I use Dropbox for Lightroom catalog backups and photo backups only. ![]() So I had to move everything out of Dropbox and start over. There were a lot of photos! Then, when I tried to open the catalog to edit some images, it was so slow that it was unusable. I once made the mistake of loading both catalog and images to Dropbox and it took literally days for all images to upload. Also, create smart previews of your photos so that you don’t need to have them connected to the catalog to edit in Lightroom, and sync them at your first opportunity.īear in mind too, that a bad internet connection will dramatically slow you down. If you use Dropbox, Google Drive, or a similar cloud based storage system, you can put your catalog there, but make sure that your photos are stored separately, otherwise it will take a really long time to process photos. Or you can do it the other way around – images on external drive and catalog on your computer. When you next plug your external drive into your main computer, the edits will sync across. You’ll be able to plug the drive into another computer to edit images (as long as the computer has Lightroom), even without connecting the drive to the main computer where your images are stored. You can even put your images on your main computer and just your catalog on an external drive. Sometimes I’m away for a month at a time, so need to be able to upload my images wherever I am. This is what I do, because I work between two computers and also travel for shoots. If you decide to put your catalog and images on an external drive, you’ll need to select the drive when you set up your catalog, instead of letting Lightroom go with the default settings. You can, however, choose to store the catalog anywhere you want on your computer. If you work from a desktop computer and don’t ever need to use your catalog on another computer, or while travelling, this is a good option. A new catalog I created as an example and titled Example, stored in the default location, which is the Pictures folder on my computer Computer hard driveĪs mentioned, your computer hard drive is the default location of Lightroom catalogs and photos and the “Pictures” folder specifically is the default storage place. AND when Lightroom performs a backup of your catalog, only the catalog backs up, NOT your photos. The most important thing to remember about Lightroom catalogs is that your photos are separate from your catalog, even though they can be stored in the same main folder. This may not sound helpful, but bear with me and I’ll explain. LRCAT file) can be stored wherever you decide to put it. Where are Lightroom catalogs stored?Īlthough the default catalog location is on your computer hard drive, the catalog (a. Just like when using film negatives in the darkroom to create prints, the original file remains unchanged.įurther reading: How to import photos to Lightroom Classic – ultimate beginners guide 2. When you export them, they’re the developed images. When you import photos into Lightroom, they’re the digital negative files (DNG) of your RAW images. Think of Lightroom as a digital darkroom. (I say RAW images, because if you’re using Lightroom you should shoot in RAW rather than JPEG file format so that you have as much data recorded in each image as possible.) Exported images can be in several file formats, for example JPEG, TIFF or PSD. ![]() After editing you’ll export the final images from Lightroom for printing, posting online, sending to a client etc. On opening, Lightroom asks you to select the catalog you want to use. Editing RAW files in Lightroom is like creating a recipe for how you want your photos to look when you export them. How many Lightroom catalogs should I use?Ī Lightroom catalog is a database for storing and organizing photos to edit in Lightroom’s editing software.Where are Lightroom backup catalogs stored?.These tips are for Lightroom Classic, the desktop version of Adobe Lightroom. Even though it looks changed when you’re working in Lightroom, what you see are image previews of what your final images will look like on export. So, unlike Photoshop, the edits you make to your photos in the Lightroom catalog are not on the actual image files and the original images remain unchanged. ![]() Lightroom is a non-destructive editing program.The catalog works like a key to find and access your photos, with the edits you applied. The Lightroom catalog is separate from your actual photos.It’s not what you’d expect.īefore we get into the details, here are two very important points to note… The most confusing aspect of Lightroom for photographers new to Adobe Lightroom Classic is understanding how the Lightroom catalog works.
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