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Author Topic: Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom  (Read 14041 times)

Brammers

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« on: January 05, 2008, 09:14:52 am »

I'm sure that many users did the same, but I never read the instructions before starting off with lightroom.  As a consequence, I've now learnt about a lot of cool features, which I'm going back and adding to my database, which would have been done a lot quicker had I implemented them in the first place!  Many of these things I'm able to do by myself, but this one I need a little help with.

I've always added shots to lightroom simply by dragging them from the card to the computer manually, then pointing Lightroom at the folder they're in.

The folder organisation is fairly logical, and you can see it here:



Thanks for your time!
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digitaldog

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2008, 10:41:18 am »

I'm not totally sure what you're actually after, that said, you CAN and should do this kind of work within LR at this stage of reorganization. You can make a sub folder from any existing folder within LR and you can move other images (or even folders) there, building up any hierarchy you wish. When you do this within LR, of course it knows what you want but it does this at the finder level too. So if you create a new subfolder and move some images, its happening ON your hard drive too.

The mistake some users make is trying to do this post, from the finder and not within LR. That totally confuses its database.
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Nat Coalson

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2008, 12:51:03 pm »

I agree with Andrew; once you've imported folders/files into LR any further reorganization is most easily accomplished from within Lightroom itself. Otherwise you need to synchronize Lightroom folders after making changes outside LR.

As for the difference in folder structure in LR - this is because you haven't yet imported all the folders in your heirarchy. (If you import a subfolder, Lightroom isn't aware of the folder one level up; think of LR's folder importing as top-down, not bottom-up.)

If you import your folder "Year By Year Archive" you will see the exact same folder structure in Lightroom as exists on the hard drive.

If you don't want to import everything all at one time, just un-check the folders and subfolders to be excluded from this import on the list in the left side of the Import window. The important folders to include are your top-level directory and all the named year directories; subfolders can be imported in the future as the need arises.
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Langsey

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2008, 12:57:33 pm »

I don't import my photos into lightroom individually. I import my photos as a total file. My hierarchy is as follows: Photo Database>DNG>2007>DNG20071026>Beginning thru end # Name>photo. I click import in library and the open folder opens up and click on Photo Database. Click on the choose folder icon  on the bottom. The import folder window opens up. Then go from there to import your photos. Your file hierarchy will be in place. If you want to add a sub-folder later you can do that by clicking "open" instead of "Choose Folder" until you get to the right location and then click "choose folder". Hope I answered your question.

John
« Last Edit: January 05, 2008, 12:58:59 pm by Langsey »
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MBehrens

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2008, 01:11:27 pm »

Brammers,

First, Andrew is correct that doing the folder management in LR is the way to go. His reference to Finder would be Windows Explorer for you.

To reorg your import to match your folder structure on disk do the following.
- Select the Library module
- Select the Library menu item and select the New Folder... item
(The "plus sign" on the Folder sidebar header will not do what we want here)
- A Folder browser is displayed. Navigate to one of your Year folders, select it and click OK.
- LR will count the image files in the folder and subfolders. It will tell you that a long list of files are already in the Catalog and will not be imported, this is good. You may have to have at least one image file to actually import to continue.
- Click Import to continue.
- The Import dialog will be displayed. Adjust any settings, will only be applied to new imported files.
- Click the Import button.

LR will add the Year folder and move any folders already imported under it to match the disk arrangement. Do this for each Year in your archive folder structure.

If you want to continue to use Windows Explorer to move your images to their folder and import to LR in place. After moving to their folder, in LR right-click the Year folder and select Synchronize... to import and replicate the folder structure.

Let us know how this works out. I've just tested with samples.

You might want to look at the features of the Import File Handling options Copy or Move photo's to new location and the Organize options ("By original folders" is the option to use) within these.

 - Morey
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method

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2008, 02:01:45 am »

I would definitely recommend importing in a date format.

2008
 01
  2008.01.08

is how I do it (and I copy from the card outside of Lightroom so that I get the dot separators)

Then using Keywords or Collections to give you the context.

And yes do your reorg in Lightroom rather than the Explorer

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EricWHiss

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2008, 04:01:37 am »

Quote
Brammers,

First, Andrew is correct that doing the folder management in LR is the way to go. His reference to Finder would be Windows Explorer for you.

To reorg your import to match your folder structure on disk do the following.
- Select the Library module
- Select the Library menu item and select the New Folder... item
(The "plus sign" on the Folder sidebar header will not do what we want here)
- A Folder browser is displayed. Navigate to one of your Year folders, select it and click OK.
- LR will count the image files in the folder and subfolders. It will tell you that a long list of files are already in the Catalog and will not be imported, this is good. You may have to have at least one image file to actually import to continue.
- Click Import to continue.
- The Import dialog will be displayed. Adjust any settings, will only be applied to new imported files.
- Click the Import button.

LR will add the Year folder and move any folders already imported under it to match the disk arrangement. Do this for each Year in your archive folder structure.

If you want to continue to use Windows Explorer to move your images to their folder and import to LR in place. After moving to their folder, in LR right-click the Year folder and select Synchronize... to import and replicate the folder structure.

Let us know how this works out. I've just tested with samples.

You might want to look at the features of the Import File Handling options Copy or Move photo's to new location and the Organize options ("By original folders" is the option to use) within these.

 - Morey
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=165220\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hi Morey,
I'm not the OP but I had a similar situation - really appreciate your post here as it did the trick.  It got me most of the way there - I had a few folders in the wrong spot but easy to fix and no images were lost. I was worried that I would loose my ratings and keywords because on the import dialog it asks about that, but since they are already in the catalog I guess they just get moved.

Thanks!
Eric
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MBehrens

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2008, 08:56:46 pm »

Quote
Thanks!
Eric
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=168113\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
You're welcome! Thanks for the feedback.

Morey
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EricWHiss

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« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2008, 03:08:53 am »

Rats!  Spoke too soon.  Now I have corrupt catalog....    
Lightroom says it can't repair it.  :-(

I did make a backup 2 days ago, but added about 500 new files and of course made all the folder hierarchy changes since then.

Wonder what's the best way to get it all back?

Eric


edit: Just an update.  While the catalog could not be repaired, I could open it if I unchecked the test for integrity.... and I went through all the folder and retraced my steps, found some files that were misplaced and deleted them from the catalog and re imported them.  When I restarted lightroom, it was able to repair the catalog and all is now fine.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2008, 09:06:28 pm by EricWHiss »
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MBehrens

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Folder Hierarchy in Lightroom
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2008, 09:12:40 pm »

Quote
Rats!  Spoke too soon.  Now I have corrupt catalog....    
 When I restarted lightroom, it was able to repair the catalog and all is now fine.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=168321\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Don't you hate it when that happens. A corrupt catalog seems excessive for a few "misplaced' files.
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