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Will My Edits Die When I Die?!

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themaneatingshark

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Premium Classic Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2020
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11
Lightroom Version Number
6.14
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
I have 40,000 photos in my LR6 catalog. All original pics, RAW and JPEG are stored elsewhere on my computer.
I am now considering upgrade to LR Classic.
Question is, when I am no longer around to maintain my library and those that inherit the portfolio do not wish to pay any LR subscription, what will become of all my edits?
Thank you in advance!
 
Thank You for this response!
Just to be perfectly clear, all my PREVIOUS edits will remain intact for printing or otherwise, sharing? It will just prevent future edits from occurring to any/all photos.
 
Correct. Quick Develop will still work, so that can be used, and any current edits remain.
 
Question is, when I am no longer around to maintain my library and those that inherit the portfolio do not wish to pay any LR subscription, what will become of all my edits?
An additional underlying question is, will those who inherit your collection WANT to learn LrC and/or even understand that they need to too understand the edits have been applied to the RAW and JPG's in your folders?

On suggestion is to start now by exporting your 'keepers' now, those you really like, into their own folder as TIF's or DNG's. You can put a '_README.TXT' file with an explanation of what these are.

Now that I've suggested that, I think I may start this process as well. I have a separate backup for 'keepers' but never thought of how would someone figure out my photos without learning LrC. I think I'll also add '_FINAL' tacked onto the filename just so there is no confusion.
 
I used a publish service in LrC to do that. I actually had multiple services established that the kids were aware of.
One for each kid with a smart collection based on what criteria they wanted. Mostly, they wanted to trim the images down to ones they were in, or parents. They did not care much about photos with my friends :)
I then had a "global" master service which had all what I defined as "keepers".

I have not figured out how I am going to do this now that I jumped to Cloudy though.
 
An additional underlying question is, will those who inherit your collection WANT to learn LrC and/or even understand that they need to too understand the edits have been applied to the RAW and JPG's in your folders? ..
I’m of the opinion that unless there is some one in your immediate family that is as passionate about photography as you, only a carefully curated collection of derivatives will be of interest to your heirs. Without that passionate other photographer in your family, your Lightroom catalog will be assigned to the dust bin.

If you have ever been responsible for settling the estate of a loved one, consider how much of the physical heirlooms get relegated to the dust bin or at best GoodWill. Your Lightroom catalog and inventory will be given the same consideration just behind the heirloom coffee table, sofa and dinette.

While you are still alive, you need to cultivate a passion for photography in some other family member to expect them to care about your work.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
If you have ever been responsible for settling the estate of a loved one, consider how much of the physical heirlooms get relegated to the dust bin or at best GoodWill. Your Lightroom catalog and inventory will be given the same consideration just behind the heirloom coffee table, sofa and dinette.

Less consideration actually. Having dealt with three out of four grand parents passing and help my parents do the sorting. Digital assets take even less effort to dispose of than the physical ones. So unless your heirs have extra storage space, digital is deleted even faster.

Tim
 
Thank you one and all!
At least half the photos have key words attached. So if son Eric wanted to pull out pics of his daughter Sue, then he would have the ability to view same and culout those he wants to keep.
That aside, I have photos that I've sold and "hopefully " someone will find them worthy of preserving.
Again, Thank You!
 
Less consideration actually. Having dealt with three out of four grand parents passing and help my parents do the sorting. Digital assets take even less effort to dispose of than the physical ones. So unless your heirs have extra storage space, digital is deleted even faster.

Tim
True. But if the photos are of family members, then there is a chance that their might be some interest in them. Remember, when asked what most people would grab if they were fleeing a burning house, a very common answer was family photos. And having visited a number of relatives in their latter years when they have downsized and moved into smaller living arrangements, photos were one of the few items that seemed to make the cut.

--Ken
 
I have 40,000 photos in my LR6 catalog. All original pics, RAW and JPEG are stored elsewhere on my computer.
I am now considering upgrade to LR Classic.
Question is, when I am no longer around to maintain my library and those that inherit the portfolio do not wish to pay any LR subscription, what will become of all my edits?
Thank you in advance!
Unless you follow the advice given above about exporting your "keeper" images, it will be important to let your family know that the image files stored elsewhere on your computer are needed if they want to export any edited files from LR.

--Ken
 
True. But if the photos are of family members, then there is a chance that their might be some interest in them. Remember, when asked what most people would grab if they were fleeing a burning house, a very common answer was family photos. And having visited a number of relatives in their latter years when they have downsized and moved into smaller living arrangements, photos were one of the few items that seemed to make the cut.

--Ken
Images on some disk are not readily available. Printed images are. That is what I said if you want your photos to live after you are gone, then make an export of a curated set. Better, make a print.
 
Images on some disk are not readily available. Printed images are. That is what I said if you want your photos to live after you are gone, then make an export of a curated set. Better, make a print.
I agree that prints are certainly more permanent. But, after a close friend passed, his kids had previously been informed that the photos he thought folks would be most interested in were put on a specific hard drive. How they are handled in the future is certainly up for debate, but this is not an uncommon addition to prints and it allows easy distribution if one has a large family.

Migration of files was always the advice for preserving our digital images, and I think that also holds true for the general public. iPhones have replaced many a family album, and companies like Apple make it relatively easy to migrate images when users upgrade to new phones. So I think that a hybrid approach offers the recipients good options.

--Ken
 
I agree that prints are certainly more permanent. But, after a close friend passed, his kids had previously been informed that the photos he thought folks would be most interested in were put on a specific hard drive. How they are handled in the future is certainly up for debate, but this is not an uncommon addition to prints and it allows easy distribution if one has a large family.

Migration of files was always the advice for preserving our digital images, and I think that also holds true for the general public. iPhones have replaced many a family album, and companies like Apple make it relatively easy to migrate images when users upgrade to new phones. So I think that a hybrid approach offers the recipients good options.

--Ken

I think we both are in agreement. RAW unmodified originals edited in a Lightroom Catalog are not going to pass the generational hand off.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Images on some disk are not readily available. Printed images are. That is what I said if you want your photos to live after you are gone, then make an export of a curated set. Better, make a print.
Having had this discussion with others of my older generation, we generally agree that prints are much better that digital if you want them "handed down". And if you want your photos to survive for more than one generation, prints need notes with them. This is easily accomplished by putting your photos into a book. LR makes it straightforward to produce such a printed book - but it does require time and effort on the author's part.
 
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