Importing photos (1)

Before we can edit a photo in Lightroom, we first need to import.
We can import photos from a hard drive, a camera, or any other storage device.
You can import photos with the following extensions:

• JPEG: is an extension which is widely used to display images in web photo galleries, presentations and other online services.
• PSD: is the standard Photoshop extension. If you have a PSD file with layers and wish to import and work in Lightroom, you must save the file in Photoshop with the preferred compatibility to maximize PSD and PSB enabling.
• TIFF: used to transfer files between applications and computer platforms. TIFF is a flexible format for bitmapped images, it is supported by virtually all paint, image editing and page layout programs.
  camera Raw: contain unprocessed data from the image sensor of the digital camera. This image data is stored in a proprietary camera format. Lightroom reads the data from most cameras and feeds it to a color processor.
• DNG: is a publicly available archival format for raw files generated by digital cameras. You can change raw files that are specific to a camera model in Lightroom and convert to DNG files.
• And new in Lightroom 3, you can import digital video files from digital cameras. For a preview of a video, click the “play” icon in the lower left corner of the thumbnail. Video files can not be modified in the “Develop” module and are not supported in the “Presentation”, “Print” or “Web” modules.

Important to know is, when you have a photo edited in Photoshop and saved as a “.psd” file, then the compatibility of the photo should be maximized, if you want to view and edit it later in Lightroom.

It is unnecessary to save all your photos in Photoshop with maximum compatibility, it would be too much on your storage requirements, so you better let Photoshop ask you before.

For this, open Photoshop and click “Edit” in the menu bar.
In the drop-down menu click “Preferences”.
In the “Preferences”, choose the section “File Handling” and select “Ask” under the drop-down menu for compatibility.
In this way, Photoshop will first ask you, if you want to save the image with maximum compatibility

Ok, we will import some photos now.
Just click the “Import” button at the bottom left of the “Library” module.

This opens the dialog box “Import” (keyboard shortcut for this is Shift + Ctrl + i).

The dialog is divided n three panes.

Left panel, we find “Source” (A).

We have the “Options and Target” ((B) in the right pane.

And in the middle, we find the preview area (C).

All panels can be opened or closed by clicking on the left arrows (1) to the right of the header.

To see examples of the selected folder and its subfolders in the preview area, check the box with the text “Include subfolders” (2).

You must understand the “Workflow” in Lightroom.

Or in human language to say, the logical sequence of activities to be performed.
So, we first select the photos in the “Source” panel.

Then we choose one of the options from the area above the preview area in the middle (D):

1. Copy as DNG:
   Raw files from the camera are copied to your chosen folder and are converted to the Digital Negative (DNG) format.
2. Copy:
   The photo files, including any secondary files, are copied to your chosen folder.
3. Move:
   The photo files, including any secondary files, are moved to your chosen folder. And watch out! The files are removed from their current location.
4. Add:
   The picture files remain at their current location. These are only added to the Lightroom library.

Next, we select the photos in the preview area.

Finally, in the “Options and Target” panel, we determine where we will import these photos.

To view the pictures better in the preview area, you have several options.

You can double click the photo in the preview area (1).

You can select the photo and click the “Loupe” below the preview area (2).

You can select the photo and click and drag the slider to the right (3).

To close this again, double click the photo or click the “Grid View” (4).

By default, all photos from the selected folder will be selected to import.

If you do not want to import certain photos, uncheck the box in the upper left corner of the thumbnail (5).

I think you know what the “Check All” and “Uncheck All” buttons (6) do.

When all the desired photos are selected and we have determined how we will process, we enter the “File Handling” and add some keywords in the next lesson.

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