Got 200 GB of Pictures to manage

[muenchphoto]

Hey there,

 

I just copied all of my pictures that I have shot of one year traveling around the world on my harddisk.

Because I often did multi-backups I think I ended up with some GB of duplicates here. Just how could I

find out and manage that and build up a solid library? How would you start?

 

Do you think the best would be to import everything to Lightroom?

 

thanks in advance

 

marcel

[patrickn]

Wow, you travelled around the world on your harddisk. :-)

 

Seriously, Lightroom is one approach. Import them in place, Lightroom should warn you of any duplicates. Then you can sort by time/date. You can then create new catalogues for each location or date range etc.

[muenchphoto]

hey thanks,

 

why do you think its the best to import them in place? wouldn't it be better to copy them

and even make a backup to another destination? Sorry but I don't understand right now

how I would get a physically sort-out library. Isn't lightroom just going to ignore

duplicates and importing just one file which then is part of the database? If so, my

database would show a well-sorted library but my harddisk (on which I travelled roudn the

world .. haha good one) would still be a mess.

 

I thought if I import all the images with Lightroom and have them copied to a new place I

will automaticaly get some order on my harddrive by just using the copied files which

contain of non-duplicates and erasing all the original files which I don't longer need.

 

Do you think that could work out or did I get wrong how Lightroom actually works ;)

 

ciao

[patrickn]

If you have enough room in your Lightroom library, then yeah create a new library by importing to Lightroom. You then have the originals (with duplicates) on one harddisk, and your new Lightroom library (without duplicates) on another.

[patricklavoie]

i suggest you get another hard drive.

 

Open your file in Lr, slect *ignore duplicate*, create some collection by place, date etc...whatever you need and feel good for you. then export everything to your new fresh hard drive.

 

Format the old disk, and copy everything back to it. keep this copy of site andf well secure.

 

You know have 2 backup perfectly in shape...because now you have nothing left if s*** append until then since you got all your life on ONLY one hard disk.

[muenchphoto]

jep thanks, thats what I am doing right now. got 3 harddisks so won't be a problem to do

these procedures...

 

thanks

[dirk_funhoff3]

Well, Lightroom is not a database - you cannot really "manage" images. Of course, it depends what you want to do, but LR is mainly intended to have a very efficient workflow for (RAW-)images. As a database, the best I know is iMatch (www.photools.com) - you can manage images wherever they are, even on DVDs for backups... Of course, there is no problem having a couple of similiar files in different folders, selecting them, copying it to external drives back and forth. It is a very powerfull tool.

 

Happy shooting, Dirk

[muenchphoto]

for image-managing purposes I mainly use adobe bridge or google picasa (which is

unbelievable fast and easy). first step will be to sort out the duplicates and LR seems to do

that fine until now. when the database and with that a clean filesystem is built up, I'll give

imatch a try - its always good to explore new programs that might improve the workflow.

thanks for your recommendation

 

marcel

[yoni_perlmutter]

You are describing more than one "issue" in your post.

 

Duplicates are easy to find once the images are catalogued

in a database which is really a database.

 

Basically you can move images around from hard device to device,

can catagorise, re-catagorise, and re-re-catagorise them with

any kind of hiearchical structure which suits your purpose.

As long as you do this from "inside" the database, the database

should be aware of the changes in the location and should make

those changes in the background.

 

The images have to be incorpoprated into the database first.

As to where they sit physically, this may be more or less important

to you, depending upon how you would want to perform system backups.

 

IMatch does all of the above and much more. I think LR is a great

product too but since I prefer discrete applications, and since

I needed full database function, and since I use other apps

for image editing, it left no room for LR, for me.

 

I would recommend IMatch because of its power and full functionality -

including extensibility. But this means, of course, that you would have to play your part by writing the scripts to extend its function.

 

Good luck.