Lightroom 6. Importing

As I have held on to Apple Aperture long enough, I have decided to dive into Lightroom.
As I took a five week Class and a KelbyOne seminar last week in Philadelphia, I have a question and would appreciate your feedback.
The class I had, she recommended Importing by date and then adding to name. Scott Kelby recommends putting each project into a grouping (forgot the Lightroom lingo for project in Aperture).

I can see the light in both ways.
Thanks.

What did you do in Aperture .... and why does it not suit your needs going forward?

Personally, I import using date but allocate to collections thereafter.

My choice for workflow is to import the images into folders by year and the date, so in windows I have a path that goes ..\Photos\2017\yyyymmd​d\IMG××××.CR2 for images from this year. Lightroom only does referenced files, not managed files which IIRC is the default for both Aperture, and either version of the photos program. As I don't shoot every day I find that I don't really need to add a folder layer by month, I can just about handle the number of folders in the year by day.

Images can only be in one folder, but I tend to use LR's Collections system to manage the images, since an image can be in multiple Collections at the same time. LR has three types of collection; Collections with other Collections in them, which cannot have images in, standard Collections, to which images are added manually, and Smart Collections, which select images from the whole Catalogue by a very wide set of criteria.

So I have hierarchical trees of collections for different subjects, with a lot of smart collections, since if you use Smart Collections you can have a Collection for some subject or event, with two Smart Collections in it, one for images that are not yet fully processed, and another Smart Collection for the finished images. I usually denote these by using different coloured labels, so when I finish processing an image I will set it to green. Setting the label will remove the image from the unprocessed collection, and put it in the processed collection automatically. If you select the collection containing both Smart Collections then you see all the images in both of them.

There are some things that you can only do while viewing a file in the folder view, mainly that is deletion/removal of the file, or the removal of a Virtual Copy. Also of course since LR uses the referenced file model, you can see and access the files in the file system, and so also edit them in any other program you chose. For RAW files this will have zero effect on the image inside LR. For RGB pixel files though if you edit those in another program and save over the file, instead of a Save as, it will change the file, and the changes will then be seen by LR automatically. If you have made changes inside LR to the image, the changes to the base file will still occur, and then the LR edits will be applied on top. The one thing you must not do though is move the location of the file in the filesystem outside of LR, since this will break the reference. LR makes moving files around the file system pretty easy, it is simple drag and drop just like normal file managers.

If you do move a file outside of LR it is not a complete disaster, there is a pretty simple tool available that can be used to locate a moved file. It is important to use this tool, and not to try reimporting the file at it's new location, since that will result in the loss of all of your LR edits, and also all of the metadata that you might have added in LR too.

Alan

I import my photo into sub-folders by date of the event.

The naming convention I use is YYYY-MM-DD Title Of Event. I that folder into a master folder for the year.

You can assign each photo into as many Lightroom "Collections" as you like after. The collections can be of any criteria you need, technical, subject matter, aesthetic, etc. Putting a photo into a collection does not create another version. It is just a collection of references to the original file with your adjustments applied. Collections can also be "smart" and automatically take in photos by criteria you define.

I tend to not use a lot of collections and when I do they are usually temporary.

I find this the easiest way for me to keep track of my photos. YMMV.

Import by date and add a few keywords. Foolproof.

There is no right or wrong answer. Your best system will depend on how you view organization. I have a small file cabinet in my office to keep track of all the paper in my life. It's for all the paper I think I may need to keep and be able to retrieve. It is setup by subject. I just have to remember if I filed the "Auto Title" under A for Auto or T for Title to find it. Nothing is filed by date.

My file system in Lightroom is similar. I use Folders and Collections to manage my photos. All my photos are in a folder called Photos. There are subfolders under Photos for the various events I shoot. For example, under Photos is Holidays which has Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, etc. Under each holiday is the year such as Christmas2016. The nice feature is if I cannot remember what year I am looking for, all I have to do is select the folder and all the photos in the subfolders show up.

My keepers are in the folders. I use collections with the same structure for "Show" photos. The are subset of the keeper photos. I post the "Show" on social media or my family web page. If I print, it would be from my "Show" photos. It is not that difficult to maintain. When I import into Lightroom, I create a subfolder with name of the shoot under the appropriate subfolder. This system does not require Keywords.

Having said I do not require Keywords, I have to add that I use Keywords anyway. Cross Pollination seems to happen with my photos. My family goes to a local lake on Memorial Day every year. While at the lake we have two family members with birthdays. All the photos I take go into the Holiday > MemorialDay > MemorialDay2017 folder. I keyword each of the photos MemorialDay2017 and those taken for the birthday girl, get keyworded Family > Logan >Birthday > Birthday2017. I would setup a collection for MemorialDay2017 and Birthday2017 to share with others.

For those wondering, my OCD treatment does not seem to be working.

I actually believe the KISS principle (Keep it simple, stupid) should apply. Find your system that allows proper organization while keeping it as simple as you can.

bpalermini wrote in post #18309603
I import my photo into sub-folders by date of the event.

