How Import Images FAST into Adobe Lightroom Classic

In this How to Adobe Lightroom Classic Tutorial on how to import LOTS of images really fast. Using Lightroom Classic and Photo Mechanic to quickly cull images for your Lightroom Import. Beginners and Intermediate users of Lightroom Classic will love how to save only the images you want to keep, speeding the import process and saving hard drive space.
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Video for Beginners to Lightroom Classic : • Lightroom (Classic) Tu...

[@mickeyreyes3189]

Thank you, that was very helpful. You just got a new sub!

[@tv510]

Thanks Mickey!

[@NigeriaFunk]

Many thanks for taking the time to make and share this tutorial. Very much appreciated!

[@tv510]

Glad it was helpful! More to come.

[@sooshigirl]

Loved this. Thank you for helping me to manage baseball photography! This method is a huge win.

[@tv510]

Yep, for anyone who shoots a LOT of images, this works great. Thanks for watching.

[@kensamuelson7629]

Excellent demonstration for processing those shoots of wildlife at 20FPS. Taking thousands of images into LR directly is quite slow. Thanks for clear explanation for using both LR and PM together.

[@tv510]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching.

[@keithmacdonald4805]

Great video, answers a lot of my issues, thanks very much for sharing.

[@tv510]

No problem Keith, happy to help.

[@shotsbyscott6243]

Thanks Terry for sharing your methodology. I agree with you it is a waste of time and space to import 1000's after a bird shoot. I use a similar process except I use Fast Raw Viewer. I also use Nikon NX Studio. I like NX Studio better since is can show the focus point. However the program is very slow and crashes often when you have 1000's of photos in a single folder. So I often use a three step process for a large set of images: 1) Cull in Fast Raw Viewer, 2) 2nd pass in NX Studio mainly to remove duplicates and select the best, sharpest, etc.. , 3) import into LR. I have really focused on selecting quickly in Fast Raw Viewer and not look back after this step.

[@tv510]

It does take a bit of practice but it’s worth it. Thanks for watching and sharing your workflow.

[@darthvanderh]

Love this method. Thank you.

[@tv510]

Glad it works for you, you'll save time and space!

[@followme2top323]

Outstanding! Heading to Costa Rica next week and this was exactly what I needed. Thank you

[@tv510]

That should be fantastic! Have fun.

[@miguelalgarra3285]

Very nice and vell explained video.

[@tv510]

Glad you liked it, thanks for watching.

[@marclabro]

great tuto. what about using bridge instead of PM ?

[@tv510]

Hi Marc, I haven't used bridge since Lightroom came out. I'm not sure how bridge works but I know that Photo Mechanic uses the thumbnails that the camera shows us to load up the files instantly. I like that speed. What is your take on Bridge?

[@homesteadandvideo]

Very educational .

[@tv510]

Thank you and thanks for watching.

[@ppBizU]

This touching the topic I'm struggling with. It's like 1h photo session, then 2h for sorting and selecting the best one. Especially painful when I do widelife photos. "Compare" mode is a good improvement the flow.

[@tv510]

I use compare for my last pass, since I can enlarge and get the details.

[@Misss.Aliceee]

Is Sandisk your preferred choice for external storage and how many do you have ? Thanks for the video !

[@tv510]

I have several. I bring them with me when I travel. However, I use Promise RAID systems in my studio. They are offered through Apple.

[@johananGR]

Thank you!

[@tv510]

You're welcome!

[@andycoleman2708]

If you don't have special import settings in LR, why not just use Photo Mechanic to create the folder that LR looks at and "ingest selected"? Then in LR, you just synchronize the folder and they're all there.

[@tv510]

Hi Andy, this is just the way I use it, I'm no expert in PM but it works well for me this way. Thanks for watching.

[@tectoramia-sz1lu]

I do things a little differently. I import files from the card reader into a directory on my PC, then put the card back in my camera.. I then cull and rename files using a free programme called Faststone. I find it much easier and quicker than using LR. Then I'm not importing a lot of junk files into Lightroom.

[@tv510]

Yes, that works. The technique I describe, takes out the loading of images that are not going to be used anyway. Why bring images onto the hard drive that you are never going to need? I'll bet Faststone should be able to read your card, then you can import only the images you want. Thanks for watching.

[@tectoramia-sz1lu]

@@tv510I like to take the chance of accidentally files to an absolute minimum.

[@kuau714]

personally for culling a large number of images lets say 2000 Nikon Z9 Nefs I just import my images in LRC using the minimal preview option and it maybe takes 60 seconds on my 14" MacBook Pro Max.

