Some Lightroom Help

William Petruzzo · Nov 7, 2009

I've been doing all of my processing with a combination of Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop. My volume has increased dramatically this year and I need to work out a more streamlined workflow for dealing with huge numbers of files. So, I've decided to migrate to Lightroom. I'm using the Lightroom 3 Beta in order to get acclimated and I'll buy the full version once it's released next year.

What I'm having difficulty with though is that I already have around 600GB of self-managed images. Moving that much data over and over again is really not a very reasonable idea. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips of migrating my very large current self-managed workflow over to a managed Lightroom workflow.

I appreciate the help!

Buckster · Nov 7, 2009

If you're talking about how to import your current file structure and use it in LR where it already exists, that's pretty easy and I can lay it out for you.

Edit - I should say, I can help with that if you're working on a Windows PC.

IgsEMT · Nov 7, 2009

bp, just be a bit cautious with LR3Beta. It doesn't have few things like camera profiles so if you are working in raw you might be in a jam.

Big Mike · Nov 7, 2009

Consider breaking your archive up into separate catalogs so that you don't have to put all of your images into one. In LR, you can only open one catalog at a time.
I know several photographers who go as far as putting each wedding into a separate catalog.

William Petruzzo · Nov 7, 2009

See, I'm unfamiliar with the way the word catolog is used in LR.

Garbz · Nov 7, 2009

I don't use Lightroom to manage my final images. However in cases where I have had a very well laid out structure full of thousands of images (such as coming back from overseas) I click Import, and in the dialogue one of the options is to "add photos to gallery without moving".

In this case it'll hard link the Lightroom library to a location on the harddisk, and it'll even give you and indicator of how much free space there is on that drive

The Lightroom catalogue is basically the database of images and their edits. I don't use multiple catalogues so I can offer no further advice there.

Big Mike · Nov 7, 2009

As I understand it....
A catalog file is LR's data base...like a master file. When you import images, LR notes the location of the image file and render's a preview. All the edits you make are also saved.
So for back-up purposes, all you should need to do, is backup the catalog file (besides backing up the original files, of course)

I think that many people use a single catalog file in LR. It can certainly handle a lot of image. You images can still be organized via the file structure you have, within the catalog.

The issues that some people have, are that the catalog file can get pretty big...and for some, there is no reason to have all their photos grouped into a single catalog because they would never need to edit them together. For example, I have a few different catalogs. One is for my personal photos, which is separate from my professional work. I'll never need to edit professional portraits along side shots of my kids, so that's OK.

As I mentioned, some people create a new catalog for each wedding they shoot. That makes it easy to finish a job and not having to backup those parts of a single catalog from then on.

KevinDks · Nov 10, 2009

I've downloaded the LR3 beta as well, and I've been doing some reading over on the Lightroom Forums, where there are a couple of threads on this kind of topic. Some of the ideas I've seen include:

1. You don't have to do the whole migration at once
2. Decide on your folder structure and use it for all new work from now on, then you can just re-organise your existing images over time (of course you may be happy with your existing folder structure)
3. Use a simple folder structure and then use LR to add keywords and metadata to your images. You can do this in batches
4. The kind of folder structure people are suggesting is YYYY/MM/DD/Subject, or a variation on that to suit the way you work / think
5. When you import files to LR you have some choices - convert to DNG in a new folder and catalogue them, copy to a new location and add to catalogue, move to a new location and catalogue, or just add them to the catalogue in their existing location. This gives you lots of flexibility, but whatever you do, once your catalogue exists in LR any further changes (moving files, renaming folders) must be done in LR too and not in Windows Explorer or any other application, or the catalogue won't be able to find those files again
6. Always backup your catalogue. LR itself will prompt you to do this

One other thought that I had is that when I downloaded the beta there was a warning that when the final version is released it will be necessary to completely un-install the beta before you install it. I think that as long as you have your catalogue backed up then you can just carry on using it when you get the final version, but you might want to check up on that before spending lots of time catalogueing and keywording.

Kevin

Big Mike · Nov 10, 2009

Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider Blog Â» Photoshop & Digital Photography Techniques, Tutorials, Books, Reviews & More » Blog Archive » 10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users

William Petruzzo · Nov 11, 2009

KevinDks said:
I've downloaded the LR3 beta as well, and I've been doing some reading over on the Lightroom Forums, where there are a couple of threads on this kind of topic. Some of the ideas I've seen include:

1. You don't have to do the whole migration at once
2. Decide on your folder structure and use it for all new work from now on, then you can just re-organise your existing images over time (of course you may be happy with your existing folder structure)
3. Use a simple folder structure and then use LR to add keywords and metadata to your images. You can do this in batches
4. The kind of folder structure people are suggesting is YYYY/MM/DD/Subject, or a variation on that to suit the way you work / think
5. When you import files to LR you have some choices - convert to DNG in a new folder and catalogue them, copy to a new location and add to catalogue, move to a new location and catalogue, or just add them to the catalogue in their existing location. This gives you lots of flexibility, but whatever you do, once your catalogue exists in LR any further changes (moving files, renaming folders) must be done in LR too and not in Windows Explorer or any other application, or the catalogue won't be able to find those files again
6. Always backup your catalogue. LR itself will prompt you to do this

One other thought that I had is that when I downloaded the beta there was a warning that when the final version is released it will be necessary to completely un-install the beta before you install it. I think that as long as you have your catalogue backed up then you can just carry on using it when you get the final version, but you might want to check up on that before spending lots of time catalogueing and keywording.

Kevin

Big Mike said:
Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider Blog Â» Photoshop & Digital Photography Techniques, Tutorials, Books, Reviews & More » Blog Archive » 10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users

Super helpful guys. Thank you! That blog, also, really inspired a lot of confidence. Thanks!