Dano Loc: North Carolina

This is probably a stupid question, but I trust answers from this community much more than Adobe. For years I've used my own archiving system for managing photos and am now finally getting ready to move to Lightroom (still undecided about using the cloud version or the straight download... but that's a topic in itself).

Here's my question: I mostly use a Mac Air which has very limited on-board storage (240GB SSD). When you create a Lightroom catalog, can you designate where it will be stored and can it reside on an external drive? For instance, I keep all of my photos on a 2TB external drive (with dual backups). Can the Lightroom catalog(s) reside there?? Also, on that drive I have 2 primary folders: Work and Personal. I assume I can create a separate catalog for each of those.

Thanks all!

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Yes and yes. You can only have one of your catalogs open at a time but it is easy to close/open as needed.

Remember though that the catalog itself does NOT contain the photos but only the instructions for where to find them and how you edited them. The photos themselves will live quite happily wherever you put them, just don't start moving them around except via Lightroom or it will no longer know where they are.

Both my photos and my catalog file live on an external drive, and are backed up in other places.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

You do know that the CC (cloud version) still resides on your disk right?

For your question:

Yes, you tell Lightroom where you want your catalog and where images will be stored. The catalog stores pointers to where your images are located, so you could have several image locations on various external drives and 1 catalog can point to each one to keep track of where your images are stored.

Now, I would recommend that you keep a single location dedicated to storing your images and make things easy ;)

My set up, just to illustrate:

Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC Apps are located on a Thunderbolt SSD external for quick loading.

Lightroom catalog is also on the SSD drive for quick access.

My images are located on a Thunderbolt external disk drive - everything works fine.

To be clear:

Your images are NOT stored within the catalog, it is a database of information about your images - your images are stored on your drives as normal files in folders - again, you control where everything is located.

Multiple catalogs can be complicated. A single catalog can manage lots and lots of images, sorted/divided any which way you can ;)

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Tanks minniev. Thats exactly what I was looking for.

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Thanks Dngallagher. I was under the impression that Lightroom created and stored preview images that could be accessed offline... which could potentially make catalogs quite large. If it's just manipulation data, they would be much more manageable. Do you happen to have a rough idea of how large your catalogs are for X number of photos?

And what's the advantage of keeping the apps on an external drive (verses having both the apps and catalogs on your primary drive)?

BTW - I really miss Wilmington... great place to live

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

There is a separate previews data file alongside the catalog.

For me, I have over 500 gigs of photos, and my catalog file is 607 MB and the previews file is 10 GB currently, but I build 1:1 previews initially on import to make editing faster. The 1:1's disappear after 30 days - that is a settable option.

This may help you.

http://digital-photography-school.com/understanding-the-lightroom-catalog-and-file-management-system/

As for apps external, I only put Lightroom, Photoshop and my catalog external on an SSD for loading speed. I have an iMac with an internal data, no SSD, so putting a copy of Lightroom on the SSD lets it load in from scratch in about 4 seconds versus 25-30 from the internal SATA. Same for Photoshop.

Placing the catalog on the SSD also lets all catalog operations speed up several times faster than when it was on my Thunderbolt external spinning drive.

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Thanks Dngallagher, looks like a great link. I really appreciate it.

One more question if you don't mind. When importing from my existing archive, if I import a folder containing subfolders, will lightroom maintain that level of organization (I assume it will based on what you said about where original images reside).

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

There are several options on importing, if you ADD the photos it will import them into the catalog but keep them where they are.

You can also copy and/or move.

What Lightroom shows in the left hand navigation panel though is not necessarily the folder structure, so it may not (probably) would not match what you had previously. You can create the same structure in the navigation panel though if that is what you want.

You should try to get as familiar as you can with the Lightroom Catalog and the file structure it uses.

There are many videos available on the Adobe TV site about setting up Lightroom for the first time.

In many cases most problems people tend to have with Lightroom is the catalog.

Even if the video is for Lightroom 4 or 5, most will still be relevant to the latest version, especially where the catalog and importing are concerned.

http://tv.adobe.com/product/lightroom/

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Thanks again Dngallagher. I'm trying my best to do my homework so I don't make mistakes early on that I'll regret later. I appreciate you sharing your experience!

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Your welcome Dano - you are doing the best thing by looking, thinking and asking. Once you grasp the catalog, everything becomes easy and you can concentrate on editing the images :)

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

You've been put on the right track here, by a very knowledgeable user. One thing I would add is the value of a good Lightroom reference book. The ones by Scott Kelby and Martin Evening seem to be the most popular, but my own favorites are the ebooks by Victoria Bampton (with her accompanying website "Lightroom Queen") and Piet van der Eynde (published through Craft and Vision). Any of them will have a wealth of information that can help you navigate this process. Adobe's online guide to Lightroom isn't bad, either, you should download it for reference.

Understanding Lightroom's cataloging peculiarities is essential to minimize frustration. The editing tools are far more straightforward. If you manage to make a mess, though, don't give up, it is fixable and you can always ask again here. Most of us have made a bit of a mess in LR at one time or another, and lived to tell the tale.

Another great resource on UHH is the Post Processing section. Many links to resources there, and people who enjoy using these software tools.

Dano Loc: North Carolina

Thanks minniev. I'll look into those refs and will definitely focus on trying to get a better understanding of cataloging. I've already spent a lot of time trying to plan out a keyword strategy, but I'm sure that'll blow up the first time I try it. But no worries... that'll give me a good reason to come back and visit with all of you! :)

Thanks again

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Donald, if I may ask a kind of related question (I'm an Aperture user about to switch to Lightroom, and plan to use the Aperture Exporter program from Blue Pill Software to convert my Library (all my Aperture image files are referenced anyway).

Anyway, my question has to do with having a laptop as well as a desktop. If I maintain my LR Catalog on the desktop but want to take a Macbook on the road and import images into a copy of LR on that for on-the-fly editing, etc., is it possible to add that (temporary) catalog created on the laptop to the desktop? I mean, if I were to copy the image files themselves over to the external drive on the desktop where I store everything, can the edits, keyboarding, etc., done on the laptop be brought into the "mother ship"?

TIA

Revet Loc: Fairview Park, Ohio

I keep all my images and my catalog on an external hard drive using a USB3 cable and port. Is there any advantage in speed to keeping the catalog on the computer's hard drive or should I stay with what I have ??

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's a tough decision, and it depends on how much you need/want PS and LR. I have CS6 and LR6, and I'm sticking with them. Neither one will ever cost me a cent, and they can do amazing things. Sure, CC gives frequent updates, but I'm probably not using more than 10% of the capability of either program, and spending $130 every year won't get me anything I need. When you stop paying, you stop processing.