Resources to Better Understand LR3's Catalog Management

I've always just used DPP for my RAW processing and adjustments, but I've been playing with LR3 beta and have determined to buy the full version.

I know LR takes a very different approach to file management compared to DPP. That said, I'm struggling to understand fairly simple things like how to open a catalog, leave it to work with a second new catalog, and then come back to my original images with changes still in place.

The Help file hasn't been much help and I haven't found the right video on either Adobe's site or YouTube. I like to think I'm a fairly smart guy, but I am just not getting it. Can anyone suggest a good resource?

Thanks.

Its generally not a good idea to have multiple catalogs unless you have quite specific reasons for doing so.

That said if you have multiple catalogs there are at least two ways to open them. The first method is by holding down the CTRL key when starting Lightroom. You will be presented with a dialog box where you can navigate to the catalog you want to open.

The second method is to simply click File > Open Catalog from Lightroom's menu.

A third option is to simply double-click any of the catalog (LRCAT) files and it will open in Lightroom.

If you open a second catalog after processing images in the first your edits are automtically saved.

Watch THESE videos by Julianne Kost, Adobe Evangelist.

Thanks, that does help.

And maybe this gets back to my failure to grasp the LR way of doing things, but are you saying I always want to have only one long running catalog? I'm a wedding photographer and used to the idea of dropping one wedding into one directory and a second into another. I'd open one or the other and work with only that one collection at a time. I know I can still keep the RAW's in different directories, but is it prefarable to have them all open as a single catalog?

DunnoWhen wrote in post #10343895
Watch THESE videos by Julianne Kost, Adobe Evangelist.

I've tried looking at these, but the videos don't open on my crappy work (day-job) computer. I'll have to have a look from home. Thanks!

Yes, you should keep all your images in a single catalog. Unless you want to separate personal images from work photos or something like that. You negate the benefit of working in a database like Lightroom with multiple catalogs since you can't search across catalogs.

There are numerous ways to differentiate you images once they are in a single catalog. For example you can use Collections to separate each shoot you do. Or even a simple named folder structure works for some people.

Peacefield wrote in post #10343913
Thanks, that does help.

And maybe this gets back to my failure to grasp the LR way of doing things, but are you saying I always want to have only one long running catalog? I'm a wedding photographer and used to the idea of dropping one wedding into one directory and a second into another. I'd open one or the other and work with only that one collection at a time. I know I can still keep the RAW's in different directories, but is it prefarable to have them all open as a single catalog?

PixelMagic wrote in post #10343864
Its generally not a good idea to have multiple catalogs unless you have quite specific reasons for doing so.

That said if you have multiple catalogs there are at least two ways to open them. The first method is by holding down the CTRL key when starting Lightroom. You will be presented with a dialog box where you can navigate to the catalog you want to open.

The second method is to simply click File > Open Catalog from Lightroom's menu.

A third option is to simply double-click any of the catalog (LRCAT) files and it will open in Lightroom.

If you open a second catalog after processing images in the first your edits are automtically saved.

I'm putting in an SSD and I want to have my "working" catalog on that and my archival catalog of all of my images on the HDD in the second slot.

Not a good idea? Or definitely a good idea?

TheHoff wrote in post #10343977
I'm putting in an SSD and I want to have my "working" catalog on that and my archival catalog of all of my images on the HDD in the second slot.

Not a good idea? Or definitely a good idea?

I have seen it said by the "gurus" on the Lightroom Forum that the more you can separate between the image files, the catalog and the preview cache the faster LR will run.

tzalman wrote in post #10344077
I have seen it said by the "gurus" on the Lightroom Forum that the more you can separate between the image files, the catalog and the preview cache the faster LR will run.

Well I don't have space on the SSD for the entire catalog so I figured I'd only have the working catalog and previews on the SSD. I think having previews on the SSD, even in the same place as the catalog, will be faster than separating them to the HDD. Given the working constraints of a laptop and two drive bays, that is about all you can do, I think.

Hmmm...I don't have any knowledge about how advantageous it would be to put your working catalog on an SSD. Have you looked at Adobe's Lightroom forum?

TheHoff wrote in post #10343977
I'm putting in an SSD and I want to have my "working" catalog on that and my archival catalog of all of my images on the HDD in the second slot.

Not a good idea? Or definitely a good idea?

PixelMagic wrote in post #10344181
Hmmm...I don't have any knowledge about how advantageous it would be to put your working catalog on an SSD. Have you looked at Adobe's Lightroom forum?

I'm just wondering if it will be really good or amazingly good.

(Seriously, though, I will go search some LR forums now and see how people are splitting things up with an SSD, thanks.)

Your images are not *in* a catalog. The catalog is simply a database containing the develop, keyword etc information and a copy of the EXIF information from the RAW file. You can store the image files anywhere you like. Separate folders per shoot, separate hard drives per shoot, as long as you know where they are.

I use two esata RAID boxes for images, using a year-month-day folder tree. My catalog (database) and image previews are on my boot drive (also RAID).

Images that are stored on an unconnected drive show up with a ? on the thumbnail. I plug in the drive containing the images , the ? disappears and I can use the images. Meanwhile having a single catalog means I can search by keyword over my complete collection.

TheHoff, yes, catalog on the SSD can help, but be aware that the huge number of tiny reads/writes will kill the drive a bit quicker. By all accounts, it's fast.

Robert, my book concentrates on those kind of nuts and bolts, if it's any help.

TheHoff wrote in post #10344102
Well I don't have space on the SSD for the entire catalog so I figured I'd only have the working catalog and previews on the SSD. I think having previews on the SSD, even in the same place as the catalog, will be faster than separating them to the HDD. Given the working constraints of a laptop and two drive bays, that is about all you can do, I think.

I have Lightroom, its catalog and cache, and the preview images on my SSD. When I import images I copy them to a folder on the SSD (working images). That makes for maximum speed during PP. Once I've finished processing them they get moved, from within LR to maintain catalog links, to the HDD.

That's with a big (well, relatively big) SSD. With a smaller drive your suggestion should be nearly as good - LR, cache, working images and working catalog all on the SSD - maximum speed. Process the images, then move them to the HDD (from within LR), open the main catalog (on the HDD) and import from the working catalog. Then open the working catalog and remove all images ready for the next set.

Awesome; thanks, Frank. That is exactly what I have planned. My drive is in customs and should be here Monday. (It is only 100GB but it has 28GB for buffer and overrun so it will never suffer from SSD write slowdowns... according to the reviews)