LightRoom Help …Again - or is that still?

Lawrence

Senior Member
Its been 3 days now and I am still battling to figure out LR.

If I insert my SD card with images on the Nikon software comes up as the default downloading system but I cannot find a way to get it to download to a folder or catalog in LR.
If I open LR and try to find the SD card I am unable to do so and the card does not come up as an option in the source section (Left hand side of screen)
If I attach my camera to the computer and open LR I can then find the camera and download but not to the folder/catalog I want to download to (right hand side of screen).

If I use the Nikon Software to download to the folder I have been using up until now and then try to open the images I only get "open with":
PSE 11
PS CC
and a few other silly things but NOT LightRoom!

So should I uninstall and re-install LR in the hope that this will sort itself out?
Or am I really as dumb as I feel?

Or … should I go back to golf, sell the camera and lenses and buy golf balls?
Far less frustrating maybe.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Its been 3 days now and I am still battling to figure out LR.

If I insert my SD card with images on the Nikon software comes up as the default downloading system but I cannot find a way to get it to download to a folder or catalog in LR.
If I open LR and try to find the SD card I am unable to do so and the card does not come up as an option in the source section (Left hand side of screen)
If I attach my camera to the computer and open LR I can then find the camera and download but not to the folder/catalog I want to download to (right hand side of screen).

If I use the Nikon Software to download to the folder I have been using up until now and then try to open the images I only get "open with":
PSE 11
PS CC
and a few other silly things but NOT LightRoom!

So should I uninstall and re-install LR in the hope that this will sort itself out?
Or am I really as dumb as I feel?

Or … should I go back to golf, sell the camera and lenses and buy golf balls?
Far less frustrating maybe.
Pretty sure you need to import your photos using LR; and you can't put it in your "Open With" context menu for that reason.

....
 

J-see

Senior Member
Not sure if this helps much but I always download the files using the Nikon soft and use ViewNX to sort out the rubbish. That's, in my experience, fastest.

Only then I open LR and import what is left.
 

ZuZuPhOtO

Senior Member
Ok I am not sure why your having this problem, but I would close all software put the card in your reader try and copy all the files to a folder on your desktop. If you can that far then Startup lightroom and on the left in the navigator pane, click the plus sign nest to the folders tab, and choose add folder. Then select the folder you have on your desktop see if it asks you to import the files. Also one of the best ways I have found to learn lightroom Is Lynda.com, just sign up for a month and watch the Lightroom 5 essentials series, very good! Starts at the very beginner level and goes into some advanced features. You will not be disappointed. I hope this helps......
 

Deleted

Senior Member
@Lawrence

It's an Autoplay issue.

10.10.2014-22.38.36.png
 

J-see

Senior Member
If you click import in the Lib, you can specify which folder not?

That's how I do it. There's little advantage to directly trying to import all images from the SD to LR since it converts all to DNG. Unless every photo on the card is a keeper, it's only wasting your time.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Simply put, LR wants photos in it's library; it doesn't know how to reference photos any other way. You can associate photographic file-types with LR, but that too will open the Import Photos dialog for the same reason. It's one of the things I personally do not like about Lightroom.

You can auto-import from a designated folder, too, but that's not the same thing as adding an "Open with" to your context menu. Still, I guess it's probably the next best thing.

See this Article: How Do I Open My Images in Lightroom. It explains things a little more in depth.

....
 
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wornish

Senior Member
I have just been through a similar problem but using the USB cable. The same solution should work for the SD card. I have a two click solution that uses Nikon Transfer first but its completely automatic and involves just two clicks once set up

In Nikon Transfer 2 I have these settings:
Primary Destination Tab
Top left browse to the target folder I have ......Pictures/Nikon Transfer set as my target folder
Top middle select create a new sub folder for each transfer
Top right de-select rename each file on transfer

Preferences Tab
Top right select all three
Delete original files after transfer
Disconnect automatically after transfer
Open destination folder with the following application after transfer ..... enter Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5

So what happens is
Plug in my camera and switch on
Nikon Transfer opens and all images are displayed in a grid
Just click Start Transfer button and one by one images are transferred to computer and disappear from the nikon transfer screen.
Lightroom automatically opens with all the new images displayed and selected as the Source
Make sure Move files (top of page) is selected in Lightroom import screen
The last destination folder you used in your Lightroom catalogue is also selected as the Destination and so all you need is to click Import and your done.
You have other options on the right hand side of the Lightroom import screen you can change before you select the import button but it can't get much simpler than that.

All the pics are moved to your catalogue Destination folder leaving your Nikon Transfer folder with a dated subfolder that is now empty.
hope this makes sense.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
As HoroscopeFish and others have said, Lightroom requires photos to be imported into the LR catalog before you can use it. You cannot "Open In Lightroom" the way you do in PS or PSE.

I heartily recommend abandoning other tools and import directly into Lightroom and get used to using it as the anchor of your workflow. You can set it up to recognize a card inserted and automatically pop-up the Import dialog. If you must continue with your present Import system then go into Lightroom, open the Import dialog and choose Add instead of Copyat the top to avoid a second copy of your folder. Just realize that Lightroom is very sensitive to folder organization within the catalog, so once you import something into LR you cannot move it to other folders using anything other the Lightroom or the catalog will lose the image, which means disconnecting the associated LR edits.

I highly recommend getting and reading the Kelby/Kloszowski book "Lightroom 5 for Digital Photographers" as it does a great job of explaining the software from a workflow management point of view. Haven't watched it, but I suspect the Kost video will also get you started in a proper manner.

The thing you need to get you head wrapped around is that Lightroom isn't a piece of editing software. It's not like Photoshop. It's an integrated package with editing (and other) capabilities, but it is catalog driven - that's the only way it knows about a photo.
 
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