Rename a LR catalogue import entry without changing the name of the actual directory on hard drive

Report · Jun 21, 2018

Hey there,

So, I'm looking for a way to achieve what the title suggests: renaming an imported folder in my lightroom catalogue in the left navigation bar without renaming the actual folder on the hard drive. Is this possible?

As I do not guess so (feel free to prove me wrong), let me expand on this a little more.

Statuos Quo

I come from the photography side of users to Adobe and I like to shoot photos in raw AND jpg. This allows me to do the editing later but instantly have a jpg available to share with friends or on social networks. This is a given.

I store theses photos on my hard drive in different folders like this:

\RAW
\Camera JPG
\Edits (being the directory for my edited photo exports from lightroom/ps)

...with subfolders by year and then date or event name. So that means my dir structure could look like this , with two identical names of the same event in both the Raw and the camera jpg directory

\RAW\2018\London in May
\Camera JPG\2018\London in May

Why do i do this?

Not to have RAW and jpg files in the same directory and therefore not to automatically import both when I select a whole folder in lightroom. Also to keep track of what are "camera jpgs" and what are edited jpgs later on.

Why is this a problem?

It starts to annoy me not to have all photos from one occasion in one path with different subdirs. I'd prefer to have it like

\2018\London in May
- Raw
- Camera JPG
- Edits
- Videos
- ...

However, this would mean I only add the Raw directory to Lightroom. The catalogue entry of that dir then reads "Raw" of all my photos. So there's a need to rename the parent directory in LR, but not on the hard drive.

If that is really not fixable this way, how do you deal with this? how do you sort your photos when shooting in jpg and raw? Or do you filter every import in LR?

Looking for some helpful insights. Thanks in advance!

Report · Jun 21, 2018

So, I'm looking for a way to achieve what the title suggests: renaming an imported folder in my lightroom catalogue in the left navigation bar without renaming the actual folder on the hard drive. Is this possible?

No. This is a fundamental concept in Lightroom, the folder name in your operating system must match the folder name shown in the Lightroom Folder panel.

If that is really not fixable this way, how do you deal with this? how do you sort your photos when shooting in jpg and raw? Or do you filter every import in LR?

In Lightroom, I simply don't care whether the JPGs and RAWs or videos are in the same folder or not. I put them all in the same folder. For me, making separate folders would be extra work for no benefit, and I don't like extra work unless I get a definite benefit. The filter bar in Lightroom let's you view only the JPGs or only the RAWs or only the videos. And I don't have a separate folder for edited versions of the photos, because the exported (edited) photos are temporary, I export them to a temporary folder, and once I am done using them (upload, e-mail, etc.) I delete them, knowing that I can reproduce them exactly again later (which is rare) if I need to .

Report · Jun 21, 2018

Thank you for confirming that it's not possible and the description of the way you handle it.

I might be able to overthrow my idea of not having everything in one folder, but i definitely disagree on not keeping exported (edited) versions of the photos as those are the results for all kinds of purposes. Sharing them among friend and family, photo books, handing them out to models, show them to others from a local drive at my location etc.

Still curious for more ways you guys deal with this!

Report · Jun 21, 2018

michaelr3481451 wrote
Thank you for confirming that it's not possible and the description of the way you handle it.
I might be able to overthrow my idea of not having everything in one folder, but i definitely disagree on not keeping exported (edited) versions of the photos as those are the results for all kinds of purposes. Sharing them among friend and family, photo books, handing them out to models, show them to others from a local drive at my location etc.
Still curious for more ways you guys deal with this!

Yes, you have different needs for the exported photos than I do, where as I said, I rarely need them to be available instantly and I almost always can take the time to export them again, if needed.

Report · Jun 21, 2018

I agree. Folders are just containers for images. Don’t use them for organization, for the reasons you’ve just found. Use collections, smart collections, keywords, flags, labels, ratings and filters for that. That’s why these exist.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Report · Jun 21, 2018

I get your points, from the both of you, and it is probably true that I should rely on LR a lot more than I currently do when it comes to sorting, filtering - and for that sake - even showing photos to others.

However, if it is so "fundamental" to the LR catalogue that it will alway display the directory's name, it kind of assumes to have a minimum order on your photos on your hard drive as well, don't you agree? Nonetheless, it's a "navigation panel" on the left

And I'm pretty sure I will also continue browsing to those dirs using explorer/finder and then I dont want to find random folder names or overloaded directories...

Report · Jun 21, 2018

However, if it is so "fundamental" to the LR catalogue that it will alway display the directory's name, it kind of assumes to have a minimum order on your photos on your hard drive as well, don't you agree? Nonetheless, it's a "navigation panel" on the left

Some people (like me) never use the Folder Panel for anything. I never search for my photos using the folder panel. Nevertheless, I think it is a good idea to have some organization of the photos, which as I said before, is capture date. However, this organization of folder names is simple there because it is a default in Lightroom, it takes no effort on my part to achieve this. And since I never use the Folder Panel in Lightroom to search, I don't really care what the names are. If the folder names were Folder 1, Folder 2, ..., I still would have the same organization inside of Lightroom using keywords and other metadata, enabling me to find my photos any time I want.

