i took a course this afternoon on using the library module in LR... it was really excellent and i've learned a bunch of things i hadn't stumbled across in the past year - so this was definitely hugely worthwhile...
but now i have a question...
because of the limited storage space on my laptop, i have been moving the RAW files over to an external drive every few weeks... only it turns out, this may not be a very smart thing to do because i seem to have broken the link with LR...
what the instructor was recommending was keeping my entire LR catalog on the external drive... meaning that all imports would go straight to the external drive and any processing work i do would go there as well... but this would mean that i could never do anything without having the external drive with me... not a huge deal given that the thing is physically quite small... but something of a drag and meaning less flexibility than i'd like...
but it made me wonder... is that what everyone does? carry around an external drive along with their laptop? is there another way to go on this?
hopefully i'm explaining myself in a way that makes sense... not sure i've really got the language down, but i am pretty sure i understood the instructor and what he was saying did make sense... just wondering whether there are alternatives i could consider...
I reimport shot from the external if I need to... mostly I don't need to go back and do anything... but that's just what I do. I dump all my files onto the external when I remember lol... when I start getting a slow laptop. I think you can also save the shots in some way in LR so that you can work on them "offline" later... ? Dont' quote me on that. I know there is soooo much I do not know about LR.
My raw files are too huge to keep on my laptop and I therefore do similar to you and transfer them every so often to the external drive, however I do have them on 2 external drives one desk top one and one portal. When I go anywhere the portal one comes with me. I don't use light room but I do transfer back an individual photo to the lap top if I want to work on it and I then save it in a different file with a different name.
* Have your Lightroom catalogue database (the .lrcat file and associated previews) on your laptop's internal hard disk. You can find where this file currently is in the Edit -> Catalog Settings menu in Lightroom (General tab).
* Have the majority of your old, processed files on your external drive, so they don't take up space on your internal drive. When you go away without your external drive, all this means is that you can't access your old photos until you get back.
* Store new files on your laptop's internal drive until you've either finished processing that batch, or until you return from being away and can connect back to the external drive. (An internal drive is also typically faster, so the editing will feel a bit more snappy)
* Once you are back home, or have finished processing a batch of files, move them to your external drive from within Lightroom, so that Lightroom keeps all the links to the files intact.
I think this is basically what you are already doing, except that you're not moving the files from within Lightroom, so you're losing the link between the physical file and the Lightroom data.
This is the method that Adobe recommends, and you can find more details on how to do it in this video link:
@northy I know nothing about LR, but you mean you can't load files or browse files from another folder than an LR default? Surely not, but if you can't, remind me to avoid LR then! I'll take the flexibility of Bridge any time, although some people find it somewhat clunky. :)
@northy No problem :) Let me know if you get stuck. The rest of that video might be worth watching as well, as it covers some useful aspects of how the Lightroom cataloguing works.
@abirkill just watched the whole video... really helpful to have the picture (as it were) from all sides... i think i understand the issue better for that...
@frankhymus i'm not going to be able to explain this properly, but... basically LR is a database thingy, not a browser thingy... so you can't use it like explorer or finder... you have to import photos into lightroom and manage them FROM within lightroom... if you try and manage from outside of LR you end up with the problem i have which is all these broken links... only as explained in the vid link Alexis provided, it's not the end of the world and it's pretty easy to re-establish the link... what i need to do now is figure out what set up makes the most sense for me on a medium/longer term basis and then i think it will be fine...
Thanks for starting this discussion. I just got LR5 and I'm moving things to my external drive (as backup). I'm bookmarking this thread and adding to my "one more reason @abirkill is the bomb diggity of 365!" file. :)
... I've been printing them up and stapling the original to the edit and sticking them in my filing cabinet... all of this technical jargon makes parts of my brain shut down.
I do exactly what your instructor says... import images to an external drive and keep the .xmp file (all processing info) alongside the raw file. The Lightroom database (Ircat) and backups reside on my internal disk under the Mac "Pictures" folder.
"Importing photographs into your catalog establishes a link between the catalog and the physical file. The photograph can exist on an internal or external drive. In previous versions of Lightroom, you could edit images that were contained on drives connected to Lightroom.
With Lightroom 5, Smart Previews allow you to edit images that are not physically connected to your computer. Smart Preview files are a new lightweight, smaller, file format, based on the lossy DNG file format introduced in Lightroom 4. "
Fantastic explanation Alexis @abirkill as ever! (more blushes?) I have had exactly the same issue as Northy and your suggested procedure will sort his out perfectly - thank you!
