SD card editing, moving to external drive afterwards

[chrisssh]

Hello!

I am new to Lightroom and I am not sure if this has already been asked or not. I would like to have the LR catalogue and previews on my internal drive but the negative files on an external drive. Say I input an SD card into my computer, can I work with LR from there and afterwards move my files to an external drive and redirect LR to the new location.

My concern is speed. If I have an external HDD is it better to first edit in LR with just the SD and afterwards move the files from the SD to HDD, OR move the negative files from SD card to external HDD and then edit from the HDD.

So overall is editing from an SD card 1. in general possible and is it 2. faster to edit from the SD card than 3. moving files to external HDD and then editing?

Thanks for your help! I am excited to be using LR!

[Bob Somrak]

I use an SD card quite a bit to take photos to other peoples computers and edit by exporting a catalog and associated raw files to the SD card.  The card must be formatted in the computer and NOT the camera.   From reading past posts on the forum this apparently only works on a MAC and does not work with Windows.  I just tried it on High Sierra and it still works on the Mac.

[chrisssh]

I see. Thank you for your response. Would you recommend editing from the SD card and copying afterwards or copying to external HDD and then editing. I am asking which one is faster for an efficient workflow.

[Bob Somrak]

You have to understand that the SD card can not be formatted in the camera as the camera creates a DCIM folder format and Lightroom recognizes this and will not allow you the ADD the photos in the Import module.  If you are using the SD card just for storage and it was formatted in the computer than the SD card works fine.  For me the speed has been very acceptable, even with the catalog on the SD, but I am only editing less than 50 photos at any given time.  I only do this when I want to show others Lightroom editing and use their computer.  Its easier than carrying a hard drive.  If you have the external with you all the time I would not bother with the SD technique but if you have a Mac I assure you it works just like and external hard drive.  It apparently doesn't work with Windows.

[chrisssh]

I will be using a Mac so I can directly import from the SD card, edit and afterwards copy to the external hard drive. After that I can reuse my SD card for new photos. Ok I think I will pursue this workflow: edit in lightroom from SD card, then save SD card files to external hard drive.

Thanks!

[dj_paige]

I think this is a truly bad decision. The SD card shouldn't be used for any purpose other than capturing photos. It really wasn't designed for anything else, and is certainly less reliable than putting the photo on the external HD and then working on the photo. Lightroom will be much slower if you try to edit the photos on the SD card (if that is even possible).

Import the photos to the external HD (using the Lightroom Import Dialog), and then edit. Things will happen a lot faster if you do it that way.

[chrisssh]

Ok thank you for your clarification! Then I will choose the method you mentioned!

[Bob Somrak · Accepted solution]

chrisssh  wrote

I will be using a Mac so I can directly import from the SD card, edit and afterwards copy to the external hard drive. After that I can reuse my SD card for new photos.

You CAN NOT do this if the photos/card came directly from the CAMERA.  As dj_paige indicated and I said, you CAN NOT use ADD in import to edit the photos from a camera card.  You can use an SD card with a Mac as and external hard drive if the card is formatted  in the computer.  It works fairly fast although I use this technique for a specific purpose I explained and would not do this on a regular basis

[chrisssh]

So then I would use the COPY feature which copies the file to the external hard drive and Lightroom's catalogue is linked to the files of the external hard drive, correct?

Thanks for your help! Like I said I am new to LR

[Bob Somrak]

Yes