help to understanding how to store and catalog my images

[Stian0D4D]

Hi.
After many years of using lightroom, and now lightroom classic, i dident take my time to get the understanig of how my images files and catalog is working.
i have just bought a new laptop and now want to get this working, and working well.
cause of low internal storage, and some travel i want to have my files in bacup(and for use) online in a cloud (like dropbox) and some local for editing offline at work, where the internett is limited.

the way i is thinking is like that afer a picture(raw) is past one year or somthing like that, it will be deleted from my computer, and then only avible in the cloud\ online, that way, not fill upp the local disc.

is this possible, or should i just go for an eksternal disk for use with lightroom, and just backup that to the cloud now and then?

i'm sorry for the bad explanation in english 🙂

best regards

[KR Seals]

Just go for the external disk(s). You will also need one to back up your catalog and image files.

Once you connect your external drive you can move the older images to that drive from within Lightroom Classic.

[JP Hess · Accepted solution]

As you are probably aware, adjustments made to images in Lightroom are not applied to the image files but are stored in the catalog. So you always want to have the images in the catalog and available to the catalog so that the work you have done is "valid". If you feel it is necessary to archive older images good choices would be to move them to an external hard drive and keep smart previews available. Another option would be to use a cloud service such as Google Drive where those archived images could be stored in the cloud but still available on demand.

[TheDigitalDog · Accepted solution]

To add, and be clear, adjustments made to images in LR can be applied to images; DNG for example, can contain not only the edits, but a  preview of the edits in a JPEG which can (with some work) extracted. TIFF, JPEG can have edits embedded in those containers too. 

Deadicate a big external drive, place just your images, LR catalog, presets, previews etc. Once you need something bigger, it's easy to 'clone' that to another drive. Or move that drive to any machine you have where you wish access to that data. And backing up all that useful data is simple too. 

[dj_paige]

cause of low internal storage, and some travel i want to have my files in bacup(and for use) online in a cloud (like dropbox)

This is the real problem. Putting photos on the internal drive, where space is limited, is the real problem. As others have said, use an external drive to store your images, and cloud for backup. (Or, even better, a second external drive for backup).

the way i is thinking is like that afer a picture(raw) is past one year or somthing like that, it will be deleted from my computer, and then only avible in the cloud\ online

This is a dangerous and highly un-recommended approach. If you only have one copy of a photo after you delete from your computer, then you DO NOT have a backup. That is dangerous. That is not recommended. Instead of deleting the photos from your computer, store them on an external drive (with backup in the cloud or backup on a second external HD).

Lastly, once you have an external drive to store your photos, you should NOT store the photos on the internal drive, where space is limited.

[DS256]

Some great responses here from others. Some additional thoughts:

• Review some of the experts like the eBooks (free and purchased) from Lightroom Queen.
• There can be complications with using services like Dropbox for storage. Don't forget, your files will be duplicated on your disk so you don't save space.
  • Also, be aware that you may not have the bandwidth to effectively use cloud based services when you travel.
• You didn't say how you want to travel; with or without external drives. That will impact your decisions.
• I would recommend 'culling' your pictures as you import them but don't plan to delete based on age as @dj_paige stated. I've found I've gone back and rediscoverd pictures based on my increased experience.

[kentdesign]

Like the others have said, definitely use an external drive to keep a complete copy of all your images, and a copy of the Lightroom catalog also.

 I always recommend having at least two separate drives with complete back ups of all images and the lightroom catalog.

For travel, if you need to have access to your entire image library, and your internal storage on your travel computer is not large enough, you could carry a large flash drive (external) with a copy of the LIghtroom catalog and the previews, so you could see them.