Export or not export from Lightroom

[tom24]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Hi all

We all know Lightroom Clasic and the transition to the coud version.

For those of you using Lightroom, what is your workfloow?

Do you have all the photos (processed and unprocessed) in the Lightroom Library, or are you exporting finished photos (such as tif ...) to your new archive after processing? (this photos became new working archive - for print, sharing....And you have finished photos).

I am looking for the simplest and most functional workfloow.

It may be necessary to replace the raw photo editing program one day, so ....

What is your opinion?

Thanks.

[LocalHero1953]

All my photos are in the Adobe cloud, managed and edited by what used to be Lightroom CC, and is now called just Lightroom. My first action after shooting is to use Bridge to import DNGs to my laptop, review, cull and batch rename. These images then follow two paths. First, I copy them to long term local backup storage on a local 4Tb external drive. Second, I import them all to Lightroom and they automatically upload to the cloud. That is where I edit them and do almost everything else with them except printing (you can't print from Lightroom).

If I want to print (a very small proportion of my images, and a small proportion of those images which are used in any shape or form) then I export from Lightroom back to a local disk, and use Lightroom Classic to print. That is the only reason I maintain a version of Lightroom Classic on my laptop. The moment Lightroom gains a print capability Lightroom Classic will go.

I use Lightroom as a means of distributing all those images I am taking for others (portraits, events, performance etc) because that is what it does best: you can instantly share a link to a folder or individual image in your catalogue without having to create a copy. When that third party has downloaded what they want, you simply stop sharing.

For social media I export images from Lightroom as JPGs to local disk, then use FB, instagram, LUF or whatever to upload.

I suspect I'm in a small minority here in my use of the cloud for storage, but its benefits for distribution are too good to ignore, for me.

[Exodies]

@LocalHero1953 Have you considered using Lightroom classic to download from the cloud for your local storage, which happens automatically if Classic is running (and you have configured it to do so). Then your printable pictures will be ready to go, and you’ve saved two manual steps.

[LocalHero1953]

26 minutes ago, Exodies said:

@LocalHero1953 Have you considered using Lightroom classic to download from the cloud for your local storage, which happens automatically if Classic is running (and you have configured it to do so). Then your printable pictures will be ready to go, and you’ve saved two manual steps.

Thanks. I tried very hard to make Lightroom Classic work in tandem with Lightroom to get the best out of each, but on two occasions I found that Classic had developed a sync problem that resulted in my cloud photos being progressively deleted (I had backups). Adobe recommends that you try not to use the two packages together even though on the face of it they should; I suspect there are some glitches like this which have not been ironed out. Whatever the cause, the risk of data loss is too great and I now keep the two systems well separated.

FWIW, I think the problem arises because Lightroom Classic organises files by the basic file structure on your hard disk, while Lightroom uses a structure of virtual albums and folders in the cloud, and there is no correspondence between the two except a basic one-to-one sync link between a file on your hard disk and the equivalent in the cloud. Lightroom Classic occasionally loses your folders on your hard disk, but can usually find them again if you tell it the highest level folder. In a similar case when Lightroom Classic loses track of your images in the cloud, it may have though I had deleted them, so decided to delete them on the hard disk as well. If this sounds confusing, it is because I found it so.

Those who keep their basic catalogue on their local hard disk managed by Lightroom Classic, just using Lightroom as a means of syncing photos between devices, should not have this problem.

[evikne]

I use only Lightroom Classic and RAW (DNG) files. I only export to something else when I want to share a picture. I keep the last few months or so locally on my Mac, and drag older originals over to an external hard drive from time to time to free up space. But first I build smart previews of all files, so I can keep editing them if necessary.

And every time I import new photos, I also upload them to the Adobe cloud as smart previews. Pictures are not automatically synced from LR Classic, but they are uploaded when I copy them to a synced collection, or I can just drag them to the "All Synced Photographs" collection. This will upload them to the cloud and make them available on all my devices. I can even edit them if I want to, and the edits will sync back to LR Classic. You can upload an unlimited number of smart previews this way; they do not count towards the subscription limit.

Edited November 30, 2019 by evikne

[tom24]

Thank you.

 

And thank you for sharing your experience with yours workfloow.

 

In case of no export, you basically have »no photos«.

 

And when, once I will no longer use Adobe programs or they will not work .... I will have no photos.

This is a dilemma - whether or not to export everything processed (to have finished photos on disk, external disk).

[LocalHero1953]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I'm not sure what you mean by "In case of no export, you basically have »no photos". If you use Lightroom (with images in the cloud) you can share your images with others without exporting them. I guess in literal terms they do the exporting when they download them, but you don't have to export them yourself in order to let others see them. 

I'm not writing this to be pernickety about terminology, but just to check you understand how Lightroom sharing from the cloud works.

If you think there's a risk that you will suddenly, without warning, lose access to your Adobe programs, then you do need to export all your files now. I think that is a low risk, and you should get plenty of warning, allowing you to export them.

[evikne]

I understand your dilemma. When I migrated from Aperture to LR, I exported all my processed images to high quality JPEG along with the RAW files. So if I some day will stop using LR, then I will probably do the same again. But as long as I use LR, I see no reason for this. 

[tom24]

Thanks Paul and evikne.

 

I apologize for the possible lack of clarity.

 

I thought of finished processed photos.

 

The processed DNG photos remain, only these processes are visible only in Adobe programs (Lr, Bridge, Ps) in others.

In other programs, processing is not visible - only basic DNG photographers are visible.

In that sense, I mean »I have no finished photos«.

 

Thanks, all clear now.
 
 

[tom24]

Sorry, I mean for Lightroom classic. 
 
 

[evikne]

If you feel safer with exported finished photos, then you should just do it. Sooner or later you probably have to do it anyway. Lightroom has a very smart feature called Published Smart Folder. You can set it up to re-publish a photo on a choosen location if you make an edit, so your exported photos always are up to date.