Dennis M 1064 Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Thanks for taking the time to explain that Alan.
Yup, I have a tendency to use the term file instead of folders. It comes from having worked in an office in my younger days and having things like paper and file cabinets, not computers. Pre- Apple II-E days! cripes! Stacks of papers, "files" were kept in manilla "folders" which were stored in drawers of a "file" cabinet. So, my head sees this kind of system in a computer database, as a means of trying to figure out the computer. I can see that it is going to make things more confusing, so I will make an effort to be more careful about terminology. Thanks for correcting that. Now we add in 'catalog' and lets not forget about 'collections' and it gets to be a bit more fun.
I think I pretty much understand this part now, but, everything on the videos and even in the posts bumps into my original question, but does not actually answer it.
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If you import from your CF card directly into LR, the RAW image files are stored outside of LR, onto your hard disk wherever LR assigns it. A thumbnail of that image and a link to it stay in LR. If you import that image into Deveolp, and modify it, then you can save the edit into a catalog, and can/should save the image itself in a separate folder along with the folder that contains the edits, within that catalog. Correct?
Here is what I am trying to work out. I have a card with 300 RAW image files. 100 of a Clown, 100 of a Dog, 100 of a Cat.
There are going to be a large number of them that I will discard. Who needs 80+ images of the same clown? If I import them from the CARD into LR, will I forever have these thumbnails of every single image on my film strip? Without individually copying them into the Develop Module first, how can I separate the RAW Images on my Hard Drive, (actually HDD 2) by RAW unedited: Dog 2012 file, Clown 2012 file, and Cat 2012 file, with out individually pulling them into develop module first?
I did two previous imports, one from an iPhone and one from the camera and it wants to put everything together in one giant folder.
What I would like to do, and maybe I am just not getting this (obviously) is import my CF card into an image software, dump the culls, as in the "true death", take the keepers, maybe even flag them for consideration of different uses (snapshots, print, portfolio etc.) then put all the Cat photos together in one folder, the Dog with the Dog and the Clown with the Clown. That way, if I decide I want to forward my Clown file to a thumb drive, or the recycle bin, I can just go to my 'finder' and see it on my HDD2. If I import a few of the clown files into the Develop Module, then they will be saved into a new file that would indicate that they have been edited, and this will be done via LR. The Image and Catalog file will live together, so that I can then locate them easily, and export them together if I want or need to work on them on a different machine.
It is getting control of that initial import from a card, culling, and storing them, as they await editing that I want to have a real firm grip on, so that I don't end up with a completely messy hard drive, and images that I cannot find without calling in the Cyber Search and Rescue team, or one single RAW folder that eventually ends up with100,000 images in it.
Obviously, I do not fully grasp that initial phase of Light Room or I would not be having so much difficulty with it. My first attempts were the exact mess I was trying to avoid, and it was a pain in the butt trying to delete all the image files and various catalog files. Fortunately, I didn't clear my CF Cards, I did get everything deleted and I can start again.
If I use Digital Photo Pro, EOS Utility, or Image Browser EX, to bring the images in from the camera, sort, cull, organize and store them into folders on the Hard Drive, will I be able to still find and import select images to LR4, edit, catalog and assign a 'finished' home? Can't LR handle this job by itself? If it is faster and or better to do it with one of the above mentioned programs, which one should I use? Am I making this way to hard, or over thinking it? Maybe I don't really see the later part of the workflow, and am trying to do what will happen naturally if I just 'go along with the program', no?
I really want to get working on some images, but this first threshold seems to be a real doosey. This first step will be the foundation for the organization of my image files on a clean machine. Just want to get it right the first time. Some of you have been doing this a very long time and have seen the good and bad of your systems. If I am struggling with it, there will be others, can you share some advice?
Thanks.
Dennis
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