As an amateur or professional photographer, chances are you'll have thousands of photos that you want to store and keep organized. Lightroom is one of the leading ways to edit and organize images. Knowing how to import them will save you time when you begin using the platform, and this guide will show you how to do that.

We'll show you how to import photos into Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC on your computer. You'll also learn how to do the same if you use Lightroom on your smartphone or tablet, along with the basics of how Lightroom works.

Understanding How Lightroom Works

The structure of Lightroom is based around "catalogs". A Lightroom catalog is not where your photos are stored. This means that when using Lightroom, you can pretty much store your photos in any folder you like, whether on your internal or external hard drive. Lightroom will still be able to access them.

Lightroom Catalog Interface Screenshot

When you import photos, what you are doing is creating a catalog of location references, which point to where your photos are actually stored. The images you're looking at in Lightroom are previews of the original.

Because Lightroom offers "non-destructive editing", any edits you make within Lightroom do not alter the original image until you export those changes. Instead, those edits are stored within your Lightroom catalog (along with those location references). In other words, you can always go back to previous edits.

Do Not Move or Rename Your Photos

Because your Lightroom catalog uses the file name and location of your individual photos to create references to them, if you move or edit file names or locations, you break those references. This will cause your photos to go "missing" in your catalog.

Before importing your photos into Lightroom, figure out a location and folder structure that you can stick to. Changing this will only cause you hassle down the road.

What Are Lightroom Backups?

As mentioned, what's stored in your Lightroom catalog are the references to the original images, as well as details of any edits you make to those images (including metadata, cataloging information, and tags).

When you back up your catalog, this is all that's being backed up, not your actual photos. Your photos should always be backed up independently, such as on a NAS system or cloud storage. Likewise, if you delete your catalog (or images from your catalog), you are deleting that separate information, not the actual photos.

How to Import Photos Into Adobe Lightroom Classic

When you first start using Lightroom, your new catalog will be completely empty. Once you've stored your original photo library in the right place, it's time to import your photos into that catalog.

To do this, open your Lightroom catalog and click File > Import. You'll now see the main import window in Lightroom.

Import Photos in Lightroom Classic Screenshot

On the left-hand side, you'll see the folders that you can choose from to import your photos. Note that if you click on a different sub-folder and start choosing images to import from there, your previous selections will become deselected. So, it's a good idea to include everything in the same place before you start adding your pictures to Lightroom.

On the right-hand side, you'll see a box next to Don't Import Suspected Duplicates. Tick this to ensure that you don't import the same photos twice.

In Lightroom Classic, you can double-click on images to preview them before importing. Doing this will save you time from later having to delete pictures due to camera shake or other annoyances.

Tick all the photos that you want to import into Lightroom. Once you've done that, select the Import button in the bottom right-hand corner. Lightroom will work on bringing your images into the catalog. Once the process is complete, you can begin editing.

How to Import Photos Into Lightroom CC on Your Computer

In the fall of 2017, Adobe added Lightroom CC to its suite of Creative Cloud software. The tool includes many of the same features that you'll find in Lightroom Classic, though you'll miss certain Lightroom tools like calibration. On top of that, you can't drag the histogram to change parts of your image. See more of the differences in our Lightroom Classic vs. CC guide.

Nonetheless, Lightroom CC is an excellent photo editing platform if you want to adjust your images on the go. Before we talk about how you can import pictures into the app on your smartphone, let's look at how you can do it on your computer.

In the top left-hand corner, you'll see a button called Add Photos. Click on this when you're ready to start importing images into the app.

Import a Photo Into Lightroom CC Screenshot

When you select the Add Photos option, you'll see the files you can choose from to import your photos. Choose the one that contains the images you want to edit.

Choose File to Import Photo in Lightroom CC

Select the photos you want to import. When you're done, hit the Review for Import button in the bottom right-hand corner of the pop-up window.

Review for Import in Lightroom CC Screenshot

Unlike Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC doesn't allow you to see a full-size preview of your pictures before importing. If you're happy with your choices, you can select Add [number] photos.

Add Photos in Lightroom CC Screenshot

In situations where you change your mind about importing some of your images, you can untick them. You can also choose the album you'd like to add your pictures to at the top of your screen; go to Add to Album and click on the dropdown menu.

How to Import Photos Into Lightroom CC on Mobile

Lightroom CC is also available on smartphones and tablets. You're better off using your computer for importing RAW files; you can then choose where you'd like to edit them. For simple image importing from your camera roll, you can follow the steps in this section.

In the bottom right of your screen, you'll see an icon with the + sign over a photo. Click on this after highlighting the album you want to import them to. A pop-up screen will appear; here, you can choose where you'd like to import your photos from.

At the top of the app, you can then choose which album you'd like to add photos from. Select this and pick the pictures you want to import into Lightroom CC. To choose multiple images, hold down on the first until you see a tick appear. For the rest, you can select them by tapping on your screen.

Select Done in the top right-hand corner when you're finished.

Importing Photos Into Lightroom

Following these step-by-step instructions will help you populate your Lightroom catalog with both old and new photos. Adobe doesn't make this as easy as it could be, but before you know it, it'll be second nature.

By keeping your Lightroom catalog up to date and organized, you'll be in a much better position to bulk edit images, organize your photos, easily publish them to social media, create slideshows, and much more.