# Any way to open just one image without importing a slew of them from a folder???



## Scenic Meditations (Sep 1, 2012)

This lack of ability, from what I can tell so far (I'm a total newbie with Lightroom), is driving me nuts.  Every time I want to just edit/open one image from some new stuff I shot it seems I have to import a whole new folder.  ARG

Am I missing something simple that will allow for this?

Thanks in advance


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 1, 2012)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

I think what you're missing, or not understanding, is that Lightroom is not a typical application (such as Word, Excel, Photoshop, etc.) that allows you to "open a file"....it's a database application, which means that the record of the file that you want to process in Lightroom has first to be in the database. And the only way to get the file into the database is by importing it first.

If you seriously only want to work on one image at a time, and you want to use Lightroom to do that work, you HAVE to import it....but there's nothing preventing you from importing just that one image, you do not have to import all the rest of the images in that folder. Quickest way is when you select the folder in the Import screen, click on the "Uncheck All" box (bottom of the main centre panel).....that will de-select all the pictures, you would then click on the small square box in the upper left corner of the thumbnail of the image you want to work on, which will select it, then proceed with the import of just that one file.

Obviously you need to be using the full-screen version of the Import dialog.....if you are only seeing a small import screen in the centre of your monitor, click on the small arrow bottom left corner of the dialog box.


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## bobrobert (Sep 1, 2012)

I have a catalogue named General in lightroom. I use Faststone browser to browse a folder of images. If I see one that I like then I press Alt and 2 on my keyboard. This opens the images in the folder in Lightroom but the only one ticked is the one I like. Then I press Import and then process. Simple and effective?


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## erro (Sep 1, 2012)

A very simple way to import just one image (or two, or three...) is to select that image outside of LR (using Windows Explorer or Mac Finder) and simply drag and drop it onto the LR application window. This will start the import process with just the selected files selected for import. Sort of what bobrobert does with his Alt-2 thing.


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 1, 2012)

Yes indeed, though that requires Lightroom to be active. If Lightroom is not already active, you can drag from Explorer onto the application icon on the Desktop, that will launch Lightroom for you with the Import screen open, though in that case all images in the folder are selected, requiring the "Uncheck All/Select Individual Image" process which I mentioned earlier.

Either way, the main point is that "Import" cannot be avoided if you want to "open a file in Lightroom".


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