That certainly helps, I think it’s a great pointer and a better way to manage photographs.

Thank you.

Regards

Andrew

The issue you are having is a common one. I don’t have an answer about the preference to set in LR3 B2, but it’s best to never have two originals be the same name. Some cameras allow you to add a prefix to every image that is shot, but most don’t.

My preferred prefix, which you can add, is the date of capture. It has three advantages:
1. Unless you shoot more than 10,000 photos in a 24 hour period and as long as you set the counter to continuous, you will never have the same photo named the same thing.
2. You will immediately know the date of capture
3. The date, if written like this: 20100527 (called DATE YYYYMMDD in the renaming panel), lines up nicely and is pretty compact.

There are many tools to do bulk file renames. It’s best done with all the high res files online and be sure to do it through Lightroom if you already have cataloged images (you can find the option under Library>Rename photos). If not, it will be a major headache trying to get Lightroom to link to the files properly because the names of the files in the LR catalog will be different from the originals).

If you have not cataloged the images, then you can change their names first, then import them, or you can do it on the fly by choosing copy to a new location from the top of the import dialog box.

There could be a problem with the system I describe if you have more than one camera with the same RAW file naming structure sharing a Lightroom catalog (or any catalog). In that case you can add an A or B after the date to distinguish between the cameras.

Hope that helps,

Andrew

Andrew Darlow
Editor, The Imaging Buffet
http://www.imagingbuffet.com
Author, 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques:
An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers – http://www.inkjettips.com
and
Pet Photography 101:
Tips for Taking Better Photos of Your Dog or Cat – http://www.PhotoPetTips.com

I’m using Lightroom 3 Beta 2 and as a newbie to all of this, I am still running through a videos and tutorials, but I’m still having an issue when importing or synchronising images. I’ve got many of photographs and (due to the settings I use in camera) I have cycled through the number ranges 0001-9999 and back to 0001 used for file naming a number of times now.
This means that, for example, I may have 3 or 4 images called “IMG_7656.JPG” and Lightroom is not importing these ‘duplicates’. As I see it, my options are to
a) change the way my camera names files or,
b) import directly into Lightroom in the future,
however none of these options would help with my current problem.

I have looked at the File Handling preferences, but I’ve not yet found any option to either disable ignore duplicates, or to consider an image as a duplicate only if both file name and timestamp are the same.

I’m syre it’s something small I’ve simply overlooked.

Any pointers will be fantastic thank you

Regards
Andrew

When Lightroom presents images in Loupe view, it will render the standard resolution preview (if it does not already exist) from the original file and then render the full-resolution preview from the original file. Depending on the file size and your computer’s capabilities, this rendering may take a few moments. You can reduce the render time when viewing images if you have Lightroom create standard or 1:1 previews when photos are imported. Check out Lightroom Speed Tip #6 from this link for more information on pre-rendering previews.

If you’re seeing pixelated images, check and see if Lightroom is presenting an overlay message to you. Typically you will see “Rendering Standard Preview” or “Rendering 1:1 Preview” on your screen. It sound like, instead, you may be seeing a “File Offline or Missing” message. Lightroom needs access to the original file to build the preview.

Also, are your camera settings such that you’re capturing a full-sized JPG? It’s possible to capture a raw + small JPG file. I prefer to not shoot in raw + JPG. By capturing only a raw file, you can be assured that you’re using the highest quality file for your work. You can create as many JPGs from this raw file that your heart desires.

-Scott

PS – You mention that you’re still using the Lightroom 2.7 release candidate. The full release is now available, so I’d recommend grabbing that.

Thanks for the kind words. I’ll try to put that together this week for you guys.

-Scott

Thanks for the vids! Just got my first dSLR, installed lightroom, and I discovered this site. Wow. This has been so EASY so far. Thank you!

When will you be uploading the video on “Catalog Settings?” If you wont do a video, can you quickly let us know what we should do? Thanks!

Elliott

Thank you!

There is not a preference to have the files removed from your camera or card after import. It’s a very important practice to FORMAT your card in your camera before EVERY use, so deleting the files from the card would save you no time.

Be sure and consult your camera’s manual to find out how to FORMAT your memory card. Deleting images from the card is not the same thing.

-Scott