rthompson10

All,

I just started using LR last year and not all of my pictures are in Lightroom. My question is how to efficiently backup all without duplicating pictures. I'm thinking I need to backup all of my pictures separately and then back up my lightroom catalog?

RT

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

The Lightroom catalog is only a database of your LR edits, not the photograph themselves. When Lightroom exits, this is the catalog backup it performs. There are hundreds of ways to back up yoiur photographs to local disk, external drive, network drive or the Cloud. Search here for Backup and you'll get all kinds of ideas.

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

I use Microsoft's SyncToy to back up my Images & Lightroom catalog to an external drive. Once you have done the initial backup, it only adds new or changed files so it is pretty quick.
It is also free.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Exactly! When you import your pictures into LR, all you are doing is telling LR that they exist and where they are located on the disk. Problems arise when you move those images outside of LR. When LR looks for them again, it won't find them.

whitewolfowner

I save myself a bunch of headaches; I do not use lightrooms cataloging system. I have my own and it works very well. I find it a real pain getting rid of the files it tries to keep against my will on the left; have to constantly keep clearing it out.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I can sympathize.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Sorry, but I actually laughed when I read what you wrote, about LR keeping photos "against my will." The program only does what you tell it to do. Do not import (link) photos to the program and they will not show up in the left panel, it's that simple. The program does not have a mind or make choices, the user does that. It only does what you instruct it to do. And it only mirrors however you keep your folders on your drive. There is no reason to use LR for importing if you are not going to link your folder of photos to the program, just simply drag the folder onto your hard drive in the place you want to store it and it will never show up in LR, unless you link it to the program.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I challenge your first statement above.

If I want to use LR to process an image, I must first import it, right? Or is there a way to process without going through the import step?

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Of course you do.

Previous response was just sayin' that if you don't want to import an image (for whatever reason), you don't have to. And you don't have to use LR's file creation structure... Or let it do auto backups.... Or let it do any modifications during Import.

You're given choice of all these and more in the Import dialog.

whitewolfowner

Hard to work on photos without importing them, unless you know something I don't.

whitewolfowner

I looked and couldn't find a choice to just import them ot work on and don't catalog them in the left column. Please instruct on how to do this; it sure would make life easier.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Here is what "whitewolfowner" said: "I save myself a bunch of headaches; I do not use lightrooms cataloging system. I have my own and it works very well. I find it a real pain getting rid of the files it tries to keep against my will on the left; have to constantly keep clearing it out."

My response is that the program simply reflects your filing system; if you don't want a folder or photo to show up in LR, then do not import it; if you do not import it you cannot edit it; but once you do import it, it is linked and will always show up in your left panel, which reflects your very own filing system, unless you "unlink" it using the minus sign in the folders panel. I'm not clear why anyone would want to unlink a folder, since the folder being linked in LR allows you to conduct future edits and find it easily through key wording or metadata. LR does not have a "cataloging system" for your photos, the user does that and LR simply reflects that set up. The cataloging function is in regards to the edits one makes in the application. Also, let's say you import a RAW photo, edit it, then move it out of LR. The edit you made remains in LR and the edit will not show up on the photo if you open the file outside of LR, although there is a way to save the metadata in the xmp file that sits next to a RAW file. The "command-control S" should do this. Sorry it's all so confusing for people, hope I'm not making it worse.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

HI Jerry,

Yes, to work on it you must import (or link) it within LR. But the person who made the comment I responded to said some things that were odd. Once you link a file via import there is really no reason not to keep it linked forever. That link is what allows you the freedom to edit and find it and do any other thing you want to do with it. Unlinking it does not make sense unless you are never again going to use that folder of images. Yes, you could link and then unlink and then relink but that sounds like a lot of trouble and I cannot think why anyone would do that. You could import the folder, work on the images, then export them all as a tiff or jpg to some other spot on the computer, not linked to LR, for whatever reason, say safekeeping of edited files; otherwise it works well to link them up, work on them, and leave them there.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Thanks.

whitewolfowner

[quote=via the lens]Here is what "whitewolfowner" said: "I save myself a bunch of headaches; I do not use lightrooms cataloging system. I have my own and it works very well. I find it a real pain getting rid of the files it tries to keep against my will on the left; have to constantly keep clearing it out."

My response is that the program simply reflects your filing system; if you don't want a folder or photo to show up in LR, then do not import it; if you do not import it you cannot edit it; but once you do import it, it is linked and will always show up in your left panel, which reflects your very own filing system, unless you "unlink" it using the minus sign in the folders panel. I'm not clear why anyone would want to unlink a folder, since the folder being linked in LR allows you to conduct future edits and find it easily through key wording or metadata. LR does not have a "cataloging system" for your photos, the user does that and LR simply reflects that set up. The cataloging function is in regards to the edits one makes in the application. Also, let's say you import a RAW photo, edit it, then move it out of LR. The edit you made remains in LR and the edit will not show up on the photo if you open the file outside of LR, although there is a way to save the metadata in the xmp file that sits next to a RAW file. The "command-control S" should do this. Sorry it's all so confusing for people, hope I'm not making it worse.[/quot



Like I said, I have my own system. First I make two copies of the original raw files; one stays on the desk top, the other to a second hard drive for safe keeping. They are then turned into DNG files since Adobe has committed to support the DNG file and Nikon has not committed to support theirs and two copies are stored as before and the Nikon raw files are discarded. I never do anything with a file without having it backed up. I fix my photos, then output them in full jpeg and in DNG (file marked DNG-fixed). Then those files are loaded into the original DNG file. Then that file is loaded on a separate hard drive and also on my server which has double back up. This way I have triple back up. If left alone in the column on the left, it becomes a total mess and disaster which I neither need nor want (and if you ever accidentally change the file name, they are gone forever); it becomes a pain and can only be gotten rid of one file at a time. Leaving it up to lightroom to store all your corrected file information, gives you no backup (how many of you have thought of that) and if it ever screws up, you are lost. My way has the information stored three times and that to me is as valuable as the original files in many cases, especially if you have people coming later for prints and you want them to match from photos made previously. That's why lightroom's way of doing things is both senseless and a P.I.M.A. to me. The old saying applies here; if you want something done right, do it yourself.