Thread: Lightroom Users: Help please?

Here's what I want to do... I want to import from iPhoto, with a view to ignoring its existence from here on. I've discovered that I can't do that directly, and besides, I also have bazillions of copies of all my photographs... all over my drives... so I am looking to consolidate.

I want to be able to stop Lightroom from importing duplicates. I have several copies of many of the photographs and I really only need and want the originals/one copy in the app. Can do this? I've not yet noticed it as an option but have probably had my eyes closed.

I think I probably want to store them on an ext drive, as well, so opinions about using a USB portable would be welcome. I'm running short of space on my internal drive and am not enamoured of the notion of having a honking great WD or Seagate... a USB portable is more convenient, but how is it working for others?

Sue, I have only dabbled in Lightroom, but I'm sure an expert will pop in with the right answer for you. But it's my understanding that Lightroom will identify duplicates (if they are truly duplicates and not different edits......those you'll have to weed out by hand).

I'll be keep an eye on this thread as I really should start using Lightroom to manage my library as well. It just seems so overwhelming.

I've never been able to work out that part of Lightroom, my photos are a mess from moving them around different hard drives, it's very annoying actually because I've lost all the post-processing work I did for a significant number of my photos during one of the moves.

Right now I store all my photos in an external hard drive, the one thing I would recommend is to get a USB 3.0 drive if you can, as it would speed things up quite a bit (transfers, uploading, etc).

Originally Posted by Luke

Sue, I have only dabbled in Lightroom, but I'm sure an expert will pop in with the right answer for you. But it's my understanding that Lightroom will identify duplicates (if they are truly duplicates and not different edits......those you'll have to weed out by hand).

I'll be keep an eye on this thread as I really should start using Lightroom to manage my library as well. It just seems so overwhelming.

Overwhelming is hardly the word, that is an understatement. I've been avoiding doing any weeding for a long time.

RE edits... I dont actually mind so much if they end up in LR, but I do have multiples of originals so if LR does it automagically that would be a blessing, then I can get rid of all the files occupying hundreds of GBs and use my other ext drives more efficiently (I currently have something like 8TB of external space, but am using a fraction of that for genuinely useful photographs and related stuff).

Anyway, given that my recalcitrant vehicle is making it impossible for me to do the photography I love to do, I have decided to make the downtime useful, and do weeding and editing. So, at the end of all this, I might have 3-5k decent usable photographs and 15-20k deleted.

Just doing some folder consolidation at the moment, weeding to begin later today.

Originally Posted by TraamisVOS

Right now I store all my photos in an external hard drive, the one thing I would recommend is to get a USB 3.0 drive if you can, as it would speed things up quite a bit (transfers, uploading, etc).

Thanks James, I only have USB2 ports on my early 2011 MBP so the existing 500GB WD portable should be fine, if a tad slow.

First, get out of iPhoto. It is a nightmare.

Then simply organize your photo in regular folder on a hard drive. Use Lightroom to view and search for them. Simply up load you images from a card into a transfer folder on your desktop and then put the images in the right place in your system from there.

As far as storage, I would look into two things if you don't have them. You want a Time Machine running on your system. This a mirrow of your system and will have everything if it goes belly up--the software should be in your OSX. Second you need an external hard drive, not one of those you are looking at, a bigger one. Get a RAID array--I found the LaCie 2 Big Quadra the best value. That is were you store your images. One drive is a mirror of the other so you have a backup copy if the drive dies. Then you buy one more drive for your external RAID. Every month you switch out a drive and keep it in your office or other location. If you house burns down or someone steals your computer and drives, you have a copy at least of everything up to the time you swapped the drive.

Some questions, numbered for easy response tracking:

1) To be clear -- you have a bunch of photos in iPhoto, and you want to bring them into LR, and drop using iPhoto?
2) Were you storing the photos in the iPhoto database? (vs. referencing photos outside the iPhoto database)?
3) Do you know how to "examine package contents" and is that where you are finding your photos?
4) Do you wish to import your original iPhoto photos, without any adjustments, or do you only want the photos after any adjustments?
5) Just for the record, were your originals RAW or JPEG?

Originally Posted by Hikari

As far as storage, I would look into two things if you don't have them. You want a Time Machine running on your system. This a mirrow of your system and will have everything if it goes belly up--the software should be in your OSX.

I actually prefer to clone my drives, and use SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner for this purpose

Second you need an external hard drive, not one of those you are looking at, a bigger one.

I have 8TB of externals and cannot afford the LaCie... trust me I have considered it.

Thanks for your suggestions

Originally Posted by wt21

Some questions, numbered for easy response tracking:

1) To be clear -- you have a bunch of photos in iPhoto, and you want to bring them into LR, and drop using iPhoto?
2) Were you storing the photos in the iPhoto database? (vs. referencing photos outside the iPhoto database)?
3) Do you know how to "examine package contents" and is that where you are finding your photos?
4) Do you wish to import your original iPhoto photos, without any adjustments, or do you only want the photos after any adjustments?
5) Just for the record, were your originals RAW or JPEG?

1) yes, dropping iPhoto
2) yes, in iPhoto. I used to store outside iPhoto but found it fraught if the drive wasnt available, suddenly (had it on external)
3) & 4) Yes to both, I have already copied out the originals to separate folders. I've never used iPhoto for editing, or for saving edits.
5) RAW and jpg depending on camera and mood. The RAW off my Pentax will be fine, already in DNG format. the others will be imported as DNG where possible.

Still, theres the issue of duplicates