Killer Lightroom’s Tips for New Users #3: Do Yourself a Favor and Store Your Images in One Place

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Two weeks ago I shared a new article from new user tips series by Scott Kelby that can be found on the Lightroom Killer Tips website.So far the readers and new visitors like the series. For the most part this great mini series is almost complete and you can visit the site anytime to see the new user tips. But I will continue to share a new one with my thoughts on the topic each week.

Do Yourself a Favor and Store Your Images in One Place

When I first made the move to digital from film, I kept my files all over the place. But in reality, I think it was three or four places. After a while it became an issue. A lot of the issues with the crazy photo file storage was in part I wasn’t happy with the quality of cameras and the image quality that I could afford with my budget. So I tended to shoot with film and use my photo scanner and scan the negatives into the computer before editing them. I then let the system put the images in the default software places. And that wasn’t the smartest idea.

For the second part, I had my personal computer, my laptop, and college computer in the lab using external storage devices that I used almost daily to work on the images. So my files were store across multiple devices and imported over to the desktop when needed. Usually I was in a hurry and I would dump them in the my documents folders and move them to where I thought they should go at a later date. By then, I had forgotten I had them.

Once I got serious with digital photography and the amount of pictures I had to edit, I streamlined my file system by storing everything in one place and on a portable drive that I can grab if the house burns down around me. Not including back up drives. But I will go into that a later date.

That means I have one parent folder and hundreds of subfolders within more subfolders. I break everything down by month and year taken, then subfolders for the named photo shoots. With a few other sub folders.

Now I know my images are in place and I can generally find what I’m looking for in just a few minutes. For more than just my thoughts on this topic make sure to check out Scott Kelby’s article on Lightroom Killer Tips. – 10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users: #3. It’s a short read and he gives you some of the reasons why he doesn’t use more than one place to store his images.