How do you get started with Lightroom Classic?

Tuesday 17 December 2024, 16:48 by Nando Harmsen | 4,425 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Have you never used Lightroom Classic before? Are you planning to manage your photos in Lightroom Classic? Make sure you get off to the best possible start. These tips should help.

Are you planning to start using Lightroom Classic? Make sure you prepare properly. This prevents you from later shouting that your Lightroom Catalogue is a mess.

It can never hurt to create a temporary Lightroom Classic Catalogue and practise with it. I would certainly advise doing this before you start with a final version. It does not matter if you make 'mistakes'. You learn from them. Call this step 0.

Are you ready to start with a final Lightroom Classic catalogue? Consider following these steps.

1. Put your photos together

Do you have photos in different locations on your hard drive? Make sure you put everything together. Choose a folder where you move all your photos to. Create a structure of subfolders.

My folder structure on the hard drive. Create one that works for you and put all your photos in it.
A structure by year, month and day is one example. You can also create folders for particular disciplines. For example, holidays, portraits or sport. Do not make it too complicated, because if photos would fit in different folders, it is already too complex.

The advantage of having all your photos together is that you have an overview. Keeping an overview is important, so you can also find photos outside Lightroom Classic. Or for backing them up.

2. Put your Lightroom Catalogue in a logical location

Create a folder for the Lightroom Classic catalogue. Put it in a logical location, possibly 'next to' the folder containing all your photos. This way, you know exactly where to find the catalogue, and backing it up becomes easier.

I have an external hard drive for my photos, and an external SSD for my Lightroom Classic catalogue
I keep all my photos on a separate external hard drive. The Lightroom Classic catalogue is on an external SSD drive. This means I do not burden my computer's internal hard drive with photos or the catalogue containing smart previews.

3. Import all photos at once

Now it is time to import. You can do this all at once, since you collected all your photos in one folder in step 1. Tick the option to include subfolders, so Lightroom Classic also sees the photos in the subfolders. Remember: choose Add, not Copy or Move.

Import all the photos you have on your hard drive. Add them, do not copy or move them.
Importing can take a while, especially when you let it create smart previews. Give the programme time to do this. Importing this number of photos is a one-off task. In the meantime, you can prepare step four.

Would you rather add the photos in stages? That is no problem. Choose the folder you want to import and let the programme do its thing. Then choose the next folder. Since you have to do things yourself, it will ultimately take longer than importing everything at once.

4. Create a workflow for reviewing photos

A good workflow is important. Working consistently is the key to efficiency and a good overview. Write it down, so you have something to guide you. Eventually, it will become automatic.

A workflow idea. Stick to it and do not deviate. Use this as an example and create your own version that works for you.
Determine how you are going to use the star rating. How you are going to assign colours. Create an outline of the collections you want to use. Choose a useful structure for keywords.

Do not worry, you can always adjust things later. Collections are not permanent, and you can still change everything if that works better.

5. Start using Lightroom Classic

Now it is time to really start using Lightroom Classic. Create your collections and add keywords. You do not have to have all your existing photos perfectly organised in the catalogue in one evening. Do this in stages, especially if there are a lot of them.

Have all the photos been imported? Then you can start organising, adding keywords and sorting them.
Always work backwards. Start with the most recent photos, then move on to the older ones. When new photos are added, deal with those first. If you have time left, take some older photos to organise, assign keywords to and review.

Have you already used a practice catalogue, which I called step 0? Then you already have an idea of what is possible. The nice thing is that you can always keep a practice catalogue alongside it, to try things out.

Dit artikel is voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 17 december 2024.
De eerste publicatiedatum is maandag 3 juni 2024, 20:02.

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