Lightroom3 question

[mom2rtk]

I'm pretty new at using Lightroom 3. I mostly boost the exposure a little, maybe adjust the white balance if needed and convert to Jpeg.

I know I imported a specific photo, because I have it uploaded to my web hosting site. But I wanted to do a little more work on it and export it again to a file of photos to print. Here's where I think I'm losing my mind. I can't find it in my library on LR3 ANYWHERE. It's on my hard drive, which is where I imported it from originally to convert from RAW. But when I bring up that date, it's not there. It won't let me import it again because it shows it has already been imported, it says it's a suspected duplicate and doesn't highlight.

I'm guessing it's just something stupid, which would not surprise me in the least. Any thoughts on what I should do to look for it?

 

[SrisonS]

You probably need to synchronize the folder. Just Right-click on the date, go to Synchronize, and that's basically it (a couple of small steps to click Ok on). This will make all photos that haven't previously been imported appear. It will also remove from LR any pictures you manually removed from that folder.

 

[mabas9395]

If you are sure its there and you are looking in the right spot, but you still can't see it, you should make sure that you have your filters turned off. I always do that.

 

[GrillMouster]

You may have two copies on your computer. One where you originally had the file when you imported it into Lightroom, and another in the default Lightroom location (assuming you had "import a copy" selected). If that's the case, the image is in your Lightroom catalog, but you can't find our because you're looking for it in the original location. Just a guess.

 

[photo_chick]

If you're scrolling through the library images by date make sure you've set it to sort by capture time.

ctrl F is the find command. If you know the file name you can search for it that way.

 

[mom2rtk]

OK, I may see a copy of "Lightroom 3 for dummines" in my future.......

Many thanks to everyone for trying to help!

I found the photo, but not in the library where I expected it. As I scrolled down to "collections" I found a category called "recently modified". Since I had worked with it recently, I looked and found it there. I still don't get why it's not in my folder of imported photos from that date.

You probably need to synchronize the folder. Just Right-click on the date, go to Synchronize, and that's basically it (a couple of small steps to click Ok on). This will make all photos that haven't previously been imported appear. It will also remove from LR any pictures you manually removed from that folder.

Maybe you can help me understand this better. If I imort it, does it actually copy it from the hard drive it's on to another location? I was trying to just import the photos I wanted to work with and post or print. I don't want to take up additional memory on my computer if I didn't need to.

If you are sure its there and you are looking in the right spot, but you still can't see it, you should make sure that you have your filters turned off. I always do that.

Filters are off, but many thanks for the suggestion. I know just enough to be dangerous here, so that was a good guess!

You may have two copies on your computer. One where you originally had the file when you imported it into Lightroom, and another in the default Lightroom location (assuming you had "import a copy" selected). If that's the case, the image is in your Lightroom catalog, but you can't find our because you're looking for it in the original location. Just a guess.

I'm still a little lost. When I click on "Library" I get a list of folders by date. It shows how many have been imported for each date. I click on that date, and the others from that date are there, but this one isn't.

If you're scrolling through the library images by date make sure you've set it to sort by capture time.

ctrl F is the find command. If you know the file name you can search for it that way.

I should be able to search that way and I'll give it a try. I do have it set up by capture time. Not that it matters though as I have only imported about 10 from that date so far.

 

[SrisonS]

OK, I may see a copy of "Lightroom 3 for dummines" in my future.......

Many thanks to everyone for trying to help!

I found the photo, but not in the library where I expected it. As I scrolled down to "collections" I found a category called "recently modified". Since I had worked with it recently, I looked and found it there. I still don't get why it's not in my folder of imported photos from that date.




Maybe you can help me understand this better. If I import it, does it actually copy it from the hard drive it's on to another location? I was trying to just import the photos I wanted to work with and post or print. I don't want to take up additional memory on my computer if I didn't need to.

Have you ever used Canon's DPP software??? If so, you'll know that whenever you manually add files to a certain folder, or remove them, the software's dated folder will automatically update. Lightroom doesn't do that. For instance, say you have a folder called 'Disney'. And the first time you made this folder on your computer, you imported it to LR with like 100 pictures (crazy, I know). If later on, you physically go to that folder and remove or add pictures, LR will still show that there are exactly 100 pictures there. You'll still even see previews for all of them. But to bring this folder up to date, you have to Synchronize it. This doesn't move around your pictures at all. It's basically just telling LR to update it's database of that folder. So I'm not sure if Synchronizing will help, but it's an easy start. If nothing's changed to that folder, LR won't do anything.

Also, not sure if this is your situation or not; but I initially had a problem with LR where I couldn't Import JPEGs into it, after they were converted from the RAW versions. But I found out that there was something that needed to be checked. Assuming LR3 is pretty much the same at LR2; it's Edit -> Preferences -> Select the Import Tab -> and Check 'Treat JPEG files next to RAW files as separate photos'. When I convert, I just keep the file name the same (i.e. IMG_1234). The only difference is the .JPG or .CR2 extension. But since that IMG_1234 is the same, LR would only recognize one file. And since the RAW version was there, it wouldn't allow the JPG to be there also. So by having that checked off, you'll see the RAW files right next to the JPEG files.

Hope this helps.

- Scott

 

[GrillMouster]

You say that you found the image in Lightroom, but not in the folder you expected. Go to the image in the Lightroom library module, right-click on it and select "Find in Explorer" or something like that. It will open the folder where the image is located.