GregJ
Greg Johnson
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2011
- Messages
- 647
- Location
- San Antonio, TX
- Lightroom Experience
- Power User
- Lightroom Version
- Cloud Service
- Lightroom Version Number
- Classic 11.4
- Operating System
- Windows 11
I read the thread this morning about troubles syncing LR, LR Classic and storing your raw files in the cloud vs your own disks and it makes me think again about my future workflow and habits.
I've been using LR Classic (or whatever desktop version they called it) almost daily for 12 years or so and I'm comfortable in my work flow, which for me is based on having one catalog on a home "studio" desktop and working off of a powerful laptop on the road. 95% of my shooting is done on the road away from home (san Antonio) because I label myself a travel photographer and in retirement, my wife and I are blessed with the health, mobility and means to be traveling a lot on our own on long trips abroad where I shoot every day. I do that by having all my raw files (currently about 6TB) stored at home on one 8TB SSD and backed up to several single spinning 10 TB disks (using GoodSync). After traveling with the laptop, I bring everything home and all my raw files are in one folder which consists of thousands of sub folders and many hundreds of thousands of files. On the road I shoot and import nightly to LR Classic on my laptop and do all the editing there, backing up as I go to an external 2TB SSD. Then when I get home I delete everything on the laptop and copy all raw files and their sidecars (or with DNG no sidecars) to my folder structure on the 8TB SSD. Then I import those files to my one catalog on the desktop.
I realize that despite my comfort with LR and my workflow, the truth is that I don't know what I don't know. I know that I know one-tenth of what the gurus know because they devote their time to helping thousands of people on LR problems and they have seen it all with a wide variety of computer systems and workflows. I want to review my habits and workflow and improve.
The first thing I did was this morning was to buy the LR Classic book from the Boss and download it to my laptop (I'm on the road shooting a bit in Mexico). I will read it cover to cover, searching out those things that I do not already know. I should have bought it years ago but just never did because I never really thought about it.
But my question now is this. I think I know a little about Cletus and Jim's use of both LR systems - Classic and the Cloud version that syncs everything up there. I want to know if they think it is time for me to try it (knowing what they know about how I shoot and operate).
I have avoided backing up to or storing all of my images on any of the cloud services (old jpegs shot prior to going raw, scanned TIFFs from all my old slides/negatives and raw files). It would not be cheap to have 6+ TB stored in the Cloud, and I'm not sure I trust it yet. Right now I want them all on 1 SSD backed up many times to other single 10 TB HDDs.
I have resisted going to cloud storage with my files and using the other LR to work them because I wanted to wait until it all gets better, meaning a reasonable price to store 6+ TB of files (which is getting cheaper), fast fiber internet (which I have now in spades - 2 Gbps at home), and LR improving the software to the point that there are not posts every day about how to untangle the syncs. I wanted pure speed, reliability and efficiency and me in control of my files on my disks.
But I had a major revelation this week. LR loads to the development module at close to the same speeds from spinning HDDs on old slow ports at close to the same speed as M.2 SSDs on the new very fast ports. I never noticed that because LR is so fast on my fast PC and laptop. But I accept that it is the case. Maybe LR will fix that, but right now, that is the reality. I don't notice it at all on my equipment. The point is that I might not notice it if the raw files are in the cloud because of that revelation. Maybe LR can load raw files from the cloud almost or just as fast as from an external HDD or even SSD if one has a decent internet connection of even half of what I have now at home.
Maybe it is time. But I would then require fast internet on the road in Europe and elsewhere. There are times (about half the time really) when I have very slow internet at night in the lodging we rent, wherever I am. In 6 weeks in Sicily recently, I had blazing fast internet about one-third of the time, even in fairly remote farms and village lodging, while in some cities I had slow internet in 4 and 5 start hotels. You never know until you walk in and do a speed test.
So Cletus, Jim and others who use and are masters with both versions, is it time for me to use LR on the road and at home and wean myself off of Classic, or should I drive with what I am doing and wait? I think I wait because my system with Classic and my own fast drives is very good and works. I'm lightening fast with LR Classic at home and with LR Classic on my laptop on the road, I get it done and LR moves very swiftly while all my files stay ion one place on a very fast SSD under my control.
I read these cloud LR and Classic sync problem treads and it makes me hesitate - plus the fact that I have 6 TB (and growing) of raw files....
Any advice? I'm always willing to adjust work flow and learn.
