LR + LR Classic Hybrid solution?

[DokwoN]

Hi guys,

I am completely new here- this is my first post! Please forgive me if this is a newb question.

Anyway I most recently downloaded the Adobe Creative Cloud for photographers (LR, PS CC and LR Classic) and still getting to know the workflows and the way these programs work and interact with each other. Since In have around 100k pictures stored on my NAS, I am trying to understand everything before I start making my first moves. As I understand, with the amount of data, its better to make informed decisions as it can take days to undo a process that didnt go the way you wanted to (runnning face recognition for instance took days).

At the moment I stored my LR Classic LRCAT in Dropbox and my actual pictures lie on my NAS. Any thoughts on this setup, or would you guys say that this is perfectly fine?

My other idea was to use both LR and LR Classic for 2 different scencarios. One for my DLSR RAWs (Classic) + Server and the other for my smartphone pics + Adobe Cloud Storage.Sooner or later I will want to consolidate these 2 databases to 1 on a regular basis. Maybe once a year or even more often.

The question that arises is: does this make any sense, or would you guys not recommend it to me, as it might corrupt the data, overwhelm the LRCAT file when its regularly combined, or create any other issues that I cant think of at the moment?

Looking forward to your replies!

Regards, Chris

[john beardsworth · Accepted solution]

The lrcat on Dropbox scenario works fine providing you remember to allow it to sync from one computer and then down before you open it on another computer. You won't get corruption, but you will have to figure out why you lost the work you did on one or the other computer. A lot of people ask about this, so maybe use Google?

Use "Lightroom" with care. It sticks everything in the cloud and is dependent on it. I refer to it as "Lightroom Mobile on my laptop", so just now I have imported some new photos into it on my Mac laptop. Tomorrow I'll open Lightroom Classic on my PC and those files will just be synced down to my main storage drives. That convenience makes in worthwhile using both, but you see how I'm just using it to get pictures into real Lightroom with little effort. In the same way I have Lightroom Mobile on my phone - new photos and video all syncs down to my PC. So it's one catalogue/database - why waste energy maintaining more than one and merging them in the future?

[DokwoN]

Hello John,

thank you very much for your reply. I am relieved that you consider Dropbox to be a viable option as it took forever to upload all the previews

I am however a little bit confused about the 2nd part of your reply. You told me that you use "LR Mobile on your laptop" to edit pictures there, before you import them to LR classic. I don't understand how this connection works. They sync automatically?

I treated them as 2 completely autonomous instances and I thought that this was the only possible way to treat them.

No idea where LR stores its lrcat in the cloud for instance...

[john beardsworth]

Dropbox is viable. Just be careful. Personally, I don't keep my catalogue or previews there, but this is just my own preference.

I don't treat the two Lightrooms as separate. Lightroom Classic is the master, and "Lightroom" is just a convenience or mobile utility. "Lightroom" automatically syncs everything up to the cloud - that's its core concept - so I use it on my laptop just as I use the Lightroom Mobile app on my phone. So the other day I was in central London, shot some pictures on my Fuji, and imported them into Lightroom Mobile, made a few rough edits and uploaded a couple to Instagram. The app uploaded them to the cloud and when I got back to my PC, they downloaded automatically into the Lightroom Classic catalogue. Today I used "Lightroom" in exactly the same way, except I imported into my laptop while watching TV downstairs. This is partly why I call it "Lightroom Mobile for the laptop".

You can sync a single Lightroom Classic catalogue, and it will download any originals in the cloud and sync photos to the cloud as smart previews. You just have to switch on the syncing, and then things happen automatically.

"Lightroom" stores its catalogue in the cloud, but also creates a local copy. This functions as a cache and for when you are offline - as soon as you go back online your work is synced to the cloud. Assuming everything is synced, you can delete this local copy and "Lightroom" will just rebuild it.

[DokwoN]

Hi John,

last night I tried to set up "Lightroom" so that it would keep a local copy of my pictures in a dedicated folder on my computer. The idea was that I would direct it to a folder located on my NAS drive in my network. By doing this, Lightroom Classic would recognize this folder as part of its own catalogue and things would be in sync. As I am typing this, I just realize that my mobile edits from "Lightroom" would not be in that folder.

More fundamentally problematic though is the fact that it is not possible to direct "Lightroom" to a network folder in the first place. An error message will pop up every time, prompting me to direct to a local folder.

If I understand you correctly, you are using a separate catalogue in Lightroom Classic, which is synced with "Lightroom" and this catalogue is using Adobe Cloud storage, correct?

[john beardsworth]

"Lightroom" stores local copies as a cache / for offline use. It considers the files in the cloud to be the real files, and the edits to be in the cloud too. If you screw up edits while online, then close the app, you just have to redo them. There is something called the Lightroom Downloader, but it is more of a lifeboat when you need to escape, not the launch that you just each day to get to the yacht.

But with Lightroom Classic, then you are in much more control. So yes, I have a single Lightroom Classic catalogue which is synced, and I usually import new photos directly into it. They're stored locally, some on Dropbox, wherever I choose. If I want they available on mobile devices (iPhone, Mac laptop, iPad) I just sync them in Lightroom Classic. But occasionally I import new photos when I am on the move, and they arrive in Lightroom Classic with their edits.

Adobe have said that do not recommend using both Lightrooms. That's not meant as "do not", more that they don't encourage it. If you know what you are doing, it can be handy to have "Lightroom Mobile on the laptop", just like having a Lightroom on the iPhone, but it's pretty frustrating if you're unsure.

From what you say, my advice would be to get going with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, sync photos to/from mobile devices, and ignore "Lightroom" unless you use a second computer.

[DokwoN]

Thank you very much John. I think I have a theoretical understanding of what I would "have to do" in order to harmonize 2 catalogues however, you are absolutely right that I should - for the moment at least, stick to just LR Classic. Which I will do. I am pretty sure that I should get a couple of weeks experience in before adding another variable to the new workflows. Again, thanks a lot!!!