• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

SELECTIVELY, gradually importing from Mac Photos

New Here ,
Aug 26, 2020 Aug 26, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I am a beginner at Lightroom, with over 100,000 photos in Mac Photos.  I want to migrate to Lightroom slowly and gradually to make sure I do everything correctly.  How can I import only some of my photos (I.e. one month's worth) at a time?  I don't need to import all the edits.  But I want to be sure to import full quality originals.  Thank you.

 

Views

313

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 3 Correct answers

Community Expert , Aug 26, 2020 Aug 26, 2020

Hi, yes doing it in bit at first is an excellent idea. 

Here's the deal: all you have to do is to export you images and import them into Lightroom. But to start you need to make a choice: one is to export the images WITH you alterations or the other is without your alterations. The catch is that if you export with your changes, you may loose the chance to make the adjustments to achieve better results that you can get with LR. On the other hand, all of the work you've already done will have been

...

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Expert , Aug 27, 2020 Aug 27, 2020

To access your original files, you need to go into the package file for the Photos library. Right click on the Photos Library.photoslibrary file and choose Show Package contents. The folder you want to look at for the original files is Masters The images and videos are there in dated folders, so you can drag a month folder onto the Lightroom icon to initiate import. Make sure to import as a copy to avoid potential conflicts with future versions of Photos. 

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Expert , Aug 27, 2020 Aug 27, 2020

Hi Adrienne,

 

To work in Catalina, as I stated above, you need to export from your Photos Catalog.

 

First select the group of images that you wish to export out (either by Shift-clicking or by Command-Clicking depending on if you want continuous or discontinuous selection).

 

Then go to File (menu) -> Export -> and then select the image with the alterations or without.

 

2020-08-27_10-46-45.png

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Expert ,
Aug 26, 2020 Aug 26, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi, yes doing it in bit at first is an excellent idea. 

Here's the deal: all you have to do is to export you images and import them into Lightroom. But to start you need to make a choice: one is to export the images WITH you alterations or the other is without your alterations. The catch is that if you export with your changes, you may loose the chance to make the adjustments to achieve better results that you can get with LR. On the other hand, all of the work you've already done will have been lost. 

that's why it's a great idea to do small runs and see how it goes. 

I do have one big important suggestion though: LR doesn't care where any image is kept as opposed to Photos where it must be kept on the hard drive. Because you have so many photos, that will be a great benifit to getting them off your hard drive. 

to learn more about how to set up LR's storage on an external drive, go tohttps://www.lightroomqueen.com/

 

Good luck!!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Aug 27, 2020 Aug 27, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

To access your original files, you need to go into the package file for the Photos library. Right click on the Photos Library.photoslibrary file and choose Show Package contents. The folder you want to look at for the original files is Masters The images and videos are there in dated folders, so you can drag a month folder onto the Lightroom icon to initiate import. Make sure to import as a copy to avoid potential conflicts with future versions of Photos. 

Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Aug 27, 2020 Aug 27, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thanks Sean - I wish that were still the case, but OS Catalina no longer allows you to right-click on the library and see "show package contents."  I somehow found folders called, "0, 1, 2...A, B, C..," each with thousands of randomly collected images with file names like FOA27BA1-D4DC-4F33-9E3C-19E027D368BE.jpg.  They are in no order at all, and they all show today's date. I was able to make aliases, but I sure don't want to move thousands of randomly grouped photos without dates into Lightroom.  Do you know of a solution that will work with Catalina?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Aug 27, 2020 Aug 27, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Adrienne,

 

To work in Catalina, as I stated above, you need to export from your Photos Catalog.

 

First select the group of images that you wish to export out (either by Shift-clicking or by Command-Clicking depending on if you want continuous or discontinuous selection).

 

Then go to File (menu) -> Export -> and then select the image with the alterations or without.

 

2020-08-27_10-46-45.png

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Aug 27, 2020 Aug 27, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you Gary!  I was taught that you cannot import to Lightroom directly from your Mac Photos app, so I did not understand your first reply.   But now I've used "Export Unmodified Original" to a newly created folder within my Pictures folder. Then I imported to Lightroom from there.  Is that how you would have done it?  As I migrate my photos, I'm planning to delete them from Photos, so that they're not in two places.  Any further suggestions would be much appreciated!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Aug 28, 2020 Aug 28, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

To add to this, my advice is that you ought to do this incrementally, by which I mean folder by folder, as this seems to make for less confusion in Lightroom. This is as gary_sc said earlier.

Also, if you do want to "turn off" your Photos stream, be aware that if you are using an iPhone and including those pictures in your move in LR (and no reason not to…) then you need to pay attention to the automatic iCloud "back up". You will need to be aware of the new destination for your LR files, as gary_sc suggested. However, be aware that iCloud will be monitoring the data store it keeps of your Photos and will re-instate the images it feels are missing from Photos. Here's a screen shot from Apple Photos which will remiind you of this feature, it can complicate things hugely.Screenshot 2020-08-28 at 09.36.59.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Aug 28, 2020 Aug 28, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

To add to this, my advice is that you ought to do this incrementally, by which I mean folder by folder, as this seems to make for less confusion in Lightroom. This is as gary_sc said earlier.

Also, if you do want to "turn off" your Photos stream, be aware that if you are using an iPhone and including those pictures in your move in LR (and no reason not to…) then you need to pay attention to the automatic iCloud "back up". You will need to be aware of the new destination for your LR files, as gary_sc suggested. However, be aware that iCloud will be monitoring the data store it keeps of your Photos and will re-instate the images it feels are missing from Photos. Here's a screen shot from Apple Photos which will remiind you of this feature, it can complicate things hugely.

