How can I merge edits from multiple copies of the same catalogue?

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JBtheLD

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Can I automatically merge the different edits from multiple copies of the same catalogue?

For instance:

Master catalogue containing 1'' photos and edits on Photos 1-2'

Identical catalogue - Copy 1
Identical catalogue - Copy 2
Identical catalogue - Copy 3
etc.

I then edit the copy catalogues thus:

Copy 1: Edit Photos 21-3'
Copy 2: Edit Photos 31-4'
Copy 3: Edit Photos 41-5'

Can I export & import the whole of each copy catalogue back into the Master catalogue or do I need to specifically select just the photos edited in each of the copy catalogues?

John
 
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John, you could use the smart collections to sort the ones modified in each catalog, export those as a catalog and then import those new catalogs into the master.
 
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And once you are done, why not only keep that Master Catalog and trash all the others? Good way to avoid this in the future... ;)

I hear John B. coming... :mrgreen:
 
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Geoff,

Thank you.

Does that mean that the edits imported into a catalogue always overwrite the existing edits in a catalogue even if the existing edits are newer?

John
 
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Denis,
Of course a single Master Catalog is THE best way to go. Absolutely.

I started to use one catalogue of photos for each show that I design lighting for some months ago, because in the days of LR1 my laptop and desktop ground along unbearably slowly with a single large catalogue (6',''' images).

So what I do at the moment is import a show's photos into it's own catalogue, process the images and then merge the completed catalogue into my master catalogue. It's seems to work pretty well, but I do have to keep tabs on how far through processing each individual catalogue I have got because I don't always complete the processing in one catalogue before I have to start processing the photos from another show .

Lots of room for mistakes, I know.

When funds allow, I hope to replace both my laptop and desktop with ones which are able to run LR at full throttle on a single Master Catalogue.
I'll have to be pretty patient for a while though.

Many thanks,
John
 
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JBtheLD said:
Denis,
Of course a single Master Catalog is THE best way to go. Absolutely.
...
When funds allow, I hope to replace both my laptop and desktop with ones which are able to run LR at full throttle on a single Master Catalogue.
I'll have to be pretty patient for a while though.
Click to expand...
I see... :(

Meanwhile, don't you think that only a "Master" and a "Work in Progress" Catalogs will do? Is your work in progress that big to put Lightroom to a crawl? :roll:
 
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JBtheLD said:
Geoff,

Thank you.

Does that mean that the edits imported into a catalogue always overwrite the existing edits in a catalogue even if the existing edits are newer?

John
Click to expand...

John, when you import from a catalog the dialog box has a section on how to deal with existing photos that will deal with what you want.
 
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That's what I thought and what I did.

Sometime ago I combined a bunch of individual catalogues together into a single "Work in Progress" catalogue and copied it on to my laptop because I work away from home for extended periods of time.

So now instead of just having:
  • one Master Catalogue as I originally had or,
  • one Master Catalogue and one catalogue per show as I used to have, I now have:
  • one Master Catalogue, one catalogue per show, and a "Work in Progress" catalogue.
On both my laptop and on my desktop!

The most recent edits are on my laptop in some catalogues and on my desktop in other catalogues. Some catalogues are identical.
Do I know how far I have got with processing in each catalogue? Yes, but only in the ones that I have completed.
Do I know which catalogue is the latest version of a catalogue? Not really - only by laboriously opening each of the catalogues on my laptop and on my desktop and then comparing them.

Disaster! It's like somebody has shuffled my stamp collection, blindfolded me and thrown away the map! Disaster!!!

So now I just (sic!) want to merge all the newest edits on all the photos in all the catalogues back into my Master Catalogue and burn the rest of the catalogues!!! so that I can now get back to the single catalogue scenario.

So if LR was clever enough to ignore an edit being imported that was older than that catalogue's own existing edit, I could simply import all the edits in each of the other catalogues in any order and know that when I had completed importing all the catalogues my Master Catalogue would have all the latest edits.

And that would be job done, lesson learned, shop for new hardware.

Maybe the clever Adobe folks could add some options to the "Import from Catalogue" command:
  1. Only import edits newer than existing edits
  2. Only import edits newer than ... date / time
  3. Newer edits always replace existing edits
  4. Newer edits never replace existing edits
  5. Import newer edits and keep older edits applied as a "Virtual Copy"
  6. If there is a conflict, choose which edit to apply
What do you think?

John
 
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Feature request, John!!:lol:
 
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Thanks Geoff,
In the meantime, the options in the existing LRv2.1 Import from Catalogue will almost do it. I'll just have to be very careful.
Could you confirm for me that the choice I should make is:

Replace Metadata and develop settings only

Will this preserve all the crops, keywords, adjustments, ratings and collections etc?
I'm working with Canon Raw files only and I'm not writing out xmp files (and don't want to).

I'll put in a feature request as you suggest.

John
 
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Mark,
Sorry for having to ask:
I've never made a Feature Request before.
How do I go about it?
Should I include a link to this thread? If so, how?
John
 
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Good question, John.

There's a link in the blue bar at the top of the page that will take you to the form.

The wording in the form is more about bug reports, but you can use it for feature requests too. To submit a feature request, it's important that you explain not only what you're asking for, but why you're asking for it.

Explain how it would make Lightroom work better for you, and if you feel you can speak to it, explain how it would make Lightroom better for others as well.

It can help to be specific about your vision of the implementation details if it helps explain what you're looking for, but you should also recognize that your request might dovetail with some other plans, or might trigger an idea for the designers that might be able to solve your fundamental issue in some completely different way.

It can't hurt to provide a link to discussions like this one if they add to the request, but so far, I think your post is the only pithy one in the thread, so in this case I'm not sure it's worthwhile for the Lightroom developers to spend their time reading it.
 
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Mark,
Thanks for your guidance.
I've submitted my request.
Let's hope that Adobe will be able to implement it.
John
 
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JBtheLD said:
Maybe the clever Adobe folks could add some options to the "Import from Catalogue" command:
  1. Only import edits newer than existing edits
  2. Only import edits newer than ... date / time
  3. Newer edits always replace existing edits
  4. Newer edits never replace existing edits
  5. Import newer edits and keep older edits applied as a "Virtual Copy"
  6. If there is a conflict, choose which edit to apply
What do you think?

John
Click to expand...
Yes, time for feature request. But I think that point 5 is a call for a messy workflow... :roll:
 
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