Geoffrey James Posted November 4, 2015 Share #1 Posted November 4, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Feeling stupid here, but I have 14 k files on my Imac in LIghtroom 3.6 and I need to make some space in my hard drive, which is dangerously full. When I go to delete files I am told to change the metadata so this can happen. One of my collections has the title All and includes all 14,000 images. I have no idea what to do to be able to delete a lot and am scared of making one disastrous delete move. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted November 4, 2015 Posted November 4, 2015 Hi Geoffrey James, Take a look here HELP ME DELETE FILES. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jaapv Posted November 4, 2015 Share #2 Posted November 4, 2015 Why don't you just open the folder and delete as you wish? Personally I would just fit a serious hard drive. Say 4 TB, or transfer the contents to an external drive ( copying to an external drive is a good idea anyway before you start deleting) Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey James Posted November 4, 2015 Author Share #3 Posted November 4, 2015 Thanks, Jaap, I do have an external hard drive, When I go to"All" in my collections, open it up and try to delete an image, it says you can't delete an image directly from a smart collection and then adds "Try editing the photo’s metadata so that it no longer matches the smart collection criteria or deleting the photo from the Lightroom catalog." I feel like a complete moron. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photon42 Posted November 4, 2015 Share #4 Posted November 4, 2015 A smart collection essentially is a set of rules to select images, applied to your image data base. You do not want to delete a photo from a collection, but rather the photo itself. Up north west in the catalog section, select "all photographs", to enter the non-collection mode. I would probably walk through your photos more or less one by one in Loupe view ("E") and "reject" each I do not need anymore. You can always undo this. When done, hit "delete rejected photos" to move them to the trash. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tobey bilek Posted November 7, 2015 Share #5 Posted November 7, 2015 Why I don`t use LR- PITA Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wda Posted November 7, 2015 Share #6 Posted November 7, 2015 (edited) Feeling stupid here, but I have 14 k files on my Imac in LIghtroom 3.6 and I need to make some space in my hard drive, which is dangerously full. When I go to delete files I am told to change the metadata so this can happen. One of my collections has the title All and includes all 14,000 images. I have no idea what to do to be able to delete a lot and am scared of making one disastrous delete move. Geoffrey, you cannnot delete pictures from Collections, only from folders. Just select all pictures you want to delete from a Collection and mark with the X flag (for deletion). Now go to the top of your catalog listing to the 'All Photographs' and click that choice. Next filter out all pictures marked with X to be deleted; select all and press Delete and confirm. I assume the pictures to be deleted have been edited by you first. Otherwise you might have a disaster on your hands. I suggest you try the procedure on a small selection first so that you are familiar with the difference. It is best to delete files from within LR; otherwise LR is confused and will continue to show them with a Question Mark on the thumbnail images. Edited November 7, 2015 by wda Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted November 7, 2015 Share #7 Posted November 7, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Julieanne Kost videos may prove useful, for instance... http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/tag/deleting-files As an aside, my view is that disk space is cheap....unless a photo is beyond repair (exposure, etc), it's better to save files and learn from history, and just expand disk capacity. I shot judiciously in my film days and never threw away contact sheets, and try to use the same discipline shooting digitally. Jeff 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey James Posted November 7, 2015 Author Share #8 Posted November 7, 2015 Thanks for all the help. I have figured this out finally by simply deleting from folders, which are organized by date. I still don't totally understand the whole LR storage system and am going to submit myself to a Michael Reichman tutorial. JeffS, I am slightly appalled by how many photographs I am taking. I recently scanned some old negatives because a couple of museums wanted to acquire sets of prints, and found myself shooting two rolls on an assignment. The digital system does not concentrate the mind. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted November 7, 2015 Share #9 Posted November 7, 2015 (edited) The digital system does not concentrate the mind. No, but you do. I did a comparison of output per shoot in my film days versus recent digital, and the results were fairly comparable. The main difference is that I'm shooting more often, but not more per outing, due to retirement. People are of course different. For instance, many here note that they need the Monochrom to concentrate the mind on digital b/w. For me, 40 years of b/w has given me all the discipline I need using the M240 or other camera. Jeff Edited November 7, 2015 by Jeff S Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thighslapper Posted November 7, 2015 Share #10 Posted November 7, 2015 (edited) The moral of this tale is to keep all your original images in a single folder (with subfolders by year/month/place/whatever) and just ADD them to the LR catalogue ..... which leaves the originals untouched and the catalogue just has thumbnails and stores the changes/virtual copies. You really must have a separate external back-up drive and/or cloud storage for safety with Time Machine running. Transfer speeds are so fast you could actually access the originals from an external HD without loss of speed. Luckily with your imac whatever you do will probably be reversible ...... with the emphasis on probably ...... 14k images is less than a years worth for most keen digital photographers ......... if you are going to keep everything. I do - even if the images are poor they provide a reminder of where you were and what you were actually doing .... and the mistakes you made .... Edited November 7, 2015 by thighslapper 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey James Posted November 8, 2015 Author Share #11 Posted November 8, 2015 Of course I back everything up with Time Machine. 14 K images may not be many --but it's a lot for me and I am not interested in mistakes. I am facing the same issue with my film archive of 40 years, with thousands of 8x10 negs and panoramas, and the prospect of moving next year from a house to a condo. I am happy not to have a lot of bad images lying around. I am going to get a proper NEC screen, a tower of power, and megastorage -- and then set up a properly organized archive. I never really set things up properly and am now paying for it in wasted time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tobey bilek Posted November 9, 2015 Share #12 Posted November 9, 2015 If you move images, you are supposed to do it from inside LR otherwise LR can not find the image to tie it to the adjustments. I see no advantage to LR so I just use PS and ACR. The process is the same and I need not mess with the rest of the stuff I have no need for. I got some LR books from the library and ??? Guess you can not teach an old dog new tricks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Berkhout Posted November 29, 2015 Share #13 Posted November 29, 2015 If still concerned, very approachable and helpful is Laura Shoe. Google: Laura Shoe Lightroom Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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