 

Screenshot 2020-08-28 at 09.36.59.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Aug 28, 2020 Aug 28, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thanks Michael -

Does this process sound right to you?

 

1. I am using a separate iMac for Photos and Lightroom only. All other work (Word, Excel, etc.) is on iMac#1, and all documents are stored in the Cloud. Photos is installed on this iMac#1, with storage optimized and in the Cloud. I won't put any new photos on this computer.

 

2. On iMac#2, I will only work with Photos and Lightroom. All original photos are downloaded to this iMac#2.  I understand that backups to an external drive are essential. My plan is definitely to migrate to Lightroom incrementally, and I look forward to much better organization and editing.

 

I have some remaining questions:

1. With this setup, where will photos taken with my phone and iPad go? Will the originals be sent down to iMac#2?  If not, what other steps would you suggest I take to prevent complication?

 

2. As I migrate to Lightroom, folder by folder, my process will be to export originals from Photos to a new folder inside Pictures, on the hard drive.  Would you keep copies in Photos, or would you delete them from Photos as you go?

 

Thanks so much - any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Aug 28, 2020 Aug 28, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Adriane,

 

I think I can answer this as saying "it doesn't matter." What will matter is where you put all of your photos.

 

As I stated in the beginning, you really need to place that many photos on an external drive. LR-C is not really designed to work off of the Clouds (like Lightroom Desktop is), they have to be on some kind of media. 

 

To give you something to work with/around: I have an external 4 TB drive that I keep all of my photos and important documents on. I keep all photos in a single folder (and many subfolders). This way I know where all of the images are located and if need be I can move all images together. I have a 2nd 4TB drive that backs up drive #1. About once a week I Sync Drive 1 to drive 2 using "Chronosync." It excels in every way past all other syncing software. Really. If I just finish a shoot and have added a number of images, I sync at that time as well.

 

I also use BackBlaze to backup my computer and Drive #1 to the clouds. This is to cover me incase the house burns down. Pessimist? No, just aware that sh1t happens.

 

When you are ready to transfer, I suggest this workflow:

1) export that block of images to whereever you want. Pictures folder, Desktop. It doesn't make a difference. You can also export them to the external drive and into the receiving folder. 

2) if you export them into a folder on your computer. Than when you import them into LR, select

 

1) "Copy as DNG" (if they are raw images and you wish to convert them to DNG) this will leave them where they are and they are copied into the LR folder

2) Copy is used for the same and is for non-raw images

3) Move takes them from where they are to the designated LR folder leaving the original folder empty

4) Add is good if you've placed the images into the folder that you want all of your LR images to be but this lets the Catalog know that these are to be added to the Catalog.

 

Otherwise, there's no need to worry about computer #1 or #2, just make it simple on yourself.

 

Let me know if you have other questions.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Sep 01, 2020 Sep 01, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Adrienne

What Gary says is totally sound. In fact, it's as though he answered using my own words! Especially as regards ChronoSync, a programme I recommend to everyone I work with on Lightroom.

 

I'd add these thoughts to Gary's: I recommend to all my students and clients that they do not use Time Machine to back up their photographs. Time Machine allows you to go back to a history state, whereas having check sum back ups (that's what they call the way ChronoSync works) means that you can go back to the previous version of just one photograph from just one moment in time, rather than have to go back to a whole history state (as in everything you did at that session and whic got backed up in it's entirely by Time Machine). It seems a bit of a fiddle, but I can imagine times when I'd want to go back to just the one "best edit" I made and not have to overwrite other pictures.

 

To ask TM not to look at your Pictures folder, look at the screen shots I enclose. Just tick the box and TM will not copy it, only all the other stuff on your computer. 

 

Perhaps others will disagree, but my idea is that your images should be once on your primary drive and a second up-to-date exact copy on your back-up drive. In fact, Julianne Kost of Adobe recommends three exact copies, so uses two back-up drives. But, hey…

 

Anyway, keep it simple. The best thing about ChronoSync (aside from the hundreds of other great things…) is that you can schedule it for any frequency and it will take care of business for you, automatically.

 

On. my screen shot you will see that I am actually getting Time Machine to disregard drives, rather than folders, but you will be able to select folders on your machine.6. Time Machine.jpg

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Sep 01, 2020 Sep 01, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

Hi Michael,

 

Thanks for adding that bit on TimeMachine, since I do not use it in regards to image storage, I didn't mention it. I do use TM for my files on my computer. I do find it very handy to have that backup as well as the iteration backup of my current files. But once a project is done, I move it off of my computer onto the external drive (where it is backed up to the other drive.

 

While keeping images on the hard drive is OK, images have this habit of expanding in quantity until they overwhelm the space. If there's ANY chance that one's image collection might grow to thousands or 10s of thousands, than having the images on an external drive (and backed up) becomes essential. Lightroom, Photoshop, and many other programs require lots of extra space on a computer's drive to do things (aka scratch space). The less scratch space available on the drive the slower operations becomes until the computer starts to fail to operate. 

 

So I'm not really disagreeing with you or Julianne Kost, but my current image folder for one of my catalogs is 1.5 TB. My HD's (SSD) size is 1TB, but currently it's only about 1/2 full so there is pleanty of room for scratching! If all one has is (say) 10 GB, than sure, on the computer is fine. But one of these days the size of that folder may be too large and the need to move it will present itself  and then there's that hassle. 

 

Oh, BTW, I guess my two drives AND my BackBlaze constitutes my 3rd drive so yeah, 3 copies!

Thanks for adding, always good to get confirmation and added advice.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines