If you’re having problems pointing Lightroom to folders on an external drive because the name of the external drive changed, right click on the highest level folder and select Update Folder Location to relink them. If the name of the external drive keeps changing, you can find additional information about how to name your drive here.
Thank you Pete Marshall!
If you’ve ever tried to find 25 images out of hundreds then you know that it can be tedious to search for each one individually. If this is something that you do on a regular basis (to fulfill orders for example) you will definitely want to check out Jeffrey Friedl’s “Extended Search” Lightroom plug-in. It will allow you to copy and paste multiple file names and find them all at once (plus a whole lot more!).
While you’re on Jeffrey’s site, be sure to also check out his other plug-ins such as Metadata Wrangler, Tree Publisher and many others!
It’s a personal preference whether you use folders, collections or a combination of both to organize your workflow. Most of the photographers that I talk to have some type of folder structure to help them organize their images. Some common example are naming folders by date, client names, location or events – with all related files stored in that folder.
Then, to combine images into groups (without moving the originals from their folders), they create collections. For example, they might have a collection of their best of the portraits for 2011 for your marketing pieces, or a collection of the best bird photographs from across North America – these images are still in the original folders, but can now also appear in a collection(s).
• In the Folder panel, you can now move and/or delete multiple folders at one time.
• In the Collection panel, Option -drag (Mac) | Alt -drag (Win) a collection to duplicate it. More specifically, if the collection is loose (it’s not in a Collection Set), Option -drag (Mac) | Alt -drag (Win) until a thicker line appear between two items (indicating that the collection will be duplicated), and release. To duplicate a collection within a Collection Set or to duplicate the collection into a different Collection Set, Option -drag (Mac) | Alt -drag (Win) the collection on top of the Collection Set icon (watch for the highlight) and release.
• Stacking is now available in Collections.
• At the top of the Filmstrip bar, the selected image’s folder or collection is displayed. (This is really handy when in other modules.)
• The Flag attribute is now global.
• You can filter and/or search images based on their Metadata status. Images will be assigned one of several different statuses including Changed on Disk, Conflict Detected, Has Been Changed, Unknown and/or Up to Date).
• You can also search/filter on Map Locations and GPS Data (GPS Location or No GPS Location).
• That folder structure that you carefully crafted in the Develop module to hold your presets is now maintained both in the Import dialog box as well as the Quick Develop panel.
Option -click (Mac) | Alt -click (Win) on the disclosure triangle next to the folder name (in the Folder panel) to expand all subfolders within that folder.
In this quick tip (Synchronizing Photos in Lightroom), you’ll learn how to synchronize a folder so that Lightroom can add new photos to a previously imported folder.
I am often asked “What is the preferred method for loading several years of images into Lightroom?”. Personally, I would choose Import (Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + Shift + I), select the parent folder, choose to ADD them (assuming that they are already in the desired location) set the desired File Handling, and Apply During Import options, and choose Import.
For example, I might have a folder named “Photographs” on my drive (maybe it’s on an internal drive but more than likely all of those photos are on an external drive). Inside the “Photographs” folder I would have all of my images organized into subfolders by year (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 etc.). Instead of importing each year, I can simply select the parent folder (Photographs). By default, all of the subfolders will automatically be imported (if you do not see the photos in the middle section be sure to check the option to “Include Subfolders” in the Source area). Since I wouldn’t want to move the files (they are already on the drive where I want them), I will choose “Add” (at the top-center of the import dialog). If needed, I can always move them later.
I would assume that this would be a large collection of images so I would suggest doing this before you go to bed and let Lightroom render the image previews overnight. I would use the “Apply During Import” panel to create and apply a metadata template with my copyright and contact information but of course you can always do this to subsets of images at a later time as well.
Video Tutorial – How to Move and Archive Images in Lightroom
Because you want to work on your fastest drive, many photographer put both their catalog and their working files on their internal drive. Then, as they finish with a client job, they want to archive the images to an external drive for longer term storage. This video (How To: Move & Archive Images and Export A Catalog) shows how to create a folder on an external drive and move your files to that drive from within Lightroom. Note that the first segment answers the question “What are the question marks on my images/folders and how do I relink files?”. If you prefer to skip this section, start the video at 4 minutes 38 seconds.
(This Episode was first published on 2010/03/09 but I neglected to blog about it.)
In this quick tip (How to use Lightroom’s “Show Photos in Subfolders” Feature) Julieanne shows when to toggle Lightroom’s Show Photos in Subfolders feature and why turning it on might show a 0 photo count for your topmost (parent) folders.
If you have moved files using the operating system, Lightroom will loose its link (path) to the files and display a “?” next to the missing image in the Grid view. Clicking on the “?” icon will display a dialog allowing you to navigate, locate and re-link any missing files. If you have moved folders using the operating system, Lightroom will display a “?” next to the folder in the Folder panel. Control (Mac) / right mouse -click on the folder and choose Update Folder Location to re-link folders that have been moved or renamed.
If you choose to add images via the operating system to a folder that Lightroom is already aware of (ie you have already imported that folder which had some image in it, but now there are more), Lightroom will NOT automatically display those newly added images. If you want Lightroom to display them, Control (Mac) / Right Mouse (Win) -click on the folder and choose Synchronize Folder.
The back and forward navigation arrow (in the black bar above the filmstrip) navigate recent folders, collections etc. To the right of the navigation buttons is the path to the currently selected image. Clicking on the path will display a list of recent folders. If you navigate to specific folders often, use the option at the bottom of the list to save the folder as a “favorite” so that it remains accessible in the Folder area (as oppose to the recent folders which only list the 12 most recent folders/collections visited. Click here for more information about navigating the Grid view and selecting images.
Custom Sort orders depend on folder hierarchy. If a folder contains subfolders a custom sort order is not possible unless the option to “Include Items from Subfolders” is disabled. Custom Sort orders are not available for Smart Collections. Click here for a video for more information.
The back/forward icons as well as the Recent Sources/Favorites lists at the top of the Filmstrip are very helpful for navigation are are available in all Lightroom Modules.
Click -drag the thumbnail of the images to move photographs between folders, add to collections etc. (not the outer gray “slide mount” area).
