Do You Have to Upload ALL Your Photographs to the Adobe Cloud?

[JohnGrindle]

I currently running Lightroom as a standalone, so all my photos are on my hard drive - plus of course backups.

If I switch to the Photography Plan with 20gb cloud space, which won't be large enough to store all my photographs, can I choose which/how many photos are in the cloud?

I thank you in advance...

Cheers John

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

Discussion successfully moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Lightroom Classic CC — The desktop-focused app

I suppose you have currently a Lightroom 6 or lower version!

If you choose the Photography plan, you get Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop (and Lr CC, the cloud based photo editing software).

Lightroom Classic CC works like you are used with your current version, except that you can synchronize some collections to the cloud, so you can edit them on a tablet or phone. Only "low res" previews are uploaded to the cloud, so 20 Gb is enough.

Lr CC uploads your pictures to the cloud and needs much more space. Hardcore photographers like me with 3Tb and more of photo data do not use Lr CC. Lr CC is quite nice for those on the road or taking pictures with mobile devices. It is nice to be able to upload the raw files at the location and being able to start editing immediately. I do not need that feature.

If you like you can take the Photography plan+1Tb of cloud space. If you do not use Lr CC that will be overkill.

[JohnGrindle]

Thanks Abambo, I don't think LR CC is for me and now need to decide if I need photoshop enough to jump in join the plan or just wait until my version 6 LR Classic runs out of steam!

Cheers John

[Abambo]

Photoshop was for me the reason to buy into that plan initially... I still had the choice either to upgrade my Lr5.7 to Lr6, but I decided against.

Lr Classic CC by itself has made some nice progress too. Nothing revolutionary, but a tweak here, a tweak there...

However your Lr 6 is still fine, except if you buy a new camera that is no more supported by Lr6.14.

Lr CC is not mine neither. But I see some value for some people and with time it gets better. May be one day...

[JP Hess]

If you subscribe to the photography plan, ALL of your images will still be stored locally on your hard drive(s). Lightroom Classic CC will only provide you with the capability of uploading smart previews to the cloud, and those will not count against that 20 GB of storage. The photography plan will enable you to download Lightroom CC in addition to Lightroom Classic CC. And, you can also install Lightroom CC on your mobile devices. With those programs it will be possible to upload full-sized images directly to the cloud.

At this point, it is cumbersome and difficult to try to use classic and Lightroom CC together. I wouldn't recommend doing it. If you subscribe to the photography plan you can work with Lightroom Classic CC and experiment with the new Lightroom CC and then decide which version will best suit you. If you decide that you like Lightroom CC then you can switch to that plan which offers you a full 1 TB of cloud storage.

[JohnGrindle]

Thanks for your reply Jim, sounds as if the new LR CC isn't for me. Just need to decide if I would use Photoshop (which I don't have) and go for the plan...

[JP Hess]

I prefer Lightroom Classic CC. I have a few collections that I have shared in the cloud. And I have a few images that I have uploaded directly to Lightroom CC. Lightroom CC is different, doesn't have all the features that Classic has. It's nice to have Photoshop to turn to occasionally when Lightroom just can't quite finish the job. The photography plan is very versatile in my opinion.