Need Lightroom/Mac upgrade advice

Hi all,

Looking for some guidance on an upgrade path for Adobe Lightroom and a laptop. I am currently using a 2007 iMac and running Lightroom 6.14 desktop version, and as a photography hobbyist, this has served me well to this point.

I am looking to get a 13" MacBook (either Air or Pro), as I want the flexibility to edit anywhere vs being tied to a desk with an iMac. I also plan on moving to subscription based Lightroom.

My current workflow is as follows:
-Upload JPEG photos to iMac
-Cull the photos and upload the selected image RAW files
-Import RAWs into LR
-Edit files for export to hard drive and Flickr for storage/sharing


On to the questions
1. When moving to subscription LR, will all my old edits be carrier over? What about my presets and such?
2. Do I need to upgrade to subscription LR on my current iMac before moving over to the new computer?
3. As the MacBook does not have a ton of storage, I am thinking of getting an external hard drive to store the bulk of the photos, only leaving the files RAW files I am going to import into LR on the MacBook. Then edit them, export, and upload to Flickr and transfer to external HD. Is there a better, more efficient method?
4. In terms of the MacBook, the new M1 versions only allow 16GB RAM - is that sufficient enough for LR, or should I look at one of the previous gen Intel processors versions?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Craig

If you're considering a MacBook Air, I would go with the new M1 design. The processor is manufactured in 5um, and is more efficient (for better battery performance and greater speeds with cases that are compact and don't have thermal cooling). Even though the CPU is 8 core, I've read that its memory management is very good at allocating resources to 16GB. If you're coming from a 2007 iMac, the main concern might be older 32bit apps that don't have new Catalina/Big Sur equivalents. I just upgraded my Mac to Big Sur. Adobe programs all seem to be supported fine and I think are a little faster on my Intel Mac. The cloud version of the app essentially works like your old version, except you also have the option of saving photos to your Adobe cloud subscription. What I would do is setup Lightroom CC on your new Mac and then import your catalogues. If you're saving your RAW files to an external drive, you may or may not have to re-associate files when you open old catalogues in your new version of Lightroom. Likewise, you'll have to import your presets and see which ones may not be supported.

A note about external storage: saving RAWs to external HDs helps keep your main storage space low. I've also started investing in SanDisk Extreme (regular and now "Pro") external SSDs....they work pretty well with USB-C. Oh, and also with cable management of USB-A devices, I like using these adapters:

https://www.amazon.com …tle_o03_s00?ie=​UTF8&psc=1

My advice would be to hang on a little while for the new Macs that run the latest OS and the latest revisions of Lightroom that will take advantage of the new architecture. Also there are bound to be a few bugs in Big Sur and a new Lightroom at first

1. Yes your edits will carry over. LR10 will create a new catalogue and merge your LR6 catalogue into into. Your LR6 Catalogue will still be there. By my understanding your presets should be fine. There will be a few changes. One is they will be converted from lrtemplate to xmp files so they can be shared with PS (ACR).

2. You won't able to install LR6 on your new computer because the OS will likely be Catalina so it is a good idea to do this first.

3. LR requires 20% free hard drive space. Unofficial rule of thumb is 100GB. Yes storing RAW files on an external drive is a good idea. I have been doing this for years with both my iMac and MacBook Air. Make sure to keep the catalogue and previews on the same drive the HD or SSD is fine. From this Adobe article.

https://helpx.adobe.co​m …erformance-lightroom.html

Keep the catalog and preview cache in the same folder

By default, Lightroom keeps the preview cache file, [Catalog name] Previews.lrdata, in the same folder as the catalog file, [Catalog name].lrcat. If you move the catalog file or store it separately from the cache, then Lightroom has to regenerate the previews. So keep them together.

4. My MacBook Air which is for travel only has 4GB and I run everything on it. From that link above. It is a bit dated but 16GB will be sufficient.

Run Lightroom on machines with 12 GB of RAM or more

For best performance, the recommendation is to run Lightroom on machines with 12 GB of RAM or more. Using the recommended amount of RAM yields significant performance benefits, especially when you import and export photos, move between photos in Loupe view, or create HDR images and panoramas.

Not sure if this was mentioned. Your 32 bit apps won’t work on Catalina. You will have to make some decisions. When I got my new iMac last year I decided to just get rid of them all and find replacements.

Thank you Dave, Geoff, and Digital Paradise for your input. Gives me a great understanding of what's ahead for me, as well as good guidance to help me through the transition process towards a refined workflow.

I do plan on waiting a bit to see how the new M1 MacBooks review and I don't "need" to upgrade just yet. I do want to get into the newer LR versions and have the flexibility to edit mobile away from my desk.

Thanks again all.

ggweci wrote in post #19151890
Thank you Dave, Geoff, and Digital Paradise for your input. Gives me a great understanding of what's ahead for me, as well as good guidance to help me through the transition process towards a refined workflow.

I do plan on waiting a bit to see how the new M1 MacBooks review and I don't "need" to upgrade just yet. I do want to get into the newer LR versions and have the flexibility to edit mobile away from my desk.

Thanks again all.

By then the OS will be Big Sur and 32 bit apps won't work either. Gives you time to work things out. I had Microsoft office 2008 until las year. The free Apple versions - Pages, Numbers, etc work great. Just one example.

digital paradise wrote in post #19151898
By then the OS will be Big Sur and 32 bit apps won't work either. Gives you time to work things out. I had Microsoft office 2008 until las year. The free Apple versions - Pages, Numbers, etc work great. Just one example.

Yeah, I have MS Office on my iMac and will continue to use it here. The new MacBook will basically only be used for LR and regular website access, so not any other apps I will need to carry over.