Thank you also for these new tutorial links, I’ll have a look through them as well.

Karen Knightly

Thanks for the compliments on our video tutorials. I suspect that you missed a switch in the Import Dialog. I suspect that you did not turn on the “Apply After Import” > Metadata Preset > Your Metdata Preset option.

Your question is very well timed. I just finished recording a whole new set of video tutorials on the Import Dialog but have not had a chance yet to include them in a new article. Here are links to some of the newest Import Tutorials:

http://vimeo.com/12152113
http://vimeo.com/39845658
http://vimeo.com/39450051
http://vimeo.com/39863339
http://vimeo.com/39733267
http://vimeo.com/13020232

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David Marx

I’ve religeously followed all of your video tutorials up to this one and have found them brilliant as I have never used Lightroom before. But at the end of my first import none of the photos have the metadata I put in showing, although if I check in the Photos Go Here folder in the external drive, it does have the date, last few numbers and dng.
Have I missed something or done something incorrectly?

I am using lightroom 3 and i would like to automate an importing scheme so that for each picture the “lens correction” will be activated for the specific lens that was used to take the pic.

how can I do it?

Anything, and everything, that you have done with the Adobe Bridge should be recorded into your Lightroom Catalog. The question I have is about the timing. Did you add these files to your Lightroom index BEFORE or AFTER adding keywords in the Bridge? If the answer is before then something is not right. If the answer is after then you need to use Lightroom’s “read metadata from file” command to update each catalog entry. Once updated your Bridge assigned keywords should appear.

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David Marx

Cheers Alison

There are three ways to achieve something close to your goals in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The easiest method is to import the parent folder and then to manually invoke the Synchronize command as needed. Click here for more on the Synchronize command.

Automating this process might be possible using either Adobe Photoshop Lightroom’s built in Auto-Import feature or Jeffery Friedl’s wonderful Folder Watch Plugin. Both of these tools are really designed for tethered shooting situations but you might be able to get them to work with your existing folder hierarchy.

I have to tell you though that the best, and easiest, solution is to import all of your existing folders and images using the Import with Add Command. Once your existing images have been referenced by your Catalog use the Import with Copy or Import with Move commands for all your new work.

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David Marx

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!

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

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”