# You are mowing you lawn.  I'm new in Laura Shoe's tutorial village and I need directions.



## Baker Rawlings (Jan 13, 2018)

I know you are busy and want to finish mowing your lawn before it rains, so I'll be brief as possible.  I'm an experienced user of Adobe CS6 and before, with lots of time using Photoshop and Bridge.  I once tried to navigate Lightroom 4 but gave up.  I just bought Lightroom 6 and chose Laura Shoe's tutorials to help me get through the traffic jams in my brain.  I have three TB's of images and videos that include some unintended duplicates so incorporating my entire image collection into one catalogue on LIghtroom will not work.  With that exception I'm attempting to follow Laura's recommendations for organization but need help finding answers she probably has included in one of her many fine tutorials.  I need help finding things or answering basic questions when my computer doesn't do something like Laura says it should.  Where do I go for help.  Sorry for taking our time and thanks for listening.  Hope your lawn appears as good as you want it to look.


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## PhilBurton (Jan 13, 2018)

Baker Rawlings said:


> I know you are busy and want to finish mowing your lawn before it rains, so I'll be brief as possible.  I'm an experienced user of Adobe CS6 and before, with lots of time using Photoshop and Bridge.  I once tried to navigate Lightroom 4 but gave up.  I just bought Lightroom 6 and chose Laura Shoe's tutorials to help me get through the traffic jams in my brain.  I have three TB's of images and videos that include some unintended duplicates so incorporating my entire image collection into one catalogue on LIghtroom will not work.  With that exception I'm attempting to follow Laura's recommendations for organization but need help finding answers she probably has included in one of her many fine tutorials.  I need help finding things or answering basic questions when my computer doesn't do something like Laura says it should.  Where do I go for help.  Sorry for taking our time and thanks for listening.  Hope your lawn appears as good as you want it to look.


Baker,

My lawn doesn't grow much in January, but ....

Laura's tutorials are excellent.  If something doesn't work the way you expect it to, post a question in this forum, with screenshots.

Go to Victoria's website.  The Lightroom Queen - Tips, Tutorials & Troubleshooting for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.  Read the blog posts.  Buy the FAQ book (or wait a few weeks until the LR 7 version is available.)

On this website.  Read the forum headings.  Do searches and read the resultant threads. 

Experiment a bit.  One nice feature of Lightroom is the ability to use multiple catalogs, just not all at the same time.  Create a catalog that you will use just for experiments.  If you Import ADD images from their current location, then you are free to experiment with different folder/filename schemes.  That way, those same images can be Import MOVE (folders, renamed) into your production catalog at a later date. 

Experiment some more. Do searches and post questions on this forum.  Rinse and repeat.

Phil Burton


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## Jimmsp (Jan 13, 2018)

Baker Rawlings said:


> ...  I have three TB's of images and videos that include some unintended duplicates so incorporating my entire image collection into one catalogue on LIghtroom will not work.  .....


I have 3 TB of photos, no videos. One catalog works just fine. And I assume the duplicates you are mentioning are in separate folders. LR can deal with this.
But, you can create some experimental catalogs to try some concepts before you bring them all together.
As Phil said, ask your questions and help will come.


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 13, 2018)

Have you tried to contact Laura directly? She'd want to know if there are some instructions in her tutorials which aren't working as expected.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Jan 13, 2018)

Jimmsp said:


> And I assume the duplicates you are mentioning are in separate folders. LR can deal with this.


And if you do NOT want the duplicates (and they are real duplicates, not something like different formats of the same image), LR can simply exclude those on import (this won't remove them from where they were of course).

If you were using non-destructive edits with Bridge/ACR in sidecar files, those edits will come over (obviously edits in Photoshop will come over, though there are some limits on supported file types). 

One thing to consider is organization -- do you want to just add-in-place, using the same organizational folder structure you have now, or do you want to redo the folders in some automatic fashion (e.g. Lightroom will file by date if you wish).  Add keeps the same structure, copy/move will let you change.  Note that copy requires enough space to, well, copy.  Move... not sure if you really want to do move until  you get comfortable with Lightroom's organization.

You should also consider, if you have not been updating metadata with Bridge (captions, keywords, titles, etc.) whether you want to import in bunches.  Assuming you have one folder per shoot (or something like that), while tedious you could import a folder at a time, and set the metadata as you import (or just do it after in the Previous Import collection which I find easier).  You can do this later of course as well, but if you are changing file structure you might find it easier to do as you import.  It might also encourage you, by forcing yourself to put titles/captions in as you go, to actually do it (as opposed to "I"ll come back later", if you are as much a procrastinator as I).


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## John Little (Jan 13, 2018)

In addition, a useful approach would be to start small. With a large data set like yours, the task might seem overwhelming. Start with a catalog containing a relatively small number of photos, see how organizing and keywording goes, and get familiar with the Develop module, rather than devoting a huge effort to organization upfront.


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## Zenon (Jan 13, 2018)

Mowing a lawn? I wish I was doing that instead. This is from a few years ago.


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## Jimmsp (Jan 14, 2018)

John Little said:


> In addition, a useful approach would be to start small.


This is good advice.
After I imported everything to Lightroom, I found that key wording was a very important step to my long term happiness. 
I started with the current year's photos, and progressed backwards in time by year. I also tended, and still do, to apply keywords to highly rated photos before the lesser rated ones.

As I import a daily shoot, I apply the generic keywords, like the place and top level subject like "Bird". As I process, I get to the highly rated photos first with more detailed key words.


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