mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I think the issue here is that you do not seem to understand what using the catalog means. In its simplist form, it means importing images, editing them, exporting them and perhaps printing them. There are other features in Lightroom which expand the use of the catalog, and some of us use more or less of these additional features than others, but like it or not, EVERYONE will use the basic catalog features which I indicated above. You can't get around it. When you are in Lightroom you ARE using the catalog. Other software programs do not have a catalog and therefore do not require images to be imported. To suggest to someone that you can use Lightroom and somehow bypass the catalog is incorrect and confusing to newbies looking for accurate information.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

So you are saying the catalog is integral to the feature which differentiates Lightroom from some photo-editing software, namely its help in organizing what you have??

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

That's not what I'm saying at all. What I am saying is that Lightroom uses the catalog for EVERYTHING, not just organizing files. It uses the catalog for edits because in Lightroom no edits are made directly to the files. They are merely overlay instructions which are applied on the fly. There is also no save feature in Lightroom. The catalog is an essential feature of Lightroom's operation and no work can be done in Lightroom without the catalog. I don't use it for organizing at all. All my images are stored in a folder structure that I created outside of Lightroom. When I import images into Lightroom I do not copy or move them from their original location, I use the add feature instead so the files remain where they are. I also do not add metadata search criteria. Too many people incorrectly equate the catalog with only being used as an organizer. That is just one of it's functions, and to many of us, the least important one. I do not know why so many people are fixated on the idea that Light is primarily an organizer. That is simply not the case. It is primarily a raw editor that also has strong organizing features for those who want to use them.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You are too funny! But yes it does work that way. On the other hand, It used to be the case that if you never opened LR by clicking on its icon - without establishing a default catalog - and right clicked on an image in Windows Explorer, the installation process would allow you to right click on an image and it would launch the LR Develop Module - or so I seem to recall. Once you create a catalog - that file association disappears. It's a good thing you are not one of those that refuse to be confused by the facts . . .

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

Actually I think the OP's question involved avoiding the sorting and saving features of the catalog, in affect, bypassing it. If I handed you a computer with LR properly installed and told you to import an image > edit the image > export the image > and then remove the image from LR (those are my steps) you would never know there was such a thing as a LR catalog. Technically a catalog must be created for LR to work, but there is no need to use the catalog features if you choose not to. It is the choosing not to (bypassing) that I believe the OP is referring to and why I answered yes to his question.

RonBoyd

It helps based on my belief that "Photocraig" was truthful when stating that he had been using LR for many years (indicating some familiarity) and still cannot find his images. Yes, I assumed he was unable to locate them via other-than-LR searches but that seemed obvious (to me). In any event, my point was that if the files were not deleted from available hard drives, the two programs, I listed, would locate them easily and quickly.

(I am not the enemy here. No need to go on the attack.)

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I don't think there is any reason to assume that was the OPs intent. There are many people who would prefer not having to use the catalog for editing as well as organizing. I also use Canon Digital Photo Professional program. DPP does not use a catalog for editing. The main problem with your approach is that once you delete an image from the catalog you can't go back in to make further adjustments or make use of many of LR's wonderful features like virtual copies. If you want to make additional changes you need to re-import your images and start over from scratch. Not very efficient. Power users of Lightroom, those of us who understand how and when to use all Lightroom's available editing features, as opposed to the organizing features, couldn't use it effectively based on your workflow.

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

[quote=Gene51] The only way you can actually use the editor without using the catalog is to not establish a catalog in the first place.
In looking back over this thread I came across your statement. If you check farther down the thread, you will come to the place where I deleted my catalog (I had nothing to lose since I don't use it). When I opened my LR6, the first step that had to be done was to either create a catalog or accept the default one. That's how LR6 works ... I don't know about earlier versions but I suspect they work the same way. When LR6 is opened for the first time, that choice must be made.

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

Well, I guess we're answering the OP's question based upon different interpretations of what he asked.

blackest Loc: Ireland

i'm not that bad am I?

I didn't see either of those tools doing any more than a file name search when it comes to searching for images. Lightrooms library is similar to searching with google. You look for key words and google pops up some results sometimes it gets you a good match on page 1 and sometimes it might take looking on the 2nd and 3rd pages. A lot depends on the quality and choice of search terms.

If you can search with Google you can search with Lightroom. It's quite easy to master, but I guess you have to be willing to learn.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Let's be clear. I'm not interpreting what the OP's original intent was. He didn't state it and I don't want to guess. You are interpreting what he intended based on how you use Lightroom. I can only say that in dozens of past threads on this same subject, those who complained about Lightroom's catalog, didn't want to use the catalog for anything including editing. The import feature seems to be one of the biggest issues for many people and that's one of the big reasons why some don't like the catalog. The second issue is that many don't understand, or don't like the fact that they cannot move or delete imported images outside of Lightroom without affecting Lightrooms ability to find the image. Lightroom takes a lot of effort to learn how to use properly. Its got a fairly steep learning curve to become expert in it. The Adobe book on Lightroom has almost 700 pages. Most people just want to start the program and jump in, and that's where the problems start. It is a professional level program and users need to put skin in the game to get the best from it. .

RonBoyd

Yes, that is exactly what the programs do... search in all attached hard drives. LR is not that sophisticated.



How do you do that? When I asked Google to find a (renamed) file, it did, indeed, find 30,4000,000 results -- none of which were on a hard drive attached to my computer. When I tried a search on a camera-named file located on my computer, Google gave this response, "Your search - _N6A3858 .cr2 - did not match any documents." What am I doing wrong?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

No Howard5252, instead you bought Lightroom to both waste your time and your money. You've described your process before in other posts. This method makes no (ZERO) sense at all and certainly squanders all the associated benefits of using LR. You're not showing your knowledge every time you describe this, quite the opposite in fact.

There's plenty of free software you can use to edit images and retain nothing of the process of getting from the input to the output. Using these products would make much more sense given your usage scenario. This same comment would go too to the OP.

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

By all means, let's be clear. I told you I answered his question as I understood it. It had nothing to do with how I use LR, don't interpret my answers.
Drop it. Leave it alone. Let's agree to disagree. Do you understand or shall I interpret ?

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I agree it's an odd and very limiting use of Lightroom's editing capability, not to mention printing and everything else this software is capable of doing. He seems to be willing to cut off his nose to spite his face in order to minimize using the catalog. I wonder why he even bothers with Lightroom when there are other capable packages that so don't use a catalog at all, which would save him the effort of importing and deleting his images. Those of us who use Lightroom extensively understand the power of the catalog which is intended for much more more than just organizing or searching for images. As I've said before, too many people seem fixated on Lightroom's organization and search features and think it's the main reason for LR's existence. Those of us who use all or most of Lightroom's features, know that image organization. while very useful to some, can be completely ignored and is, in the scheme of things, a secondary feature. All one has to do is look at a Lightroom book to see how much space is dedicated to organization vs editing and other features to understand that.