Making the switch from iPhoto to Lightroom

insideoutoflove

Okay, so I've finally had it with iPhoto. I want everything to be managed by Lightroom. Here's my situation:

Because I have so many photos from so many different events, I've used iPhoto Library Manager to split my humungous library into 6 separate libraries (Art, Concerts, Vacations, etc.) and have one main "Current" library on my computer hard drive that has photos from within the last year, and the remaining 5 libraries on my external HD for access only when I plug in my HD.

What is the easiest way to transfer all of my photos to Lightroom? How can I keep them categorized as they are now, into events and sub-albums, etc? (I have 20,000+ photos so reorganizing all of them would not only be a pain in the ass but I'd be doing it for months)

The issue is that the new iPhoto keeps all files collectively in one iPhoto package, so I can't go into separate folders within the library (in the finder) and select the files I want--I am going to have to go through the process of exporting files from iPhoto to folders on an external HD, and then re-importing into Lightroom. I know there is no easy way to do this, but if you have any ideas I'd really appreciate it.

Ugh I'm going to be SO glad when I have all my photos in one place, nicely organized and easy to access. Please tell me there's a somewhat easy way to do this!!

jfriend

insideoutoflove wrote:

Okay, so I've finally had it with iPhoto. I want everything to be managed by Lightroom. Here's my situation:

Because I have so many photos from so many different events, I've used iPhoto Library Manager to split my humungous library into 6 separate libraries (Art, Concerts, Vacations, etc.) and have one main "Current" library on my computer hard drive that has photos from within the last year, and the remaining 5 libraries on my external HD for access only when I plug in my HD.

What is the easiest way to transfer all of my photos to Lightroom? How can I keep them categorized as they are now, into events and sub-albums, etc? (I have 20,000+ photos so reorganizing all of them would not only be a pain in the ass but I'd be doing it for months)

The issue is that the new iPhoto keeps all files collectively in one iPhoto package, so I can't go into separate folders within the library (in the finder) and select the files I want--I am going to have to go through the process of exporting files from iPhoto to folders on an external HD, and then re-importing into Lightroom. I know there is no easy way to do this, but if you have any ideas I'd really appreciate it.

Ugh I'm going to be SO glad when I have all my photos in one place, nicely organized and easy to access. Please tell me there's a somewhat easy way to do this!!

There are a number of helpful sites in this Google search. I found this one to be the simplest.

insideoutoflove

jfriend wrote:

There are a number of helpful sites in this Google search. I found this one to be the simplest.

Thanks--I actually did a similar search and have been reading through them for the past hour or so, and that was the best solution I could find too (the second link). I just wanted to see if I could find anyone who had actually gone through the process and could give me some tips on what worked for them--diving into a 3rd party application that I don't know how to use has caused me some problems in the past. That definitely looks like the best option so far though. Thank you!

Freezframe

Whibal.com
I'm new to lightroom as well ,and still can't believe how user friendly it is ....
I found some tut's on WhiBal.com that were pretty helpful,,,Atleast it got me on my way.....

Goodluck: Brady