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Develop module Need Advice on Workflow while traveling

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mlondon

New Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2018
Messages
18
Location
In the Redwoods
Lightroom Experience
Power User
Lightroom Version
Classic
Lightroom Version Number
13.5.1
Operating System
  1. macOS 14 Sonoma
I'm a professional photographer with 200,000+ images in Lightroom Classic, which I run on a MacBookPro.
When at home, my masters (7TB) are on an external RAID, which is backed up to a NAS, and also to an online backup app (Backblaze) which I can access remotely.
I have SmartPreviews of all my images which is good enough for basic editing and sharing while on the road. But if I need access to the original image I have to access the NAS or Backblaze to download the image - it's a little clunky and takes time.
I'd like to be able to copy a subset of my original RAW files (eg: "All 5*", or "My Portfolio Collection") to my MacBookPro, and have Lightroom Classic recognize their new local location. However I do NOT want to delete them from my external RAID. When I return from travel, I'd like to easily re-connect those images with their original masters on the RAID and delete from my MBP.
What is the best way to do this?
(Bonus question: For those of you uploading images to your website (not just social media), have you found JPEGs made using Smart Previews to be good enough quality?)
Thank you.
 
I keep my current years images (and mostly the last 2 years images as space permits) on an internal fast NVME SSD. I do a housekeeping exercise at the end of Jan, to move the oldest years images from the internal SSD to an internal spinning disk. Both are backed up to a 3rd spinning disk and an external NAS.

The point is that the vast majority of images I need to edit are most likely to be on my very fast Nvme drive.

You may not be able to do this on your Mac internal drive… due probably to constraints on disk space….

So.. it might be worth checking if you could upgrade the internal storage of your Mac… Also, this may be a key consideration the next time you wish to upgrade your Mac.

The advantage is that you do not need to mess about with uploading, downloading or managing files, except a short exercise once a year to move the oldest years images from your internal drive to the RAID. Also, moving images back and forth is a recipe for a major screwup at some time and will also consume a lot of your time.

It would also mean that (for the majority of cases) you can work with the original raw and not smart previews.

If you cannot upgrade your disk you can get very fast external solid state external drives.
 
What is folder structure for the images in question? Are the 5* images in their own folder?
 
You may not be able to do this on your Mac internal drive… due probably to constraints on disk space….

So.. it might be worth checking if you could upgrade the internal storage of your Mac… Also, this may be a key consideration the next time you wish to upgrade your Mac.
Internal drive on MacBookPro is 4TB, but much of that is needed for the shooting I'm doing while traveling, along with other work/life related files. However I do have space available for the selected RAW images I described in my scenario.
(BTW, MacBookPro's have not had upgradable internal storage for many years)
 
Select them in your catalogue (eg by adding them to a collection) and do File > Export as Catalog, including the negatives. Move the resulting folder (catalogue, copies of photos, previews) onto your laptop and work on it there.

When you return home, move just that catalogue back to your main computer and File > Import from Another Catalog will bring any edits (metadata, adjustments) back into the main catalogue and apply them to the originals (to to VCs if you wish).
 
Good thinking.

Would you also suggest that the catalog transferred to the laptop be used to injest travel pics (ie when travelling).
 
Yes, in which case the second paragraph would be slightly different. One would copy the catalogue, its previews, and the folders containing new photos over to the main computer. Import from Another Catalog step will then update the portfolio images' metadata/adjustments, and bring the new work into the main catalogue.

But you could also import new pics into their own catalogue. A bit more work, but not a lot.

I'd always suggest testing this workflow before leaving home, just to get an idea of how it all hangs together.
 
I have migrated all of my important older images to the Adobe Cloud. New Images I import directly to the Adobe Cloud using Lightroom. So, I have full size images available in the Adobe Cloud. All of these are available in LrC when I connect LrC to the internet.

If you are going to limit yourself to one computer (My LrC runs on a Mac Studio) Then I’d suggest turning off LrC syncing when traveling and turn it back on when you are at home


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Select them in your catalogue (eg by adding them to a collection) and do File > Export as Catalog, including the negatives. Move the resulting folder (catalogue, copies of photos, previews) onto your laptop and work on it there. When you return home, move just that catalogue back to your main computer and File > Import from Another Catalog will bring any edits (metadata, adjustments) back into the main catalogue and apply them to the originals (to to VCs if you wish).
> I want to work out of ONE catalog. It's the catalog I use when I'm home and travelling.
I tried "Export as Catalog w/Negatives", then immediately turned around try to Import that Catalog back into Lightroom. It wouldn't let me import because it said No new Photos Found. I changed the Label Color of the photo in the old catalog, and then it let me import into original catalog and offered to move the Negative to a new location (this is good). I selected my local drive and imported. But then when I quit LRc, deleted the negative from the local drive, reconnected the RAID, and tried to Locate the missing image, LRc is not smart enough to search through the RAID to find it. (Aperture could, and even InDesign can, do this, but not LRc.) If just one image in one folder, no problem, but not possible for me to manually reconnect 100's of images scattered across many folders.
Is there another way to make this work?

