Lightroom Secrets - Latest Comments

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Andrew Webb — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:11:16 -0000

On Mac Snow Leopard and Lion, you can use a Symbolic Link to point to all of your Lightroom settings (including Presets) stored on Dropbox:

If you're in Lion, you need to see your Library folder, so fire up Terminal and past this in, and hit return:chflags nohidden ~/Library/

That will make your Library folders visible

Then go here:

/Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/Adobe/

and find the Lightroom folder. Move that Lightroom folder to your Dropbox. (I keep it in a folder called "PREFS", because I do this with several applications). Create a symbolic link [http://hints.macworld.com/arti...] or an alias of the Lightroom folder. (I haven't tested this with aliases) and move the link/alias back to /Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/Adobe.

Make sure that the link/alias is the only thing called "Lightroom" in the folder (if you copied the Lightroom folder instead of moving it, you would have the original folder and the link/alias.)

Next time you fire up Lightroom, it will bounce off the link/alias and use the real folder on Dropbox. If you replace the /Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom folder with a link/alias on all of your machines, they will all have the exact same setup, and they always will.

Hope that helps somebody.

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Gene McCullagh — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:47:40 -0000

Hi Kurt! I'm glad you found it useful!

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Kurt Congdon — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:20:33 -0000

Works like a charm, thanks for the tip. I've trying to figure out how to do this for a while now. Thanks!

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Gene McCullagh — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:21:44 -0000

Unfortunately, Burt, I have talked with too many photographers who are not as prepared for the inevitable drive crash as you. So a single point of failure is a real concern.

At home or in a small studio it is more common now to find network based storage. Drobo has been a big reason for this. I find many network based Drobos or other file servers housing music and image libraries. This method is one way to address the multiple computer single server issue with Lightroom.

As I mentioned, this is an interesting use of Dropbox and more a proof of concept that does provide a solution in some situations. But, it is not for everyone.

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Burt Johnson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:10:32 -0000

I wouldn't be too concerned about the "single point of failure." If my photos were lost, then the catalog wouldn't do me much good. so having them fail together is not a particular worry. (I use Time Machine for local backup, plus CrashPlan for offsite backup hourly, and my external photo drive is RAID, so my chances of data loss is pretty small.)

I hadn't thought about the network drive, but I can't think of where I would want my photos spread among multiple computers at home, yet want single-point access to the catalog. My thought about using this would be for a travel computer, where I am in the field and able to access photos that existed on the home computer (for rating, etc), but that would only be useful if the preview file was also shared (which is where I got confused about the recommendation).

I started to write an article to our camera club, referencing your blog entry, and telling where it could be useful, when I hit this wall and realized I couldn't come up with a scenario where anyone in the club would really want to do this...

Of interest, with just over 58,000 images in my LR4 catalog, the main catalog is only 680MB, though the preview file is 293GB. Of course, I use 'full size' previews, to speed up reviewing.

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Gene McCullagh — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:25:36 -0000

Hi Burt!

The example here is an external drive. But it could just as easily be a network drive. In that case Lightroom will not let you store the catalog on that drive. This is one way around that.

Another use is that with the catalog accessible from the cloud you can still rate and keyword the images even if the drive containing the originals is not present.

Also, having the catalog and the images on one external drive creates a single point of failure. Of course, a good backup discipline avoids this problem.

Yes, the benefits aren't huge and this is really an edge case or proof of concept idea. But it is one answer to the multiple computer problem.

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Burt Johnson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:57:57 -0000

I don't really see the benefit of this? If your photos are on an external drive, as described, then presumably you are moving the disk around with the photos to your various computers. If so, why not just put the catalog on that disk too, and it moves along with the photos? No sync necessary, since the catalog is with the photos, and thus on whatever computer you are connected to.

Instead, I see a possibility of letting multiple computers share a single catalog, where the photos are spread among the computers. If you set your preview size to small, then it might take awhile before you exceed the 50GB you get with a paid account (which is what I have).

Then you would be able to view, sort, rate, etc the photos from any of your computers, even though you could only do full editing on the computer that actually has the photos.

I could see this possibly being useful for a travel computer to be able to access the studio machine. Not sure where I would really want to do it, but I see no benefit at all from the idea of moving the disk around and putting the catalog on Dropbox...

