how do you download your iphone photos onto your computer and how do you organize them

Discussion in 'Photography Pad' started by bjc, Mar 6, 2016.

  1. bjc

    bjc Trophy Wife

    Messages:
    3,807
    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2011
    i take photos with my camera and use lightroom but want to be more organized with my iphone photos so looking for ideas how people take the photos off the phone and keep them organized
     
  2. mollyc

    mollyc PrettyPinkPicturesPlease

    Messages:
    3,185
    Joined:
    Dec 16, 2012
    i have folders in Lightroom for each month for RAW (from my two dSLRS) files, iPhone files, and then finished jpegs. I don't sort by theme or event, just chronologically.

    I use dropbox to get my photos from my phone to my computer.
     
    KellyM and enjoyyourpix like this.
  3. michelepixels

    michelepixels A pun is not fully matured until it is full groan.

    Messages:
    8,197
    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2015
    I just hook up my phone to my computer with the charger cable and import the photos directly into Lightroom. I put them in the same place as my DSLR photos, which are organized by date, with folders for year, month, and day.
     
    KellyM, Sokee and enjoyyourpix like this.
  4. MelanieB

    MelanieB Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    6,908
    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2013
    I have an iMac so the photos are automatically uploaded from iPhone into the cloud & then I can access them on my desktop in Photos. I highlight & drag from Photos into folders, because I like maintaining the numbering system. I organize all folders on my external hard drive chronologically by month and then by day.
     
    Juliestcyr and KellyM like this.
  5. jk703

    jk703 CEO of Anything and Everything, Everywhere

    Messages:
    13,408
    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2012
    I'm similar to @MelanieB, I keep them in Photos, and make albums based on event or date. For some reason, if they are not in the cloud, I just hook my phone up. But, usually they are. (I don't have it set up automatically, as I think it would take up too much space!)
     
    Juliestcyr likes this.
  6. lorryfach

    lorryfach Likes to be chauffeured

    Messages:
    11,533
    Joined:
    Jul 13, 2011
    I only have one camera/phone now, but when I had multiple this is what I did. Lightroom knows what camera you used, so you can search/sort by camera if that's important. I can't think of any reason to treat iPhone pictures differently than any other photos.
     
    enjoyyourpix likes this.
  7. Lindzee

    Lindzee Aging gracefully

    Messages:
    5,217
    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2013
  8. scrappyjedi

    scrappyjedi Patience you must have, my young padawan

    Messages:
    1,658
    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2014
    I use DropBox to upload photos from my iPhone, then have Lightroom watch the Camera Upload folder and automatically import any images that are placed there. I love that it all happens automatically and I don't have to do anything.

    As for organizing, I find that Lightroom's Metadata filter- date, camera, lens, etc.- works for most of what I need. I also have a Smart Collection set up for each week to help with Project Life.
     
    busywoman139, KellyM and enjoyyourpix like this.
  9. enjoyyourpix

    enjoyyourpix My mama don't like you

    Messages:
    1,721
    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2014
    Another vote for dropbox! I don't have have LR watch the folder like Melissa does though. I use my phone camera as almost like a notepad and I don't want all those random grocery store photos and memes I text to my son at college to end up with my regular photos. Every month or so I go through the camera uploads and purge the stuff I don't want and import the photos and memories I want to save into LR. I take the time then to keyword the who-what-where.
     
  10. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

    Messages:
    19,369
    Joined:
    Dec 18, 2013
    Oh! I didn't know I can do a watched folder. I'm totally doing that!

    I use Dropbox to upload my photos to my computer automatically. Then I throw them into the same place as my DSLR. I have been known to take a photo with GPS on with my phone camera, then take the rest of the shots with my DSLR. I then can copy the where info to my DSLR photos. I like all my photos together because they usually complement each other.
     
    KellyM likes this.
  11. scrappyjedi

    scrappyjedi Patience you must have, my young padawan

    Messages:
    1,658
    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2014
    It is pretty easy to set up. There are a few quirks, like the folder has to be empty to start with and it won't watch subfolders, but other than that it works really well. Here's the article from Adobe on how to set it up- https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/import-photos-automatically.html.
     
    bestcee likes this.
  12. scrappyjedi

    scrappyjedi Patience you must have, my young padawan

    Messages:
    1,658
    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2014
    This idea is GENIUS! I am so doing this!
     
    bestcee likes this.
  13. cookingmylife

    cookingmylife Pizza would be my last meal, except ...

