Don Kuykendall_RIP
RIP :(
I made the decision that I needed LightRoom mainly for the Cataloging. I have too many photos to even try to keep up with. I is going to take me a while to get them organized. Any tips on doing it?
I bit the bullet and got CC
- Thread starter Don Kuykendall_RIP
- Start date
Daniel Aegerter
Senior Member
I did just that two days ago.Sooner or later I am going to have to ditch apple aperture.
Aperture has no future, photo-app is not what I expected so I went for CC.
Have you found the transition difficult ? I expect there will be there will be a steep learning curve initially.
I was happy using aperture in conjunction with the NIK plugins, but as you say, there's no future staying with aperture.
RockyNH_RIP
Senior Member
I am also thinking of getting the CC... It looks to be finally time..
Pat in GA
Pat in GA
dh photography
Senior Member
Don, take your time with the cataloging, but be diligent from day one. It doesn't take long to have a few thousand pics updated that are only cataloged by date. Going backwards to reorganize is worse than a root canal.
Do you have a directory structure already in place? Are you happy with it? If so, when you Import to the catalog, Add them without moving them.
Last edited:
Daniel Aegerter
Senior Member
I did use Aperture together with NIK.
Haven't had the time yet to really try it out, but I also expect it not to be that easy.
By all means, have your cataloging and file structure figured out before you do anything.
I found Kelby's book to be the most helpful, especially in this first step. I'm sure v6 will be out before too long, but his v5 book will be a huge help in the mean time.
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter): Scott Kelby: 8601401284352: Amazon.com: Books
sonicbuffalo_RIP
Senior Member
For me, new stuff imports into a dated folder like most people do. For my usual junk, I just leave it that way. If it is a special occasion, I will rename and combine folders if needed to reflect the occasion. Important... Always move, rename or delete WITHIN Lightroom or it gets all confused.
I tag everything new as it comes in. Stay on top of it, only takes a few seconds. You can select multiples for a tag or use the spray tool. Even if its just a basic tag like lake, park, party, school, animal, etc. Go back later and tag people, pets, species or special terms you might want to search on someday. It goes quickly. I tag in waves/layers like that, less tedious and more opportunity to bulk tag. LR remembers your keywords so as soon as you start to type the suggestions pop up. Only took a few sessions to go back and tag 10k+ pictures.
I even tag junk and test pictures. It makes it easy to go back and delete after I am done playing with them.
Your new friend:
Products | Lightroom | Adobe TV
I tag everything new as it comes in. Stay on top of it, only takes a few seconds. You can select multiples for a tag or use the spray tool. Even if its just a basic tag like lake, park, party, school, animal, etc. Go back later and tag people, pets, species or special terms you might want to search on someday. It goes quickly. I tag in waves/layers like that, less tedious and more opportunity to bulk tag. LR remembers your keywords so as soon as you start to type the suggestions pop up. Only took a few sessions to go back and tag 10k+ pictures.
I even tag junk and test pictures. It makes it easy to go back and delete after I am done playing with them.
Your new friend:
Products | Lightroom | Adobe TV
I'm not good at the organizing part, but for now, I'm leaving all my Aperture files where they are. I have all my RAW files stored/backed-up on another hard drive, so I can import them in to Lightroom when and if I want to.
I updated to CC from 5.7 yesterday and so far all seems to be stable and running fine. I am looking forward to trying some panoramas and HDR to see how those tools work. I've heard that the facial recognition feature kinda' sucks.
I don't think I'll ever regret going with the Creative Cloud $10 a month deal. And, after using Lightroom for a few weeks, I do not miss Aperture at all.
I updated to CC from 5.7 yesterday and so far all seems to be stable and running fine. I am looking forward to trying some panoramas and HDR to see how those tools work. I've heard that the facial recognition feature kinda' sucks.
I don't think I'll ever regret going with the Creative Cloud $10 a month deal. And, after using Lightroom for a few weeks, I do not miss Aperture at all.
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Tips? Sure do.
- Grab the laptop
- Open a beverage
- Turn on the TV
- Do as many as you can until your brain is numb
- Repeat as necessary
Before that, however, figure out what kind of organization will work for you. I have catalogs for each year and then organize within each year by subject. Use tags and collections!! Learn to tag as you import new stuff and tag stuff that's there either during your organizing or in a second pass (if you've had 4 years of untagged files like me it can be daunting, but there is an end to the madness). Collections can work well if you have groupings you want to access together that runs against your organization structure - for example you organize all vacation shots by trip, but you also want "Landscapes", "Churches", "Architecture".
