Using the Import and Copy Command in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v3
Please read Getting Started: What Does “Import” Mean in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? before proceeding with this tutorial.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3
“Importing” means referencing new images into your Lightroom Catalog. This is a critical step, and it is one of the first tasks that you will do with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. By creating an Import Preset in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, you are spelling out a list of steps that you want the computer to perform again and again. Using an Import Preset makes copying files from a digital camera’s memory card to your computer a painless procedure. The Import Preset is a step-by-step list that tells the software:
- where to put the copy of your new files
- whether or not to re-wrap your digital camera raw files into the DNG file format
- how to rename your new files
- what generic metadata like your copyright or website that you would like to automatically apply to all of your new images
- and how to divide your new files up into manageable, coherent, groups based on the capture date
By creating an Import Preset, you can automate each of these steps so that the memory card to computer transfer process is push button easy. This is a huge time saver for a serious photographer who empties memory cards on a daily basis! Before you build an Import Preset though I suggest reading all of the posts on how Lightroom works, and on how to set up your preferences, in the Getting Started Right with Lightroom 3 section of our website. You will want all of these settings in place before you build your Import Preset and start adding lots of files into your Lightroom Catalog.
Just in case you need the review, I find it helpful to explain again how the Lightroom Catalog functions. Lightroom is, first and foremost, a database program. As an analogy, think of Lightroom as if it were the card catalog in a physical library. Think of your Lightroom Catalog as if it were a library’s wooden crate full of index cards. Whenever you import an image, Lightroom adds another index card into this wooden crate. The index cards in your Lightroom Catalog mirror your files but they are not a second copy of the entire image. Each index card records a file’s name, its location within your computer, and all of your file’s metadata. In addition, the index card also includes small thumbnails and previews for each image. The critical point though is that the Lightroom Catalog isn’t a place; it is an index.
You must understand that your images, the actual files, are not stored in the Lightroom Catalog. The Catalog references your files and tracks their changes, but the files themselves do not live in the Lightroom Catalog. You have got to keep this “index vs. file location” distinction in mind when you are looking at the Import Dialog, and this distinction is particularly important when you are using Lightroom to empty a memory card.
You have got to keep this clear in your head, because the Import Dialog needs to know where it should put your new files! On the far right and top of the screen is the critical box that tells Lightroom where your files should go. Pay attention to this line! Too often people neglect this box. If you don’t set it up right, Lightroom will put your files in the wrong folder or on the wrong hard drive.
The Whole Import Dialog
When using a memory card, you only have two choices at the top of the screen. Both choices involve copying files over from your memory card so there is bad option here. How then do these choices differ?
- Copy photos to a new location and add to catalog – This choice makes an exact copy of the files on your memory card, regardless of file format, and places the copies in whatever location you have specified. These files are added into your Lightroom index after the copying process ends.
- Copy photos as a Digital Negative (DNG) and add to catalog – Like the first choice, this option makes a copy of each image on your memory card and stores the copies in whatever location you have specified. When you select this option though, your raw files are re-wrapped using the Adobe Digital Negative file format. All of the files on the card are copied, but only the raw files are converted from one file format to another. Once the copying process ends, all of the new files, regardless of their file format, are added into your Lightroom index. I like this choice, but before you pick this one you should carefully study up on what DNG means and how it might change your workflow.
Working our way down from the top right side of the Import Dialog there are fiour panels. The File Handling panel controls the Initial Preview size. When you view your images in Lightroom, you are looking at “previews” of your image. Lightroom uses three different size previews for each file; a thumbnail, a standard (full-screen) version, and a zoomed into 100% (1:1) version. Your choices in this box have no effect on your image quality, but rather on how quickly you can flip through your files and zoom in on them while editing and developing later on. This setting controls which of these three preview types Lightroom should create as part of the import process. The four choices are (in order from fastest to slowest):
- Minimal – Immediately displays the images using the smallest previews embedded in the photos. Standard-sized previews will be generated as-needed. This is the fastest method on import.
- Embedded & Sidecar – Displays the largest preview possible from the camera. This option take slightly longer than the “Minimal” setting, but it is still pretty fast.
- Standard – Renders full-screen previews as the files are imported. This takes more time, but once the import is complete you can flip through your images in the Fit on Screen display mode without any delay.
