Moving to and setting up LR

My work laptop will be "retired" with a fresh Win7 install. It is an i7 4700MQ@2.4GHz, 16 GB, 256 GB primary SSD, 512 GB secondary SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M. It was an amazing machine for work, but now it gets to live the rest of its less than 1 year life as I had secretly intended, a mobile editing workstation.

I currently use a MBP Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz, 8 GB, 256 GB SSD with Aperture and DxO Optics. I've been happy with my current workflow with my biggest complaints are related to lack of space on my primary HD and a poorly organized library. I just started off one way, changed how I wanted to manage my files (single to multiple libraries), ran out of room on this external drive, tried an NAS, etc etc.

So I have decided to take advantage of the LR/PS deal being offered by Adobe. Not wanting to make the same kinds of mistakes and retrospective regrets, I am hoping to get some final advice before I download and set up.

I am thinking of taking advantage of the smart preview feature and have that and a single catalog on the secondary 512GB drive. I was thinking of saving the files as RAW and not PSD files on an eSATA 2 x 2 TB RAID 1 external drive. But since it is a laptop, I know there will be times where I will not have the RAID drive with me and will still want to import and edit. In this case I was assuming that I could just save the files onto my local drive or another external drive and then transfer them within LR to the RAID. My last round of backup is copying the memory card to the HD and then to a Blu ray disc.

Does this sound reasonable?

Sure, if you are "on the road" without the external drive, you can Import into the internal drive, then move them onto the external drive when you are back.

One note to bear in mind: when you do move the files onto the external drive, use Lightroom to do the moving (from in the Library module, in the Folders panel). This will enable Lightroom to "keep track" of the new location within the catalog and will ensure that any edits, keywords, and such will show up.

I had a similar workflow for my road trips and events where I needed a portable workstation. In fact, when I bought the 17-inch laptop for this, I was very specific about wanting the "guts" for a real workstation, so for $2k USD I got one that I was quite happy with, since I could not only load/import photos, but using Lightroom I could do pretty much enough editing to be happy with my photos!

Something you should be aware of, though, and that's if you want to do stuff with your Mac/Aperture setup, then you won't have compatibility with work with the Raw files if then you want to "share" with Lightroom. The only way to get edited photos from Aperture to show up in Lightroom (or vice-versa) is to export them to an image format, tiff, jpeg, or psd...

Thanks, I assumed I should do all file transferring via LR, another lesson learned the hard way. I just want to do this right or at least start in the right direction, so I've been watching the basic tutorials and reading some of the free stuff online. I'm sure that at the begining, I will transferring files to a USB drive and importing into Aperture, but we will see what I'll be using in a year.

Cheers!

When you say "at the begining, I will transferring files to a USB drive and importing into Aperture" are you referring to files you have worked with in Lightroom and then exported as a non-Raw image file so that you can do further editing via Aperture (a plug-in or whatever)?

I was actually thinking that in the early stages, I will still use Aperture, as I learn and become to feel comfortable with Adobe, especially if I am in a rush. I was going to keep the systems separate and import either the card or a copy of the card into each program, as needed. I had not really thought about LR <-> DxO for example, and figured that once I got the basics down, I could look into those details down the road.

Well, since I don't use Aperture, I'm not sure about the details of how you might handle things, but you should be able to just have one copy of each Raw file...I'd Import using Lightroom, copying the files from the card into a "proper" place, and then you could import into Aperture, keeping the files in the same place so that Lightroom can keep track of where they are.

Then, just realize that any work you do in Lightroom won't show up in Aperture, and vice-versa. If, though, you work on a Raw image in Aperture and save as a tiff, psd, or jpeg, and then want to do more work on that image in Lightroom, you can import the new file into Lightroom. That could work if it suits your workflow, but I'd give thought as to where you want the new image to show up (where Aperture should save it to). If you are working in Lightroom and open it into say Photoshop or another external editor that Lightroom "knows", then save the resulting edited image, the new image will show up in the Lightroom Library as an "Edit" right alongside of the original Raw in the same folder.

Thanks so much tony for your advice. I am approaching this with the intent of becoming LR/PS proficient so that I feel comfortable with both platforms, and because the computer is win7. I assume an i7 vs core 2 duo and my initial organized approach will make this the long term image management/post solution I should have been doing for the last few years.

patrick

lilkngster wrote in post #16690195
Thanks so much tony for your advice. I am approaching this with the intent of becoming LR/PS proficient so that I feel comfortable with both platforms, and because the computer is win7. I assume an i7 vs core 2 duo and my initial organized approach will make this the long term image management/post solution I should have been doing for the last few years.

patrick

Heh! Welcome to the world of Digital Asset Management (DAM)!

A lot of work has been done in this area, going back a number of years, aimed at giving photographers a good, efficient workflow, and a lot of us here have "bought in", so stick around, read the posts that crop up (as well as the sticky threads), and tap in to the many resources that are available for you to learn as you go, and before long, you will become an "exert" who can help others that are starting out!!!

DAM there is a lot of info out there about this. Everything you have posted makes even more sense to me now. I know I should just get the software and start doing it, but I realize that I basically made every rookie DAM mistake with my Aperture experience, and I really want to get this right, from the start.

So far, I have figure out my installation plan, a new backup stratagem, my library organization/naming of files, a basic idea on how I will keyword. I have thought a little about how I am going to add all my pre-Adobe images to the catalog but the thought of that is a bit overwhelming, but should be worth it. If my wife asked my for pictures from XXX, it might have taken hours to find the right computer/external drive/memory card that those pictures are being stored in, and I still have a handful of SD and CF cards, going back a few years, that are have yet to be downloaded...

Thanks again!

lilkngster wrote in post #16729920
DAM there is a lot of info out there about this. Everything you have posted makes even more sense to me now. I know I should just get the software and start doing it, but I realize that I basically made every rookie DAM mistake with my Aperture experience, and I really want to get this right, from the start.

Hey, it sounds like you are on the right track!

Too many people (IMO) just want to jump into the Raw processing without considering (or understanding) the fact that Lightroom was designed to be a workflow management app from the ground up, and that that DAM DAM actually creates a "first step" that for many of us is of real importance!

Take your time, think before you leap, and you will find that as you iron out your workflow process, well, things won't be so intimidating!

As to older library imports, yeah, I went through that a few years ago, I probably had 30,000-40,000 images to import, keyword, all that.

Two bits of good news: First, our sets of images are hopefully set up in a way where shots in a folder/collection will share basic metadata (things like date and keywords such as a place and maybe a person). You'll find that these can be pretty quick and easy to breeze through, you can apply much of your stuff to a selected "set", including keywording, file/folder renaming, moving files/folders around to spots that suit your needs, keywording, collections, all that stuff, and that's even before working on the Raw processing, where again it's a "snap" to work on sets that share things like lighting, Whit Balance, and exposure and such!

And then, another thing that I found: As I plied through my thousands of images, I found that I was able to develop a routine (or routines), especially as I understood what to do with the various dialogs and options that present themselves at different stages. At first I got thrown back a bit, like "What the heck is this?", but then routine sets in and adapts and before you know it you barely even notice those little details that seemed so, well, confusing or whatever!