The naming convention I use is YYYY-MM-DD Title Of Event. I that folder into a master folder for the year.

You can assign each photo into as many Lightroom "Collections" as you like after. The collections can be of any criteria you need, technical, subject matter, aesthetic, etc. Putting a photo into a collection does not create another version. It is just a collection of references to the original file with your adjustments applied. Collections can also be "smart" and automatically take in photos by criteria you define.

I tend to not use a lot of collections and when I do they are usually temporary.

I find this the easiest way for me to keep track of my photos. YMMV.

I moved from Aperture to LR as well, this is what I do and it works great.

Personally I have Pictures > Year > Date. I then edit the folder name to Date + relevant subject. But the real strength of Lightroom is that it doesn't matter what folders you put your images into. There are so many better ways to find images (than going through trying to remember what folder they are in) that it really doesn't matter where they are.

Keywording is the most obvious way of finding images but Lightroom has a very detailed filter system that allows you to find images via a multitude of criteria (metadata, rating, camera, keyword etc etc).

The collections/smart collections are also a wonderful way to create a virtual folder that can contain related image even if they are all in different folders on your HD. You can create a Smart Collection with all image that have keyword Rugby + 5 star rating + keyword [team name] - then any future image you add that meet those criteria will automatically be added to the smart collection.

Kelby makes extensive use of the Collections in LR. There's really no right or wrong, it's what's going to work best for you. Collections (static), Smart Collections are a powerful, quick easy way to bring photos up. Keywording is equally as powerful, but much more time consuming. Like has been already mentioned, the folders where your pictures reside are not that important to LR, EXCEPT, Once you start using LR to manage your photos, do EVERYTHING from inside of LR when it comes to management. LR maintains a path to those photos.

Anyway there's a great webboard devoted to LR, and has some "LR Gurus" moderating. They seem to know LR inside-out. You might want to check it out. I've watched them walk people through fixing a big mess. The owner of the site, Victoria Bampton, has contacts inside of Adobe, and has helped people recover corrupted LR catalogues. Anyway I highly recommend that site for LR.
Lightroom Forums

Hey guys, my ears were burning. Thanks for the plug frozenframe.

Dates are a great system for organizing photos on the hard drive - and pretty rubbish for finding photos by topics. Let's be honest, unless it's your birthday or your parent's anniversary, chances of you remembering the date you shot an image are pretty slim. BUT, for an on-disk organization system, it's great. So you just use collections and/or keywords to actually find the files by topic. That's the best of both worlds.

There's a recent series on my blog, that details organizing photos on the hard drive in more detail. There's no right or wrong, but there are some pros and cons to consider.

Victoria Bampton wrote in post #18310736
Hey guys, my ears were burning. Thanks for the plug frozenframe.

Dates are a great system for organizing photos on the hard drive - and pretty rubbish for finding photos by topics. Let's be honest, unless it's your birthday or your parent's anniversary, chances of you remembering the date you shot an image are pretty slim. BUT, for an on-disk organization system, it's great. So you just use collections and/or keywords to actually find the files by topic. That's the best of both worlds.

There's a recent series on my blog, that details organizing photos on the hard drive in more detail. There's no right or wrong, but there are some pros and cons to consider.

I registered for your Lightroom forums after going there from the link in frozen frame's post. I just did the Aperture to Lightroom conversion last night so I will no doubt have lots of questions especially concerning organization of my photos.

Photo organization, as implemented by Lightroom, has a lot of "features" that belong in my workflow big-time!

My Library/folders are set up, with the "main/working folders" being set up according to the Year "parent" folder containing "Shoots for the year as well as photos Exported for my PBase gallery as well as Facebook and images dedicated to POtN...

Anyway, my folder "structure mirrors those uses.

When I Import, in the Import dialog panel, I set certain things: Since I do have a yearly "parent" folder, that becomes the "target" for a new import and/or Export

In the Import dialog, I go through a simple process: I name a subfolder with the Date/Description and then include the image "Number", and I specify that individual images are renamed accordingly

From there, of course visually examining and editing come naturally, even ones that get an "X" for deletion, but I don't have a habit of doing that to a lot of my photos, Oh Well...

And then, Keywords are mentioned, and yes, keywords are pretty important to me!

My keyword "Tree" has "key" components, starting with Animals, then Events, then People, Places and Things. It can be quick going through those keywords! In fact, not long ago I was wanting some images that I had taken at a museum in Denver, Colorado back a bunch of years ago. It was quick and easy to just browse keywords to Colorado/Denver, and then Museums!

Collections also come into play as wanted/needed. Collections can reflect a lot from your Library/Folders, sure, and they can get really busy as you a photog are busy!

Heck, to this day I "manage"/organize a library of over 49,000 photos, gosh, I can even go back to my old scanned film photos and to my first digital photos going back, hey, I think I got my first digicam in 2001, and had a blast filling up my computer storage, and believe me, try going back over many of thousands of photos you've taken! Your workflow when it comes to organizing can be pretty quick, effective, Simple!

And yeah, I'm in the KISS School of Thought!!!