Receive and return catalogues

[natashas12128726]

I want to start receiving images from other photographers to edit/cull for them. I'm not sure of the best way to ask them to send me their files for processing. Would the best way to be as RAW files uploaded to a file location and then I import into Lr and then reverse the process to send back? It's the culling part that has me buffaloed. After i have done this, I want to send back the "library" with all images sorted and edited. I know I'm not reinventing the wheel here, but I can't seem to figure out the best way to do this. Any advice? TIA!

[gary_sc]

If all you are doing is culling with some editing, I'd suggest using DropBox and Bridge. The one big catch here is that you cannot work on the same images at the same time. So you'd have to do some sort of email/text passoff to let the other person know that it's their turn.

Since Lightroom and Lightroom Classic is a one-person based system, I do not think that it's the best structure for this use. Bridge should be fine.

Good luck!

[Conrad C]

Because Lightroom Classic does not write edits back into original raw files (also true of Adobe Camera Raw+Bridge), the big question is:

How will the edits/culling info be passed back and forth?

Lightroom Classic/ACR can transfer edits/culling info in two ways:

• If you leave the images in raw format, the info can be in an XMP sidecar file that uses the same base filename as its raw file. But then you and your clients must always make sure to transfer that .XMP file along with its raw file. An advantage of this is that if both of you already have the same set of raw files, either of you can just send over the small .XMP files with the edits.
• If you convert the raw images into DNG format, both Lightroom Classic and ACR+Bridge can store the raw level edits in the DNG file, so that you only transfer one file.

Either of those workflows requires becoming comfortable with the Save Metadata to File and Read Metadata From File commands in Lightroom Classic, because that’s how you tell Lightroom Classic to read/write edits from the DNG or XMP sidecar file instead of the Lightroom Classic catalog. A DNG file or XMP sidecar file can contain Develop module edits, IPTC metadata (keywords, captions…), and star ratings, and I think flags. Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw can read all of that info too.

But…if you and your clients want to use Lightroom Classic catalog-level features such as collections or virtual copies, then passing around XMP or DNG files is not enough, because those features are stored only in the Lightroom Classic catalog. If your culling service must include catalog-level features, then you must use a workflow that involves the File > Export as Catalog and File > Import from Another Catalog commands in Lightroom Classic. That will let you use File > Export as Catalog to export a client job as its own catalog with raw files, you send those back to a client, and they must be instructed to use File > Import from Another Catalog to read all your edit and culling info (including collections, virtual copies, etc.) back into their catalog.