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Author Topic: Put old wine in a new bottle?  (Read 2977 times)

CeeVee

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Put old wine in a new bottle?
« on: January 01, 2018, 03:38:23 pm »

New computer, maxed out everything I could. Now moving photos over but what about the (several (?)) LR Catalogues? Save them or not? Put all in same folder, which folder?

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Mark D Segal

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2018, 04:06:29 pm »

The usual (and usually good) advice is to consolidate all catalogs into one master catalog. Lightroom has tools allowing you do this.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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digitaldog

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2018, 05:30:45 pm »

Select all images, Export as Catalog. Then Import to Catalog one master catalog so everything lands up there. Consider the Store Presets with Catalog preference next.
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MBehrens

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2018, 09:02:45 pm »

Select all images, Export as Catalog.
Just quoting Andrew, questions are to the thread...

Why the need to select all images and export to a catalog, when all images are already in a catalog?
Wouldn't just creating the new master catalog and start importing the old catalogs into it work?

If the prescription is for a single catalog, what is the benefit of storing presets with it?
The only benefit I can see is if there are multiple users accessing the one catalog from different OS Accounts, then they can share a common set of presets... if that is what they want to do.
Or, you have multiple catalogs for distinctly different types of work - a good rationale for having multiple catalogs - and the presets for each would be very different and unique. Storing presets with the catalog would make sense then.
Otherwise I'm not seeing the benefit.
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PeterAit

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2018, 10:54:38 am »

First, copy all photos and catalogs to the new computer without changing any folder names. You know this setup works. Start LR and verify that all is working as it did on the old computer.  Then follow the advice given by others to consolidate things. LR is very good at handling huge catalogs - mine is 30,000 images and I am sure there are many much bigger - and there is some convenience of having everything in one place.
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DP

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2018, 11:33:53 am »

LR is very good at handling huge catalogs - mine is 30,000 images

do u seriously call 30K images a "huge" catalog ;) ? huge is when you approach a million mark
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digitaldog

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2018, 12:04:03 pm »

Why the need to select all images and export to a catalog, when all images are already in a catalog?
Because you have an option to use less than all if so desired. Otherwise just Import from Catalog and get all images imported.
You can export and import ONE image. Everything like keywords will transfer to the new catalog with a single image, again if so desired.


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If the prescription is for a single catalog, what is the benefit of storing presets with it?
The presets travel with the catalog and images (if so set, as I recommend). Back up all your images, catalog and presets, in ONE location, you can clone that data to as many drives as desired, hook up said drives to any machine with LR and you're all set. Don't do this, all your presets are not there on other machines or newer presets don't travel back to the original. They are on the other machine deep in a system folder.
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adias

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2018, 01:28:26 pm »

do u seriously call 30K images a "huge" catalog ;) ? huge is when you approach a million mark

A million images... I suppose a wedding/event photographer might shoot like that. I wonder how many shots Ansel Adams made in total? I bet far, far less.
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TonyW

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2018, 01:54:53 pm »

...I wonder how many shots Ansel Adams made in total? I bet far, far less.
I would bet the same way.  I am not sure that he actually had access to digital although I believe he did see it as the future.  How many images he shot on film is anyones guess but what I think significant is his comment
Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.
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DP

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2018, 05:01:51 pm »

I wonder how many shots Ansel Adams made in total? I bet far, far less.

I think the absence of LR did contribute to his work positively
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DP

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2018, 05:03:33 pm »

I would bet the same way.

and this /"quality" of work/ is totally orthogonal to the question if 30K "images" can be genuinely called a "huge" catalog
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TonyW

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2018, 05:28:34 pm »

and this /"quality" of work/ is totally orthogonal to the question if 30K "images" can be genuinely called a "huge" catalog
From his standpoint 30k images can genuinely be called a huge catalogue even including duds  :D
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MBehrens

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Re: Put old wine in a new bottle?
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2018, 09:09:45 pm »

Because you have an option to use less than all if so desired. Otherwise just Import from Catalog and get all images imported.

Don't do this, all your presets are not there on other machines or newer presets don't travel back to the original. They are on the other machine deep in a system folder.
Yes, exactly, for folks combining catalogs, just simply import the catalog. This is the OP intent I think. For subsets of a catalog, then export the selected as a catalog and import the exported catalog and images.
And for the OP's task at hand, combining whole catalogs, I think they would need to move all of their current catalogs and images to the new computer and make sure the images are linked up. If there are drive letter changes the images will not link up auto-magically. Once everything is moved, then create the new master catalog and import the old catalogs into it. If the images are in separate locations per old catalog, they can be moved to a common new location after they are imported into the new catalog.

For presets with the catalog, backing up and portability (I'm guessing the catalog, presets, and images are on a external drive) seem to be the two benefits.
  The OP doesn't seem to be in a portability situation, seems to be loading them on the computer. Cloning presets to multiple drives/catalogs will inevitably result in a situation where each will have changes and then it becomes a mire of how to sync them up. The default location may be a better choice. 
  For Back up purposes, hopefully folks are instituting a good back up regimen. If they are only focused on the LR assets, they probably aren't doing themselves any favors.
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