@abirkill lol of course you were!! Thanks... cos I need to do it the same way!! I shall go and check out that link. I need to really sit down with time on my side and go through videos and learn it more in depth.
@amyspada actually - the instructor said to have the lrcat and the other tech named file on the external as well... And he was teaching lr4 because they don't switch immediately (yeah - I shld have checked that)... Ok - I will look into this over the weekend... I've been ignoring the smart previews feature because I hadn't a clue what it was for... I think the main take away no matter what is that I shld be doing all file mgmt from within lr... Tx!!!
@grizzlysghost lmao, classic! you remiind me of Gibbs from NCIS! lol..slaps back of head.... @abirkill thanks as ever for this link as i need to do something as my Mac is almost full... i could listen to
Julieanne Kost all day, not sure what it is about her but....
For what it's worth, since starting 365 (or about in February), when I realized that my computer was so limited in memory (it's a macbook air, so among the worst for memory), a tutor I'd gone to recommended the external drive. I've gotten used to it -- I have a 2GB WD Passport that has my library and all photos on it (I use Aperture). Whenever I travel, I put it in a small case and take it with me. At home, it's pretty much always attached to the computer. It was a huge hassle at first and now it's just the way it is.
question, when you have finished editing your raw file and named it to a nice new shiny jpg (or whatever your preference), do you keep the original RAW image? I find I tend to delete them, once I'm happy with a shot and have finalised it's editing I don't go back to make variations - but just curious as to what others do as I am relatively new to the world of LR (on Mac).
@inara i keep 'em... partly because i'm a packrat and partly because i think "what if i want to tweak it later"? so far, i never have... but you never know, right? ;p
brilliant topic @northy and many thanks for the information @abirkill. I'm shamed to admit that i managed alot of my files manually and it was just awful.
As in manually copying RAW files to my NAS and still having RAW on my laptop and then going to the file system to delete the RAWs. This is a much better way of doing things!
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* Have your Lightroom catalogue database (the .lrcat file and associated previews) on your laptop's internal hard disk. You can find where this file currently is in the Edit -> Catalog Settings menu in Lightroom (General tab).
* Have the majority of your old, processed files on your external drive, so they don't take up space on your internal drive. When you go away without your external drive, all this means is that you can't access your old photos until you get back.
* Store new files on your laptop's internal drive until you've either finished processing that batch, or until you return from being away and can connect back to the external drive. (An internal drive is also typically faster, so the editing will feel a bit more snappy)
* Once you are back home, or have finished processing a batch of files, move them to your external drive from within Lightroom, so that Lightroom keeps all the links to the files intact.
I think this is basically what you are already doing, except that you're not moving the files from within Lightroom, so you're losing the link between the physical file and the Lightroom data.
This is the method that Adobe recommends, and you can find more details on how to do it in this video link:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-julieanne-kost/questions-about-lightroom-and-photo-management/
Skip to about 4:30 to get to the section on this process.
@frankhymus i'm not going to be able to explain this properly, but... basically LR is a database thingy, not a browser thingy... so you can't use it like explorer or finder... you have to import photos into lightroom and manage them FROM within lightroom... if you try and manage from outside of LR you end up with the problem i have which is all these broken links... only as explained in the vid link Alexis provided, it's not the end of the world and it's pretty easy to re-establish the link... what i need to do now is figure out what set up makes the most sense for me on a medium/longer term basis and then i think it will be fine...
Did you have to build another house to store your filing cabinet? Ha ha ha
From http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/lightroom-smart-previews.html
"Importing photographs into your catalog establishes a link between the catalog and the physical file. The photograph can exist on an internal or external drive. In previous versions of Lightroom, you could edit images that were contained on drives connected to Lightroom.
With Lightroom 5, Smart Previews allow you to edit images that are not physically connected to your computer. Smart Preview files are a new lightweight, smaller, file format, based on the lossy DNG file format introduced in Lightroom 4. "
@abirkill
@grizzlysghost
Ha ha....with 10 drawer filing cabinets lined up. One for Bennett, one for Adira, one for the lake, etc etc!!!
Julieanne Kost all day, not sure what it is about her but....
Thanks
thanks
Kim
As in manually copying RAW files to my NAS and still having RAW on my laptop and then going to the file system to delete the RAWs. This is a much better way of doing things!