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Traveling Without a Computer

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AlanHaynes.com

alanhaynes.com
Joined
Aug 5, 2018
Messages
105
Location
San Diego, California, USA
Lightroom Experience
Power User
Lightroom Version
Classic
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom CC v 3.4
Operating System
  1. iOS
  2. Android
Does anyone have experience traveling without a laptop? I’m considering leaving my laptop at home for my next trip and, instead, loading photos from my Nikon DSLR to my iPad or Android phone. Has anyone tried this? How well did it work?

I won’t have enough space for the raw NEF files, so I’m thinking of shooting in raw+jpeg mode and loading only the jpegs to my mobile device. The raw images would stay on my CF card until I return home.

I want to be able to keyword and caption the jpegs in order to remember key details about the trip and I also want to be able to share some photos with my traveling companions while still on the trip. Saving weight is also a major consideration: even lightweight laptops are relatively heavy.

I’ve tested this on my Samsung S7 phone and was happy to find that, by connecting my camera directly to the phone — via an OTG usb adapter — that I am able to import photos into Lightroom. I have a 32 GB micro-SD card inside the phone which should be able to handle all the jpegs.

Any thoughts woud be helpul.
 
I really think this is a case of ‘each to his own’. To some, a traditional laptop running either Windows or OSX with a mouse or track pad and built in storage is what they are comfortable with, and suits their workflow well. I do remember when people used to say a laptop couldn’t replace a desktop machine.
For others various Surface devices work very well.
Personally, I haven’t used a laptop for four years, and don’t miss it even slightly. I do use an iMac back at base, but actually use it less and less. I’ve been using iPads since they first came out and learned a new way of operating, which works for me. I don’t find it a case of adapting, more developing new and different skills.
A bit like cameras to be honest. Will my iPhone XS Max replace my DSLR? No, of course not, but I can do things with my iPhone that I struggle to do with the SLR and vice versa. Did my DSLR replace my medium format cameras? No. The SLR can do things the MF couldn’t (in many circumstances) but the MF provided abilities the SLR struggled with - again in certain circumstances.

The IPad Pro is certainly a great way of managing workflow for many photographers, amateur and pro. For others, it doesn’t work.

‘Tis the way of life.
 
I totally agree, Martin.

I have actually used a laptop for years and love them. Last few years used a desktop at home and a laptop for work which I also brought traveling. I also have an iPad Air 2 that I use for convenience because it's smaller and more portable, easy to throw in my bag, and used for email, internet and games.

I've been a Lightroom Classic user for years. I'm just trying out Lightroom CC now and reading through Victoria's book. I plan to stay with Lightroom Classic for editing but thinking about shifting to Lightroom CC while traveling.

Now that I am laptopless (is that even a word?) I had planned on buying a light laptop to use for traveling and I've been watching pricing and reading reviews for 6 months. Then I read the initial reviews of the new iPad which made me wonder if I should switch my workflow while traveling to the iPad only rather than carrying both a laptop and an iPad (plus an e-reader - I do love my tech toys!) to lighten the load.

I suppose either way works as long as you take the time to get the workflow down. Maybe I'll stay with a laptop for now since I'm familiar with that workflow and get more experience using CC with my old iPad and Classic, then try out the new iPad in a couple years when I'm ready for a new toy.
 
This is a relatively new battery-powered SSD that has an SD 3.0 card slot and USB 3.0 port. It can be used as a powerbank if your iPad power runs low. The guys who edit videos on the iPad using LumaFusion rave about it. My Passport Wireless SSD | WD
 
Yeah. I tried to travel without my laptop. Actually, it was good because i felt like i was free from any works, articles (i'm a copywriter), email, etc. And, it did make me enjoy my trip more than ever. However, i did need my phone. With it, i killed boring time on plane with some games from top1apk. And, it also helped me with the map. In general, i dont think we need laptop when traveling. But, we still need our phone.

I have used a dedicated eReader for years. Currently I have the Kobo H20; and this allows me to read to pass the time and leave the phone behind.
 
Just this week I returned from a month long trip to the States including several of the National Parks in the Southwest. Let me say in preface that I've been a LR user since 2007 and since 2010 I've used my second licence on a netbook or ultrabook to import and do a few basic edits, apply keywords, convert to dng and apply import presents. For this trip I tried a new approach. We were equipped with two mirrorless cameras and an action cam, a Samsung Galaxy A 10.5 tablet (fairly slow but functional) and a 2TB portable hard drive. The 2TB hard drive was a bit of overkill but I just wasn't sure how many GB in action cam videos I would have - for the photos alone the two 128 GB flash drives I had along would have easily done the trick. And my partner didn't take as many videos as we both had anticipated.

