Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Lightroom can do a brilliant job of keeping you organized, as long as you start out
being organized, and that means sticking to this one simple, but critical, rule: keep
all your photos inside one main folder. It doesn't matter how many other folders
you have inside that main folder, just make sure all your photos reside within it.
This is the key ingredient to making everything work smoothly. If, instead, you
import photos from folders in different locations all over your computer, you're
headed for trouble. Here's how to set things up right from the start:
Step One:
As you read above, our goal is to get
all our photos inside one main folder,
right? Well, if you decided to store all
your photos on your computer, then the
rest is pretty easy. By default, Lightroom
automatically chooses your Pictures (or
My Pictures) folder as your main photo
folder, and when you go to import photos
from a memory card, it will automatically
choose that folder for you. However, I'm
going to recommend doing one extra
thing now to make your life much easier:
go inside your Pictures folder, create a new
empty folder, and name it “My Lightroom
Photos” (you don't have to name it that
exactly, but just to make things consistent
here in the topic, that's what I've named
my main folder). That way, when that day
comes when you run out of hard disk
space (and it will come way sooner than
you might imagine), you can move, copy,
or back up your entire photo library by
simply moving one folder—your My Light-
room Photos folder. This is one of those
things that if you do it now, there will
come a day when it will save you not just
hours, but literally days, worth of work.
Continued
