Or, Lightroom Guy’s Completely Over Explained and Over Simplified Method of Importing Photos and Maintaining the Lightroom Library – Part 2
Some of you may be wondering why am I calling this series of posts The Lightroom Library Mystery. Here’s why. Frequently, Lightroom users create multiple catalogs, import to multiple locations on their computer and external hard drives and rename images on import with sequential numbers (untitled-001, untitled-002, etc.) and, eventually, loose track of what is where and what was named what. And they don’t know why. That’s why I’m demonstrating this method: A single catalog, organized by year, with folders by month and day and followed by short names, with image names unchanged and keyworded. Professionals may balk at my system, but after two years of restoring Lightroom libraries from beginners to pros, I have developed a method that works. Add a proper backup to this approach and you have a stable, searchable Lightroom Library.
Over the course of the next few weeks I will show you how setting up the Import dialog can contribute to an orderly library hierarchy (hierarchy, love that word!). I’ll be using video for most of my future tutorials, as it’s a far better medium than text for explaining Lightroom processes. Writing tutorials with text gets bogged down with words. So, less words, more videos.
This week there are two videos. One to set Lightroom’s Preferences to automatically open the Import dialog when a memory card is detected in your card reader, the other explains the Source panel of the Import dialog.
Setting Preferences to Open the Import Dialog When a Memory Card is Detected
The Source Panel Explained
This one is just the basics, please. Lightroom Guy skips straight through to the stuff that matters when you plug in your camera’s memory card.
Next time, I’ll cover the the Image Preview window and selecting your import options.