Would you also suggest that the catalog transferred to the laptop be used to injest travel pics (ie when travelling).
> See above. I like to work out of one master catalog which has previous and new work.

Yes, in which case the second paragraph would be slightly different. One would copy the catalogue, its previews, and the folders containing new photos over to the main computer. Import from Another Catalog step will then update the portfolio images' metadata/adjustments, and bring the new work into the main catalogue.
> There is no "main computer". Only the MBP which contains the single catalog which I use when home and travelling. The only thing that stays behind when I travel is the RAID with the RAW files.

I have migrated all of my important older images to the Adobe Cloud. New Images I import directly to the Adobe Cloud using Lightroom. So, I have full size images available in the Adobe Cloud. All of these are available in LrC when I connect LrC to the internet. If you are going to limit yourself to one computer (My LrC runs on a Mac Studio) Then I’d suggest turning off LrC syncing when traveling and turn it back on when you are at home
> This is an interesting idea. But the point of my original question is that I want to be able to edit the full-size images in LrC when I'm on the road, not in LR for Web/Mobile.

But I think there might only be a single computer … a MacBook Pro.
> That's right. I use the same computer at home and on the road.
 
I'd like to be able to copy a subset of my original RAW files (eg: "All 5*", or "My Portfolio Collection")

How many images are involved.

I would not normally suggest the following… but perhaps in this case.

Create a folder on your MacBook Pro… called something like My5StarWorkInProgressPics.

Copy your images of interest to this folder, leaving the originals in their current location.
Treat these images as a special project wip folder, knowing this represents your latest edits for these pics, but also knowing that they are in draft form and the originals are back in their initial folder location.

When you are happy that a particular image has reached an acceptable level of refinement… copy it back to the original folder, and perhaps use the Adobe round trip to Ps renaming principle by adding Ver1, Ver 2, etc to the name.

Aside.
I keep my original images in project folders within year. Each image has a unique serial number with an s prefix… eg s123456.

I often have the scenario where Imwish to use an image in a different project. In that case…. I copy the image of interest to the new project folder and edit it there as required for the new project. It retains its original s123456 sequence number. I can therefore do a search of s123456 and find all occurances of this image and their project locations if they exist in multiple projects.
 
> There is no "main computer". Only the MBP which contains the single catalog which I use when home and travelling. The only thing that stays behind when I travel is the RAID with the RAW files.
Sorry, I overlooked that important detail.

I can think of one easy way which is to export that subset of files as DNGs onto your internal hard drive and import them into the catalogue. When you return, see which you've edited and sync their settings or metadata back to the RAWs.

To manage this, I'd have the subset into a collection, and add the DNGs to it too. Sort by Edit Time to find which DNGs you've changed.

Scalability may be an issue. If you change a lot of the DNGs, then you can use my Syncomatic plugin to automatically copy metadata from the DNGs to the RAWs.
 
then it let me import into original catalog and offered to move the Negative to a new location (this is good)
If you followed the idea of exporting the subset as a catalogue, you would edit those files only in that subset catalogue.

When you Import from Another Catalog, the better option is this.
1726390331881.png
None Found - that's because LR has correctly matched the exported RAWs with those on the RAID. So it's inviting you to Change Existing Photos, in this case the 3, and lets you choose what to update.
 
Another approach with Export as Catalog is to point the pictures to the RAID when you return home and use xmp.

So Export as Catalog as before, with the negatives checked, and again using a collection to manage the subset. While you're away, edit these RAWs (which are on the hard drive) in this subset catalogue. When you get home and have connected the laptop to the RAID:
  1. in this subset catalogue, right click the top level folder and choose Update Folder Location
  2. point to the equivalent level folder on the RAID
  3. select all images and do a Cmd S to save xmp back to the files
  4. open the main catalogue and select the subset
  5. use Metadata > Read Metadata from Files to bring in the work.
 
> This is an interesting idea. But the point of my original question is that I want to be able to edit the full-size images in LrC when I'm on the road, not in LR for Web/Mobile.


> That's right. I use the same computer at home and on the road.
My suggestion would be to edit full size images in Lightroom Desktop and have them available once you sync the Adobe Cloud image back home to LrC. While I edit full size images on my iPadPro using Lightroom Mobile, I could edit the same images using a MBP and Lightroom Desktop. The problem I am trying to work around is having to haul around extra disks to hold 200,000 images while traveling. By storing full size images in the Adobe Cloud, you are able to access all of your full size images that you have migrated to the Adobe Cloud plus any new full size images you import while traveling.


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