Lightroom: Does anyone know of a "render farm" / "export farm"?

vaio2006

If you do video editing / motiongraphics / 3D Animation, I'm sure you're aware of the concept of render farming....

I was wondering if anyone knew of a setup where I could create a "render farm" ("export farm")type thing
in Lightroom, where I could export files using computers on a network.

Basically, we need to export certain parts of a catalog while we work on other parts...
and when I start exporting locally on my computer.... it slows my computer down...
therefore, I thought it would be cool if i could make a "export farm" across the network...
any ideas?

ian408

dfsdfsf

colourbox

Disclaimer: I have never tried this whole idea exactly, but I use pieces of it all the time when working with networked laptop and desktop (Macs). It's something to try.

Network the two machines with file sharing on so that they can see each other's folders.
In Lightroom on Machine #1, select the images you want to render remotely.
File/Export as Catalog, without including negative files, directly to some folder on Machine 2. The exported catalog will contain all develop data and metadata for the images you selected.
Go to Machine 2 and open the exported catalog.
It will probably display question mark icons to complain about missing source files. Just relink across the network to the folder with the source files on MAchine 1.
OK now that is all reconnected, so on Machine 2, select all and export, even back to Machine 1 if you set that as destination.

The theory is the rendering CPU load should go to Machine 2. Network bandwidth may be saturated between the two machines, and a portion of CPU and RAM on Machine 1 may be dedicated to significant network overhead, but it should not slow down Machine 1 as much as when it exports itself. The total export time will probably be longer, though, since network access to the large raw images is slower than the usual direct access to a fast disk. But if you have the time and your priority is to not slow down Machine 1, you might be OK with this. I guess if you wanted to speed it up you could include the negative files with the exported catalog then delete them after the export. Might be worth it in overall speed.

Why you need the Export Catalog step: You cannot open or share a catalog over the network. But a catalog can use image files stored over the network, so you exploit that direction.

Post if it actually works...:D