so we have any Lightroom experts

photochimp

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Carl Davis
Edit My Images
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After a bit of help/ info. if anyone can point me in the right direction then please do, either here or another forum.

I never liked the thought of lightroom,and after a few trys with the demo still didnt get on with it.
But I forced myself and finally got on with it. And can edit a batch of images quickly.
But I again I come across a problem with lightroom and I think its the reason I didnt get on with it before, catalogs. This has come on because I want to edit the same files on multiple computers and lightroom isnt network friendly.
Catalogs are in theory great, but I dont see why they have to be a closed system.
Bridge manages to do a lot of what lightroom does in terms of cataloging but doesnt need to save out the catalogs.

So I think I can edit in lightroom with a temp catalogue. that will update the xmp file so that bridge will get updated with the light room settings. I catalog in bridge which again is saved in the xmp so I can move the files about and work on a network drive.

These are confused rambling but im trying to get a good workflow that is flexible.

Thanks for any input and taking the time to put up with my mind dribble :)
 
Not sure about tat one... Watching thread :)

I work with Lightroom on multiple machines and just export the photos I want as a catalog, and then import them into the other machines catalog. I do this via memory stick, or network attached storage depending on the amount of photos.

Sorry if that does not answer you question, which I don't think it does :( lol
 
I think they are closed and not network friendly as you can't lock files well over the network. A database is only as good as its data.

Not 100% sure what you want to do, but you can export/import files as sub-catalogs and then edit away on another PC and re-import. It's not clear exactly what you want to do, nor how often you want to do it...
 
If you need to work on separate computers and keep the data intact then I think the only way is to store both the images and the catalog on a portable drive. That way all the data is intact. Exporting sub catalogs and reimporting them would corrupt the data. I don't think Lightroom would allow you to do this as it would detect that the image files already exist on the host computer and prohibit their re import.
 
How do you use pluging via lightroom also???

Depends on the Plug In.. Usually it becomes an addition to one of the menu options, you select it from there
 
Thanks for the comments so far, I did have an external drive that I planned to use but then I decided I didnt want to have to move it from machine to machine.
Part of my reason is that my wife will be doing some of the general photo editing/cataloging. so she can get on with stuff at the same time I do.

I did consider exporting catalogs, but sometimes I may be sat with my laptop and think I would like to sort through some photos, but wait I cant. I have to plan to do it. I have to have the catalog exported ready to use on the other machine.

I would love to work just in lightroom and photoshop when needed.

But my plan is to manually copy files over to a folder structure that I use
so folder would be called for a shoot today 111208_relevant name
within that have a
raw folder,
a jpg converted folder for auto upload to smugmug
a proof folder
an edits folder for hi res edited images
this folder structure is visable and usable within bridge, lightroom and windows.

I would do all my general edits in lightroom but get it to save the xmp file rather than save those details in the catalog. again this is then picked up easy when I import the images into another light room catalog if I needed rather then merging catalogs.
The changes to the raw are also seen in bridge and photoshop if you load the raw directly into that

I can therefore view and catalog from any location connected to the network.

I can also jsut copy the folder that contains the images without worrying about the catalog and all the star rating, colour coding and image changes are still intact.

Thats my current plan anyway that I will be putting into action soon.
 
Chappers said:
If you need to work on separate computers and keep the data intact then I think the only way is to store both the images and the catalog on a portable drive. That way all the data is intact. Exporting sub catalogs and reimporting them would corrupt the data. I don't think Lightroom would allow you to do this as it would detect that the image files already exist on the host computer and prohibit their re import.

It does detect it, I have to delete them off my main editing of before reimport, it's a pain, but does work.
 
Gregory Hicks said:
None of mine are working :-(

Which plugins and is it a legal copy of LR? A fair few of the plugins don't now work with unlicensed copies
 
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