Photo Library Management

[GreatMoloko]

I feel like I fall somewhere between the hobbyist and amatuer levels of photography, and I've been using Picasa for just about everything. A few months back I picked up Lightroom for editing a few photos here and there.

My question here is really about managing all my pictures (~28k).

Picasa does an awesome job of this with the various catalogs, folders, and tags.

I really haven't messed with LRs library much so I'm wondering what some peoples opinions are if they have played with both.

Also how is LRs backup management? Picasa's is uber lame so I just use XCOPY to an external HDD (well 3 of them actually cause I'm paranoid)

Any thoughts/comments/concerns on what software is best for photo library management?

Thanks!

[kirbinster]

This is EXACTLY what lightroom was designed for. Go to Adobes site and view some of the videos about Lightroom.

[GreatMoloko]

Does LR have any type of automated backups of the library? (I can't seem to find this anywhere on the net)

[kirbinster]

When you import photos you can have it make a second copy to another location. Also, the catalog itself can be backed up automatically on a daily, weekly, etc... basis.

[Shokinen]

The way LR works is that it doesn't touch your originals (this is perfect if you work with RAW). It creates a virtual copy. So you can do all your modification without affecting your original picture. When your happy with the modification you made, click export and LR will create a completly new file.

Having that said, yes it does automatic backup of your catalogue (this is how adobe calls the library). You can also set different options, but keep in mind these are virtual copies.

Make sure you have a backup solution of your originals.

[kirbinster]

Originally Posted by Shokinen

The way LR works is that it doesn't touch your originals (this is perfect if you work with RAW). It creates a virtual copy. So you can do all your modification without affecting your original picture. When your happy with the modification you made, click export and LR will create a completly new file.

Having that said, yes it does automatic backup of your catalogue (this is how adobe calls the library). You can also set different options, but keep in mind these are virtual copies.

Make sure you have a backup solution of your originals.

Well that is conceptually true, but some of the facts are incorrect. It does not create virtual copies of your edits. Rather what it does is a kin to writing a computer program. Each change you make creates an instruction set. When you export that instruction set is applied. This is significant in that when you backup the catalog what you are really backing up is that instruction set and the list of input files - not the actual pictures. The pictures are stored elsewhere and are not actually a part of the catalog.

[dakwegmo]

LightRoom doesn't backup the image files. That has to be done separately. I use MS Sync Toy to do regular file backups to an external drive.

[GreatMoloko]

So when you click export, LR makes a completely new file. So you will now have 2 copies of the same picture?

[dakwegmo]

Originally Posted by GreatMoloko

So when you click export, LR makes a completely new file. So you will now have 2 copies of the same picture?

Yes and no. When you export you're creating a second copy of the image, but they aren't exactly the same. In LightRoom you'll have the original source file (whether RAW, jpg, or whatever) plus a database of edits (keywords, color corrections, etc.). When you export you're actually creating an image with all of the edits actually applied to the image. Editing in LR doesn't actually do anything to the original file.

[GreatMoloko]

I'm still slightly confused, after export will there be 2 files or 1?

I'm concerned about this cause I just realized Picasa creates two files for every picture you edit, so now I have to export (thus, as I understand it, creating a third copy) of all pictures I've edited so that I can safely import them into lightroom.

Now, this is all relatively mute cause I have a TB of space to play with, plus multiple backups (Cause I'm paranoid) but the possibly of up to 5 copies of 1 image is unpleasant.