Moving photos in Lightroom

[GadgetRick]

Ok, I will import pics from my SD card into LR. Then I'll create folders to move pics to or move them to the appropriate folders. Problem is, when I move the photos it seems to copy them rather than move them. Very confusing as I shoot my son's wrestling matches for the team and I try to separate my son's photos out (obviously) as well as other friends' kids into folders for them in order to keep the main match folder less cluttered. I might shoot 150-200 shots at a match so it makes it difficult to find photos if I leave them all in the same folder.

What am I doing wrong? Why isn't LR moving the photos instead of copying them?

[AgBeard]

You can just drag & drop photos from one folder to another within the LR libary - it prompts you asking to confirm moving the the file on disk.

An alternative method of 'separating' your photos of your son is by creating a "Collection Set" bearing his name & then create a "Collection" for each event within that Set. The collections are 'virtual' i.e. they are not physical copies - the original stays with the other files from that shoot.

I use this method to prepare slide shows as collections provide a manual sort option. I then export using the sequence option on the filename.

[GadgetRick]

The problem is, I am dragging the files into other folders but it seems to be copying them instead of moving them. I get the dialog box asking me to confirm this. Just not sure what's happening... :::scratching bald head:::

As far as your other suggestion, I'm sort of doing that now. Basically, I import from the SD card (it creates the folder with the current date). I then either move photos to their appropriate folder or create a folder somewhere (might be within another folder) and move photos there. It just seems to be copying them instead of moving them.

Is this how you're talking about managing photos?

Thanks so much!!!

[mipo]

Hi,
You have the first part right. ie. importing the pictures files in dated folders.
This is the way many books on LR are recommending.

But after that, you need to forget about the notion of folders, LR does not function that way.

This is why there are Collections in LR.
The files do not need to be "physically" moved from one folder to another in LR, it is just not designed to work that way.

By creating new collections based on your criteria.
The files that are added to the collection do not move but are referenced to by the Collection and you never have to go back to the folders anymore.

Hope this helps a little!

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by mipo

Hi,
You have the first part right. ie. importing the pictures files in dated folders.
This is the way many books on LR are recommending.

But after that, you need to forget about the notion of folders, LR does not function that way.

This is why there are Collections in LR.
The files do not need to be "physically" moved from one folder to another in LR, it is just not designed to work that way.

By creating new collections based on your criteria.
The files that are added to the collection do not move but are referenced to by the Collection and you never have to go back to the folders anymore.

Hope this helps a little!

Ah, this is something I was going to look into as I'm trying to get my arms around the different between Folders and Collections. Honestly, I don't care where the files are located (physically) on my drives, I just want to be able to easily find things. Maybe it's time to invest in a good LR book...

Thanks.

So, when shooting in RAW, how do people arrange photos within LR? I mean, I shoot in RAW, typically, I wind up bringing the photo(s) into PS to do some things I feel it does better than LR. So I wind up with a RAW file and a TIFF (I edit TIFF in PS). Now I have two versions of the photo and it can get confusing at times when I've shot a lot of photos.

[fletch]

The first thing to do with Lightroom is fully commit to it. It makes lightroom use a lot easier if you never (or very rarely) use the OS to do anything related to photo files. This has a number of advantages:

1) External edits stack with original raws - If you always get Lightroom to create your TIFF or PSD files for external editing they will automagically get added to the LR catalog, keyworded and stacked with the original. This way lightroom knows the file is just another version of the original and always shows the most recent on top. You do this using the "edit in" command. This is configued out of the box for use with PS but can be configued for any external editing program that uses TIFF/PSD or DNG files

2) LR never loses a photo - If you do everything in (or from) LR it keeps track of what is going on and you always know all you photos will be in Lightroom, in the correct place and easy to find.

3) Its non destructive and lossless - If you always just export a JPEG when you need it and the descard after use you know you will always have the best quaility original to work from.

4) You can use folders and/or collections - Despite fully committing to LR I still use folders for the majority of my high level organisation, its just easier. (However I would have used keywords and a smart collection for your dilema above)

There are loads of other reasons but just get stuck in an you will discover them, just trust Lightroom and don't be temped by Bridge or straight to PS unless you are really sure why you are not triggering the process from LR.

[GadgetRick]

Oh I use LR fully. I only bring it into PS for a few things I feel PS does better (and I have the Noise Ninja plugin). Other than that, I never leave LR. Just trying to use it smarter if you know what I mean.

[fletch]

I don't mean "Never do anything but in Lightroom", that would be impossibel, but do use lightroom as the source. From your comment below it seems you are not using the "Edit in" comand correctly.

Originally Posted by GadgetRick

So I wind up with a RAW file and a TIFF (I edit TIFF in PS). Now I have two versions of the photo and it can get confusing at times when I've shot a lot of photos.

If you launch PS from inside Lightroom your TIFF files will be automatically stacked with the RAW files and therefore each photo only appears to have the most recent version and is very simple to manage, avoiding the confusion of multiple versions of the file.

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by fletch

I don't mean "Never do anything but in Lightroom", that would be impossibel, but do use lightroom as the source. From your comment below it seems you are not using the "Edit in" comand correctly.



If you launch PS from inside Lightroom your TIFF files will be automatically stacked with the RAW files and therefore each photo only appears to have the most recent version and is very simple to manage, avoiding the confusion of multiple versions of the file.

I am launching PS from within LR. I control-click on the photo, select, "Edit In..." and edit it in PS. LR generates a TIFF and opens it in PS. When I come back, I have a RAW file and a TIFF file next to each other. Is there another way to do this? It's the only way I know of.

[fletch]

That is the way you do it. I don't see how you get "confusion of multiple versions of the file" if you do it that way.

The second version of the file will have a "2" label on it to show its a version of the original and there will be arrows and vertical bars on each photo to signfy they are stacked together. Click either of the two vertical bars and the stack will colapse, showing only the most recent version of the file. With the stacks colapsed the images behave just like a single image, avoiding any confusion over multiple files.