Taking images on location

[lturnerwa]

I'm going to a class and want to take a number of my images with me via an external hard drive such that I can access them via LR2. We will be working on these images in class.

Currently I have the image on a large external hard drive in my office and I have created a collection which contains the images that I wish to take with me. What I would like to do is put copies of the images in the collection on my WDPassport drive and keep the originals on the hard drive in my office.

I would like to know the best way to do this in LightRoom?

 

[Bosse]

My suggestion is to export this collection as a new catalog and include negatives. In that way you can use LR to manage those photos on the road and when you come back you can "import from catalog" back to your main catalog whatever changes you have made while away.

If you ctrl (right) - klick on your collection there is an option to Export this collection as catalog and in the next dialog you can choose to include negatives (your images).

 

[NJHeart2Heart]

If you export a catalog of image from LR, does it completely remove them from the main LR catalog, such that there is no duplication upon re-import?

Dawn D. in NJ

 

[clee01l]

[quote author=NJHeart2Heart link=topic=967'.msg67'92#msg67'92 date=12749'9491]
If you export a catalog of image from LR, does it completely remove them from the main LR catalog, such that there is no duplication upon re-import?
[/quote] It does not remove them. If you want you'll need to do that manually while the images selected for "Export As Catalog" are still selected. Or When you reimport the catalog, the Imports will not reimport images still on the catalog.
You will need to figure out what is best for your situation. If I am going to take images to my laptop to work, I will only take those images that I will be working on and delete the images that are included on the Export. At that point I havev two catalogs One containing the exported images and the other (Master) that contains the rest. I will make a copy of the Export Catalog on the laptop and at that point I have two copies of those images. When I merge the laptop catalog back into the master, I get all my images back in one place and I can then delete the Export catalog from the desktop

 

[Jim Wilde]

Dawn, short answer is NO....the pictures are NOT removed from the main catalog when you do an Export as Catalog procedure. Resolving conficts regarding duplication is properly handled by Lightroom when you come to re-import.

You can safely (provided you are careful) export a catalog of selected images to for example a portable HDD. Said catalog does NOT have to contain a copy of the actual images if you are only going to work in the Library module for metadata/keywording (so all you need are the previews). If you want to do develop edits, then you WILL need a copy of the images (called negatives in the procedure)....in which event LR will create a catalog, previews AND images files all in one top-level folder. Eject the HDD and off you go. When ready plug in the HDD into your laptop and open the catalog and you can start doing your thing. You can even take new pictures and import them into the catalog, copying into the proper location.
On returning home, plug the external HDD into your main computer and run the import catalog dialog.....point to the catalog on the external HDD and LR will analyze it and compare it with your main catalog and will present you with options, for example adding the new pictures to your main catalog and updating the metadata as appropriate for any changes made to the existing pictures.

If you have access to Martin Evening's LR2 book, he covers this issue in some detail (Chapter 5).

 

[NJHeart2Heart]

TNG,
Well explained. I have Evening's first version, but I have a couple other book that probably also cover it. Right now it was just theoretical since I happened to come across the original post and the question presented itself in my head
Thanks,Dawn