Help with Lightroom 4....Please

When I bought Lightroom 4, I bought Scott Kelby's book for my Kindle and it has helped me very much and I really like using Lightroom. I am having one HUGE problem that I am ashamed to admit but I cannot find the answer. I import my files into Lightroom and store them in files on a hard disc just as Scott Kelby said and I can find the files with no problem. The problem is: I cannot get the files back into Lightroom again to use them if I want to go back and work on a file that has been previously imported back into my Lightroom program to adjust. I just get a message that the file has been previously imported into Lightroom. How do I get a file that I have previously imported back into my Lightroom so that I can make further adjustments on it? I know that it is something simple but I just cannot find it and I have spent hours looking through Kelby's book.

Thank you for your help.



Hal

If you've imported it once, it should still be there unless you've deleted it.

Go to the Library, look at the left pane (click the little triangle on the middle of the left edge if it's not visible) and click on "All Photographs" under Catalog near the top. What happens?

When you import, LR only shows you a grid of those newly imported files unless you tell it to show you older files. That's likely why you're not seeing the old photos.

It's unclear what you are actually doing. It sounds like you are trying to double click a photo file or drag a photo file into lightroom. Simply open Lightroom and navigate to your drive and folder and then you'll see the photos from that folder that are in Lightroom while in "library" view.

+1 to what Richard said. You don't need to import again as it is already imported. You just need to locate the image using the navigation pane as Richard describes. Exactly where the image is (thus where you need to look for it) will depend on what settings you used when you imported it.

Hal,

+1 to what's already been said: if you've imported the files into Lightroom, they're still there. I have only a couple extra comments.

The key thing with Lightroom is to realize that, once you've imported files into it, you need henceforth to use it as your file manager. If you want to find a file and open it, don't do it in the Mac OS X Finder or Windows Explorer: get into Lightroom first, and use the browser in the library. To view and edit a file that's been imported, start in Lightroom, find the file and just select it.

I find it not just useful but pretty near essential to organize my photos by date taken. Lightroom understands this method of organization, and it's based on something absolute (date taken) not something squishy like content or project or whatever. Basic organization by date looks like this (these are folders):




2012

2012-12-30

2012-12-31




2013

2013-01-01

2013-01-02

etc




If I import from an SD card, Lightroom is able to parse the files out into the right folders for me.




Final note: One thing that will cause you problems is moving or renaming a folder (or an image file) on the computer using the computer's filing system rather than Lightroom. That's why I say, once the files are indexed in Lightroom's database, use Lightroom as your asset manager, even if you use another program to process them (as I sometimes do).

Will

I am at work right now and cannot wait to get home to put your suggestions to work. I really appreciate the help and hope that someday I will be able to help you.

Hal

I use the same system as Will. I import images using a card reader and have the Lightroom import defaults set to put the images in their own folder based on the date which is in turn inside a year folder. However I then usually rename the folder to add a subject or location (EG "2013-01-11 Rugby" or "2013-02-06 Hong Kong") just to provide extra detail when browsing folders.

I then tag all my photos making it much easier to search for them later.

Dr Hal said:

Dr Hal wrote:

When I bought Lightroom 4, I bought Scott Kelby's book for my Kindle and it has helped me very much and I really like using Lightroom. I am having one HUGE problem that I am ashamed to admit but I cannot find the answer. I import my files into Lightroom and store them in files on a hard disc just as Scott Kelby said and I can find the files with no problem. The problem is: I cannot get the files back into Lightroom again to use them if I want to go back and work on a file that has been previously imported back into my Lightroom program to adjust. I just get a message that the file has been previously imported into Lightroom. How do I get a file that I have previously imported back into my Lightroom so that I can make further adjustments on it? I know that it is something simple but I just cannot find it and I have spent hours looking through Kelby's book.

Thank you for your help.

Hal

Click to expand...

I'm going to come at this from another angle. When I read as written above, "The problem is...." it seems to me your'e trying to work on an image file you've already worked on and either make more adjustments to it or start making new adjustments from scratch, but without changing the one you've already worked on. If that's the case (and I may be wrong here) then right click on the image you want to work on, and down the list is Create Virtual Copy. A copy will be made and a little page turn symbol will appear in the lower left of the image to show it's a copy. Click on the Develop module and either make further adjustment or click Reset and clear all the adjustments you've made and start from scratch. In order for it to be a real and virtual file, you would have to export it in the file type of your choice.

I'm not sure if this is what you were asking.

I had a similar problem. Did you untick the "don't import suspected duplicates box" . it is default to checked.