- 1:1 – All three preview sizes are generated on import. The 1:1 (100%) previews take quite a while to create, but once these previews are built you can zoom in on your images without any delay. I use this option most of the time. I would rather wait longer during import then during sorting. Generally, I am not in a big hurry during the memory card emptying stage, and I hate waiting for Lightroom to render my 1:1 (100%) previews while I am sorting through my images.
Beneath the Preview Size box there are two important switches. The Don’t re-import suspected duplicates checkbox tells Lightroom to watch for images that have already been added into your Lightroom catalog. I like turning this option on. It prevents me from emptying the same memory card twice in a drunken stupor!
The Backup to: setting allows you to copy the files on your memory card to two locations at once. The location specified in the File Handling section will be the images that are added into the Lightroom index. The second set, the Backup To set, will not be added into your index. I understand why the folks at Adobe created this option, but I don’t like it at all. I don’t use it because I have my own Professional-Grade Backup Plans that do a much better job protecting my files. If you use this choice, be aware that the backup files this option creates are static. These files are not updated automatically nor are they indexed. Since these files are static, they will not contain any of the improvements that you make to their twins while you are working in Lightroom.
Beneath this section are panels for File Renaming and information (metadata) to apply after the copying from card to computer process ends. The File Naming Template drop-down allows you to batch-rename your images as they are imported. The Information to Apply section lets you add metadata or develop settings to your images as they come in to the computer. These choices can be great time savers, but nothing that you add, or change, in this box is permanent. Remember that Lightroom is a completely non-destructive program.
- Develop Settings – You can choose a develop preset to apply to all of your images as they are imported. I rarely use this option.
- Metadata – You can apply a Metadata Preset, your copyright and contact information, to all of your images on import. This is a very useful time saver! More on Creating a Metadata Template is covered here.
- Keywords – Any keywords that you put in this box will be applied to all of the images in your current import. I rarely find this choice useful, since the same keywords rarely fit each and every image on my memory card. There are far more efficient ways to add detailed keywords within Lightroom’s Library Module.
Finally, the Destination panel lets you tell Lightroom how it should distribute your new files. After years of working with Lightroom, I have found that the “Organize by Date” using the “Year-Month-Day” option is the best choice. I urge you to set yours up just like mine though the numbers that you see for the sample folder name will differ.
In my opinion, this is the easiest and most sensible way to go but Lightroom is designed so that you can divide your files up any which way you want. The truth is that file folders serve very little purpose within a sophisticated metadata catalog-based image storage system. Once you start using Lightroom, your folder names are basically decorative. You could lump a lifetime’s worth of digital images into a single folder, but I am convinced that having Lightroom distribute my files into a folder for each and every day that I photograph is the simplest and most elegant choice.
Filed Under: (03) Importing • Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Tutorials
About the Author: David Marx is a digital photography instructor whose engaging teaching style inspires photographers of all skill levels. David is an Adobe Certified Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom Expert. David has led Adobe Photoshop / Photoshop Lightroom seminars and digital photography field workshops for The Rocky Mountain School of Photography, FirstLight Workshops, The American Society of Media Photographers, and the world-renowned Blackberry Farm Resort. To learn more about David's software seminars and field photography workshops, please visit 
Hi David,
First I gotta say I have thoroughly been enjoying your tutorials!!! I just got LR this weekend and have been poring over them.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is about folder monitoring. For the time being, I’d like to use my old way of importing pics to my computer and manually creating folders for them. Is there a way to tell LR to monitor a folder (such as “My Pics”) and automatically add to LR new folders/pics? I know this isn’t your recommended way and maybe someday I’ll get in line with your advice
Thanks again for all your tutorials!
The article is pretty misleading – you cannot operate the programe without importing, so basically you are in some way loosing the control over the photos unless they are duplicated. No drag and drop, no simple viewing..
There are plenty of other programs that will let you organise the files like you want and move photos from card with no pain at all.
The author really should underline that Lightroom is not for everyone. But not because they are “not serious photographers”
Dear Ira,
I am not sure that I understand your comments here. This tutorial is part of a series of posts on the different features within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom’s Import Dialog. Duplicating your images does not increase your “control” over them at all. You are right that there are other programs that can copy files off your memory card but few of them offer the complete package that Lightroom delivers. Almost no other software program offers a powerful image database module, a sophisticated raw file enhancer, and the ease of output.
