Stop and think about these options for a moment, because your choice will depend on whether you’re copying new photos from a memory card or adding existing photos. It’s possibly the most important decision you’ll make in Lightroom, so it’s worth taking the time to pay attention to the choice you make.Īt the top of the dialog, you’re given three main choices: will you copy the photos to a new location, move them to a new location or just add links to the catalog, leaving the image files where they are. When you import your photos, YOU make the decision on where to store the photos (even if that decision is to accept Lightroom’s defaults). You need to know where they’re stored, how to back them up, and you need to understand how what you do in Lightroom affects these files on the hard drive. The downside? That makes you responsible.
The benefit? You have complete control over where they’re stored, you’re not locked in to using Lightroom forever, and you can access the photos using other software.
It’s one of the common misunderstandings we discussed here. Where should you store your photos? And why does it matter? Because Lightroom doesn’t hide your photos away from you, they’re kept as normal image files in folders on your hard drive.
