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Working with OS X Photos App

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parkerpress

New Member
Premium Classic Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2019
Messages
21
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Lightroom Version Number
10.4
Operating System
  1. macOS 11 Big Sur
  2. iOS
  3. Other (please note in thread)
Has anybody set up a workflow to manage both camera photos imported into Lightroom Classic, with originals moved into a Lightroom Masters catalog automatically, and also trying to import the "Photos library" but leaving those photos where they are so iCloud photos still works on devices. I take a lot of photos with my big cameras, and have my workflow in Lightroom working well. I also take photos with my iPhone that I like to keep in iCloud to share with friends/family, but it would be great if I also had those images in Lightroom, maybe leaving the master photos in the iCloud folder.

I do realize that I will likely have to modify my workflow for non-iPhone pictures to remember to manually place those photos in my master library for importing and then things might just "work".

But I thought I'd ask what others might be doing for a workflow with both images from external cameras, and integrating the Photo app into the workflow as well.

TIA for advice, opinions or explanations about how you might be doing this.

Steve
 
I found the iCloud environment not very compatible with the Adobe cloud environment. To that extent, I abandoned the iCloud Photos app and iCloud favoring an all Lightroom Workflow.
Links too my Lightroom for the Web albums gives me public access to Lightroom Cloud photos that I choose to share.

IPhone photos either automatically get imported from the iPnone camera into an album in Lightroom Mobile or I use the Lightroom Mobile access to the camera and capture the image directly bypassing the iCloud Photos library.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
The problem of course is that both Apple Photos and Lightroom Classic are database-oriented photo managers that want to be THE central organizer, so it’s difficult or impractical to get both to manage the same set of photos. It would be the same problem if Google Photos was thrown into the mix, all three work that way. And if this question was about cloud-based Lightroom (not Classic), that application is even more like Apple Photos and Google Photos; all three are cloud-based storage and syncing and database-driven.

also trying to import the "Photos library" but leaving those photos where they are so iCloud photos still works on devices.

There is no direct way. In theory, you could crack open the Photos Library.photoslibrary “package” containing the Apple Photos data, and have Lightroom Classic add (not Move or Copy) the Originals folder buried in there. But that would be risky, because the reason Apple set up Photos Library.photoslibrary as a macOS package is to keep people out. If its contents get out of sync with what’s recorded in the Photos database, Photos may start acting as if data is corrupted and fail to work properly, which could spread to all iCloud devices synced to those photos. So if you decide you’re brave enough to experiment with that (you probably shouldn’t), you would have to never let Lightroom Classic modify the contents of that folder in any way…no adding, deleting, renaming, moving files or folders, and no writing sidecars.
 
I was perfectly fine with Aperture in it's day, and they discontinued. Then went through the pain of converting ~100k photos to Lightroom Classic. And now with my iPhone photos proliferating, and my traditional library in Classic continuing to grow, I now have a bifurcated workflow that I am following. I like being able to show family photos on my iCloud devices, but also like the raw power underneath Lightroom. I'll keep trying to figure out the "next best workflow" that incorporates the two engines without corrupting either one.
 
I found the iCloud environment not very compatible with the Adobe cloud environment. To that extent, I abandoned the iCloud Photos app and iCloud favoring an all Lightroom Workflow.
Links too my Lightroom for the Web albums gives me public access to Lightroom Cloud photos that I choose to share.

IPhone photos either automatically get imported from the iPnone camera into an album in Lightroom Mobile or I use the Lightroom Mobile access to the camera and capture the image directly bypassing the iCloud Photos library.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I don't use Lightroom Cloud...
 
I don't use Lightroom Cloud...

I don’t use iCloud Photos any more. I am suggesting that you change your workflow to get a workable solution. You are already a subscriber to Lightroom mobile. All photos that you import into Lightroom Mobile go to the Adobe Cloud. All I am suggesting. Is that you take advantage of the images already in type Adobe Cloud and sync what is in the cloud into your master Lightroom Classic catalog.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I don’t use iCloud Photos any more. I am suggesting that you change your workflow to get a workable solution. You are already a subscriber to Lightroom mobile. All photos that you import into Lightroom Mobile go to the Adobe Cloud. All I am suggesting. Is that you take advantage of the images already in type Adobe Cloud and sync what is in the cloud into your master Lightroom Classic catalog.

Clee01I

I did not realize that Classic came with any cloud components (and haven't looked into Lightroom Mobile. I'll go look into that architecture/environment, and see if I can figure out a good way to incorporate that into my workflow.

Thanks for the tip!

Steve
 
I would also suggest Lightroom Mobile as the key.

Most of my phone pics are shot with its camera, but I use the iOS camera too and record occasional videos on it. LRM is set up to automatically import new photos and videos, which means they are automatically downloaded to the catalogue, and once they are in LRM I delete them from iOS Photos.

Then one has to consider sharing photos in a variety of forms. I don't use any Apple methods for sharing sets of pictures - I use my own or send people a link to an LRM collection. Output to Instagram can be from LRM if it's a single image, but one can export copies to camera roll for multi-photo "carousel" posts.

Obviously your detailed workflows will differ, but the principle would be the same - iOS photos for some input and some output, but LR is in control.
 
I would also suggest Lightroom Mobile as the key.

Most of my phone pics are shot with its camera, but I use the iOS camera too and record occasional videos on it. LRM is set up to automatically import new photos and videos, which means they are automatically downloaded to the catalogue, and once they are in LRM I delete them from iOS Photos.

Then one has to consider sharing photos in a variety of forms. I don't use any Apple methods for sharing sets of pictures - I use my own or send people a link to an LRM collection. Output to Instagram can be from LRM if it's a single image, but one can export copies to camera roll for multi-photo "carousel" posts.

Obviously your detailed workflows will differ, but the principle would be the same - iOS photos for some input and some output, but LR is in control.
Thanks John! Like I mentioned to Cletus, I never even considered (heard of) Lightroom Mobile, so I'm going to start experimenting with that now. My hope is that it will watch IOS Photo library, import everything from there, and will integrate properly with my Lightroom Classic (local) workflow.

My next research steps are now:
1) How does Lightroom Mobile interact with Lightroom Classic (so I understand push/pull/sync operations)
2) How does Lightroom Mobile interact with iOS Photos app (or the cameras on those devices) directly.
3) How to tie it all together.

Thanks again to everybody for planting the seeds! Now I need to learn how to make it grow!

Have a great day!

Steve
 
Yes, maybe Adobe should have called it "The App Formerly Known As Lightroom Mobile". Catchy, eh?
 
My next research steps are now:
1) How does Lightroom Mobile interact with Lightroom Classic (so I understand push/pull/sync operations)
2) How does Lightroom Mobile interact with iOS Photos app (or the cameras on those devices) directly.
3) How to tie it all together.

Thanks again to everybody for planting the seeds! Now I need to learn how to make it grow!

The best place to start your research would be by reading the "Cloud Sync" chapter of your Classic Missing FAQ book.
 
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