We are in complete agreement though that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is not for everyone. The program is the wrong choice for “point and shoot” hobbyists and professionals who need a network driven image management system. We are in agreement that the Adobe marketing department should make it clearer who will and will not be pleased with this software.
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David Marx
Hi Dave,
Firstly, thanks so much for all the solid advice on starting from scratch with Lightroom. I really like to get things right first time around, and your tutorials have provided the means of achieving that for new photos.
Now I have a dilemma. Historically, I’ve saved all my raw files on 1 external drive, as a safety net. I’ve then copied them to my working drive and worked on them in photoshop, so now I have a mix of raw, psd & jpeg versions (sometimes even multiple interpretations of a single raw file). How do I import these into Lightroom in such a way that the Raw file and it’s derivatives are all accessible, but are initially seen as a single image?
I’m sure many others have faced a similar problem, so you may well have already posted info on this – if so, can you point me to it, otherwise your advice on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks again
Alison
Dear Alison,
First, in your Preferences Menu > General Tab make sure that you turn on the “Treat JPEG next to raw files as separate files.” Next set your View Options, and system preferences, so that you can see the complete filename with extension in the Library Module Grid View. Now use some variety of the Import Command to create references points for all your working files.
Before Importing everything consider re-organizing your working files into folder’s named for the year-month-day of capture. Keeping any and all derivative files in the same folder as the original capture from now on will simply your life too. Finally, consider building a much more robust backup system to protect all of your work including your Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Catalog files. See Professional-Grade Backup Plans.
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David Marx
Hi, I am new to Lr3 and would like to know how to get photos out of the Library view once they are in a folder. Do they just go away when I load new photos in or do I just delete them out of Lr and if so are they still in the assigned folder.
Brian
Dear Brian,
May I politely suggest a review of how Photoshop Lightroom functions for you? If I may suggest, you need to study up on the Lightroom Catalog, on what Import means in this context, and on the basics of Lightroom navigation before leaping into the software. Tutorials such as Getting Started: Where Should I Keep My Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Catalog, Getting Started: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3′s preference menus, Selection Secrets in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and Searching with Metadata in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom might help you better understand this program and its user interface.
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David Marx
Thanks for all the informative info. I’ve just switched from PC to a Mac and I’m having problems importing images to Lightroom 3. I’ve tried the memory card reader on the MacBook Pro and directly from my Nikon but still get…” file could not be read”. Suggestions?
Thank you! Barbara
Dear Barbara Hayton,
You need to test all three variables to figure out what’s causing the problem. To solve this one you need to make sure that the files on the card are indeed readable. You need to make sure that the card is properly formatted and that the card reader works properly. Try testing each component.
Try using the same card with a different card reader. Try using that card reader with a different card. Try using that card reader with another computer. Try all the variations: the files, the card, the card reader until you isolate the trouble.
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David Marx
David,
New to LR, former IPhoto organized person. Just watched the “Importing photos..” video. My question has to do with naming file folders. I usually name my folder using a “Year-Month-Day +Name of the shoot” convention. So where is the best place to put the name of the shoot. Your images in the tutorial were of mountains. Where do you put “Mountains?” Is the name of the shoot best put in as a keyword(s)?
Dan
Dear Dan,
If you think that having descriptive words in the folder’s name will help then my advice is to let Lightroom create the Year-Month-Day system on import. Once imported just right click on your folder’s name in the Library Module’s Folders Panel and use the Rename command to add additional text. Personally, I think that adding descriptive metadata to each and every image is a better use of your data entry time but for some folks folder names with words are an old habit that they find comforting. For more on the power of metadata see:
http://thelightroomlab.com/2010/08/searching-with-metadata-in-adobe-photoshop-lightroom/
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David Marx
Thank you so much David! That worked! :]
Jeff
I tried making a new import preset all over again. The Drive (A:) still won’t show in the Destination tab. The other drives/cards are still the only ones showing. Tell me where to send a screenshot if you need one.
Thanks.
Dear Jeff,
Ahh the joys of Windows. Unfortunately, you picked an impossible letter. I believe that even now in 2011 Windows reserves letter A:\ for the primary floppy drive. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_letter_assignment. Try using Z:\ instead!
