Lightroom CC - Workflow for MBP and iPhone?

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Broric

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I currently have the "old" (before they renamed it Classic) Lightroom on my mac but I just got a new iPhone and I'm considering finally going for the Creative Cloud option.

I was hoping people had suggestions on what the best options are and how they set up their workflow?

Would photos from my phone automatically sync back to my desktop catalog?
Is Lightroom CC ok? Any major issues going from the old version to CC?
 
I personally use Classic rather than the full blown CC, mainly because my kids complain when I try to upload the raw files it kills the home network! You still get the benefit of being able to work across both devices, but by syncing smart previews (rather than uploading and raws) and this is much quicker.

My workflow is either:

(a) Desktop first
  • Import all images as usual into LR on desktop, auto added to a collection I've set to Sync with Mobile
  • Sit in front of telly rating, editing images on iPad or iPhone
  • If the result is going on social media, just export locally on mobile device based on smart preview - it's plenty good enough
  • If I want the full monty, go back to the PC and export from there.

(b) Mobile first - when out and about
  • Import the images I'm interested in into Lightroom via the camera kit (SD Card Adapter)
  • Edit etc
  • The raw will be synced back to the home PC this way, so I don't need to do that again, but generally to save data, I will only do a few this way, so Import the rest when I'm back home as per (a).
 
Broric said:
I currently have the "old" (before they renamed it Classic) Lightroom on my mac but I just got a new iPhone and I'm considering finally going for the Creative Cloud option.

I was hoping people had suggestions on what the best options are and how they set up their workflow?

Would photos from my phone automatically sync back to my desktop catalog?
Is Lightroom CC ok? Any major issues going from the old version to CC?
Click to expand...
When you say creative cloud option do you mean Lightroom Classic CC (like the previous desktop versions) or the cloud based Lightroom CC version (entirely stored on the cloud with no local storage)? They are two very different programs in the way they work. With the cloud based Lightroom CC you wouldn’t have a desktop catalog to sync back to as the catch will be stored in the cloud along with the files. With Lightroom Classic CC you would save to desktop catalog and could be done as @Furtim says above.

Furtim said:
I personally use Classic rather than the full blown CC, mainly because my kids complain when I try to upload the raw files it kills the home network! You still get the benefit of being able to work across both devices, but by syncing smart previews (rather than uploading and raws) and this is much quicker.

My workflow is either:

(a) Desktop first
  • Import all images as usual into LR on desktop, auto added to a collection I've set to Sync with Mobile
  • Sit in front of telly rating, editing images on iPad or iPhone
  • If the result is going on social media, just export locally on mobile device based on smart preview - it's plenty good enough
  • If I want the full monty, go back to the PC and export from there.

(b) Mobile first - when out and about
  • Import the images I'm interested in into Lightroom via the camera kit (SD Card Adapter)
  • Edit etc
  • The raw will be synced back to the home PC this way, so I don't need to do that again, but generally to save data, I will only do a few this way, so Import the rest when I'm back home as per (a).
Click to expand...
I’ve never got this way to work for me as my internet speed is far to poor even for smart previews. I asked about this method at the Photography Show in March and Adobe guys were saying the software wasn’t designed to work this way so did recommend it. Not sure if they were trying to more over the the cloud based program and off the classic version.
 
I’ve looked at Lightroom CC, but it is lacking so many features that I only use it for the odd iPhone picture, which I then sync back to my main catalog.

For general iPhone photos I just use Apple Photos.
 
rob-nikon said:
I’ve never got this way to work for me as my internet speed is far to poor even for smart previews. I asked about this method at the Photography Show in March and Adobe guys were saying the software wasn’t designed to work this way so did recommend it. Not sure if they were trying to more over the the cloud based program and off the classic version.
Click to expand...

I'm sure they'll break it at some point. This is the way LR Mobile was designed to work, and therefore still works, but given the Smart Previews don't count towards your cloud storage (I have 80,000+ synched) I'm sure it's no longer Adobe's preferred approach when they can get you to sync the raw files and pay for the extra storage needed :)
 
I switched from Classic to CC and have never looked back. Photos can be uploaded and edited from your desktop, phone or web browser.
Changes don't 'sync' as such, you're in effect editing the same photo no matter which device you access it from.

CC doesn't have the same feature set as Classic, but has everything I need it to - Light module, selective edits, individual colour levels, sharpening, clarity etc. Only thing I miss in CC is the lack of a print module.
 
I have positives and negatives for the CC version.

I preferred the Classic interface, it seemed like there was more functionality however the CC version is great for workflow.

Anything that I take or upload is easy to add to Lightroom and when it syncs, you have it on all your devices (provided you're connected to the net). When I got back from Canada I set up all my albums and uploaded them and now when I have a spare few minutes sometimes I can either jump in on my iPad Pro and make some tweaks or my mobile. All edits are then synced up to the desktop version.

You can also sync your presets too which is great!
 
Daniel_Paul said:
I have positives and negatives for the CC version.

I preferred the Classic interface, it seemed like there was more functionality however the CC version is great for workflow.

Anything that I take or upload is easy to add to Lightroom and when it syncs, you have it on all your devices (provided you're connected to the net). When I got back from Canada I set up all my albums and uploaded them and now when I have a spare few minutes sometimes I can either jump in on my iPad Pro and make some tweaks or my mobile. All edits are then synced up to the desktop version.

You can also sync your presets too which is great!
Click to expand...
I do think CC is the future, it just doesn't work well with my broadband (20 down / 5 up), and with no plans in the town I live to replace the copper to the cabinet, it's only going to get worse as files get bigger :-(
 
I use Lightroom Classic rather than CC. My workflow is:

Import to my laptop, generate smart previews and standard previews and then sync with Lightroom mobile. This mean my files are stored on my laptop and backup drives, but I can also edit on the go whenever I get a few minutes or on my lunchbreak at work. If you use the mobile app in this way then the only things synced to the cloud are smart previews, which don't count towards your cloud storage limit. I have over 5,000 images synced to Lightroom mobile and I haven't used any of my storage at all.
 
Furtim said:
I'm sure they'll break it at some point. This is the way LR Mobile was designed to work, and therefore still works, but given the Smart Previews don't count towards your cloud storage (I have 80,000+ synched) I'm sure it's no longer Adobe's preferred approach when they can get you to sync the raw files and pay for the extra storage needed :)
Click to expand...
Looks like I'm going to have to look into this further as it sounds like what I wanted to do when I asked them. Im on the classic CC package so only got 20Gb to play with, if smart previews aren't part of that then that sounds ideal.

Furtim said:
I do think CC is the future, it just doesn't work well with my broadband (20 down / 5 up), and with no plans in the town I live to replace the copper to the cabinet, it's only going to get worse as files get bigger :-(
Click to expand...
Same problem here except my internet is normally 3-5 down and 0.7 up. Somehow just about play netflix but it often goes blurry half way through. Lightroom CC cloud storage is just a no no for me.
 
Last edited:
rob-nikon said:
Same problem here except my internet is normally 3-5 down and 0.7 up. Somehow just about play netflix but it often goes blurry half way through. Lightroom CC cloud storage is just a no no for me.
Click to expand...

I also have this issue, I get around the same speeds as you so uploading a couple of thousand raw files after a weekend out shooting would literally take days. Syncing the smart previews only takes a couple of hours and I can leave that running in the background.
 
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