Tips wanted - Handling photos already on HD when installing Lightroom

[STB]

I'm a newbie, about ready to install Lightroom for the first time. Like most people I've already got tons of photos on my harddrive. I know that Lightroom will catalog these for me. I understand how I want to handle things going forward. my basic workflow ideas, but I wonder if anyone has any tips for me on how to handle the import/cataloging of the existing files? Most of them, maybe 80%, currently reside in two main folders with lots of sub-folders. Since we're talking thousands of photos coming into Lightroom at once, I won't be able to apply keywords to each photo at this time. So I am hoping I can do a batch option to allow me to give everything in those folders an oddball tag so I know I can go back and add all the appropriate keywords over time.

I was going to just point to those two folders and ignore everything else but now I'm wondering about that other 20%. If I let Lightroom catalog everything on my computer I'll get every graphic, not just the photos I've taken. Is that what most people do? Do you then just ignore things like graphics that go with webpages you've saved, or things like that?

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm just trying to wrap my brain around the best way to handle this before I start the massive install/import.

I'll be installing Lightroom 3, if that matters, with no intention to upgrade to the Lightroom 4 since I'm still running XP.

And if you have any other tips for a new install, I'd love to hear them, especially if they fall in the category of things you wish you had done differently.

Thanks!

[zona5101]

just point to the folders and include subfolders then import. You'll only get the stuff in the folders not everything everywhere on your hard drive. Although its a bit of a PITA to change your folder structure after your initial import, it's not impossible so you can always go back and rework your folder hierarchy later if needed. ( you have to resync folders).

[STB]

Thank you. I've been going back and forth all day trying to decide if I should let it catalog my entire computer or not. I haven't had the best housekeeping practices in the past so I'm thinking while it might be a pain, maybe letting Lightroom pull everything in and gradually sort through it all is the way to go.

[zona5101]

I can tell you at least for your photos you'll want them in one place (one folder) and multiple subfolders...mainly because you'll want a consistent structure when you start importing new stuff..

[STB]

That makes total sense and going forward I want that for sure but what I don't know how to handle are the old photos that aren't in the master folder. I guess what I'll have to do is wait until Lightroom finds them all and then move them from within Lightroom.

Thanks again.

[Doug Sundseth]

The other benefit of keeping all your photos in a very limited number of places is that it makes backup much easier. (Doing a backup on import helps a lot, too.) You are backing up your images to a different drive, right?

[STB]

Good point, Doug. I'm in the process now of moving a lot of photos that were just mindless "misc" folders into a giant mess of a single folder so that once they are all in Lightroom, I can keyword the heck out them.

And yep, double back-ups, once to the home server and once offline. Do I get points for that?

[Doug Sundseth]

Double points.