lightroom library Q

[a_krause]

So I am not sure if I understand the lightrooom library correctly, and how I want to implement it into my workflow will work.

Right now i have about 8 250 gig hard drives. labeled 1a,1b, 2a,2b etc etc. A and B mirror each other.

So i'd want to make image previews of all the images on my harddrives, soo then if i get a call from a client and ask to see images from shoot "xx" i can then do a search in lightroom and see the prievewed small thumbnals and locations of which hard drive it is in. Can i do this without having the actual harddrive plugged in but just viewing through an image library. or am i missing something?

yes i know it might be useful for me to set up a RAID of some sort for my hard drives, but thats not something i want to get into right now

thanks!

[Schewe]

Can i do this without having the actual harddrive plugged in but just viewing through an image library.
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Yes...of course it'll have to be plugged in to import the first time. Also note that you'll only be able to do image work in Develop when the image are "on-line" however, you can still do metadata tasks even when the drive is "off-line".

If you generate 1:1 previews, you'll even be able to make contact prints or slide shows...with reasonable quality.

The key is to make sure you import from say, all the 'A' drives (but not the 'B' drives that would have duplicates) and make sure you do all your Lightroom adjustments such at tone/color and crop while the drives are online.

[a_krause]

Yes...of course it'll have to be plugged in to import the first time. Also note that you'll only be able to do image work in Develop when the image are "on-line" however, you can still do metadata tasks even when the drive is "off-line".

If you generate 1:1 previews, you'll even be able to make contact prints or slide shows...with reasonable quality.

The key is to make sure you import from say, all the 'A' drives (but not the 'B' drives that would have duplicates) and make sure you do all your Lightroom adjustments such at tone/color and crop while the drives are online.
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Thanks for your input. Thats what i am looking for. In theory though, how big are these preview images, am i eventually going to need to have a harddrive for lightroom previews?

[Schewe]

Depends on howe many images and the sizes of the previews you want to store. If you want to store 1:1 previews, the preview database can grwo pretty large-although it'll be a fraction of the original files...

[JoeTree]

Bear in mind that if you start up Lightroom while you're not connected to your hard drives, it's going to spend an awful lot of time scanning through your library trying to work out what is and isn't available. I have 3 x 250Gb drives holding around 50,000 images and it takes well over half an hour to do.

In theory, you can still use the software while it does but it's so slow that it's pretty much unusable.

Then, when you plug the drives back in it does the whole thing in reverse (which takes just as long).

[a_krause]

Bear in mind that if you start up Lightroom while you're not connected to your hard drives, it's going to spend an awful lot of time scanning through your library trying to work out what is and isn't available. I have 3 x 250Gb drives holding around 50,000 images and it takes well over half an hour to do.

In theory, you can still use the software while it does but it's so slow that it's pretty much unusable.

Then, when you plug the drives back in it does the whole thing in reverse (which takes just as long).
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damn. now that sounds like a deal breaker. back to plan A