How to Select Multiple Photos at Once for an Import in Lightroom?

To select multiple photos at once for an import in Lightroom, you can use a simple keyboard shortcut combined with clicking.

Importing photos into Adobe Lightroom is a fundamental step in managing your photography workflow. When you have a large number of images in a folder and want to import a specific range, selecting them individually can be time-consuming. Lightroom provides an easy method to select a contiguous block of photos using the Shift key.

This method allows you to quickly select a series of photos that are listed consecutively in the import grid.

Step-by-Step Guide to Selecting Photos for Import

Follow these steps to select multiple images at once for your Lightroom import, ensuring only your desired photos are checked for import:

1. First deselect all photos. Ensure no photos are currently checked for import in the grid view of the Import dialog.
2. Click on the first photo in the group. Locate the very first image you want to include in your selection range and click on its thumbnail. This makes it the starting point of your selection.
3. Hold down Shift and click on the last photo. While keeping the Shift key pressed on your keyboard, click on the thumbnail of the last photo in the range you wish to select. Lightroom will automatically select all photos between the first one you clicked and the last one (inclusive).
4. Now that they're all selected check the checkbox of one of the photos. With the entire range highlighted, find the small checkbox located on one of the selected photo thumbnails (usually in the top-left corner). Click this checkbox.
5. All selected images will be checked and only those will be imported. Because you selected the group before checking the box, clicking one checkbox applies the import selection status to all photos in the highlighted range. Only the images within this selected group will have their checkboxes marked and will be included in the import process when you click the "Import" button.

This technique is efficient for importing specific sequences or batches of photos from a larger source folder.