photography: Lightroom file management (migrating from Aperture)

[robin3mj]

My wife surprised me with a copy of Lightroom (iMac) for Christmas, since I had offhandedly mentioned a few months ago that Apple was abandoning Aperture and I would have to think about migrating to Adobe at some point.
So, I've been playing with it a bit and I think I'm going to enjoy it from an editing standpoint, but the file management seems a little clunkier than Aperture.

So I'm wondering if any experts here might be able to chime in with hints and suggestions. My goals being twofold.
1. For all 2015+ photos, I prefer to have a top folder for the calendar year, with subfolders for each month. Is this possible?
2. Is it worth migrating all of my Aperture library into Lightroom (I understand it doesn't migrate over any edits), and if so, will my old folder structure survive?

I feel like I'm caught in no-man's land between the masses who just have jumbles of photos all over their computer, and the enthusiasts and professionals who have a method to their madness.

thanks,
Matt

[j44ke]

1.) When you import images into Lightroom, you can designate where they go on the right side of the import window. You can structure the folders however you want. You can also select a main folder (or drive) and then tick the box next to "add to subfolder", type in the name of that folder and all images will go into that subfolder within the main folder. You can (if I am remembering correctly without looking at my copy) set up a folder to be monitored by LR, so that when you open LR, the program will "look" at that folder to see if any images or folders comtaining images has been added. Then you can just drag images to a folder from your camera or card, open LR and they should be there or at least be ready for adding to your catalog.

Speaking of catalogs, you can also create multiple catalogs as a way to sort things by month or year. The smaller the catalog the faster it loads at start up. Switching from catalog to catalog is pretty easy as is moving images from catalog to catalog. So you can keep things tidy by starting a new catalog each month and putting all of that month's images into that catalog, sorted by as many different levels of folders as you need.

I think I remember also that there are ways to sort unsorted images by date and automate that process somehow, but that's beyond my skill set or memory right now.

2.) With LR, you can write the edits to the image as a sidecar file, so that when you import those files into another editor, the original and the edits both come together. I don't know how Aperture handles the edit information precisely, but as a non-destructive editor, there should be a way to attach the edits to the image file so you don't lose work when switching editors. Once you've figured that out, I would use the "Add" function in LR's import tool, rather than the "Move" function - unless of course you are organizing all your images together on a new hard drive or something. The Add function should simply add them to the current catalog open in LR and do nothing else. They will still be exactly where they were when you started, except that now they will appear in LR when you open that catalog.

I would probably keep all previous images in their own catalog though. And back up all those images before attempt any maneuvers. Just makes snafus more easily undone. I deleted several hundred photos once when I got confused and forgot I had already deleted the copies. Fortunately I had a back up, but I still got super sweaty for about 12 seconds.

Edit: used library instead of catalog. Pretty sure catalog is the LR term. You chose a catalog to load when you start LR by holding down the option key at startup.

[robin3mj]

Danke Jorn.
Good tip on keeping the catalogs a small size. And I really need to get more familiar with it I think, before I worry about dragging all the Aperture stuff over.

[false_aesthetic]

A really important thing about Lightroom: When you're importing images plug in an external drive an "Make a Second Copy To" that external. When you're backing up your Catalog back up to an external drive.

It's obvious . . . . but 95% of my students don't do it and at least 2 students every semester lose their work b/c they don't listen.