I'm going to read every page of the book I just downloaded and see what I don't know about LR - even on the editing, which I am very good at because I know how to get what I want out of LR with those masks and sliders. I've edited probably a quarter million files in LR - or something like that. But I bet I can improve that skillset too.
I've been using LR Classic (or whatever desktop version they called it) almost daily for 12 years or so and I'm comfortable in my work flow, which for me is based on having one catalog on a home "studio" desktop and working off of a powerful laptop on the road. 95% of my shooting is done on the road away from home (san Antonio) because I label myself a travel photographer and in retirement, my wife and I are blessed with the health, mobility and means to be traveling a lot on our own on long trips abroad where I shoot every day. I do that by having all my raw files (currently about 6TB) stored at home on one 8TB SSD and backed up to several single spinning 10 TB disks (using GoodSync). After traveling with the laptop, I bring everything home and all my raw files are in one folder which consists of thousands of sub folders and many hundreds of thousands of files. On the road I shoot and import nightly to LR Classic on my laptop and do all the editing there, backing up as I go to an external 2TB SSD. Then when I get home I delete everything on the laptop and copy all raw files and their sidecars (or with DNG no sidecars) to my folder structure on the 8TB SSD. Then I import those files to my one catalog on the desktop.
I realize that despite my comfort with LR and my workflow, the truth is that I don't know what I don't know. I know that I know one-tenth of what the gurus know because they devote their time to helping thousands of people on LR problems and they have seen it all with a wide variety of computer systems and workflows. I want to review my habits and workflow and improve.
The first thing I did was this morning was to buy the LR Classic book from the Boss and download it to my laptop (I'm on the road shooting a bit in Mexico). I will read it cover to cover, searching out those things that I do not already know. I should have bought it years ago but just never did because I never really thought about it.
But my question now is this. I think I know a little about Cletus and Jim's use of both LR systems - Classic and the Cloud version that syncs everything up there. I want to know if they think it is time for me to try it (knowing what they know about how I shoot and operate).
I have avoided backing up to or storing all of my images on any of the cloud services (old jpegs shot prior to going raw, scanned TIFFs from all my old slides/negatives and raw files). It would not be cheap to have 6+ TB stored in the Cloud, and I'm not sure I trust it yet. Right now I want them all on 1 SSD backed up many times to other single 10 TB HDDs.
I have resisted going to cloud storage with my files and using the other LR to work them because I wanted to wait until it all gets better, meaning a reasonable price to store 6+ TB of files (which is getting cheaper), fast fiber internet (which I have now in spades - 2 Gbps at home), and LR improving the software to the point that there are not posts every day about how to untangle the syncs. I wanted pure speed, reliability and efficiency and me in control of my files on my disks.
But I had a major revelation this week. LR loads to the development module at close to the same speeds from spinning HDDs on old slow ports at close to the same speed as M.2 SSDs on the new very fast ports. I never noticed that because LR is so fast on my fast PC and laptop. But I accept that it is the case. Maybe LR will fix that, but right now, that is the reality. I don't notice it at all on my equipment. The point is that I might not notice it if the raw files are in the cloud because of that revelation. Maybe LR can load raw files from the cloud almost or just as fast as from an external HDD or even SSD if one has a decent internet connection of even half of what I have now at home.
Maybe it is time. But I would then require fast internet on the road in Europe and elsewhere. There are times (about half the time really) when I have very slow internet at night in the lodging we rent, wherever I am. In 6 weeks in Sicily recently, I had blazing fast internet about one-third of the time, even in fairly remote farms and village lodging, while in some cities I had slow internet in 4 and 5 start hotels. You never know until you walk in and do a speed test.
So Cletus, Jim and others who use and are masters with both versions, is it time for me to use LR on the road and at home and wean myself off of Classic, or should I drive with what I am doing and wait? I think I wait because my system with Classic and my own fast drives is very good and works. I'm lightening fast with LR Classic at home and with LR Classic on my laptop on the road, I get it done and LR moves very swiftly while all my files stay ion one place on a very fast SSD under my control.
I read these cloud LR and Classic sync problem treads and it makes me hesitate - plus the fact that I have 6 TB (and growing) of raw files....
Any advice? I'm always willing to adjust work flow and learn.
I'm going to read every page of the book I just downloaded and see what I don't know about LR - even on the editing, which I am very good at because I know how to get what I want out of LR with those masks and sliders. I've edited probably a quarter million files in LR - or something like that. But I bet I can improve that skillset too.