    Messages:
    5,791
    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2012
    I am so going to do this! @scrappyjedi Melissa, do you have your PL weeks auto set up in LR? " I also have a Smart Collection set up for each week to help with Project Life." I do this in Photos before they get copied to my main end but I never thought of having Lightroom sort them also. Would you tell me the wording you use for the Smart Collections pls?
     
  14. gonewiththewind

    gonewiththewind I choose joy.

    Messages:
    11,692
    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2009
    My phone automatically uploads to DropBox and then once a week (or more frequent or less frequent LOL) I will pull those photos out of the Camera Uploads folder in DropBox and move them, by date, into my PHOTOS folder. I have tons of photos that I don't want to go into Lightroom, so I manually add them into Lightroom after I move them into my PHOTOS folder.

    I like the idea of Lightroom automatically adding newly added photos BUT I really like having the control in the process.
     
    KellyM likes this.
  15. scrappyjedi

    scrappyjedi Patience you must have, my young padawan

    Messages:
    1,658
    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2014
    There's not a way to automatically generate the smart collections, but it's pretty easy to set up a whole year in one sitting. I'm waiting on a replacement audio cable for my microphone (it should arrive tomorrow), and I'll try to record a video showing how to do it a little later this week. :)
     
    KellyM likes this.
  16. jenevang

    jenevang Rocking a two-piece under my scrubs

    Messages:
    9,755
    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2011
    Mine go to the cloud as well automatically, but I still plug in and upload to LR manually, mainly b/c I put my photos in very specific folders and I {really try to} always tag them and name them as I go. I do this sporadically but definitely at least once every 2 weeks. I don't upload automatically to Dropbox b/c I'm cheap and my space fills too quickly when I do. I use DB for a lot of other things.

    I, too, have weekly smart folders set up in LR and it was one of the biggest time savers ever for PL. About 30 minutes of work in front of your calendar setting them up for the year and it is magic!

    The biggest issue I have are the photos I DL from my computer. FB/IG pics of my kids that others post, for example. Those get caught on my hard drive and I always forget to move them to LR. I need a better system for this...
     
    KellyM likes this.
  17. sakura-panda

    sakura-panda Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    492
    Joined:
    May 14, 2013
    I manually download my phone photos from iCloud into a single directory that I later import into Lightroom.

    When I delete photos from iCloud, they are also deleted from all of the devices that are linked to it (my iPhone and my iPad). I have a lot of photos on my phone that I don't want to save -- like pictures from the store of items I want to price-compare, a copy of a schedule that I needed one day, duplicate photos that I transferred from my "real" camera, to post online -- rather than automatically importing them into my library unreviewed. There is a lot of stuff in there that I don't want to keep.
     
    KellyM likes this.
  18. zuruinp

    zuruinp New Member

    Messages:
    2
    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2016
    It is easy to download photos in album. and you find at least 3 way to transfer photos from other apps.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2016
  19. Scrapping with Liz

    Scrapping with Liz Crafts for days.

    Messages:
    4,681
    Joined:
    Dec 19, 2015
    I sort of do this. I plug in my phone to my computer and then organize my photos into my folders along with my DSLR photos.
     
    KellyM likes this.
  20. jenn mccabe

    jenn mccabe She's OUR sunshine!

    Messages:
    21,540
    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2013
    Ahh, thank you for that tip! Pretty cool to automate that. Love it! {in case anyone is wondering I found it under File/ Auto Import!} I'm setting this up right now!

    I import into LR too and treat them as any other photo. I organize all my photos in Lightroom into folders by year and then monthly/subfolders. As for getting my photos from my iPhone to my computer ... I never seem to have enough iCloud storage on my plan ... I have been using Mac's AirDrop feature to download them onto my Desktop from my iPhone ... but no idea if you are using Mac or Windows?
     
    KellyM likes this.

Share This Page