Lightroom catalogue management

AndyBakerUK

AndyBakerUK

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Andy
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Hey all, in the process of setting up a new mac so thought I’d take the opportunity to review how I’m managing my Lightroom (Classic) catalogue.

Previously I used to have a single catalogue on my iMac that I just kept adding projects/content to. This is then backed up to my home server by scheduled backup jobs. However over the last year or so I’ve also been doing a lot of editing on my macbook which means a separate catalogue and then having to export projects from one catalogue into another or backup separately.

So how do you guys all manage your Lightroom stuff? Is there an easy way to sync catalogues across two machines? do you make use of the Abobe cloud in any way?

Any insight appreciated. :)
 
Yes, I’ve not tried it yet as MacBook still in upgrade state but I believe you can run LR catalogs from asingle external drive, a little pain but a way to have a single catalogue across different machines.

At the moment I’m using Lightroom classic and CC and have a folder on classic that syncs, so I call this edit and sync, then I have my normal folder system for classic catalogue which is basically file systems/storage.

I’m not entirely sure how many folder you can sync across classic and CC but I would assume as many as you want.
 
Would connecting to the library folder on the server and holding the catalogue on a usb ssd which you move between computers be a way?

Dave
 
AndyBakerUK said:
Hey all, in the process of setting up a new mac so thought I’d take the opportunity to review how I’m managing my Lightroom (Classic) catalogue.

Previously I used to have a single catalogue on my iMac that I just kept adding projects/content to. This is then backed up to my home server by scheduled backup jobs. However over the last year or so I’ve also been doing a lot of editing on my macbook which means a separate catalogue and then having to export projects from one catalogue into another or backup separately.

So how do you guys all manage your Lightroom stuff? Is there an easy way to sync catalogues across two machines? do you make use of the Abobe cloud in any way?

Any insight appreciated. :)
Click to expand...

I'm confused. Do you mean...
  • You import your photos into Catalogue A
  • You edit any photos in Catalogue A
  • But you export the edited photos out of Catalogue A and import them into Catalogue B
  • So you have one Catalogue full of untouched photos and another Catalogue full of edited photos
Is that more or less what you do?
 
This shows a few ways to do it:

https://digital-photography-school....omputers-and-keep-the-catalogue-synchronised/

I’ve previously used the external SSD route. It working nicely. I only kept the current year’s images and archived the other years to an external drive on the desktop. I’ve not done it this way for a while. I’m finding lightroom mobile on the iPad meets my mobile needs except I don’t import away from the desktop. If I’m away I do want to edit images then I can import a new catalogue when I’m home. I try not to edit whilst away as I prefer to spend the time enjoying being away than looking at and worrying about the photos I’ve taken.

I’m currently considering if a laptop with a screen at home would be the better idea going forward (probably need to update my iMac on the next year or two). Potentially it would be the best of both worlds. Apple do a screen that has the thunderbolt connections and chargers the MacBook via the single thunderbolt cable that also provides the screen connection.
 
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Major Eazy said:
I'm confused. Do you mean...
  • You import your photos into Catalogue A
  • You edit any photos in Catalogue A
  • But you export the edited photos out of Catalogue A and import them into Catalogue B
  • So you have one Catalogue full of untouched photos and another Catalogue full of edited photos
Is that more or less what you do?
Click to expand...
Nope,

Main catalogue A on my desktop that contains years worth of images, both edited and some unedited
Secondary catalogue B on my laptop that I often add shoots to and edit on
Folders in catalogue B then manual get exported and added to Catalogue A so I have everything in one place

Ideally it would be good to have a small catalogue that would automatically sync between both machines so I can edit wherever I am and then once done check the folder out into a longer term archive catalogue on the desktop.
 
AndyBakerUK said:
Nope,

Main catalogue A on my desktop that contains years worth of images, both edited and some unedited
Secondary catalogue B on my laptop that I often add shoots to and edit on
Folders in catalogue B then manual get exported and added to Catalogue A so I have everything in one place

Ideally it would be good to have a small catalogue that would automatically sync between both machines so I can edit wherever I am and then once done check the folder out into a longer term archive catalogue on the desktop.
Click to expand...

Ah. Got you.

I think this is where Lightroom CC comes in. Note the difference between Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC. I think that Adode created the new Lightroom CC for this kind of purpose. The photos are going on Adobe's cloud and synced between any devices, whether it's a desktop, laptop, or tablet. I think that if you use the new Lightroom CC instead of the old Lightroom Classic CC, you could take photos, import into the app on your laptop, and it would sync to the cloud, then sync to your desktop.

The new Lightroom CC would be (in an analogy) akin to using online Microsoft Word 365, where you would type a document on desktop, it gets sync to the cloud, so you could then finish off the same document on laptop/tablet/smartphone.

The Lightroom Classic CC is, as the name "Classic" would imply, still the same old fashion standalone application software like most of us have on our desktop. We import into a catalogue, but have to manually copy the same images and import them into a laptop. This would be (again in the sense of an analogy) akin to using the older Microsoft Word 97 (or similar pre-date 365 versions) where you would write a document on your desktop, save a copy to a floppy/CD-R/Thumbstick/Upload-by-email to another standalone Word 97 on another computer.

Because I prefer to do the shooting, go home, then import the photos into Lightroom on my desktop, Lightroom Classic is suited to my needs. I'm guessing if you prefer to shoot, import into a laptop, then go home, and find them on desktop, the new Lightroom CC may suit you, rather than the old Lightroom Classic CC.

Well, that's what I think from what I read about the difference between the two. Hope it gives you the answer?
 
Not read through the rest of the thread but I store my Lightroom catalog (and all images) on an external SSD for seamless switching between 2 machines.

I can archive old image foldera to a larger "data" HDD, at which point Lightroom shows those folders with a ?. If I ever need to I can retrieve the old folders from the archive, add them back onto the SSD and relocate the folders in Lightroom...easy!
 
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Are you using lightroom classic on both desk and laptop or do you use lightroom CC on the laptop ?
 
I'm just using Lightroom Classic on both, from what I understood previously Lightroom CC was limited when it comes to things like editing, such as no brush adjustments.
 
I thought Lightroom CC was going to be the saviour for this use case. Unfortunately it wasn’t.

I have my main Lightroom catalog in Lightroom Classic on my iMac, with a subset of shots syncing to the cloud for use in Lightroom CC.

when I’m travelling I create a new catalog in Lightroom Classic on my MacBook. If I need access to previous images they are synced to Lightroom CC on my MacBook.

To join the Lightroom Classic catalogs together when I return home, I have automater script which copies the MacBook catalog file and images to an external drive, which then gets connected to the iMac. I use the “Import from another catalog” option to import the photos, which at this stage are still on the external drive. The last stage is to move the files from the external drive to my regular folder structure, of course this needs to be done within Lightroom so that the links to the files are maintained.
 
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