[@tv510]

That works too. I just prefer to delete the ones I know I have no need keeping before they get on the hard drive. Thanks for watching.

[@alexjaci4245]

U best teacher

[@tv510]

Yes!! Thank you.

[@AR-vf7vg]

BRIDGE (adobe) coukd at least have been mentioned, don't you think ? Probably already paid for together with Lightroom.

[@tv510]

I guess, but I haven't used Bridge since Adobe came out with Lightroom, back in 2007. I think if people are keeping track of all their assets; Artwork, graphics, then it's useful, but I most only need to keep track of my photographs. But that's just me, what's your use for it?

[@AR-vf7vg]

@@tv510 Well.. for 'culling'.. ! Bridge came a loooooooooooong way (especially lately). I just roughly made 2 personal workspace customizations. Have not much use of it, But can be an excellent computer explorer next or in replacement to regular finder or pc-explorer. We are all quite culprit of not make it a main brower, I feel.

[@MrIowahawks77]

How to you properly eject the card reader from your Mac after you imported your photos ??

[@tv510]

Lightroom Classic can eject the card after import. To do so, when you have a card inserted and you are in the import dialog window, you should see a check box to "eject the card after import" . This should eject the card when you are done. However, in my experience, it doesn't always work. I simply move the Lightroom Classic window aside so I can see my drives, right click on the card and eject it manually. Good luck.

[@MrIowahawks77]

@@tv510 thank you. That worked exactly the way you told me!

[@MrIowahawks77]

Where can I actually download Lighroom Classic on a mac, I dont see it as an option on the MacApp store

[@tv510]

You have to go to Adobe.com and signup there. They have a photographer’s package that comes with Lightroom and Photoshop for about $10 per month.

[@MrIowahawks77]

@@tv510 awesome thank you so much

[@kennethwalters-vx8vt]

hey guys, im at my cpu and dont really feel like watching almost 20 minutes of video. would anyone know how to uploading pics to LC efficiently? i sometimes have alot of images that were taken, and the buffering takes an annoying amount of time.

[@tv510]

Try the programs suggested in the video.

[@christianyoung9174]

I enjoyed the small grp part but the main reason I came here is you said How Import Images FAST into Adobe Lightroom Classic in the title but, the main soluiton is to buy another program for 100s of dollars more. Umm.

[@tv510]

Hi Christian, if a person has a LOT of images they have to go through, then I think it's worth buying the extra program. Not for everyone, for sure, but many professionals and serious amateurs put a high value on processing time, so saving the time is worth it. You can do the same thing in Lightroom alone, but it just takes more time. Thanks for watching.

[@lapcevics]

Real question is why is Lightroom so slow while just browsing raw files. It's only purpose is raw photos handling and it fails at simplest task, just browsing 🤨

[@tv510]

I don't find it to be slow on my computer. I use Photo Mechanic to quickly cull out the ones I don't want to import. That way I'm not importing images I will never need. But the browsing once imported is fine. I think PM used the small jpegs that the camera produces for us to look at on the back of our cameras, where Lightroom converts all the RAW images. I'll bet that will be changing in an update one of these days to speed up the import part of Lightroom. Thanks for watching.

[@hitchhiker_1969]

Thanks for a 17 MINUTE+ video on how to import photos into Lightroom FAST. How about a 30 second video instead? Get to the point.

[@tv510]

You are welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@hitchhiker_1969]

blah blah blah. get to the point. the irony of an endless freaking 17 minute video filled with extraneous nonsense titled "import images FAST." Look up "fast" in the dictionary.

[@tv510]

Hi Pupman! Many people that watch these videos don't have an original knowledge base like we have. I try to take it slow so everyone can learn. Thanks for watching!

[@ICThruU]

You are a nice guy so I hate to criticize...but if you want to do a more helpful video, you don't need to do a whole discourse on eye disease. Also, once you started selecting images in your extra program, you could have then gone to how you import instead of showing us the whole selection process. Time is valuable and it is better to respect people's time. I found myself skimming forward and didn't miss anything.

[@tv510]

@@ICThruU Thanks for watching. No intentional disrespect for anyone's time intended. I was just trying to be thorough. I'll do better next time.

[@ICThruU]

No need to apologize. Just trying to give you some feedback to improve your otherwise amazing video. Personally, I am curious if Bridge would do what your second program does since I already pay for it.

[@tv510]

I think Bridge might work, I haven't used it for quite some time, but maybe I'll give it a try and see how it works.