Import photos into Lightroom: Basic workflow
You must import photos into the Lightroom library to begin working with them. During import, you can choose either to move or copy the photo files into a specific folder, or reference the photo files in their current location. Importing tells Lightroom what photos you want to work with, whether they are imported directly from a camera, hard drive, memory card reader, or other storage devices. As photos are imported, you can rename them, apply Develop adjustments to them, embed metadata and keywords, and even simultaneously back up the photos to a different folder.
After they are imported, Lightroom adds the photos to the library and starts building previews and cataloging metadata. Unless manually removed, the previews and metadata stay in the library, even if you move the corresponding photos off of your computer to archive them in a different storage location. Thumbnail previews appear in the Grid view and Filmstrip, and folders containing the imported photos appear in the Folders panel of the Library module. You can’t import the same photo into Lightroom multiple times unless you first delete the photo from the library. See Browsing the catalog and Create virtual copies.
Lightroom has an Import Photos dialog box for previewing, selecting, and adding information about the photos you want to import. The dialog box includes the following options:
- File Handling
- Specifies how to import photos into the library.
- Organize
- Specifies what folder hierarchy to use when copying or moving photos into the library.
- File Naming
- Specifies how to name photos being copied or moved into the library.
- Information To Apply
- Specifies what Develop preset, metadata, and keywords to apply while importing photos.
- Show Preview
- Displays the Preview window for viewing and selecting specific photos to import.
1. Connect the camera or memory card reader to your computer.
In addition to cameras and memory card readers, Lightroom imports photos from any folder on the hard drive, CDs or DVDs, and other storage devices. You can also import photos from another catalog or from Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Album 2.0.
2. Select the photos to import.
To bring photos into the library, either click the Import button in the Library module or choose File > Import Photos, then navigate to the folder containing the photos you want and click Open or Choose Selected (Windows) or Choose (Mac OS).
3. Choose the folder of photos.
In the Open dialog box, navigate to the folder containing the photos you want and click Choose.
4. Choose how to import the photos into your library.
Choose whether to import photos by referencing them, or copying or moving them to a specified directory. You can also copy photos as Digital Negative (DNG) files. See Import photos from disk into Lightroom.
5. (Optional) Back up your photos as they’re importing.
If you’re copying or moving photos into the library, you can also specify whether to back up photos as they’re imported.
6. (Optional) Preview the photos to import.
Select Show Preview to view and select specific photos if you don’t want to import all the photos in a folder. See Preview and select the photos to import.
7. If copying or moving photos, specify a destination folder and how to name the imported files.
8. (Optional) Set options for importing your photos.
You can set options to apply specific Develop settings, metadata, or keywords to the photos as they’re being imported. See Apply Develop settings to photos when importing, Create and apply Develop presets, and Apply metadata to photos when importing.
9. Select the type of previews to display.
The Standard-Size Previews option provides higher quality, but deselecting the option uses the embedded previews in photos and initially displays photos faster in the Grid view. See Specify Standard-Size previews when importing.
For more information on importing photos, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_lr_video_import.