Storing files

[Alann]

I am a new user and have a question that may be foolish but, I just gotta ask. Before getting lightroom I was very careful to store all photos in detailed directories like Family, Friends, Macro. Then I would break it down into subcategories like Macro\Spiders\Crab then Macro\Spiders\Wolf and so on. Now that I am using lightroom I was wondering if that is overkill as I can form collections without worrying about locating pics and it takes lots of time to sort and move files to the proper folders. Just wondering what more experienced photographers recommend. Put them all in one big folder called "PICS" utilizing lightroom or continue to break them down into different folders? Hope this made sense! Thanks for any input.

Alan

 

[johnbeardy]

You are on the right track, almost. Yes, LR makes it pointless to spend time putting files in folders that try to categorise them, and a keyword/collections approach is much more flexible. But no to a single big folder. Instead, break down new folders by date, and think about your folders in terms of being sure you've got proper backups, and equally important, could restore your folder structure from those backups.

John

 

[Denis Pagé]

Welcome to the Lightroom Forums Alann!

Many are in your situation. But as you begin it is the right time to do it right from start. In past years, I was like you more or less... It is nice you understood that you can move the naming from a folder based workflow to the keywords/collections workflow. It is much rewarding with time.

What I do now is that I import by date with an import template I created giving for example for today: /2''9/2''9-'5-'5/2''9-'5-'5_1234.dng
Year/Year-Month-Day/Pictures as Year-Month-DayUnderscoreAndLastdigitsOfOriginal

For old pictures with the old folders structure, I do this with the move option and once imported, as the original folders are still there but empty, I copy the important part of the original text in the original folder to append it to the newly created folder or create a small equivalent.

Others just don't bother to add text and just go by date as they never use their file system to get a clue of where things are. I am in the middle as what was long descriptions is now only a word or two appended to the dated folders.

 

[Alann]

Thanks, now I have something to do on my day off during the rain!