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David Marx
Dear David,
I chose to change the drive’s letter to (A:) and then I deleted the old catalog shortcut, created a new one and told Lightroom to always open the catalog found on (A:). I then had to edit the import presets. The thing is that although I’ve now chosen the “Photos Go Here” folder in drve (A:) to be the destination, and did an import test that worked well, I cannot see the drive (A:), the “Photos Go Here” folder and the subfolders for the differnet dates in the Destination tab in the import window.
What do you suggest?
Thanks again,
Jeff
Hi, regarding the sub folder option I don’t think that it needs to be checked for the dated folder to be created, it should only be checked if you need to put the dated folder inside another folder and you name that folder in the text box next to the sub folder check box.
Hello Dave,
First of all thanks a lot for your tutorials. I set up lightroom this week and followed your advice on where to store photos/catalog, how to rename the catalog and how to create metadata and import presets and everything went perfectly well.
My first imports were from DVDs to an external hard drive which had been automatically named “LA-PUBLIC (D:)” upon setup. But today when I inserted my memory card for the first time, and then turned on my hard drive and clicked on the catalog shortcut which usually led to the renamed catalog on the external, a new empty catalog was opened. So I went to the ext. hard drive and opened the renamed catalog to get to my catalog. What had happened was that when I inserted my SD card the external was automatically renamed LA-PUBLIC (F:) which is why the shortcuts did not work. Also, the whole import preset was useless because of the drive renaming.
What is your advice on all this? Will stuff like that happen again with other devices? I started by deleting the Lightroom folder that was re-created in the pictures folder. What can I do next to avoid such hassles in the future? Rename the external something like (L:)? Or will that upset LR in some way?
Thanks a lot.
Jeff
Dear Jeff,
This is a common frustration for Windows users. The trouble that you are having will occur every single time the drive letter (D:\), (F:\), etc. changes. The solution is to take control over the Windows Drive Letter assignment system. See:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844
http://www.petri.co.il/control-usb-drive-letter-assignment-in-windows.htm
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/25/how-to-take-ownership-and-grant-permissions-in-windows-vista/
Best regards,
David Marx
Hi there,
I am working for a photographer who’s files and organization system are all a complete disaster. I have gone through the hard drives and did all of the reorganizing and made it easily accessible. I’m ready to re-import everything into lightroom again since I moved everything it can no longer find the links. Is there a way to import folders and files so that it has the original presets in lightroom? In other words, is there something I can do so that all of the color coding, and flags, and lightroom edits will be there when I import these files again?
Dear Jaime,
The answer to your question–what will be preserved when you import these images into a new catalog–entirely depends on a: what features you are using, and b: when / if you have saved your work down to each and every file’s metadata block. To save as much information as possible before you start over either select all of your files and use the Metadata > Save Metadata command or turn on the “Automatically Save Changes to XMP” preference switch.
The thing that you need to understand though is that not every feature of Lightroom can be stored at the Metadata level. Collections, Pick / Reject Flags, and Virtual Copies are all Catalog features which means that they will be lost when you import these images into a new catalog. If preserving these features is critical then you need to go a different route….
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David Marx
I have two questions. First, if I am importing pictures into Lightroom from a memory card, how to I have them go into an existing folder without creating a subfolder inside it?
If you use your recommended subfolder system of creating a subfolder by date of picture, how to you find a specific picture of something if the subject matter of that particular day is vastly different. For example, how would you organize taking a picture of your child and later in the day a macro picture of a flower?
Dear Kevin,
By paying careful attention to the choice in the Destination tab of the Lightroom Import Module you can control exactly where your files go. When you do a Google search for anything you have no idea what file name, folder name, or hard drive actually holds the relevant information. You don’t need to know because this is not how the modern world works. Searches for any type of information–including the images within your Lightroom Library–are at their most efficient when they capitalize on the power of metadata. See http://thelightroomlab.com/2010/08/searching-with-metadata-in-adobe-photoshop-lightroom/
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David Marx
I missed a step and do not have my Exif infor on my images the way you do. I don’t know how to get back to File Handling.
Thanks
Nancy
Dear Nancy,
The EXIF info is created by your digital camera. To see it select an image and then look in the Metadata Panel (lower right side at the bottom of the Library Module.) There are filters within the Metadata Panel so you might need to adjust them until they display the EXIF fields.
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David Marx
Help please… I’m frustrated!
I just want to import RAW and JPEG to different folder. HOW do we do it without create sub folder for “JPEG” and “RAW” manually in single import session???
