Lightroom workflow

[robertford8002]

Hi all, I'd like to ask for advice on how you all use Lightroom and your general workflow - 

Do you use it to manage ALL your photos, even everyday snaps on your phone? Or do you just use it for your 'creative' photos? And do you export all your photos out of Lightroom to jpegs once you've finished editing them?

My current workflow is that I just use Lightroom for my 'creative' photos from my Sony A7Siii, not for everyday iPhone snaps. Then I export my photos from Lightroom to jpegs (because I worry that one day the Lightroom catalogue might become corrupt).

Do you think this is a good workflow? It feels like a lot of work to do it this way, and I wonder if it would be easier to keep ALL my photos in Lightroom?

I'm also wondering if I should keep using Lightroom Classic or switch to cloud-based Lightroom? Sometimes I want to use Lightroom on my MacBook and sometimes I want to use it on my main desktop Windows PC. So sometimes I have to import photos from one catalogue into another catalogue. Would it be better to work in the cloud?

[dj_paige]

There are arguments for and against, but my opinion is that if a photo is worth keeping, regardless of where it is stored, regardless of what device was used to capture the photo, regardless of 'creative' or 'non-creative', I have LrC manage it. 

Sometimes, on my cell phone, I will take a photo that isn't meant to be kept permanently (for example, I am shopping, I see an item that I might want, I take a photo of it and the price, so I can compare the price at other stores). No need to keep these long-term, no need to handle them via LrC. On the other hand, if I take photos of family members with my cell phone, of course I want to keep them permanently and so these are imported into LrC.

Some people want to make arbitrary decisions, such as 'creative' vs 'not creative', and these decisions are easy to remember in the months following the photo's capture; ten years from now you will not remember correctly 100% of the time and then you are looking for a photo that you are sure you took, but you don't remember if it was 'creative' or 'not creative', and this causes frustration and delay, because you may have to look in two places to find it (if you can find it at all if its not in LrC). My approach avoids this, all of my photos are imported into LrC, so I know where to search for it, and because I keyword the photos religiously, I can find it easily via keywords.

Another possibility is one catalog for 'creative' and a different catalog for 'non-creative'. While I'm sure this works for some people, I am opposed for the reasons given above.

[dj_paige]

Then I export my photos from Lightroom to jpegs (because I worry that one day the Lightroom catalogue might become corrupt).

I think this is unnecessary, and done for the wrong reasons. If the Lightroom catalog might one day become corrupt (which is a valid concern), the solution is not to export everyhting as JPG. The solution is to make regular and automated backups of your catalog file, to a different physical disk than the working catalog is stored on. Given that solution, no need to export photos as JPGs just in case the catalog might someday become corrupt.

[kliff001]

With the old Lightroom 6 I use it for all my photos and do no export as jpg. On one hand side a backup of the catalog helps, on the other side I use xml storage for all my classifications in the file system. Though at the end I will not loose all work done.

As I also use it for finding my photos based on classifications, it makes a lot of sense to have all photos there.

[kliff001]

Sorry, I didn´t mean xml. It is xmp - helped me already a lot 🙂

[Jim Wilde]

Do you think this is a good workflow? It feels like a lot of work to do it this way, and I wonder if it would be easier to keep ALL my photos in Lightroom?

Yes, it feels like a lot of work to me too, so I don't do that. Like @dj_paige I don't differentiate betwen different "types" or "sources" for my photos. They all go into Lightroom and are managed from there....the keepers are tagged and organised, the others are deleted (when appropriate in the case of those iPhone snaps taken in store). I never routinely export as Jpeg "just in case", I rely on catalog and image backups to protect me from catalog corruption, and I'll only export a jpeg when there's a reason to do that.

I'm also wondering if I should keep using Lightroom Classic or switch to cloud-based Lightroom? Sometimes I want to use Lightroom on my MacBook and sometimes I want to use it on my main desktop Windows PC. So sometimes I have to import photos from one catalogue into another catalogue. Would it be better to work in the cloud?

By @robertford8002

There are various ways to use LrC on multiple computers, such as putting catalog and images on an external drive which is moved between computers as needed, or using file-sharing sites such as Dropbox (needs a LOT of care), or exporting parts of the main catlog to use on a second computer then re-importing the changes back to the main computer.

But as you mentioned the Adobe cloud, you could simply sync some (or all) of your images from LrC to the cloud. That would upload Smart Previews of those images (2560px on the long edge "proxies"), but they do not count against the 20GB cloud storage allocation (so you can sync your entire LrC library to the cloud at no cost). Using the Lightroom Desktop app on the second computer, you would have access to all those uploaded smart previews, and you can edit them using almost all the existing edit tools available to you in LrC. Any edits would sync back from the cloud to your LrC catalog. There's probably no need to "switch to" cloud-based Lightroom, you would remain LrC-centred, but would incorporate Lightroom for use on the second computer.

[Lumigraphics]

I have next to no "snaps", about the only items I don't put into LR is photos I use on Craigslist and Facebook to sell things. All of my other work is in LR, it was previously in Aperture (RIP).

[KostFan2]

@robertford8002 Robert:

You are lucky you found this Forum at the start of your Lightroom journey.  People like @dj_paige, @Jim Wilde, and @Lumigraphics know an immense about the product and are expert at efficiently sharing that knowledge. 

My contribution is to encourage you to experiment with the “Auto add from device” feature of Lightroom Mobile (for devices).

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/import-mobile-ios.html.

Why?:  So you can efficiently delete the images you know you won’t want to keep, like the price shopping example that dj_paige described.

You can activate this feature with a tap to your screen and then take a photo on your phone for price shopping. That will automatically be added to a “Delete in the Future” album that will automatically sync with Lightroom Classic on the desktop.  Then you can review these images on your computer and then select them all, press delete, and they will be deleted from both your computer collection as well as from the album on your phone. 

Emergency Space: If you ever find yourself short on space for any reason on your phone, you can delete this Album and it will delete the files that you know are unimportant and give you additional space.