Adobe Lightroom

3rdPlanetPhotography

I'm now the proud owner of Adobe Lightroom. It is AWESOME but as a noobie I do have some questions.

1. What exactly is a catalog

2. If I export the folder as a catalog, does that included the raw images or just the information.


I would like to be able to work on a folder full of raw files, make the proper edited and export them as jpgs (which I'm doing now). The when i'm completely done I'd like to be able to export all edits and images to a DVD for backup.

arodney

3rdPlanetPhotography wrote:

I'm now the proud owner of Adobe Lightroom. It is AWESOME but as a noobie I do have some questions.

1. What exactly is a catalog

2. If I export the folder as a catalog, does that included the raw images or just the information.


I would like to be able to work on a folder full of raw files, make the proper edited and export them as jpgs (which I'm doing now). The when i'm completely done I'd like to be able to export all edits and images to a DVD for backup.

A catalog is the database and images you import into LR. You can build multiple catalogs or try to work with one big one (if you shoot a lot of images, I'd say not a good idea. 100K is pretty much the upper limit).

When you export a folder of images as a catalog, you're basically backing up the database which contains the thumbnails, the quick collections you build, the metadata edits and the images if you so desire. So say you have a desktop and laptop. You go on location and shoot 100 images, import them into LR and edit some or all of the files. You get back to the studio and want to update that to your master catalog. On the laptop you export that catalog, on the desktop you import the catalog. You've now updated the main machine with all the images and work done in the field.

You can export a catalog and backup to DVD. If you insert that DVD into another computer running LR, you can import it to another existing catalog or just work with the data (note that DVD's are locked, you can't edit the data so copy it to a hard drive first).

3rdPlanetPhotography

Thanks for the information. Man you'd think as a software developer by day and a photographer by night I'd be able to figure this out... well it's only been a day since I've had lightroom. Better to ask the experts then to assume.

Thanks again,
Scott

arodney wrote:

A catalog is the database and images you import into LR. You can build multiple catalogs or try to work with one big one (if you shoot a lot of images, I'd say not a good idea. 100K is pretty much the upper limit).

When you export a folder of images as a catalog, you're basically backing up the database which contains the thumbnails, the quick collections you build, the metadata edits and the images if you so desire. So say you have a desktop and laptop. You go on location and shoot 100 images, import them into LR and edit some or all of the files. You get back to the studio and want to update that to your master catalog. On the laptop you export that catalog, on the desktop you import the catalog. You've now updated the main machine with all the images and work done in the field.

You can export a catalog and backup to DVD. If you insert that DVD into another computer running LR, you can import it to another existing catalog or just work with the data (note that DVD's are locked, you can't edit the data so copy it to a hard drive first).