Make Empty Folders in PM to ingest to from camera

[stoner27]

Hi, I am new to PM,

 I just need a bit of help with folders. I shoot mainly motorsport, before the event I make empty folders for each class in a parent folder in Windows for the event, I then import into them from the camera, they are all named so when they are culled i can export them to Lightroom. Will I be able to do this in PM ? 

[Kirk Baker]

Hi, I am new to PM,

 I just need a bit of help with folders. I shoot mainly motorsport, before the event I make empty folders for each class in a parent folder in Windows for the event, I then import into them from the camera, they are all named so when they are culled i can export them to Lightroom. Will I be able to do this in PM ?

I can't tell from your description what you're trying to accomplish.  Could you list the set of folders that you create and how they would get routed to those folders?

Ingest can create folders for you based on metadata contained in the images (things like dates, folder numbers, etc.) but there is no way to cause Ingest to create a bunch of folders with no images in them.

-Kirk

[stoner27]

Hi Kirk, thanks for your reply.

Sorry if it looks a bit complicated.

Yes I would usually have empty folders on my hard drive in my pictures folder on Windows. I name each one for the class of bikes at that meeting. When i get home i take all the photos from the camera into a parent folder for the meeting, i then cull from there and move the photos of each class from there to their own folder with the name of the class on. These can be exported to Lightroom then because they are all the keepers ready to edit.The names i have on them for the classes will be imported with them to Lightroom. When edited i export straight to my website from Lightroom.

I think i would still have to get photos off the camera to my hard drive then import to PM to cull which defeats the object for me.

Hope you get where i'm coming from !

Col

[Kirk Baker]

Col,

Yes I would usually have empty folders on my hard drive in my pictures folder on Windows. I name each one for the class of bikes at that meeting. When i get home i take all the photos from the camera into a parent folder for the meeting, i then cull from there and move the photos of each class from there to their own folder with the name of the class on. These can be exported to Lightroom then because they are all the keepers ready to edit.The names i have on them for the classes will be imported with them to Lightroom. When edited i export straight to my website from Lightroom.

I think i would still have to get photos off the camera to my hard drive then import to PM to cull which defeats the object for me.

Photo Mechanic's Ingest feature should be able to do the "When i get home i take all the photos from the camera into a parent folder for the meeting" for you just fine.  The rest sounds like you do the culling and sorting into folders manually and PM is great for that too.

You can learn about Ingest here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Ingesting_Images

HTH,

-Kirk

[stoner27]

Thanks Kirk,

As I'm not sure how folders work in PM i think i will just import from my card into PM, cull in there, i am thinking just Red & Green colours tbh, green good, red to be deleted. When that is done i will export to the folders i have on the hard drive with the names on & import from there to Lightroom.

Does this sound good or bad ?

Col

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Hi stoner.

Here is one possible way you could work:

- Plug Memory Card into card reader
- Open Photo Mechanic
- Open the Ingest dialog and specify one folder on hard drive to bring photos into.

Photo Mechanic will then automatically open a "Contact Sheet" that looks at the one folder with all your new images. (Photo Mechanic looks at folders on your hard drive. Each folder is = one Contact sheet" in PM)  You can make culling your first step. (I suggest using 't' key to tag rejects, then ctrl-t to select all tagged and delete)   Then you can start organizing:

One way could be to use Color Classes for different bike classes. E.g. Red = 250cc , green = 500cc, yellow = moped  (etc.)  You can use the number keys to assign colors very quickly.   Then you can select photos by color class and move them to a new folder
 AND rename in one step:

- Click color in colors class widget at the bottom
- use Ctrl-y to Copy/move
- Create Subfolder and you can name it how you like. Check the box to rename photos too in the same step

That is a basic way to do what you are saying.

There is also an advanced way you could move all the files into different folders at one single time. If your events always have the same classes of bikes, this could really save you time.   You could create a "code replacement" file. That file would have each color class on a line followed by a TAB and the name of the bike class: (Read that link on Code Replacements for help)

Red        250cc
Green     500cc
Yellow     moped

After you have that file set up, you tell Photo Mechanic to load it under Edit > Settings > Set code replacements

This way, after you have ALL your files color coded for bike class, you can select them ALL and press ctrl-y. Then under "Create subfolder" you can put  \{colorclass}\  and Photo Mechanic will put ALL your photos into different folders based on which color the photo is, and the folders will be named as bike classes   "250cc" etc.     

I feel like this could save you time manually making folders.

I hope this helps. If you have questions, let me know.

-Mick

[stoner27]

Hi Mick, thanks for taking the time to explain 

Basically the meeting will have probably 9 classes e.g. 600cc Supersport, 1000cc Superbike Etc. for the 9 classes. So the way i work now is to have 1 parent folder to import to from the card, example Silverstone June 2016, I separate the classes on the card by taking a photo of the grass between races. I import all the photos to the parent folder & cull from there, deleting as i go. These are the things I'm hoping PM will help with. It takes time to get the photos into Windows & Windows Photo Viewer although not the slowest at viewing i think PM would be a lot better, and the deleting takes time at one at a time !

When all that is done I'm left with 9 folders (the parent one will now be empty) but the folder will be named Silverstone June 2016 and they will all be named with the race classes on because i set these up before the event. When i send them to Lightroom they all come up in one folder with subfolders for the classes.

It's just the folder thing in PM I'm trying to get my head around, it saves me time before the event to set the Parent folder with 9 subfolders in ready to drag my culled photos into in Windows. I am thinking of setting the folders up still in Windows, taking them off the card in PM and culling them in there, when they are done drag each folder back to Windows to send to Lightroom.

I'm sure I'm missing something simple so need a 'Photo Mechanic For Dummies' Folder talk through 

Col

[Kirk Baker]

Col,

Basically the meeting will have probably 9 classes e.g. 600cc Supersport, 1000cc Superbike Etc. for the 9 classes. So the way i work now is to have 1 parent folder to import to from the card, example Silverstone June 2016, I separate the classes on the card by taking a photo of the grass between races. I import all the photos to the parent folder & cull from there, deleting as i go. These are the things I'm hoping PM will help with. It takes time to get the photos into Windows & Windows Photo Viewer although not the slowest at viewing i think PM would be a lot better, and the deleting takes time at one at a time !

When all that is done I'm left with 9 folders (the parent one will now be empty) but the folder will be named Silverstone June 2016 and they will all be named with the race classes on because i set these up before the event. When i send them to Lightroom they all come up in one folder with subfolders for the classes.

It's just the folder thing in PM I'm trying to get my head around, it saves me time before the event to set the Parent folder with 9 subfolders in ready to drag my culled photos into in Windows. I am thinking of setting the folders up still in Windows, taking them off the card in PM and culling them in there, when they are done drag each folder back to Windows to send to Lightroom.

I'm sure I'm missing something simple so need a 'Photo Mechanic For Dummies' Folder talk through 

If you make that set of folders in advance, then in the Navigator pane on the left, you can go to that parent folder (Silverstone June 2016) and expand it.  You'll now see your 9 subfolders, one for each class.  You can select all the images for each class and drag and drop them into the proper folder in the Navigator.

That should do it.

-Kirk

[stoner27]

Thanks Kirk,

That was my plan ?

What I want eventually is to just use PM from start to sending them to Lightroom and exporting from there to my website on Smugmug, at least the way you described will be a lot faster to start with ?

Col