My routine was as follows: at the end of every couple of days I copied the photos/videos from the SD cards to the hard drive using an OTG USB 3 hub/card reader attached to the tablet and using only the on board Samsung "My Files" file manager. I had thought to bring along a small wireless mouse which I also plugged into the usb hub. Worked like a charm and made file selection and drag and drop much easier for me. Since I had two 64-GB cards for my main camera I left the originals on the cards as an extra backup - I still have room left on both cards.

After copying the files onto the hard drive I removed the SD card and then imported the photos into Lightroom. Because of the drive assignment using the OTG hub (USB 1/USB 2, etc.) it was important to take out the SD card before importing the photos so that LR always saw the photo source as USB 1. The import went fairly quickly and it was fun to be able to view the results on the tablet screen.

BUT... the drawbacks for me... the cloud sync proved to be a major PITA. Since I didn't want to have to hook up the hard drive to view photos I wanted to use the option "store album locally", thus providing myself with yet another backup on the tablet's sd card. Well, I couldn't get this to work unless Lightroom had at least established a connection to the Internet, which on our trip was not very frequent. We were in an RV and often camping where there was no WiFi and even no cell signal (like in National Parks). And let's not even talk about upload/sync speeds even when there was a connection. I ended up uploading the last 900 photos after I got home on my own WiFi and speedy Internet connection. With the shared connections that one gets in public areas, syncing was for me nigh to impossible. I did have a cell connection with "unlimited" data, but after 22GB they slow you down, so it only took about a week and a half to get the "we're slowing you down now" message.

In the end, Lightroom made the process slower and more difficult than if I'd just used an offline photo viewer and imported the photos in Classic when I got home. The only thing I did that was of later use was to mark and delete a few rejects and export a few to share with friends. I sure didn't need LR for this. What were missing were all of the things that would have saved me time when I got home - renaming and applying presets on import, converting to DNG, adding location info via an imported track. And I won't even start on keywords... Now I'm sure that people with a different workflow and use case find LR Mobile (or whatever it's called today) a valuable tool - for me it's lacking some vital useful features; it remains a fun toy where I can show a few shared albums and sadly not much more.

Hope this helps someone!

Cheers, Sara
 
...

In the end, Lightroom made the process slower and more difficult than if I'd just used an offline photo viewer and imported the photos in Classic when I got home....

Hope this helps someone!

Cheers, Sara
It certainly helps me, and confirms what I have believed.
If I have a vehicle, I always travel with my laptop pc and LR Classic. It worth the minor pain for a more enjoyable trip and outcome.
I can the get them into my desktop at home in multiple ways.
 
On my last trip, I decided to travel light and only use my iPad. I thought I was quite clever in figuring out how to download images from my SD cards to the iPad the upload them using FTP to a web site I created. Worked well at home. At the resort, it appears their free WI-FI throttled FTP traffic so my upload would be measured in hours instead of minutes. Lesson learned. You can't always trust internet connectivity for uploading pictures. Will now look to backing up locally again.
 
@SaraLH

Thanks for the write up. I was looking at potentially using Lr (Cloudy) to handle stuff on an Android phone or Tablet while on vacation. However I often do not have internet coverage. If internet is a flat requirement for Cloudy to run, it is a complete non-starter to me.

@Victoria Bampton

Any word from Adobe on the internet dependency to even import and work images locally for the Lr Cloudy?
 
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Tim

It'll run absolutely fine without an internet connection - it only needs that to upload the images to the Cloud. So, you could use on vacation quite happily (I do, as a form of backup and also analysis, basic edits and emailing) and actually let the uploads happen when you have connection (even if that's back home)
 
I regularly travel iPad-only - but I have a big enough iPad that I can copy the raw files. If I couldn't, and I was going for more than a few days, I'd back up to one of those hard drive devices. Either way, I don't clear the cards until I get home.
To which directory do you transfer the files? I assume not to one that will sync to the cloud (to avoid data charges)?
 
I currently copy to Photos app (which is set not to back up to iCloud), import into LR (sync is set to WiFi only or paused) and then delete from Photos app. Hopefully that’ll change with iOS 13, but I haven’t tested yet, so I’m not sure if LR is updated for the new iOS13 changes yet.
 
Tim

It'll run absolutely fine without an internet connection - it only needs that to upload the images to the Cloud. So, you could use on vacation quite happily (I do, as a form of backup and also analysis, basic edits and emailing) and actually let the uploads happen when you have connection (even if that's back home)

Ah, that would work. I would need to redo my workflow, since I cull then keyword before I work images.
Still looking at this option. But I am leaning towards using Classic with a small catalog on the laptop to maintain workflow.
 
Ah, that would work. I would need to redo my workflow, since I cull then keyword before I work images.
Still looking at this option. But I am leaning towards using Classic with a small catalog on the laptop to maintain workflow.
Tim,

I would suggest you try a small Classic catalog when you travel. It's very straightforward and you can get more done while you are still away from home.
 
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