Lightroom best practices for beginner ?

[ReneB]

Hi
I'm just beginning the whole RAW shooting, post processing journey, and have downloaded a trial version of Lightroom, figuring this is probably the best way to go.
Before I get myself in a muddle, I want to start with a folder structure that will work even if I have to replace my Mac mini in the future (which is pretty certain anyway).
Working on the basis of storing everything on my Mac Hardrive, and then backing up to an external drive (can't really justify storing everything on an external drive then backing up to a second external drive at this point), if I put my actual images in various folders in the Mac "pictures" folder, and within that "pictures" folder also have a Lightroom folder with all the Lightroom catalogues, imports, edited images etc, if I then change computer, and reinstall everything on the new Mac, or install it all on a new separate hard drive, as long as I have it all structured as before under a root "pictures" folder, would everything be ok, ie links from Lightroom installs to original images etc.

Or have I got this wrong ?

Cheers

Rene

 

[EOS_JD]

Just store them in the pictures folder. Lightroom doesn't store any iumages - just links to the images. No need for a lightroom folder other than if you might want to store the catalogue and previews it stores in there.

If you change your computer, just make sure you save the .lrcat file (you can delete everything else). Open the new lrcat and as long as the images are in the same drive location, lightroom will rebuild the previews and work as normal.

 

[ReneB]

Thanks Jim, I think I get that. I appreciate Lightroom works on links to the original images, and doesn't actually store any images, but just wanted to makes sure I didn't go creating loads of links to source images that I then move and screw up those links for. Though I understand from a previous post that if image file relocation is done within Lightroom (as opposed to finder/windows explorer) theres a better chance that the relevant catalogues,edits etc will be kept in order.
Sorry for the rubbish technical language, thanks for the reply.

 

[boyfalldown]

Thanks Jim, I think I get that. I appreciate Lightroom works on links to the original images, and doesn't actually store any images, but just wanted to makes sure I didn't go creating loads of links to source images that I then move and screw up those links for. Though I understand from a previous post that if image file relocation is done within Lightroom (as opposed to finder/windows explorer) theres a better chance that the relevant catalogues,edits etc will be kept in order.
Sorry for the rubbish technical language, thanks for the reply.

yes, alway move files from within lightroom - that way it will automatically keep track for you.

 

[EOS_JD]

Even if you did move the images outside Lr and lost the links, it's very simple to sync them back.