.
Getting around this conundrum using the tools available within Lightroom is trivial.
Kelby's system completely ignores the real power of Lightroom and instead tries to resurrect the "labelled-envelopes-containing-slides-that-lived-in-the-shoebox-under-the-bed" system from the days of slide photography - it did not work then and most certainly will not work now.

However, until you are much more comfortable with your computer and operating system I would be very hesitant to try to give you concrete advice to tackle your workflow problems.
Most of the tasks required in Lightroom are a subset of operating system commands.

Tony Jay

 

[Wendy1792]

Hi Wendy,

The first thing I would recommend is that you create a folder on your external hard drive with a name like "Lightroom Images Files" or something similar directly on the disc (but preferably not within any any other folders). I would then recommend that you only keep files that you want to import into LR within this folder. How you arrange them within this folder is up to you, and I am sure that you will get plenty of suggestions from folks here, but let's keep things simple for the moment. I recommend this "top level" folder as it consolidates all of your LR images within one folder, and this makes migration or backup easier.

After you create this folder, and assuming that we are moving images that have already been imported in LR, open your LR catalog and begin moving images within the program into this new folder that you created on your external hard drive. If you take this approach, LR will know exactly where the images will now be residing as it moved them there. It also makes it easier for you if you do not know the current locations of images on your laptop's internal hard drive. My advice is is you have a large number of images is to do them in batches. First start with a few images or folders to see that all went well. Once confirmed, then move the remainder in batches (so as to avoid possibly tying up your machine for extensive periods of time).

Good luck,

--Ken

Thank you Ken,
This is actually exactly what I want to do. However, I don't know the steps to take to move the images. When I'm in Lightroom, I can see the files listed (in the Library module, in the folders by date). However I don't know the process of moving them from my computer to my portable hard drive. Do you think you can list the steps for me? I don't want to do it incorrectly thats why I've taken my humble self here to ask those who know.

I've seen other responses as well. But I will learn by doing - it's how I learn and come to understand. While I understand others saying I need to learn how this part of lightroom works - I won't learn simply by googling articles and reading it (although feel free to share any helpful ones, as I will read about it too as I do it). I need to actually take the action to learn about it. I hope that makes sense.

As always, thanks for the help.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

"However, I don't know the steps to take to move the images. When I'm in Lightroom, I can see the files listed (in the Library module, in the folders by date). However I don't know the process of moving them from my computer to my portable hard drive"

Here's video, you can do it with photo's and folders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UldqCbZ5J8o

 

[Replytoken]

Take a look at Roelf's video. If that does not make sense, I'll try to write up a step by step recipe tonight or tomorrow when I'm at my computer with LR. I understand that some folks learn by doing, but do give Tony's post some consideration as to how you might be able to work on the issues he identified in a way that works for you. Tony is quite helpful, and he posted with the best of intentions for your long term success with LR.

--Ken

 

[Wendy1792]

Thank you Roelof! That was exactly what I needed and worked perfectly. I was able to move all my photos from my laptop to my portable hard drive. Wow- it was easy too! Now I actually have a bit of space on my laptop and I feel safer with the photos on my portable hard drive (also backed up to another hard drive and an online back up as well). I've also discovered I can still upload directly through LR and use the new/folder system I want to use to help me stay organized. I do know that when I say I'm uploading 'directly through LR the files are NOT in lightroom, but my portable hard drive.
Thank you Ken, I appreciate everyone's time here, helping me out. I did not mean to come across as ungrateful as I appreciate all of the advice (even if it differs..lol).
I'm also well aware I struggle with the technical side of photography - that is nothing new to me. That is why I need the help. But I will learn as I go through this what will work and what won't - for me. Although I really do miss the darkroom, digital photography is just SO much more convenient. I continue to struggle to keep up with the changes- but I will!
The next step in my overall plan is to attempt to download CC again and hope it will function this time. Since there is no real reason it should NOT have worked last time I'm going to be hopeful. It's been a couple of years. Wish me luck!

Always - thank you!

 

[Replytoken]

I'm glad that Roelof's video helped. I didn't think that you were ungrateful at all in your posts. We all have different learning styles and need to find the way that best helps us. I like "cookbook" style instructions, but also like to see videos whenever possible as well.

All the best,

--Ken