Suggestions on how to integrate Lightroom Classic and Mac OS Photos

[richardripley]

Lightroom Version Number

10.4

Operating System

1. macOS 11 Big Sur
2. iOS

I would like any suggestions on ways to best integrate working with Lightroom Classic and Mac OS Photos?

I am currently using Mac OS Big Sur and Lightroom Classic 10.4. I have been using LR for quite some time, since 2004, and I am fully "entrenched" in the Apple Mac OS and iOS ecosystem. I use my iPhone 12 Pro Max quite a lot and find it very convenient and easy to use Photos to keep photos from my iPhone 12 Pro Max organized and to edit them. That being said, I still have photos that I have stored in LR from 2014 to present.

What I have been doing is using Photos for the Mac as my front end for iPhone photos and LR Classic as my front end for photos from my Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mark II. Any photos from the iPhone that end up in Photos that are particularly noteworthy are imported into LR Classic, where I can edit them in LR. There aren't a huge bunch of these but with the improvement to photos taken with the iPhone 12 Pro Max (RAW files for example) and to Photos, I'm hoping there will be more to import.

Any suggestions or input about how to best coordinate using both of these photo databases? I have seen a few of the past posts about this topic but any new information would be very very much appreciated.

 

[johnbeardy]

Are you not using Lightroom Mobile?

 

[richardripley]

I haven't been using Lightroom Mobile. When I last tried it out, it seemed a little "clunky." I last tried using it about a year ago. I'm not in favor of moving to an Adobe centered workflow, it that is what you are suggesting. I like the way Photos, iOS, and Mac work together. What did you have in mind? And BTW, thanks!

 

[clee01l]

I haven't been using Lightroom Mobile. When I last tried it out, it seemed a little "clunky." I last tried using it about a year ago. I'm not in favor of moving to an Adobe centered workflow, it that is what you are suggesting. I like the way Photos, iOS, and Mac work together. What did you have in mind? And BTW, thanks!

While Photos works well with iCloud, iOS and MacOS, Photos and iCloud don’t work smoothly with Lightroom Classic.

I have a complete inventory of Apple products. Over time and with the advent of Lightroom Mobile and its integration with Lightroom Classic, I have removed the Photos app from the iMac. With an iPadPro, I replaced a MBP running Lightroom Classic and a travel catalog with Lightroom Mobile. Images that I generated on my iPhone are automatically imported into Lightroom and the Adobe cloud. From there, they sync automatically to my master Lightroom Classic catalog on the iMac. I import images shot with my Nikon Z7 into Lightroom on the IPadPro and they are sync’s automatically back to my master catalog on the iMac, often getting there before I can return home.


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[richardripley]

Thank you! I will research how to do what you have mentioned and think about possibly leaving the Apple ecosystem for photos behind. In any case, I can continue to do what I have done for a while which is to use Photos and Apple's iCloud for family photos and random iPhone photos and leave Lightroom Classic for the "art" photos. Anything I take using the iPhone that I might consider art, can be exported to LR from Photos. Not an ideal way to work because I have two databases of photos but...

You have given me a lot to think about! Thanks again.

 

[clee01l]

Thank you! I will research how to do what you have mentioned and think about possibly leaving the Apple ecosystem for photos behind. In any case, I can continue to do what I have done for a while which is to use Photos and Apple's iCloud for family photos and random iPhone photos and leave Lightroom Classic for the "art" photos. Anything I take using the iPhone that I might consider art, can be exported to LR from Photos. Not an ideal way to work because I have two databases of photos but...

You have given me a lot to think about! Thanks again.

You can use the camera option in Lightroom to shoot those photos and bypass the Photos camera completely.


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[johnbeardy]

Cletus has given similar guidance to mine (thanks) so I'll just reply on one aspect. As he said, "you can use the camera option in Lightroom to shoot those photos and [largely] bypass the Photos camera".

Anything I take using the iPhone that I might consider art, can be exported to LR from Photos. Not an ideal way to work because I have two databases of photos but...

You'll probably still take pictures and maybe videos on the phone, but I'd question "...can be exported to LR from Photos".

You're still thinking of Photos as the boss in this relationship, where I would see it only as a contributor to the Lightroom catalogue and as a way out to other Apple features. With this mindset you just set LrMobile so it automatically imports everything new in camera roll, then delete junk in Lr Classic. With everything securely in LR, you can delete photos from Photos and just leave stuff there for convenience. So there are still two databases, but not all databases are of equal value.

 

[nafaway2]

I am having this issue too...have used Photos and a host of Apple Devices for years....I like to still have access to stream photos to Apple TV and do slide shows. I subscribe to LR but using the LRCC is not an easy option for me due to my lame internet service...very slow uploads. Also where I travel the internet is often a barely functional wifi. I have to use a local RAID array to store my photos. Right now the only way to work with photos on my Mac is to store full versions...using optimized results in a painfully slow process. I think my ideal process would be to use Mac OS to initially view photos and keep favorites/slideshows but then migrate serious photos to LR Classic with files stored on RAID. Does this seem feasible?

 

[clee01l]

I am having this issue too...have used Photos and a host of Apple Devices for years....I like to still have access to stream photos to Apple TV and do slide shows. I subscribe to LR but using the LRCC is not an easy option for me due to my lame internet service...very slow uploads. Also where I travel the internet is often a barely functional wifi. I have to use a local RAID array to store my photos. Right now the only way to work with photos on my Mac is to store full versions...using optimized results in a painfully slow process. I think my ideal process would be to use Mac OS to initially view photos and keep favorites/slideshows but then migrate serious photos to LR Classic with files stored on RAID. Does this seem feasible?

There is a Lightroom app for Apple TV. All of the slideshow option that I know of utilize the internet to access the images for the slide show. The Lightroom App (at least on the phone or tablet) utilizes local storage for the images in the slideshow (the internet is not required once the images are stored locally)


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