As photographers, we need to do some housekeeping from time to time. I’ve earlier shared tips on taking care of your gear, like cleaning the sensor. Today, I want to talk about file management.
RAW files take up a huge amount of storage space. It’s important to regularly review your files. Remove redundant ones.
If you have unlimited storage—whether cloud space or multiple hard drives—you might be able to keep everything. But I prefer to spend the time organizing my files to keep things manageable.
Instead of deleting them one by one, here’s a faster way to speed up the process. This method lets you delete all unused photos with a single click, saving you time and effort. I use it to free up more than 200GB of storage.
Delete redundant files
For example, when you capture 15 shots in a burst. This is common in street or wildlife photography. You usually only need one or two of those shots. In theory, you can safely delete the rest.
In this demonstration, I’ll be using Lightroom Classic along with some handy keyboard shortcuts.
Step 1
In the Develop module, look at the filmstrip panel at the bottom.
Press X to mark a photo as rejected
Step 2
Go to the menu: Photo > Delete Rejected Photos
Since they are labeled as rejected, there’s no need to select them manually.
Step 3
A window will pop up asking whether you want to remove the photos from Lightroom catalog or delete from disk. I select the latter, then empty the trash/bin manually afterward.
You can do this right after a shoot if you want. I often get excited and immediately pick out the best shots to edit. Deleting files is a non-creative task for me. So, I usually wait until my hard drive is nearly full before tackling it. Plus, after some time has passed, I feel less attached to the photos.
Lightroom Shortcuts
P Mark a photo as flagged
U Unflag a photo
→ Go forward to the next photo
← Go backward to the previous photo
Caps Lock — Toggle Auto Advance on or off
Auto Advance in Lightroom moves to the next photo automatically. This happens after you flag or rate one. You can quickly toggle this feature by pressing Caps Lock. Personally, I prefer to control navigation manually.
Here’s how I work efficiently:
I navigate through photos with the arrow keys using my right hand. My left hand presses the X key to reject unwanted shots. Cutting down from around 1,500 photos to just 300 is satisfying.
Find Missing Files
If you see an exclamation mark on a thumbnail, it means Lightroom can’t locate the photo. This usually happens when
1/ You have moved the folder somewhere else
2/ You have deleted the original files on your computer, but not via Lightroom
If it’s scenario 1, you can click on the exclamation mark to locate the file.
If it’s scenario 2, you can remove these missing links from your Lightroom catalog by following these steps.
Step 1
In the Library module, select your folder.
Step 2
Go to the menu: Library > Find All Missing Photos
This will list all the missing photos in the Library module, making the next step easier.
Step 3
Select all (Ctrl + A)
Go to the menu: Photo > Remove Selected Photos
A window will pop up. Click the button, and your catalog will be organized.
Keep in mind that the original files are not deleted; they are only removed from the Lightroom catalog.
Optimize Catalog
Last but not least, if your Lightroom catalog is sluggish, optimizing the catalog might help. This process can clean out previews and make it run smoother.
Go to File > Optimize Catalog
It will take a few minutes—grab a coffee and let it do its thing. Lightroom will relaunch when the optimization is complete.
Bonus Tip
1/ Always keep your photos on an external hard drive – I prefer an SSD (Solid State Drive).
2/ Don’t save all your photos in a single Lightroom catalog. It takes a long time to load and is risky!
Instead, I create a new catalog every quarter or month, keeping each catalog small—around 150MB.
3/ Backup!
Normally, when you close Lightroom, it asks if you want to back up, saving the backup in a date-labeled folder.
For extra safety, I always make a second copy myself. I learned this the hard way after experiencing a corrupted catalog that couldn’t be opened or recovered.