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Gene McCullagh — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:11:09 -0000

Hi Jennings!

Not really. This method is really doesn't address the other components of LR. Presets and preferences are usually stored in other directories. These would not be in Dropbox. While you cold theoretically rewire LR to look in Dropbox for these it probably isn't worth the effort

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Jennings C. King — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:44:57 -0000

I use two computers with LR 3. I am constantly trying to update all the presets and custom settings from one to the next. Is DropBox an option for keeping these settings consistent between the two? So when you add a preset to one computer it will be on the other automatically? That's my biggest gripe. I usually use an external HD for my cataloging.

Re: Don’t Get Clipped!

Gene McCullagh — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:04:34 -0000

Great point, René! MelissaRGB isn't discussed much so it is good that you raised the issue. I encourage readers who want to dig further to follow the link you provided.

Re: Don’t Get Clipped!

René Damkot — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:42:13 -0000

One addition: The clipping warnings are based on ProPhotoRGB gamut (since they are based on MelissaRGB, which is wat LR uses under the hood), so you might get no clipping warning, yet have clipped channels if you use LR to edit images for web (sRGB)
http://www.getcolormanaged.com...

Re: An Ingenious Approach to Video in Lightroom 4 Beta

Gene McCullagh — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:27:02 -0000

Unfortunately "original" means just that. If you go DPX you can post process to multiple formats and have your LR adjustments. But, as I mentioned, it's still early in the development of video in LR.

Re: An Ingenious Approach to Video in Lightroom 4 Beta

daniel wolf — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:19:47 -0000

Hi Gene, I agree...what i would like to export it to its orignal format...but including my" fine-tunings" like shorten the length, altering the white balance and exposure values...it only seems to export the unedited original....unless I did something not right...and you might be able to solve the mystery...thank you for any help...with laugh Daniel

Re: An Ingenious Approach to Video in Lightroom 4 Beta

Gene McCullagh — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:10:25 -0000

Hi Daniel!

It is certainly a good first step. You can export to its original format, H.264, or DPX. DPX is suitable high quality for use in Premiere Pro or After Effects.

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Gene McCullagh — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:00:46 -0000

Good point, David! Thanks!

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

David Balder — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:39:20 -0000

If you do move an existing catalog to dropbox, you don't want to lose your generated previews. To avoid that, create the .lrdata folder (windows)/file (mac) first, then set up selective sync, and then copy your catalog and previews.

Re: An Ingenious Approach to Video in Lightroom 4 Beta

daniel wolf — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:59:25 -0000

Happy with lightroom Beta 4 only I wish I could export the edited videofiles as mac native files instead of mp4....and what is it with this dx...-option?

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

Gene McCullagh — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:34:15 -0000

Thanks!

This really is useful for smaller catalogs and files. More of a proof of concept until Adobe finds a way to make LR network friendly.

Re: A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited

mevanecek — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:24:49 -0000

That's a pretty neat trick. How do you handle working with extra-large PSD files over the network? I've got some that go larger than 1GB before I'm done with them, and that is prohibitively slow to work with on a wireless network.

Re: Lightroom 4 Public Beta Is Here!

Maryann — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:47:03 -0000

It's overwhelming!

Re: Lightroom 4 Public Beta Is Here!

Gene McCullagh — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:58:11 -0000

Thanks Hans!

I'm sure that's on the list. The LR team is working hard but can only do so much with each release.

Re: Lightroom 4 Public Beta Is Here!

Hans — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:53:36 -0000

Thanks for the great summary on new features. I was really hoping for geolocation AND face recognition (keywording).

Re: Lightroom 4 Public Beta Is Here!

Paul D — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:35:53 -0000

Thanks Gene!

Re: Lightroom 4 Public Beta Is Here!

Gene McCullagh — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:22:19 -0000

Anytime Joe!

You should have some time to get used to LR. Once the final release is available you will be all set to migrate from iPhoto. Let me know if you have any questions along the way. You can use the "Contact Us" tab if you need to reach me directly.

Re: Lightroom 4 Public Beta Is Here!

joe — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:08:39 -0000

Thanks Gene!