Do you get lists of selected photos from clients? The challenge is how to transform that list into a selection of photos in Lightroom, without manually copy and pasting them.
This powerful plug-in reads a list of photo file names from a text file or from the clipboard and collects them into a collection called "LRS_Photo_List" for further processing.
Your clients do not have to type the full photo name when using the Folder or Collection filtering. So 108, 123.. for example would be sufficient in combination with (part of) the folder of collection name.
Another usage might be searching for photos in Lightroom with a similar file name. For more information, see section "How does "Photo list importer" work?".
Finally, because the search mechanism used is identical to that of the Smart Collection, you can even create a list for example of clients names, or other parts of your file names, see samples below.
Youtube demo of older version. Explains the functionality. See screenshot below for the new, extra options.
What's in it for me?
This plugin turns a list of (partial) photo file names into a collection in Lightroom for further processing.
If you have clients that send you a list of their choice photos, this plug-in will transform that list in a Lightroom Collection called "LRS_Photo_List" for further processing.
Perhaps you are wedding photographer. After the shoot you publish the photos on your website and have your clients pick those they like. They might send you an e-mail with the names of the photos they choose. Just copy the list with file names from the e-mail, past them into this plug-in and they are ready for further procession in a Collection called "LRS_Photo_List".
Another usage is to find all photos in your Lightroom catalog with a similar name like the list provided, see explanation below.
Filter on Folder name filter (part of is sufficient)
Filter on Collection name
Default settings are provided to keep it simple!
2 input modes
This plug-in can read from:
Text file
Clipboard.
Only ASCII and UTF-8 characters are supported by Lightroom / this plugin!
2 search mechanisms
This plug-in can search in 2 different search modes.
Full file path and file name search mode
This search mode can be used if your list of file names contains the full path and file name of the photo as stored in your Lightroom catalog.
Samples:
E:\Photos\2005\07\2005_07_20 Arena\DAH_20120720_0350.JPG
\Volumes\Pictures\Iceland\Iceland winter 2003\DAH_icelnd001.jpg
Be careful with commas!
The plug-in treats commas as a separating character, meaning that the plug-in reads a line until it finds a comma. If you path or file name contains commas, you should put double quotes around it.
(Part of) file name only search mode
Only the file name or part of the file name, see samples below.
Working with clients and uploading the images to a website they can choose from, the full path and file name in your Lightroom catalog can not be used. For this situation the (Part of) file name only search mode is created.
The "File name only search mode" searches exact the same as with smart collection.
2 file / clipboard layouts
This plug-in can read file names in 2 modes:
One file name on each line
Default this plug-in reads the first file name from each line. The first file name contains all the characters until the first comma on a line.
When your file or path name contains commas, you should enclose them with double commas!
Other information may follow the comma, yet this is not processed.
Client friendly option
This option allows your clients to supply only a small part of the file name, making it very easy for them.
For example, if you shot a wedding of John and Mary and all the photos the couple can select from are in one Folder of Collection, then instead of DAH_20130112_0001 your customers only have to write down for example "0001". Normally there would be many photos with "0001" in the name, but when you supply the the name of the folder or collection, then only the right photos are selected.
When the file names are not unique in your catalog or when you supply a filter:
Filter by (part of) the folder / map / directory name
filter or (part of) a Regular collection name (not Smart)
These filter are based on Lightroom Smart collections and work exactly the same. Normally only a part is already sufficient.
DAH 20130112 9349
with spaces instead of underscore
Contains all
File name only
Find all images that have -AND- DAH -AND- 20130112 -AND- 9349 in their name
DAH 20130112 9349
with spaces instead of underscore
Contains
File name only
Find all images that have -EITHER- DAH -EITHER- 20130112 -EITHER- 9349 in their name
This can be a lot of images.
In my case all images that I shoot start with "DAH", so all these images will be found.
DAH 20130112 9349
Start with
File name only
All images that start with all this file name.
In my case no images are found, because all my images have underscores.
DAH_201301
Start with
File name only
Finds all photos made by me (DAH) and shot in Janari 2013
02.CR2
End with
File name only
All images are found that end with "02.CR2" like:
DAH_20120603_6602.CR2
ESH_20110801_2402.CR2
....
Amazon
Contains
File name only
Will find all photos that have "Amazon" in it.
So when you are working for clients and you have the client name in your file name, you can search for it.
Amazon_2010
Amazon_2011
Contains
File name only
All photos made for Amazon in 2010 or 2011.
For more information on the search rules in Lightroom like contains all, see the Lightroom help.
Sample without folder name filtering
Below the situation when a user searches throughout the Lightroom catalog for photos contain the numbers given in their name.
The search is catalog wide because no extra (part of) folder name or collection name is specified.
In this sample the same numbers are supplied however only photos stored in a folder containing "Antwerpen" should be found.
As you can see below only photos stored in a folder contain the name Antwerpen are found: 2014_10_15 and 2016_05_19.
Of course the same holds true when using a Collection name instead of a folder name.