If you've never used it, watch a video or three. Here's Tim Grey's take.
Great tips from Jake there.
Honestly, I made the switch without really knowing anything or watching any videos. I like to get the lay of the land before I start learning. Since I have watched videos and read a lot of tips and even removed all pictures to organize and setup things then re-imported. With that said, if you already have them in folders and you are use to that organization then let LR import those folders and your all set.
I have a few things that seem better with LR, start up and switching panels seem faster to me after the initial catalog upgrade was finished. Still going through the options and will try to process a few older pictures by resetting and performing the same edits. Camera is in the shop so new pictures for me at the moment, just tinkering with older ones.
After using LR for a while it almost seems alien to go back to Aperture and use the tools.
Honestly, I made the switch without really knowing anything or watching any videos. I like to get the lay of the land before I start learning. Since I have watched videos and read a lot of tips and even removed all pictures to organize and setup things then re-imported. With that said, if you already have them in folders and you are use to that organization then let LR import those folders and your all set.
I have a few things that seem better with LR, start up and switching panels seem faster to me after the initial catalog upgrade was finished. Still going through the options and will try to process a few older pictures by resetting and performing the same edits. Camera is in the shop so new pictures for me at the moment, just tinkering with older ones.
After using LR for a while it almost seems alien to go back to Aperture and use the tools.
I'd suggest making one folder on whatever harddrive you want to store your pictures on and calling it something like "Don's Lightroom Pictures". Then whenever you import pictures, import them into this folder and you can have subfolders as well.
Also once something is imported if you want to change the name of it or drag the pictures into another folder, whenever you do it in lightroom, it will make the changes on your harddrive at the same time.
Also once something is imported if you want to change the name of it or drag the pictures into another folder, whenever you do it in lightroom, it will make the changes on your harddrive at the same time.
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
One more thing on how I do it. I import to a dated folder where I will tag and rate images and delete the crap. It can take me 3-4 months to get through some bigger days, so every quarter I go back to the last month (May 1st I'll be doing February) and organizing that month into subjects and deleting all the stuff that I'm no longer convinced is desirable (only after backing it up first) and move the remaining stuff into the Subject Matter organization that I want to have at the end of the year when I'm done with the madness.
I am in the middle of getting some network attached storage set up which will hopefully save on some of the madness I experience regarding the location of photos (I keep all catalogs on my laptop w/ Smart Previews for any 4+ Star Photos of catalogs where the actual image files have been migrated to externals). Everyone has to figure that part out for themselves depending on the amount of storage you have. Everything needs to be backed up redundantly, and back up your current catalog at least once a week, and old ones any time you need to change something in them.
I am in the middle of getting some network attached storage set up which will hopefully save on some of the madness I experience regarding the location of photos (I keep all catalogs on my laptop w/ Smart Previews for any 4+ Star Photos of catalogs where the actual image files have been migrated to externals). Everyone has to figure that part out for themselves depending on the amount of storage you have. Everything needs to be backed up redundantly, and back up your current catalog at least once a week, and old ones any time you need to change something in them.
Oh, one thing that took me a while to figure out was how to setup my EXIF correctly. So go through your import settings and make sure they are what you want. I wish I could remember but you can you make an import preset and it will apply for all pictures imported. Things like applying camera/lens profiles and couple others that I do for every import. Pretty slick and saves time, but getting organized right off the bat is most important.
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Also, take advantage of the tools you have in the Import module. Add your copyright to the EXIF data, and apply any tags that are universal to the import. Saves from having to do it later.
Oh, and I forgot, for tagging old photos there's this Spray Can tool at the bottom of the Library module where you can enter a set of keywords and then just click on the appropriate images in your current folder view. Makes life really easy if you have a bunch of shots from a day where a certain tag(s) applies randomly throughout. Just put the keywords in and one click adds them all to that shot. I forget about this all the time and get angry when I remember it after doing it through the right panel for 2 hours.
Oh, and I forgot, for tagging old photos there's this Spray Can tool at the bottom of the Library module where you can enter a set of keywords and then just click on the appropriate images in your current folder view. Makes life really easy if you have a bunch of shots from a day where a certain tag(s) applies randomly throughout. Just put the keywords in and one click adds them all to that shot. I forget about this all the time and get angry when I remember it after doing it through the right panel for 2 hours.