Beginner Lightroom question

muscleflex

muscleflex

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Name
Patrick
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all, I have a question. I'm working between my PC and my macbook pro. I'm still going thru all 950 photos I took at a gymnastics event last weekend.
Folder hierarchy is:
Gymfest 2015 (breaks into):
Morning folder ¦ Afternoon folder ¦ Gymfest 2015 folder (this contains my Lightroom catalog)

If I copied the folder to my macbook pro (to work on the photos and sort thru and reject when I'm out of the house), and do work on it, can I just copy the catalog back to my PC when I get home to continue working on them?
At the moment, I'm having to recopy everything back to my PC or vice versa to maintain an updated copy wherever I am... I can't work directly from my USB flashdrive because it's a slow flashdrive. Thank you
 
I think this could get very messy. You could export the images as a catalogue. This would produce a self contained unit with all the images previews and LR cat data. you can then import that onto the other machine. However you would then need to repeat the procedure to bring them back into the original computer. Again a bit messy and liable to errors ad duplication. I personally would put all the images and Lightroom catalogue onto an external drive. making a unique catalogue for this event. You can then edit those images on whichever computer you wanted, and still keep the images and data safe.

Once editing was complete you could if you wanted import the final results onto you main computer, again by generating a catalogue and importing.
 
Thanks. I think what you've suggested is what I was asking.. at the moment, I have a separate catalog for this event. (unfortunately, that's how I use Lightroom = separate catalog that is stored inside the images folders - but I will change it from now on into just one catalog per year)

so... with all that said, if I make 2 copies for the photos (one on my PC and one on my Mac), can I just reuse the catalog? ie copy an uptodate catalog onto the machine I'm currently working on... then transfer it to the other machine if I need to work on it there? Hopefully the uptodate catalog will contain the work I last did from the other machine? (ie ratings, and any processed steps I did/made?)
 
Yes you can do that. The catalog just looks for the same folder structure to find the images in it's catalog. So long as the folder structure remains and the files are not renamed, Lightroom can work between both.

Another option would be to put both the files and the catalog on an external drive, then all you have to do it plug it in to either machine and open the catalog.
 
You may have a problem with the catalogue finding the files. The path will be different on the PC to the Mac. The PC will be something like C:/gynast/morning. While on the Mac it would be Macintosh HD/User/gymnast/morning. OK you can relink files but it is really going to get untidy and open to mistakes. I would really go for the external drive option, as this keeps everything in place . Alternatively export as a catalogue. which will keep everything together, and then re import. You will need to change the name on each transaction so that the Lightroom catalogue will not have conflicts. You may also get a " These images already exist" error message
 
This reminds me why I like Apple Aperture so much. However the point may come this year if Photos isn't decent enough, to have to switch to Lightroom. As such I look forward to the responses. So far it seems needlessly complicated.
 
Moving images in Lightroom from one computer to another isn't difficult or complicated. I've done it many, many times. Usually from a laptop to a desktop. This is where the export as catalogue option works. All the images are copied, along with the previews and the database data are placed in a self contained folder , and then using the import catalogue command are copied to the other machine. Simple. The problem comes when you are coping from one machine to another and then back again. Keeping the Lightroom catalogue intact is the problem. I think you'd have problems with Aperture keeping the data intact and not having multiple entries.

Photo's I don't think will solve the problem, although I haven't seen it yet. The idea that you can move images to the cloud for storage and edit them on any machine sounds great, but I suspect the adjustments will be fairly simple, limiting to those controls to that found in iPhoto. Apple has tried to do the same with Pages ,Numbers etc, and to be honest I wish they had left things alone . The cloud compatible versions are not as good as the previous releases. But we will have to wait and see what arrives. I could be wrong and it may be the best image handling app ever, but I doubt it.
 
assuming you're using LR5 this is exactly the sort of thing to use smart previews for
 
Chappers said:
Moving images in Lightroom from one computer to another isn't difficult or complicated. I've done it many, many times. Usually from a laptop to a desktop. This is where the export as catalogue option works. All the images are copied, along with the previews and the database data are placed in a self contained folder , and then using the import catalogue command are copied to the other machine. Simple. The problem comes when you are coping from one machine to another and then back again. Keeping the Lightroom catalogue intact is the problem. I think you'd have problems with Aperture keeping the data intact and not having multiple entries.

Photo's I don't think will solve the problem, although I haven't seen it yet. The idea that you can move images to the cloud for storage and edit them on any machine sounds great, but I suspect the adjustments will be fairly simple, limiting to those controls to that found in iPhoto. Apple has tried to do the same with Pages ,Numbers etc, and to be honest I wish they had left things alone . The cloud compatible versions are not as good as the previous releases. But we will have to wait and see what arrives. I could be wrong and it may be the best image handling app ever, but I doubt it.
Click to expand...
You make the move in Lightroom sound easy just like in Aperture. Why do you say the problem occurs when bringing it back to the original computer. Why would duplicates occur? I've never had that in Aperture. Is there as special trick to it in Lightroom?
 
Right just did some tests. And if you try and import the images using the "Import from another catalogue" option. Lightroom simply wont let you do it. However as part of the dialogue box there is an option to just replace the metadata or import and replace the metadata previews and images. So it looks like it can be done.

You learn something new here everyday :)
 
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