Advice please: PSE5/6 vs LR2 for large portfolio

FormerLurker

I've read through as many of the PSE vs LR threads as I could find and think I have a good sense of the pros and cons, but am looking for advice on one specific issue I didn't see addressed much in the other threads.

Our image collection has reached about 32K images (I know.....) and I'm seeing some significant performance problems with the PSE5 Organizer. Overall, Organizer has served our needs fairly well and I wouldn't be considering moving to LR but for the sluggishness. I think I read that PSE is MSAccess-based whereas LR2 is mySQL based, which leads me to think that LR2 may be better equipped to handle a large collection.

Am I on the right path? We use the tag and collection features of the Organizer fairly extensively. The relative difference in price between PSE and LR2 isn't a significant issue.

(I've tried the trial version of LR2 but haven't imported the entire collection into it, although I probably should.)

Also, if I'm reading the other threads correctly - and this seems to be the case in my trial use of LR2 - it seems to be a fairly simple process to move from LR2 to PSE to do editing that cannot be done in LR2. If we do go the LR2 route, are there any significant problems with a LR2/PSE setup?

Any thoughts/comments/suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks!

digismile

So I'm assuming that you primary purpose of any new software is for DAM (Digital Asset Management). The fact that you've been able to use Elements this long is amazing! It's a great program, but I think you're beyond what the design team expected.

There are a number of well established DAM software products, among them Microsoft Expressions (formerly Iview Medio Pro) and Extensis Portfolio (which can be implemented in a multiuser environment). I've been a user of Iview Media Pro/Expression for years mostly due to it's ability to work with a variety of file types and large catalog sizes. However, with an ever changing workflow, I have been doing more of my initial processing in Bridge. This has caused a few headaches between keywording (of RAW files) in Bridge and Expression.

I too am looking at LR2 (for a totally different reason). From what I've researched, there are people with 30K+ images in a catalog. What does seem to come out, is that the larger the catalog, the greater potential for performance problems.

For your decision, (though not a robust list) I think you need to consider the following:

1. How big do I expect my catalog to grow in 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, etc. ?
2. Do I need every image in one catalog, or can it be broken down into smaller catalogs?
3. How do you typically search your catalog? By keyword? By date? By filetype? By rating? etc.
4. What features do you require in an image editor?

All that said, I am 3 days into my test of LR2 and I think it's a pretty amazing program. I'd be surprised if you needed to do much editing in PSE if you had LR2. I have been a staunch Photoshop user since the earth's crust was cooling (currently using CS3) and didn't really see any need for a program like LR2. But because of some shortfallings of Bridge, I took the opportunity to check out LR2. From a tagging/keywording point of view, it has some pretty cool features with Keyword sets, Keyword suggestions (based on what you have choosen before with a particular keyword), and custom sets.

So, in the end, you need to decide your greatest need(s). Expression and Portfolio are robust database applications (with other features of course). LR2 is a pretty complete workflow in itself, but at least for today, may not have the image capacity (i.e. speedy performance) of some of the other DAM programs.

cmason

I have never noticed any performance differences in LR when I had 10k vs 25k in photos (neither Windows or Mac). Don't know about going higher, but one thing to bear in mind, is that LR is capable of using multiple catalogs of files, so that if you don't want to manage all 32k photos in one catalog, you don't have to.

It is a simple matter to open a new catalog, import from catalogs, export to a catalog, etc. So do not think that you must have everything in one catalog, thought i have never had reason to manage multiple catalogs except for when I do an extensive edit on my laptop: in this case I simply copy the laptop catalog to my desktop, and open it in my desktop LR. If I like what i see, I close it, and import into my main catalog.

jfriend

I've got 84,257 images in my LR catalog and I don't see any speed degradation vs. when I had only 10,000.

I do have a fast computer (Intel Core 2 Quad) with a pretty fast bus and 3GB of RAM and I'm under the impression that LR wants a pretty speedy computer to perform well.

cmason

jfriend wrote:

I've got 84,257 images in my LR catalog and I don't see any speed degradation vs. when I had only 10,000.

I do have a fast computer (Intel Core 2 Quad) with a pretty fast bus and 3GB of RAM and I'm under the impression that LR wants a pretty speedy computer to perform well.

I had 10,000 on my old Windows AMD Athlon and LR did fine, the only performance issues were when using the development module: the sliders were very, very slow. I never had any issues importing/moving or other DAM activities.

With a Core 2 Duo, there are no slow downs of any sort.

digismile

jfriend wrote:

I've got 84,257 images in my LR catalog and I don't see any speed degradation vs. when I had only 10,000.

84K images? Wow! That's great. I'm part way through my import and I'm at 18K.

BTW, how big is your catalog?

jfriend

digismile wrote:

84K images? Wow! That's great. I'm part way through my import and I'm at 18K.

BTW, how big is your catalog?

My catalog is 1.3GB.

FormerLurker

Thanks
Thanks for the feedback. The main reason we've stuck with Organizer this long is my wife's desire not to learn a new system. I think the sluggishness has pushed her over the edge, though.