Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: mondeo on August 26, 2013, 08:24:18 am

Title: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: mondeo on August 26, 2013, 08:24:18 am
Have been a Windows user of Lightroom for a long time, but have recently purchased an new Mac book Air
I want to be able to continue using both the PC and the Mac Book to access the lightroom database (not at the same time though!)

I assume that I have to create a drive partition of the appropriate file system (fat32??) and copy the lightroom database onto this ?

The mac book air will be used for the general management of new raw images, the PC being used for the heavy weight processing etc

Can anybody suggest the best way forward?

Thanks
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: luxborealis on August 26, 2013, 05:59:07 pm
You might be surprised with your MacBook Air - it can do all the "heavy weight processing"! If your PC is a desktop and is plugged into a monitor, you may consider simply plugging the monitor into the MBA (with the appropriate connector). That way you can work in dual screen mode. Don't worry about the MBA - it has plenty of power under the hood; it's only limit is on-board storage as the flash drive is less than typical laptops.

To combat the limited flash storage, you could keep your main catalog on the MBA all with Smart Previews and all your originals on an external drive, all of which can be backed up to another external drive using Time Machine built into OS X.

Alternatively, use a portable HD for your Catalog + Originals and simply plug it into either machine for use. If you go this route, you won't need Smart Previews as you will always have your originals on the portable drive.

Or, you can have your Main Catalog on the PC and when if you want to upload images to the MBA, upload them to a "Temp Catalogue". When you want to put them on the PC, you can use "File > Export as Catalog" to a USB stick then, on the PC, use "File > Import from another Catalog" to add them to your Main Catalog.

Personally, I would go with the first option if it's possible, that is Catalog + Smart Previews on the MBA + Originals on an external HD then for serious editing, plug an external monitor into the MBA.
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: mondeo on August 27, 2013, 05:22:00 pm
Thanks for the response. While I dont doubt that with a few compromises the Mac Book Air could do the whole job my Windows system complete with Eizo monitor and Epson 3880 is calibrated and performing well. I dont really want to dissasemble all this and attempt to get it working again around a Mac Book Air. I am not sure if the color management system on a air would translate through all the adapters required.

So if anybody can suggest how the Air and the PC can share the library I would be really gratefull. I am prepared to for go CM on the Air to preserve the windows CM.

I know I could have bought a Windows ultra book but have been sold on Apple's customer care on a number of iPhones and iPads
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: luxborealis on August 27, 2013, 05:26:12 pm
I did...

Alternatively, use a portable HD for your Catalog + Originals and simply plug it into either machine for use. If you go this route, you won't need Smart Previews as you will always have your originals on the portable drive.

Or, you can have your Main Catalog on the PC and [when if you] want to upload images to the MBA, upload them to a "Temp Catalogue". When you want to put them on the PC, you can use "File > Export as Catalog" to a USB stick then, on the PC, use "File > Import from another Catalog" to add them to your Main Catalog.
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: mondeo on August 28, 2013, 03:23:03 pm
Hi

Sorry shoukld have been specific ....
Do you need to format the separate HD is a specific way to allow both mac air and windows access ?

THanks
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: luxborealis on August 28, 2013, 09:13:10 pm
Hi

Sorry shoukld have been specific ....
Do you need to format the separate HD is a specific way to allow both mac air and windows access ?

THanks

That I don't know as I am monogamously Mac.
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: Vladimirovich on August 28, 2013, 11:56:32 pm
So if anybody can suggest how the Air and the PC can share the library I would be really gratefull.
OSX can get to your data on PC over network through SMB (Windows has server side), NFS (server side software like HaneWin NFS server required - cheap), AFS (server side software required), AFP (server side software required)
or something like external NAS like Synology.
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: jjj on August 29, 2013, 08:24:43 am
EXFat can be read by both OSX + Windows and is somewhat more up to date than FAT32.
That's how I format drives to be used by both systems and moving large amounts data between colleagues PC and my Mac.
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: Rory on August 29, 2013, 11:03:09 am
If you go the route of exporting / importing catalogs then you should also do the same thing with your keywords if you are keywording on the MBA in order to keep your keywords in sync.  Keyword export / import is under the Metadata menu.

If you go the external HD route, make sure you get a USB 3 drive, and as suggested above, format as EXFat.
Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: Hans Kruse on August 29, 2013, 11:46:32 am
Thanks for the response. While I dont doubt that with a few compromises the Mac Book Air could do the whole job my Windows system complete with Eizo monitor and Epson 3880 is calibrated and performing well. I dont really want to dissasemble all this and attempt to get it working again around a Mac Book Air. I am not sure if the color management system on a air would translate through all the adapters required.

So if anybody can suggest how the Air and the PC can share the library I would be really gratefull. I am prepared to for go CM on the Air to preserve the windows CM.

I know I could have bought a Windows ultra book but have been sold on Apple's customer care on a number of iPhones and iPads

As is suggested you can use the MacBook Air for all your work with external drives, but saying it can do all the heavy lifting is a stretch, but of course depending on which model you are using and which size RAW files your are processing. I think the new MBA 13" with the i7 1.7Ghz cpu, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD could be a single machine for many which raw files from around 20MP or less. The MBA drives and external monitor up to 2560x1600 resolution. Two USB 3 ports are available for external drives, although if you use a dual-DVI kabel to drive the external display then one of the USB ports is needed for the USB for the connector.

For more heavy lifting I would recommend the 15" models, either the retina version or the "standard" 15" model with the nonglare screen and quad core i7 and 16GB ram. When I got my first MacBook Pro while having a Windows 7 machine with external monitor and Epson 3880 printer I thought I would continue to use two systems, but shortly after I realized that there was no benefit so now I'm using only a single machine, a MBP with the 30" HP monitor and printer all with color management, of course.

If you want to stay with the two machine model and primarily use the MBA for travel photography then I would recommend to create a new catalog on the MBA for each trip and on return export all pictures to an exported catalog on an external drive formatted as ExFat or FAT32 and then import the images into your main catalog on the desktop machine. This is simple to do and works.


Title: Re: Dual OS (Mac & Windows) for Lightroom, How to migrate from Windows
Post by: W.T. Jones on September 05, 2013, 08:16:29 pm

If you want to stay with the two machine model and primarily use the MBA for travel photography then I would recommend to create a new catalog on the MBA for each trip and on return export all pictures to an exported catalog on an external drive formatted as ExFat or FAT32 and then import the images into your main catalog on the desktop machine. This is simple to do and works.

I wrestled with this for a short time and that is exactly what I do. I now have a LaCie rugged drive that has a partition thingy called "LaCie Share" or something like that. At first I simply transferred the raw files via NAS storage or imported from the camera memory cards, then did (or re did) all my processing on the Windows main machine, it was not all that efficient. Now with the LaCie I can export as a catalog to the Rugged drive and import right to my main catalog with any field adjustments intact. Works great for me.

While it is probably advisable to use one system and stick with it, I am a glutton for punishment!  I like the 15" MBP as a laptop and travel machine. It has good battery life, I like the non glare screen, it is fairly compact and performs admirably with 8 MB ram all while running Parallels in the background. (I see why people love Mac Book pros). Most Windows laptops are fat, ugly and heavy with dismal battery life. Or at least the ones I have or had are. I have an office full of Windows 7 machines that work quite well and really see no need to disrupt the system by buying Macs and Mac programs at this point.