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Tony Rican
Participant
May 1, 2018
Question

Getting the most out of the Lightroom Ecosystem

  • May 1, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 747 views

I have been searching the forums and the internet for hours for answers, so I thought it best just to ask all my questions here. I think that others will have similar questions.

To start let me say, I just want to get the most out Lightroom and focus on the photography, but I do love editing and I don't mind spending a little time to put in a place a good process from the beginning.

1.) I want to use Lightroom CC because it will backup my original photos and right now I don't see many features of Lightroom Classic that I will miss for 90% of my work. However due to migration problems I'm still using Lightroom Classic and my old workflow until I have a clear picture of the new one.

2.) I suppose that similar to how I am being forced to now, I will also want to use Lightroom Classic at times in the future, even after I've primarily moved to Lightroom CC. Is this possible? How will photo collections / albums sync? If I import into Lightroom Classic, can I ensure that my originals are backed up? Now that I'm migrating but I'm still working in Lightroom Classic, how can I update the changes I've made in my LR Classic catalogue the last few days. (BTW, I'm often in Africa and the internet here doesn't make it easy to upload and sync as quickly as I'd like.)

3.) Related to #2 I have had a  rather poor experience of migrating to Lightroom CC, currently it says that I have 9,000 photos when I open the application, which is a problem because there are over 70,000 photos in the migrated catalogue. Many of the the originals (except those I'm currently working on) are stored in an external HD. How do I get Lightroom CC to pull the originals from this HD and upload them to the cloud? I see says it's "syncing" but I have no clue what exactly it is syncing, from where, what's missing, etc, I have the HD connected, but those files were associated in Lightroom Classic, and there are often folder errors which I have had to correct by telling LR where the folders are... I fear that this migration is only backing up the smart previews and the files that are currently on my PC. When I spot check a photo in Lightroom CC that is in smart preview only in the cloud, but that I'd like to reedit, there seems to be no option to manually associate the cloud version with the version that exist on my external HD. In Lightroom Classic if the HD was not plugged into the PC I could always plug it in and if it wasn't found automatically easily reassociate the lightroom version with the correct folder. This isn't possible in Lightroom CC? This seems very surprising.

4.) If I can get my concerns with Lightroom CC worked out, what are are the best practices for importing in terms of Lightroom CC vs. Lightroom Classic (always Lightroom CC?)? Also, what are the pros and cons of HQ smart previews? Finally, what about jpeg vs. raw? Usually I shoot RAW and sometimes to speed things up I also save JPEGs in camera. Since this is now "cloud" and lot of processing could take place on Abode's servers, would it make sense to shoot only in RAW more often and save space?

Thanks for any help everyone.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
May 2, 2018

2. My experience has been that collections don't sync very well between Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC. Don't expect it, it will drive you crazy trying to make it work. If you're working in Lightroom Classic CC, the originals WON'T be backed up in Lightroom CC. If you want originals backed up in the cloud, then they have to be imported directly into Lightroom CC. You can configure Lightroom CC so that it will then store a copy of the original on your local hard drive and add it to your Lightroom Classic CC catalog, but that is how it must be added if you want the original in the cloud.

3. Since I have not, and will not migrate a catalog I cannot give you firsthand experience on this. But I can tell you that migrating a catalog migrates full-sized images to the cloud. Synchronizing collections from Lightroom Classic CC is what sends smart previews to the cloud. The advantage of Smart previews is that they do not count against your allotted storage space. I can tell you that from what I have read some users have had difficulty synchronizing with the cloud. I have no experience migrating a catalog. Someone else will have to give you further information in that regard.

4. As I mentioned previously, if you want full-sized images in the cloud you'll ALWAYS need to import using Lightroom CC. The advantage of using smart previews is that they don't use up your cloud allotment. The disadvantage is that you cannot send a smart preview from Lightroom to Photoshop for editing. You must have the full-sized image in order to have access to Photoshop.

I know you are looking for better answers, so I won't bore you with my limited experience anymore. I hope you are able to get the answers that will satisfy your questions so that you can get on with your decision-making.

john beardsworth
Community Expert
john beardsworthCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 2, 2018

JimHess  wrote


4. As I mentioned previously, if you want full-sized images in the cloud you'll ALWAYS need to import using Lightroom CC. The advantage of using smart previews is that they don't use up your cloud allotment. The disadvantage is that you cannot send a smart preview from Lightroom to Photoshop for editing. You must have the full-sized image in order to have access to Photoshop.

Not quite.... A smart preview -sized image is sent to Photoshop, which can sometimes be all you need.

I agree with everything else though!

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
May 2, 2018

Oops! That is something that's different from Lightroom Classic CC. I hadn't tried that.  As I indicated, I'm not as well informed as I should be on Lightroom CC. I just feel a lot more comfortable in Classic.

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
May 1, 2018

I'm going to give you a very brief answer because I have not migrated a catalog to Lightroom CC and will not do so. However, I will tell you that if you want your originals in the cloud you must import directly to Lightroom CC. You cannot import to Lightroom Classic CC and then expect those images to be in the cloud as full-sized images; they will be smart previews only. Don't expect the two programs to work together seamlessly, because they don't at this time. Whether they will do so in the future or if that is planned in the future I can't say. Others will probably comment and have a better perspective and better information for you. I experiment periodically with Lightroom CC. However, Lightroom Classic CC is my program of choice.

    T
    Tony RicanAuthor
    Participant
    May 2, 2018

    Hi Jim, thanks so much for your response, but I'm still looking for answers to my principle questions. I understand not wanting to change, but I do, if I can work it out. Hope others can give me more insight.

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