As said, only regular collection names are allowed. Lightroom does not support searching in a Smart collection.
Option
Value
Input
9126, 9146, 9167, 9174, 9177, 9183, 9184
Choices
All default
Output
Input
# found
Photos found
Folder name
Virtual Copies
Copy Name
9126
1
ADH_20160519_9126.JPG
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
9146
1
ADH_20160519_9146.JPG
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
9167
2
ADH_20160519_9167.JPG
ADH_20160519_9167.JPG
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
1
_VC_01
9174
1
ADH_20160519_9174.JPG
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
9177
1
ADH_20160519_9177.JPG
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
9183
1
ADH_20160519_9183.JPG
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
9184
1
ADH_20160519_9184.JPG
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
For more information on the search rules in Lightroom like contains all, see the Lightroom help.
The result of the import is stored in 1 Collections in Lightroom:"LRS_Photo_List"
Also a report is created showing the search results. By default this report is opened after running the plug-in. In the configuration you can disable this.
On the configuration panel of the plug-in you can specify your default settings.
You can find the configuration panel via the Plug-in manger (menu File -> Plug-in manager) and choose the "Photo list importer" plug-in and open the "Configuration" tab.
On the configuration panel of the plug-in you can specify your default settings.
You can find the configuration panel via the Plug-in manger (menu File -> Plug-in manager) and choose the "Photo list importer" plug-in and open the "Configuration" tab.
Input mode
Choose whether you want to import from
File
Clipboard
Only ASCII and UTF-8 characters are supported by Lightroom / this plugin!
Skip first line
This option is special for importing CSV (Comma Seperated values) files. In these files often the first row contains the column name.
When reading from the clipboard you probably always should uncheck this option.
Ignore the file name extension
When this option is checked, the file name extension like DNG, CR2, JPG, Tiff is ignored.
For example if your catalog contains both a JPG and a CR2 version of an image, both will be found.
This option is useful when your clients see the JPG preview version and specify file name with the JPG extension but you have in your catalog only the original raw version.
How to handle double entries
These options determine how to handle duplicate entries in the input list.
Detection of duplicate entries only works when the entries are sorted by the plug-in.
When disabling "Sort by file name" each entry is processed as is and duplicate entries are handled as often as they occur.
When enabling "Sort by file name", before searching for the photos in the catalog, the list is first sorted and duplicates are sorted out.
When the user enters a same file name two or more times the "Sorted - create virtual copies for master photos" option allows the user to have virtual copies created for these extra duplicated entries.
The user can choose if only new virtual copies are created for master images or also for existing virtual copies.
Default this feature is unchecked.
Input
# found
Photos found
Folder name
9126
1
ADH_20160519_9126.JPG
ADH_20170805_9126.JPG
No virtual copies are created
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
2017_08_05 New York
9126
1
When checked,
virtual copies will be created for the files found
2016_05_19 Antwerpen
Choose file name type
The plug-in has 2 modes on searching for file names in the Lightroom catalog:
(Part of) the file name without the extension like JPG, CR2, NEF, etc
Full file name with the full path.
This option is very fast, yet is only usable when you know the full path of the photos. Clients will probably not know this.
Folder name
It is possible to enter (part of) the folder name to narrow down where the photos are searched for.
Especially when the customer only gives part of a file name, many photos may be found throughout the catalog. However all the selected photos probably are stored in one folder.
Collection name
It is possible to enter (part of) a regular collection name to narrow down where the photos are searched for.
Especially when the customer only gives part of a file name, many photos may be found throughout the catalog. However all the selected photos probably are stored in one collection.
BTW, Lightroom has not the functionality to search in a smart collection.
Report settings
These settings control the layout and behavior of the report.
Full width
When "on" the full width of your screen / browser will be used, when "off" the width is set to 1024 pixels.
Default: full width.
Scrollable tables
When selecting this option each table will have the height of the next setting.
Advantage is that if there are many tables, the report will not be so long and it is easier to navigate. Of course all the information is there.
If the table is bigger than the specified height, a scroll bar appears and you can scroll through it.
When off the scroll bar disappears and all rows are shown.
Table height in pixels
If you selected the option "Scrollable tables", this option determines the height of a table.
Play around and see what height best fits your screen.
Use online HTML Javascript and CSS
This options determines whether the plugin uses the embedded JavaScript and CSS files or downloads them from the internet.
Advantage of the embedded files is stability and loading speed. Further you do not need a internet connection to show the page properly.
Disadvantage of local files is that when you copy the report to a different computer, the required Javascript and CSS file will not be found and the layout will be poor.
Javascript enbled in report (Better looking, but slower with large reports)
The plugin used JQuery and the Datatables Javascript libraries. With these the reports looks much better, however, on very large reports these libraries take some time and you might run into a warning that the script is running to long.
Disabling the these Javascript libraries increases the time for the browser to render the report much.
Show results upon finish
This setting controls whether the plug-in automatically opens the report upon finishing in your browser, or not.
