[David Cook]

Hi all,
hopefully in correct forum apologies if not.
I have had a K10D for many years and LR3 for about the same length of time but unbelievably have never shot in RAW.

The camera has only been used as a holiday 'snapper' recording in JPEG. and all of my folders and collections are JPEG
I have recently retired and hope to get more into 'proper photography'. I have researched and decided to try RAW DNG rather than the PEF option given in the camera.

When I come to import the images into lightroom the options given are 'convert to DNG' 'copy' or 'add'. By my reconning why would I want to convert to DNG if I have already taken the shot in camera with RAW DNG!! yet everything I have read says not to copy or add or have I misinterpreted that. What should I be doing please ?

[Wheatfield]

Hi all,
hopefully in correct forum apologies if not.
I have had a K10D for many years and LR3 for about the same length of time but unbelievably have never shot in RAW.

The camera has only been used as a holiday 'snapper' recording in JPEG. and all of my folders and collections are JPEG
I have recently retired and hope to get more into 'proper photography'. I have researched and decided to try RAW DNG rather than the PEF option given in the camera.

When I come to import the images into lightroom the options given are 'convert to DNG' 'copy' or 'add'. By my reconning why would I want to convert to DNG if I have already taken the shot in camera with RAW DNG!! yet everything I have read says not to copy or add or have I misinterpreted that. What should I be doing please ?

You want to copy the files to a new location and add them to the catalogue. Use the "copy" function. This will leave the files resident on your camera card in the event something goes sideways in the process. If you use the add function, nothing gets put on the hard drive, Lightroom just adds the files on the card to its catalogue, and as soon as you take the card out of the reader, the files are no longer accessible (and are lost when you format the card).

[David Cook]

Thank you for the rapid response.
When you say copy the files to a new location I assume when I choose the 'copy' function it will give me the option where to put them via a dialogue box. In my case 'My Pictures' within 'documents'. Fom there I can tell Lightroom to look for them and import them to my catalogue.

[Bruce Clark]

There is a very good tutorial from B+H here

You Tube

You Tube

It is for Lightroon 5 but the principles would be similar even if all the features are not in your version.

I think the key is to get your file structure on your computer organised in a way that suits you before your import anything. Some folks organise their images on subject matter like travel, nature etc. Others prefer a date based structure, wedding photographers may prefer a client based structure. It all depends on your preferences. Get it right and the catalogue is a blessing. Get it wrong and you will curse it forever. If you can recall where you were on Jan 15th 2010 and what your were photographing then a date based system may be for you. If like me you more easily recall subject matter, organise your hard drive that way that way

eg:
C/Images/Nature/Flowers/Melton Botanical Gardens 2016-06-11 Note: Local to me so I go there a lot so the date is relevent
C/Images/Events/Fred's Birthday 2014-05-01 Note: Unique event and the date is important but I am more likely to want to locate an image of Fred
C/Images/Travel/Australia/Queensland/Bundaberg 2015-08 Note: I travel to Bundaberg often, so year and month is relevant
C/Images/Travel/Overseas/China 2013 Note: I go there once in a lifetime so year is relevant but exact date not so.

Adding key words may be laborious if you have a lot of photos but well worth the time

Once you import your existing images using the ADD command it is time to import from the camera using the COPY command. For this I have a folder called "AAAA New imports" so it is always at the top of the tree and import all files from camera to there using Copy command. As previous response you still have duplicate on your camera card. From there I sort into sub folders eg. Johns Birthday 2016-o9-01 and move the subfolders to the appropriate part of the file structure so they become a subfolder under Events. While still in the subfolder it is a good time to add universal keywords to the files in the folder. eg "Birthday" "Fred" "People" "Events" and so forth.

Now the REAL IMPORTANT thing is to never use the computer file system to move files, copy, delete or rename them. They they will be lost to the lightroom catalogue. All these functions should be done using the Lightroom file management tools. It is possible to recover things but you can create a real mess.

RAW: PEF v DNG is personal preference. I use PEF as when I started I was not aware of DNG and see no real reason to change now.

Always backup your catalogue regularly but remember this does not backup your files.

Good luck.

[David Cook]

Thank you so much for the time you have taken to construct your response Bruce. This will be very helpful to me.

I do have a system of sorts on my hard drive eg: I have separate folders for Christmas 2010, Christmas 2011 etc but they are in their own folders within ' My pictures' rather than a parent folder called Christmas. All of these appear separately in the 'Collections' part of Lightroom rather than the Folders part. I fear it is too late now to re-organise my hard drive as you say Lightroom will lose the links. But from now on I can begin to adopt a system similar to yours for newly imported images

Once again thank you.