Lightroom 3 image processing

I'm running out of room in my laptop so I'm thinking about moving my images to an external HD.
Can I still work on my images and preview them on my laptop yet keep the full RAW files on the external HD?

R.,

Well, I have my library mainly on external hard drives -- the only images that go into my internal data drive are my "current" shoots. After they have been processed in whatever way I do in the short term, I use Lightroom to move them onto the proper hard drive (into folders designated by year) -- since they are all part of my catalog I just drag and drop a folder (after selecting all the files in it) into the year's folder on the external.

Now this way I can at any time open a shoot and work on the image.

If, though, you are thinking of unplugging the external drive holding your Raw files then trying to edit them using the Prefiews, well I haven't tried that and I imagine you'd have problems, but I'm not sure how far that goes -- maybe someone who has tried that can chip in. The images and previews will still be in your catalog but LR will note them as "missing". Also, LR discard 100% previews (like are used in the Develop module) after a period of time so there will be limitations even on getting large previews.

I do occasionally unplug/power off my external drives for when I don't plan on doing any editing but more often they are on.

rickp1 wrote in post #11758071
I'm running out of room in my laptop so I'm thinking about moving my images to an external HD.
Can I still work on my images and preview them on my laptop yet keep the full RAW files on the external HD?

R.,

Absolutely. You can even perform all the Library functions, keywording, searching, filtering, etc., without the EHD being connected, but for work in the Develop module the EHD will have to be on-line.

Preferences can be set to discard 100% previews at different intervals, including "Never". Besides, the Library previews and the Develop previews are different critters, one kept in the Preview folder next to the catalog (default location) and the other in the Camera Raw cache.

tzalman wrote in post #11758322
Preferences can be set to discard 100% previews at different intervals, including "Never". Besides, the Library previews and the Develop previews are different critters, one kept in the Preview folder next to the catalog (default location) and the other in the Camera Raw cache.

Yes, you can have LR keep your previews as you specify in your Preferences. I just have LR dump mine after 30 days 'cause I typically won't be using many of them over time.

Just a note, I've read that LR actually keeps the 1:1 previews that are created in the Library module in the cache, but I've never really delved into it.

Ok... just so I understand. All "Library" functions are available with the EHD disconnected, but if I want to edit the images in the "Develop" module with the images in the EHD while it's not connected, I can't.

I was hoping to be able to edit (Develop Module) the preview images and then sync the changes the full RAW images in the respective folders.

R.

Can any of you steer us in the right direction of a blog or post that will explain that process to us?

Which part of "that process" are you referring to?

rickp1 wrote in post #11758534
Ok... just so I understand. All "Library" functions are available with the EHD disconnected, but if I want to edit the images in the "Develop" module with the images in the EHD while it's not connected, I can't.

I was hoping to be able to edit (Develop Module) the preview images and then sync the changes the full RAW images in the respective folders.

R.

Library previews are in the default location C:/My Pictures/Lightroom/Cat​alog Previews.lrdata/.... The individual previews have the extension *.lrprev. They thus are always available to the program. They can be set in Preferences to be high quality, medium or low and the medium and low quality previews are in Abode RGB space.

Develop previews are in the camera raw cache which if I remember correctly (I have moved it to another location) is in C:/Documents and Settings/user/Applicat​ion Data/Adobe/camera raw cache. The path differs according to OS, this is for XP. Although the files have the extension *.dat they are jpgs in a sort of hybrid space, ProPhoto gamut with the sRGB TRC. They are used merely to jump-start the Develop display. If the original RAWs are not available to the program there will be a notice "File could not be found" and all the editing (right side) panel will be greyed out.

So to put it simply, without the EHD connected, Library yes but Develop no.

I was afraid of that. What do then in dump new images on the laptop, then edit them and once done move to the EHD.

Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

R.

That's an efficient way of doing things -- have a "parent folder" on your laptop as part of your Ligntroom library then you can import a shoot into Lightroom onto your laptop -- Import will help you to set up your shoots by folder and name the files and folders in a way that "makes sense" for your workflow.

You can do all you want in the short term -- edits as well as organizational things, and then when you've done what you want/can in a short term sense, you can just move those folders/shoots onto the external drive using Lightroom to drop them into a "parent folder" on the external drive that is also part of the Lightroom library.

That's how I do things -- it's not difficult, you just need to get the routine down.

I should add that you will also want a backup plan -- I use external drives that are separate from my "working" drives.

tonylong,
I agree, my BU drives are just that and only that. As a rule I try to keep 3 BUs of everything, 2 drives and a CD copy (they dont fail).

The only thing I will have to do at this point is to review how to move everything to the external HD from within LR. My parent folder is the Pictures folder so it's just a matter of moving that. The child folders are already in the format that keeps things organized.

R.

Well, on my external drives my "parent" folders are broken down by year. I created them in Lightroom so they are part of my library/catalog.

To move a folder of images I first click on the folder (the one in your My Pictures folder) and then I do a Ctl-A (Select All) to select all the images -- if you don't do that I've gotten some messy results.

Then, you have two ways of moving the folder -- simply dragging and dropping the folder onto the parent folder on your external drive (assuming you have gone and created it in Lightroom) will do it, or you can click on the folder then right-click on the new parent and select the choice to Move the selected folder into that one.

The reason I'm encouraging you to do all this from withing Lightroom is because if you try to do these things within your system browser things can get messy because you will have to do extra steps to link up the new stuff in Lightroom and, at worst, you can actually lose all the editing and organizational metadata from you pics if you do something goofy. There are workarounds, but extra work.

tonylong,
I'm going to use the technique you suggested with clicking on the main folder with all the images and then right clicking the new folder and choose "move selected photos to this folder". What I need to do though is plug in the EHD and from LR create the new folder where everything will reside.

Let me ask you something, if I do it this way will LR recreate all the child folders as well, will it recreate the entire directory structure?

R.

Boy, I don't have the exact answers to that. I move shoots one folder at a time -- I don't have subfolders for individual shoots (don't like to complicate or clutter things! So, like I said earlier, if you select a folder and Select All the images it performs a nice easy move.

Now as to subfolders I don't know. You can try to move them all together but I don't know how the actual subfolders will be treated. You might want to test that a little before you commit to it!

I'll say that if the subfolder thing gets messy you can move things outside of Lightroom using your system explorer. First I'd use Lightroom to create the parent folder (like a year or whatever suits your needs). That way you will have a quick way in LR to do the following. I'd then close Lightroom then do the move of as many folders as you need to. Move, don't copy.

Then, when you reopen LR, you will notice that the folders in the catalog are all grey and marked with little red question marks. That means they are still "in the catalog" but LR can't "find" them in their new location.

One quick thing to do is to right-click on a upper level folder and select "Find missing files and folders". Try it out and see what happens -- you will click the Browse button and then navigate to the new location -- click on your new parent folder and see how it goes. You may need to do this a few times.

Now, I'm not sure how the little details of this will work out -- my moves are all pretty simple and straightforward. I'd encourage you to look in Help and search for move or moving and see what's their. They do pretty good in Help laying things out, although they probably miss some of the little things we run into!