Setting up for the first time....

[kjl3x]

I’m about to use Lightroom for the first time and am looking for some advice on the best way to set it up especially regarding catalogues. I’ve previously used PE4 on a pc and my photo collection was my only catalogue viewed under one folder. My Lightroom is installed on my mac and my photographs are on the shared C: of my networked pc. I have a folder C:\PHOTOS which all my photographs are stored under in the format PHOTOS\YEAR\YYYY MM DD\YYYY MM DD custom name.NEF

I used to shoot in .jpeg but have been shooting in RAW and then converting the whole folder of pictures to jpeg so I end up with 2 copies the jpeg being used by Apple TV. I’ve about 55k images in total of which I would expect about 2'k to be jpeg copies of relevant NEF files.

I’m not sure if I should delete my jpeg copies then possibly create an apple TV folder in which I could place jpeg copies of certain RAW files before I create my catalogue for the first time. I’m also aware that you can have multiple catalogues and was wondering if perhaps I would be better having a catalogue for say each year? Your advice would be much appreciated!

 

[dj_paige]

[quote author=kjl3x link=topic=87'8.msg58664#msg58664 date=126158'535]
I’m about to use Lightroom for the first time and am looking for some advice on the best way to set it up especially regarding catalogues.[/quote]

Stick to "catalog" (singular) and you will be much better off. There are no functions in Lightroom that work across multiple catalogs.

[quote author=kjl3x link=topic=87'8.msg58664#msg58664 date=126158'535]I’m also aware that you can have multiple catalogues and was wondering if perhaps I would be better having a catalogue for say each year?[/quote]

In my opinion, this is one of the worst reasons to create multiple catalogs. You lose the ability to search for that great photo from 2''8 and that great photo from 2''9. Don't do this. Lightroom has a built-in ability to separate photos by years (creating "virtual catalogs" if that phrase helps), there is no need to create separate catalogs by years.

[quote author=kjl3x link=topic=87'8.msg58664#msg58664 date=126158'535]I used to shoot in .jpeg but have been shooting in RAW and then converting the whole folder of pictures to jpeg so I end up with 2 copies the jpeg being used by Apple TV. I’ve about 55k images in total of which I would expect about 2'k to be jpeg copies of relevant NEF files.

I’m not sure if I should delete my jpeg copies then possibly create an apple TV folder in which I could place jpeg copies of certain RAW files before I create my catalogue for the first time.[/quote]

It's not clear to me where the 2 copies of the jpeg comes from. Nor do I understand why you would want to delete photos if they are useful to you. But the bottom line is I think you need to think more seriously about how your workflow fits into Lightroom ... the workflows that work best from Lightroom sometimes are very different than any workflow you used before. Since I don't really understand your workflow, I can't offer any suggestions; perhaps you could explain further, with emphasis on this Apple TV issue.

 

[kjl3x]

Thanks for the reply. I tend to download my .NEF images into the folders as described above, they automatically sort into YYYY MM DD. I then go back into each folder, select all images, open them using the Adobe Camera RAW then ‘save as’ jpegs in the same folder without any editing being carried out. I end up with 2 identical images one .NEF and one .JPEG. When browsing these folders using Apple TV it shows only the jpegs as if it can not display the .NEF files.

My consideration is that I don’t really need to convert all my images to .jpeg for any other reason. All the other software I use (CS4, Bridge and LR) will display the .NEF files. I was thinking that going forward it might be a better idea to setup a folder specifically for Apple TV to synchronise with and instead of saving jpeg copies of all my .NEF files, I just perhaps save the best of these into it.

I was asking if it might be a better idea to do this retrospectively and before I create my catalogue for the first time thus reducing the total image count by a good 1'/2'k or can this be done after setting LR up for the first time?

 

[dj_paige]

As I have zero familiarity with Apple TV, I must ask the following question ... is it limited to displaying JPGs, or can it display your computer screen? If it can display your computer screen, then I wouldn't bother with JPGs at all, they seem unnecessary, you could create the slideshow in Lightroom and display the Lightroom screen showing the slideshow on your Apple TV.

It seems you are implying that you use Apple TV to display un-edited and un-modified JPG copies of your NEFs. I find this curious, don't you want to edit the photos and then display the edited versions?

 

[kjl3x]

Yes that's right, I do use AppleTV to display unedited images this way. It's basically a way for me to browse my photographs on my TV as opposed to my computer screen. It's also only for family use though so it's not that important. I can always save my edited images as jpegs and they will be picked up in the AppleTV library.

 

[dj_paige]

Then I recommend you eliminate JPGs for display from your workflow.

Import the RAW photos, edit them in LR, create slideshows in LR, and display these slideshows on your TV via Lightroom.

 

[kjl3x]

[quote author=dj_paige link=topic=87'8.msg58671#msg58671 date=12615863'2]
and display these slideshows on your TV via Lightroom.
[/quote]

I'd be fine in deleting all the duplicate jpeg files before setting LR up for the first time but not too sure how I'd do the above though?

 

[dj_paige]

[quote author=kjl3x link=topic=87'8.msg58672#msg58672 date=1261586936]
I'd be fine in deleting all the duplicate jpeg files before setting LR up for the first time but not too sure how I'd do the above though?[/quote]

I assume earlier you meant you could display Lightroom, or any other computer application, on your Apple TV. I hope I didn't misunderstand you.

If you can display Lightroom on your TV, after you import photos into Lightroom, you select the ones of interest and create a slideshow, using Lightroom's Slideshow module. I don't think I need to go into more details until you are ready to do so.

 

[AMG]

[quote author=kjl3x link=topic=87'8.msg58664#msg58664 date=126158'535]
I’m about to use Lightroom for the first time and am looking for some advice on the best way to set it up especially regarding catalogues. I’ve previously used PE4 on a pc and my photo collection was my only catalogue viewed under one folder. My Lightroom is installed on my mac and my photographs are on the shared C: of my networked pc. I have a folder C:\PHOTOS which all my photographs are stored under in the format PHOTOS\YEAR\YYYY MM DD\YYYY MM DD custom name.NEF
[/quote]
It seems you are already following a good archiving system on your hard drive! Initially I had several catalogs too and several keywords etc attached. I recently created a master catalog and found that a lot of the keywords didnt make sense anymore in the mastercatalog. So I redid all that work. I've since then deleted all the other catalogs. Paige is right with that comment. Suggest you try out Paige's advice by creating a small slide show to see if that works with your apple tv (I dont know apple stuff), if that works to satisfaction then decide to delete your jpegs.

 

[kjl3x]

Thanks Guys, for the record Apple TV is a little piece of hardware (size of a router) that connects directly to your TV. It connects to your network and synchs with a specified folder (in my case the master directory C:\PHOTOS) from which you can browse all related folders and the jpeg files contained within. It will also play your music etc but that’s another matter. It will not connect to other software to do anything else.

I think that I will create another folder say C:\APPLE TV under which I’ll create the same type of folders i.e. C:\APPLE TV\YYYY\YYYY MM DD but within these I’ll cut and paste the jpeg’s from the C:\PHOTOS directory before setting up LR for the first time. I’ll then allow LR to create one master catalogue all RAW files stored under the C:\PHOTOS directory.

Thanks for your advice especially around just using the one catalogue

 

[dj_paige]

Lightroom's slideshow module will create JPGs for you if you so desire. So if you want to create a new slideshow, you could certainly have LR create JPGs in a new folder for this particular slideshow.