Redefining Workflow

[Juliette]

Lightroom Version Number

LR Classic CC & mobile

Operating System

1. macOS 11 Big Sur

I tried a new workflow due to the fact that the pandemic has changed the way I shoot but it’s the wrong way, so need a suggestion. It’s as follows:

1) I import all photos onto my Mac and make a back up onto my external drive, which is where all my photos live, eventually.
2) I create a collection called, “working photos” And I sync it to LR mobile.
3) I try to do my edits from my iPad from the comfort of my living room and not sit behind a desk, but argh!! These are previews, not the original RAW files.

Is anyone currently backing up their photos onto external drives and editing on iPad? If so, can you share your process please?

thanks,
juliette

 

[Jim Wilde]

My question is: is it possible, once those pictures are downloaded into LR Classic, to remove the full res pix and only have the smart previews in the Cloud? I'd prefer not to update to the 1TB cloud subscription.

Normal workflow for this would be:

1. Wait until the new images arrive in LrClassic.
2. In Classic, select them and click on the All Synced Photographs special collection in the Catalog panel in Library.
3. Then right-click on any of the selected images and choose "Remove from All Synced Photographs". That removes them from the ASP and in doing so it "unsyncs" them and consequently they are deleted from the cloud (but remain in the Classic catalog).
4. Find them and select them again and add them to a synced collection (or to a new collection which you enable to sync). That adds them back to the cloud, but coming from Classic only "free" Smart Previews are uploaded to the cloud.

 

[dkinpgh1]

Normal workflow for this would be:

1. Wait until the new images arrive in LrClassic.
2. In Classic, select them and click on the All Synced Photographs special collection in the Catalog panel in Library.
3. Then right-click on any of the selected images and choose "Remove from All Synced Photographs". That removes them from the ASP and in doing so it "unsyncs" them and consequently they are deleted from the cloud (but remain in the Classic catalog).
4. Find them and select them again and add them to a synced collection (or to a new collection which you enable to sync). That adds them back to the cloud, but coming from Classic only "free" Smart Previews are uploaded to the cloud.

Thanks, Jim - that sounds easy enough!

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I've been lurking here and following the discussion on workflow. I like the idea of loading new pics into Lightroom Mobile on the iPad and having those full res pics in the Cloud to sync with LR Classic. My question is: is it possible, once those pictures are downloaded into LR Classic, to remove the full res pix and only have the smart previews in the Cloud? I'd prefer not to update to the 1TB cloud subscription.

Thanks,
Don

Yes, that is possible. Remove them from ‘All Synced Photographs’ in Lightroom Classic. Wait till they are gone from the cloud. Then add them again to ‘All Synced Photograpns’. They will be synced again, but now as smart previews. If you want to retain an album structure you may have, then first ‘unsync’ the collections in LrC before you remove the photos from All Synced Photograps’ and enable sync again after you added the photos again.

 

[Juliette]

@Juliette - this is great, thanks for sharing. I’ll work through it in more detail when I’m back from holiday. I really like your online backup solutions as well, particularly as I recently formatted a drive by mistake and ended up having to buy specialist software to recover my files. I think that because I’m now so paranoid about losing files I’m importing everything straight into Lightroom cloudy and then letting it sync with Classic in due course.

@phil9971-me - you might want to know that two changes are causing me to revisit and change this workflow slightly.

1) I have decided NOT to hang onto as many RAW files going forward. I am incorporating a step which will exclude RAW images that I don't need, thus saving space.

2) I ended up investing in a NAS. I had ongoing issues with the Apple Mac mini's conflicts with WD external drives (I have the M1 chip). I had been unable to access my photos as a result while this very LONG troubleshooting has been going on with Apple. My plan was to invest in a NAS anyway, so this just pushed me to do it.

I have to keep the external drives in my workflow because BackBlaze won't work with NAS servers unless you upgrade to their more expensive product. So, when Apple is finished with troubleshooting, I will update my workflow to incorporate an additional back up from the external drives to that NAS as a last step.

I hope you have a good workflow going for yourself!

 

[dkinpgh1]

Yes, that is possible. Remove them from ‘All Synced Photographs’ in Lightroom Classic. Wait till they are gone from the cloud. Then add them again to ‘All Synced Photograpns’. They will be synced again, but now as smart previews. If you want to retain an album structure you may have, then first ‘unsync’ the collections in LrC before you remove the photos from All Synced Photograps’ and enable sync again after you added the photos again.

this is a somewhat of a follow-on question: Using the iPad as the entry point for loading pictures into LR, what is the recommended size of the iPad? 64BG, 128GB, 256GB or larger? I'm currently using an iPad Air (4th gen) with 64GB - how soon will I run into storage issues? I'm just a hobbyist but going on a trip to Glacier National Park later this month. Thanks,

 

[clee01l]

this is a somewhat of a follow-on question: Using the iPad as the entry point for loading pictures into LR, what is the recommended size of the iPad? 64BG, 128GB, 256GB or larger? I'm currently using an iPad Air (4th gen) with 64GB - how soon will I run into storage issues? I'm just a hobbyist but going on a trip to Glacier National Park later this month. Thanks,

The iPadPro provides a screen large enough to do some serious Lightroom work. IPadOS uses one storage area for both working storage and data storage. You need a storage are large enough to handle both If your camera card is 64GB or even 32GB a 64GB iPad probably won’t do. Once you have Lightroom processed images, these are synced with the Adobe cloud and you can clear the iPad data storage. But this requires constant housekeeping and a good internet connection, especially on a long trip with lots of photos.

I have an iPadPro with 1TB of storage. This is probably more than enough but I hope I have future proofed the iPadPro that I won’t outgrow it soon.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[dkinpgh1]

The iPadPro provides a screen large enough to do some serious Lightroom work. IPadOS uses one storage area for both working storage and data storage. You need a storage are large enough to handle both If your camera card is 64GB or even 32GB a 64GB iPad probably won’t do. Once you have Lightroom processed images, these are synced with the Adobe cloud and you can clear the iPad data storage. But this requires constant housekeeping and a good internet connection, especially on a long trip with lots of photos.

I have an iPadPro with 1TB of storage. This is probably more than enough but I hope I have future proofed the iPadPro that I won’t outgrow it soon.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

thanks for the quick response - I'm negotiating for the the bigger iPad Pro before our trip the end of the month.

One more question: once you've uploaded the pictures into the Adobe cloud, do the raw photos remain on your iPad?

Thanks, Cletus.

 

[Jim Wilde]

One more question: once you've uploaded the pictures into the Adobe cloud, do the raw photos remain on your iPad?

Initially yes, but the Lightroom app is supposed to intelligently manage the space used, i.e. by removing little used (and uploaded) images, especially when the iPad's overall storage is coming under pressure. However, you can at any time use the "Clear Cache" command which will remove only those originals which have been safely uploaded to the cloud and backed up there.

 

[dkinpgh1]

Initially yes, but the Lightroom app is supposed to intelligently manage the space used, i.e. by removing little used (and uploaded) images, especially when the iPad's overall storage is coming under pressure. However, you can at any time use the "Clear Cache" command which will remove only those originals which have been safely uploaded to the cloud and backed up there.

This is an amazing resource for a novice! Thanks.