Dear Samm,
You can’t do this with Lightroom without either importing the files separately or moving them from folder to folder yourself. I would ask though why bother when you can sort or filter through a single folder based on file type. See http://thelightroomlab.com/2010/08/searching-with-metadata-in-adobe-photoshop-lightroom/ for more help.
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David Marx
Searching the tutorials, I can’t find how to correct a filename preset. Currently, I’m getting double and triple the info (my name, the date) in presets and editing doesn’t correct it. Do I have to reset to factory defaults? How?
Dear Lynne Albright,
Are you using a carefully constructed File Renaming Preset on import? Once your preset is properly built use it on import to prevent this problem. Unfortunately this will not automatically fix the files that you have already renamed. You might have to carefully build yet another preset to batch correct all of your existing file names.
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David Marx
Thanks for the tutorial.
Now that images have been imported the next step for me is to weed. When I delete a complete set from a day LR leaves behind an empty folder. Is there a way for LR to delete the empty folder too or is dragging the empty folder from Finder to the trash the only method? Is there a quick way to locate all empty sub-folders?
I hope this was the best place to ask these questions–I figured it is the next step after importing. Maybe as Getting Started post you may wish to quickly cover the deleting images and the different options.
Thanks again,
Ben
Dear Ben B,
You are absolutely right that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can move your images to the trash can when you delete them. If you delete all of the file’s out of a folder that Lightroom that is referenced by your Lightroom index then it’s image counter will go to zero and it will be listed in a lighter shade of grey. You can remove these empty folders one-by-one from your Folder Panel by right-clicking. That said when you right-click and remove the folder from your Folder Panel it will stay on your hard drive. Sadly, Lightroom lacks the authority to actual move empty folders over to your trash can.
When I use the “Remove Folder” command I generally ignore the fact that the empty folder is still on my drive. Call it “out of sight out of mind” but since they are empty I figure that they are taking up virtually no disk space. If you really want one gone then you can use the right-click “Show in Finder” or “Show in Explorer” command then delete at the operating system level before using the right-click “Remove” command within the Folder’s Panel. Again, out of sight is enough for me!
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David Marx
Can anyone shed somelight on the reason why Lightroom is not included in the Master Collection of CS5 or am I wrong about that?
Dear RobC,
None of us here at the LightroomLab work for Adobe so please don’t ask us to defend their corporate sales decisions! I can say though that excluding Adobe Photoshop Lightroom from the Master Collection is consistent with their pricing structure since Lightroom is a specialized application. We photographers love it but Lightroom has no value for a video artist or a pre-press operator. Product’s like Adobe Insight which is a data analysis tool are also excluded from the Master Collection because again these appeal to a tiny market segment and not the whole range of visually creative artists….
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David Marx
I know this seems basic, but I have not seen it addressed anywhere. So far I have only used free programs such as Picasa. Now I am switching to LR3. I have over 300gb of photos on two HDs.
1. Should I import everything using the Add function? Strickly speaking, this is not really an import, right? Will that many photos take forever to import?
2. What commands would I want to use?
Although I have read much on LR3, I have not seen anything specifically address imports from disk or freeware.
Thanks!
Dear Joe,
Terminology is key here. In Adobe Photoshop Lightroom vernacular “Import” means to create a reference point for a specific image inside your .lrcat database. Lightroom builds a proxy for every image that you associate with your index. Think of this like the index card that describes a book in a real libraries collection. The index card is a placeholder for the larger text. Lightroom’s thumbnails are placeholders for your real image files. So if you want to maintain the folder structure that Picasa made for you then use the Import with Add command.
Import with Add simply creates proxies and it will take very little time. If, on the other hand, you want to create a new folder structure to store the real images then use the Import with Move or Import with Copy Commands. With 300GB of images this will take a while because the real files must be moved or copied to new sectors on your hard drive.
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David Marx
Hi David,
LR imports nicely now, only the video’s of my D90 and DMC-TZ8 are not imported. LR stops at the video and seems to freeze. Stopping LR is the only solution. Any advise on that.
Harry.
I’m switching from using Bridge-ACR to Lightroom 3 for my workflow, so I’m a LR first time user.
I’m having speed problems downloading and importing from a CF card.
