Using Folders to Organize Images

Organizing your images within folders in Neo is a great way to keep your photo collection in order. All changes you make to folders in Luminar Neo directly affect how the folders on your hard drive are organized and vice versa. If you create subfolders or add new images to folders on your hard drive, your Luminar Neo Catalog will automatically be updated to reflect those changes.

What Are Folders?

When you add a folder of images to Luminar Neo, you create a direct link to that folder on your hard drive, along with all the subfolders and images it contains. You should consider managing folders and their contents in Luminar Neo as an alternative to managing these items directly within File Explorer in Windows or Finder in macOS.

How Are Folders Different from Albums?

Folders in Luminar Neo are directly linked to (and affect) folders on your hard drive. On the other hand, Albums allow you to organize your images inside Luminar Neo without affecting the structure of images on your hard drive. Think of Albums as playlists. One image can be organized in several different Albums, making it easier to find without affecting its location on your hard drive.

Master Folders

There are three ways to add a folder to your Catalog:

• Click the Add Photos button at the top of the Catalog panel.
• Click the Add Folder *icon (the *+ sign to the right of the word Folder) in the Catalog panel.
• Go to File > Add Folder with Images…
  

The folder you select will be added to your Folder collection as a top-level folder. All folders contained within that top-level folder will also be added as subfolders.

Using Subfolders

Any folders that already exist within a master folder you add to Luminar Neo are added to your Catalog as subfolders. If a new folder is added to a master folder from within the operating system, Luminar Neo will recognize that change and automatically add that subfolder to your Luminar Neo Catalog. You can also add subfolders to Luminar Neo. Subfolders make organizing images by client, location, or event easy.

Creating Subfolders

As you work in your Luminar Neo Catalog, you may want to create additional folders to get organized. You can quickly create subfolders inside any folder in your Catalog in two ways.

• Right-click on a folder and choose New Subfolder.
• Select a folder in the Catalog panel and choose File > New Subfolder from the main application menu.

A new subfolder will be created called New folder (you can rename it). This subfolder will also be created on your hard drive within the master folder.

Additionally, you can drag folders from one level to another to create nested folders. Simply drag a folder on top of another to nest it and convert it into a subfolder. The nested folder (now a subfolder) will be relocated both in your Luminar Neo Catalog and on your hard drive.

Renaming Folders

As you organize images, you may want to rename folders or subfolders. You might name folders to identify the status of images (such as “Selects”) or to split up collections by date or location.

If you rename a folder or subfolder within Luminar Neo, the name of the linked folder or subfolder will also be changed on your hard drive. If you change the name of a folder on your hard drive while Luminar Neo is running, your Catalog will automatically update to reflect the new name.

!Note: Broken Links
Renaming or moving a master folder on your hard drive when Luminar Neo is not running can break the link to your images and cause the renamed or moved folder to no longer be available in Luminar Neo (it will be grayed out). If this happens, you can reconnect the folder by changing its name to the original name in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS) or by moving the folder back to its original location and relaunching Luminar Neo.

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