On the Road with Portoflio Images

[dchew]

Since I am on the road a lot, there are times when I work on images in my portfolio while on a plane, in a hotel, whatever.   Also there are requests I may get from clients that need quick response times.  

My std workflow includes a WIP catalog that has all images in it from ingestion on a shoot.  The selects get exported as DNG’s into a master portfolio catalog.  In my case, that Master Portfolio catalog is only about 15,000 images, which can still fit on a portable drive.  If I want to work on an image while on the road, (or send one to a client) I have no problem doing that and coming back to the office and syncing the image files.  My problem is with the Catalog.  

My master portfolio catalog is linked to a 4TB raid0 Glyph drive in the office.  Connected via esata so it is pretty fast and robust.  So I would prefer to keep the Master Catalog linked to that drive.  I am not sure what to do about working on images while on the road.

Here’s an example.  Let’s say I am on the road and have an image in the catalog that a client wants to see in b&w.  On the road I create a b&w version, create a VC, and export that to the client.  When I get back, how do I get that VC into the Master Catalog?

I am not talking about new images taken while on the road.  That can be handled by either my WIP Catalog or by Location Catalogs that then get imported into the master when back in the office, a la Schewe’s description in the LR4 video.  I am talking about legacy images in my Master Catalog.  Is there a way to sync catalogs?  Do I dare try to import the Travel Catalog into the Master Catalog every time I return?

It seems I have a few choices:
1
Keep a separate catalog for on the road linked to the external portable drive.  Call it Travel Catalog.  I don’t like this because if I am in the office working on the Master Catalog, play with a b&w version and then create a virtual copy, that virtual copy never makes it into my Travel Catalog.  Same with snapshots I think.  So there is no way to “sync” the Travel Catalog with the Master Catalog.

2
Link both the portable drive and the master drive to the same catalog.  I don’t like this either because I get way to sloppy and confused.  Am I in the right drive? Which should be linked to collections?  Seems like a huge potential for a mess.

3
Just force myself never to do any drastic work in the Travel Catalog.  Only work on stuff tied to the image file, not the database.  I.e. no VC’s, no Snapshots, no Develop work.  Just export images, keywording, etc.

4
Does anyone actually “sync” catalog files using something like ChronoSync (that is the file backup system I use)?  Could that work?  I guess I cannot think why not… Just seems weird for some reason.  I would have two copies of the Master Catalog, one on the portable drive and one on the Glyph, but they would have exactly the same name and folder structure…?

I feel like I am missing something simple here.  How should I do this?

Dave

[john beardsworth]

Dave

This is what Export as Catalog / Import from Catalog are designed to achieve.

With your master catalogue, select the images you want to take on the road and do an Export as Catalog. Tick Previews, but tick Include Negatives only if you want to alter the adjustments on the road (this will increase the size of the data you take on the road). Export to a folder on your desktop called "Master - Trip" or something obvious.

This will contain a catalogue, its previews, and possibly the originals. Move it to the laptop and work on it while you're away. If you want, use it to import new images.

Afterwards, move it back to the main computer, open the master catalogue, and do a File > Import from Catalog. LR will match the existing images and update the master catalogue with the work you've done, and will bring in the new images.

This sync process is slicker than you may expect. Why not give it a try with a few pictures?

John

PS I'm assuming that it's impractical to take everything on the road.

[dchew]

Thanks John,
I will try the sync process as you suggest.  For some reason I've been afraid of the catalog import

Time to dive in.

Dave