Lightroom Help

[davidedric]

My strategy :

My primary storage is a pair of mirrored disks, which contain both my image files and catalogue.

My catalogue is backed up to an external hard drive . The catalogue is backed and integrity checked every day that I use Lightroom.

My images are also on the external hard disk, in the same directory structure as the files in the primary storage. There are extra files on the external disk which have been culled from the primary, and extra files on the primary: ones I haven't taken, and some TIFF's and such that I may not have copied across. AFAIK this would not prevent the catalogues and images working together.

I think I am fairly safe, given I don't need these to make a living, but I'd welcome comments.

I hope the OP doesn't feel the thread has been highjacked, but I think it's all relevant to using Lightroom sensibly.

Dave

P. S. I know this is all vulnerable to fire and theft (flooding isn't an issue) but that's another risk I choose to take.

[NorthernFocus]

Of course the external hard drive backups will work; BUT your directory structures of the image files as well as your Lightroom catalog files will have to be restored to exactly the same file structure as in the catalog,...

That's what I've assumed and been counting on. Just the same, I better test my strategy before it's actually needed I suppose.

[davidedric]

That's what I've assumed and been counting on. Just the same, I better test my strategy before it's actually needed I suppose.

Fortunately, with Lightroom that's dead easy. Dan, I guess you know the trick of renaming your Lightroom catalogue so that the program can't find it. Then you can try out any catalogue against any set of files.

Dave

[LocalHero1953]

I'm puzzled why so many seem to think that LR is any more risky than other file management systems. If you save your edits with your raw files, and keep your images in a rational file structure (I store them by year and then subject/shoot), then you can lose your LR catalog entirely and still be able to continue by creating a new catalog and importing all the old image files. And I just back up my LR catalog with my images so that I shouldn't even have that problem. You're dependent on LR continuing to exist in future years, but as long as you want non-destructive editing, that's probably a problem for any software. When I've done all my edits, I create a set of JPGs or tiffs so that I'm not dependent on LR for ever, but that's a separate issue.

[NorthernFocus]

...Dan, I guess you know the trick of renaming your Lightroom catalogue so that the program can't find it. Then you can try out any catalogue against any set of files...

I've done that with other programs but it had not occurred to me in this case. Thanks for the reminder.

Most people that I communicate with about LR see the library module as the hardest/most confusing aspect of it. Which is ironic since it began as a cataloguing program and then added the editing capability in subsequent revs.

[Glenn NK]

Glenn - that might help keep you up and running, but because your catalogs have to be stored on a local computer, a hard disk failure puts you at risk of losing all of your edits. All hard disks fail eventually.

And I should have added "I do a complete b/u to an external HDD".

In any event, I'm finding (as my experience in PP grows) that I'm going over images from the beginning (for me) of digital photography and re-processing them. So if I lose the edits, it doesn't really matter.

Last night I looked at an image I had done some considerable masking on and was horrified to find I had so many masking pins that I couldn't count them.

One really only usually requires one mask or perhaps three at most. So I hit the RESET button and started over - it took a couple of minutes.

[LocalHero1953]

Glenn - that might help keep you up and running, but because your catalogs have to be stored on a local computer, a hard disk failure puts you at risk of losing all of you edits. All hard disks fail eventually.

With respect, may I correct: your LR catalog, like your images, may be stored wherever you wish. I have just created a catalog on a memory stick, for use while travelling with a MacBook Air (loaded with a copy of LR). And, as I've posted elsewhere, your edits do not have to be part of the catalog; they can be saved with the image file. Both these are options that you set within LR.

[davidedric]

And, as I've posted elsewhere, your edits do not have to be part of the catalog; they can be saved with the image file. Both these are options that you set within LR.]

You can indeed, Paul. I have opted not to do so because I think it complicates the back up strategy, for example by adopting an incremental back up - which I don't like because of the challenge of being certain that recovery works reliably. The point is that there are choices, and one can opt for whichever suits.

Dave

[Colin Southern]

People who store image edits only in the LR catalog are taking a HUGE risk IMO - backup or no backup.

The problem is that the catalog accumulates thousands of photos over many months and years - but - people in general won't be looking at old images regularly ... they'll be looking at and processing only the new ones. Something happens (RAM fault, power failure, disk error, buggy kernel mode driver, BSOD, whatever) - PC crashes - restarts OK - user carries on. 5 months later he realises that all the edits for 400 photos that he shot last year are totally screwed up.

At that point the corrupted database has permeated all his backup sets - so restoring isn't going to help. And if he's "lucky" enough to still have a backup with that data intact, he then loses all edits from that point forward (which might be another 1000 photos).

Folks, do yourself a favour - if you're going to use LR, then convert your images to DNG format and store the edits directly into the DNG file so that image data and edits are all tucked up nice and cosy together where they can be easily backup up with complete impunity from future disk issues.

[davidedric]

Hi Colin and Manfred.

I'm going to respectfully disagree (and I've also asked the question over on lightroomforums). The catalogue integrity check should catch any dbms problems, and I have many backup copies of the catalogue over differing time scales. I acknowledge the potential to find some corrupt edits in the future, but as Glenn says, I would just redo them. (Sidecar files do not contain everything in the catalogue, either).

As an aside, I am much more comfortable with this than any automated incremental backup approach (not saying that is what you do), where recovery depends on the integrity of a whole set of files, and the software's ability to apply them.

Dave

[dan marchant]

Kristen,
The short term solution for your problem is as follows....

Go to the Library module then, on the left tool bar select Catalogue and click on Previous Import (see screenshot below)



That will tell Lightroom to only show the images from your most recent Import.


Longer terms
Lightroom is a powerful and flexible tool with a lot of options. Sadly that means you need to learn about those options before you can work out how you best like to use it. How you view images will depend in large part how you have stored them on your computer as well as what options you select in Lightroom. For example, if you look at the screenshot above you will see (bottom left) that I have my images arrange into folders by Year > Date. If I click on a Date folder I get to see only the images in that folder. Some people store all their images in a single folder so they don't have that option. You need to decide how you want to store your images. I would suggest you go to http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-lightroom-5/ and scroll down to Organising Photos and watch the various short tutorial videos there. I would then watch the videos just below that relating to Catalogs.

Ok. I wonder what the difference between a directory and catalog is in Lightroom?

A directory is just Lightroom showing you a folder on your harddrive. The catalog is a file that contains a reference list for the location of all your image files and the various edits that you have made to them.