An 8 MB card with around 350 RAW photos is taking almost 45 minutes to download and importing them to the catalog. This is painly sloooooow for me. Although LR is new for me I have read as many tutorials I have found, so I think I understand already the catalog and importing process choosing the settings for a faster download (Using Minimal as the preview size, just copying and not transforming to DNG, not applaying any preset, etc)
I took the same card and copied all the photos using Finder and then I imported these to my Catalog. This porcess just took less than 15 minutes, (which is aprox. the time I was getting before with Bridge – Adobe Photo Downloader) (In this test I used the same external HD, same card reader, same CF card, etc) so I guess the problem resides in LR.
I would really like to use LR in all my workflow process and not do anything outside it to download my photos.
Is downloading form LR really this slow? Or I’m missing something.
My system:
LR ver 3.3
iMac 24 OS X 10.5.8 – 2.93 GHZ Intel Core Duo – 4 GB ram.
My Book – Western Digital 2 TB external HD USB 2.0
Sandisk USB 2.0 CF card reader.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Dear Jose Martinez,
I wish that I could explain why Lightroom takes forever to download images from your memory card but I am stumped. This is clearly not right and I appreciate the fact that you tested everything–same card, same card reader, etc. Out of curiosity, what happens if you copy the images from your memory card to your hard drive using the Finder and then import them into Lightroom using the Import with Add command? If this works better try copying the card to the desktop first and then using the Import with Move command? What I am trying to do is to see if you get faster results when we remove the card reader from the equation….
Again, I wish I had an answer for you but I don’t. If you don’t get this issue resolved soon then I would definitely contact Adobe’s Tech Support department because it should not be that slow. Best of luck,
David Marx
Hi David,
Great tutorial! What is the best way to import my Aperture 2 library into the LR3 ?
Paul
Dear Paul Plihal,
This is a tough one. Our tutorial on importing photos from iPhoto to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom will help but it’s not enough. You should also check out this article on Moving from Aperture to Lightroom from Leigh McMullen and probably do a google search for more advice. The trouble is that Apple’s Aperture code doesn’t use the same raw processing formula that Adobe uses in Lightroom. Pay careful attention to all of the choices in Aperture that involve sidecar XMP files and IPTC metadata.
Best of luck,
David Marx
Can you the location of the source of files for a pre-set? E.g. lets say I add files to a specific location on my computer via non LR methods, then I want to Add to a LR catalog. Can I set presets to various locations? If so, I’m struggling to set this up.
Thanks,
Bill
Yeah, that looks a bit better then importing on Lightroom 2!
Dear Siddho,
So sorry your question got ignored for so long. The answer is when you re-import to go with the filenaming template of “filenmae.” Bring the file back into Lightroom with its exiting filename.
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David
Dear TK,
Thank goodness you cannot tell Lightroom to remove or delete files from you memory card. This would be a huge disaster if something were to go wrong during the import process. It would probably also cause you irreparable harm on your next shoot if Lightroom damaged the memory card’s underlying format.
Rather than doing this in Lightroom just put your memory card back into your camera and hit the FORMAT button. Formatting will wipe your card completely clean and re-establish the essential file structure for images from that particular camera.
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David
How can I get it to auto-erase the card after importing?
I would like to apply an X-Rite Camera Calibration profile during import, normally the same profile for all images in a batch, but sometimes more than one body may have been used making profile selection more complex … is there a way to automate this? I would also like to apply the Adobe created Canon lens profile for each image but there may be more than one lens used for a batch. Since Lightroom has access to the EXIF, can it determine which lens profile to use or is this simply not implemented at this point?
A nice article. I have started using the eye-fi card to transmit files to a directory which is “watched” by Lightroom auto-import. Can I use presets in the auto-import? Have I missed something? At the moment the auto-import won’t convert to DNG, which is particularly frustrating.
One good reason for using the “backup to:” directory setting in Lightroom is to make a duplicate copy while you are importing. It is important for me to always have (at least) 2 copies of each image at all times. Since I typically put a a memory card into the “reuse pile” immediately after it has been imported I need to have 2 copies immediately. I too have a backup system that ensures this eventually but I use the lightroom backup to make me one (however fleeting it may be) in the field. In my current setup, the files are copied to an external drive and the lightroom backup goes on the HD of my laptop. That LR backup gets deleted once the main disk is copied to a second one (along with the library).
hi…thanks for doing the preset…question though.if i tone-map or go to an external program like viveza with the re-import my preset is applied again and shows up twice,3 times…..how do i deal with that?