Question re. Lightroom and raw files

Hi all.
When copying my sd card raw images into lightroom on laptop, should i "copy", "move", or "import".....should i keep the originals on the sd card, or should i clear the card?
And, should i be converting to DNG on import?
Got lightroom 6 last year, and have just never got round to learning it....
Any advice would be appreciated.

Start with the basics, I would use Copy, but watch your settings in the import screen, specifically the "Destination" tab (I have it set to Organize in to one folder) where I have created a folder I want to import to, example of named "2016-07-30 - Description", formatting the folder name like this will allow Windows to sort in date order.

Some great tutorials here

Lightroom will not retain or alter the original image, just record the changes, and 'import' is just for editing and filing so don't rely on it to keep the original RAW file. I use a dedicated hard drive for photos onto which I copy the ones I want to keep before opening Lightroom, and if possible use a second back-up like a cloud service as well. That way you can clear your sd card when it gets full. I have found that if you move the original or change its title after editing then Lightroom will not associate it with the editing changes, so best to do those first. My hard drive has files for each year within which are files for each month like a calendar, and I just move the images from the sd card into the relevant month before editing. For special events like a holiday or wedding I would create a dedicated sub file within the relevant month. In Lightroom you can tag each image so they can be sorted into groups which are independent of where they are actually stored, and finally after editing I 'save as' the final image as a jpeg.

This is really helpful. I am the world's worst at organising files!

Cheers

Simon

Sorry but that is very misleading statement to give to a novice LR user, Lightroom will do what ever you tell it to do. Lightroom is capable of copying raws (or jpg or Tiff) files from cards, usb drives, HDs, etc) to wherever you tell it to in a folder structure of your choice, it is also very easy to set up to create backups (files or catalogs) to where ever you wish to put them.

You are probably right McBrian but I don't find LR as simple and intuitive to use. It's just a quick and easy process to copy images from the sd card into a dedicated storage facility first to make sure that you don't inadvertently lose them.

agree with Robi have never found Lightroom intuitive, find it easier to create a folder for the year then sub folder for month and in that a folder for each day i shoot also tagged where i shoot. take images straight from camera and reformat that when done. all backed up to 2 ext drives. the same structure used to keep the final jpeg images after processing, which is done in PS and the NIK suite mostly

I feel a wee video tutorial coming (when I can find some time)


That is basically what I do ^^^^ except I have all the date info is in the folder name, my folder structure looks like this



Once in the Library you can search the catalogue by any number of criteria using filters (you can configure the default columns to your choice).



Like all software, it is worth while spending some time and effort to learn the basic ins and outs then progress from there, as I've mentioned before, I would be lost without LR (I know there are other like software that does similar).