And I'm pretty sure I will also continue browsing to those dirs using explorer/finder and then I dont want to find random folder names or overloaded directories...

That's fine for you, but I won't be browsing my folders. I can find my photos much more quickly inside of Lightroom using a number of different search criteria: photo content, geographic location, date photo was taken, and a few others criteria. This ability to find photos by a number of different criteria is either impossible or extremely difficult in folders, and very simple in Lightroom.

Also, no one has ever suggested random folder names; and no one is suggesting overloaded directories are a good thing either.

Report · Jun 21, 2018

michaelr3481451 wrote
I get your points, from the both of you, and it is probably true that I should rely on LR a lot more than I currently do when it comes to sorting, filtering - and for that sake - even showing photos to others.
However, if it is so "fundamental" to the LR catalogue that it will alway display the directory's name, it kind of assumes to have a minimum order on your photos on your hard drive as well, don't you agree? Nonetheless, it's a "navigation panel" on the left
And I'm pretty sure I will also continue browsing to those dirs using explorer/finder and then I dont want to find random folder names or overloaded directories...

You should look at this as a Lightroom version of Windows Explorer or Macintosh Finder. It simply shows what is really there (except that it only shows what Lightroom has imported).

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Report · Jun 21, 2018

Adding:

This is my philosophy, which you can agree with or disagree with. It is not a hard-and-fast rule.

I do as little organizing as possible using folders. I do almost all my organizing using Lightroom tools. This gives me much more flexibility than by using folders. I import photos into folders by capture date (why? because it's the default option in Lightroom, it takes zero effort) and after that, I never move the photos from one folder to another, I never rename the folders; all organizing and searching is done via Lightroom tools such as keywords and other metadata (captions, titles, GPS locations, etc.) Folders have limitations that are not present when you use Lightroom tools, and you work harder to organize with folders than with LR tools, and folders will never give as powerful and flexible an organization as you get with Lightroom tools.

Report · Jun 21, 2018

Unlike the others on this thread, I do use folders. I choose in the Import dialog to organize by date, with a date folder within a year folder - and then right after import I right-click on the date folder and add a description. My thinking is "Why not?" It means I can decipher what's on my hard drive, and I can access a shoot very quickly in LR without having to set anything else up. I agree that subfolders by file type are not necessary, but if they work for you, then again, why not - they essentially act for you like a saved filter.

I can see that it would be more useful to have your file type subfolders within event. I'm having trouble understanding this though: "However, this would mean I only add the Raw directory to Lightroom. The catalogue entry of that dir then reads "Raw" of all my photos. So there's a need to rename the parent directory in LR, but not on the hard drive."

I also get rid of exported JPEGs since I can recreate them as needed. But given that you like to keep yours, have you thought of managing all your file types in Lightroom (including videos)? If you did this, then you could use the Folders panel to rearrange your folders to achieve file type subfolders within events.

Report · Jun 22, 2018

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Laura+Shoe wrote
Unlike the others on this thread, I do use folders. I choose in the Import dialog to organize by date, with a date folder within a year folder - and then right after import I right-click on the date folder and add a description. My thinking is "Why not?"

I specifically said I make folders by capture date because its a default of Lightroom and it takes no effort on my part. Since I don't do specific shoots and I don't remember the date I took my photos, I don't search by date, therefore I don't search by folders. I search by metadata, which I can remember.

Report · Jun 22, 2018

I'm not intending to diss anyone, @dj_paige. Everyone uses folders in the sense of storing files in them. I meant that I, unlike others on this thread, actually use them to access my photos in Lightroom (which is possible for me because I add descriptions to the names.)

Report · Jun 22, 2018

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Laura+Shoe wrote
I'm not intending to diss anyone, @dj_paige. Everyone uses folders in the sense of storing files in them. I meant that I, unlike others on this thread, actually use them to access my photos in Lightroom (which is possible for me because I add descriptions to the names.)

Using keywords makes a lot more sense to me, but if this works for you, then it works for you.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Report · Jun 25, 2018

michaelr3481451 wrote
It starts to annoy me not to have all photos from one occasion in one path with different subdirs. I'd prefer to have it like
\2018\London in May
Raw
Camera JPG
Edits
Videos
...
However, this would mean I only add the Raw directory to Lightroom. The catalogue entry of that dir then reads "Raw" of all my photos. So there's a need to rename the parent directory in LR, but not on the hard drive.

This is mostly what my hard drives look like and what my Folder panel looks like (for the imported folders).

The Folder panel may not show the folder hierarchy. If it does not, right-click on a folder and select "show parent".