Best LR setup for travel

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Anjin San

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Back when we lived in the RV I kept the LR catalog on my laptop and the originals on a NAS…when we moved out of t(e RV and into a house after 8 years I got myself an iMac with a Thunderbolt RAID hanging off of it and have the catalog and originals on the RAID with appropriate on site and off site backups. My original thought was to take the laptop for travel now with a separate catalog and originals and then export/import to get the trip photos over into the master catalog.
I saw over on Hudson Henry”s site that he suggests keeping the master catalog on an external Thunderbolt SSD and the originals from the current trip or year or whatever seems right on the SSD for speed then archiving to a RAID (a Dropbox in his case)…that way he can take the portable SSD on the rod with the laptop and not have to worry about export/import. The archived originals won’t be available on t(e road but the previews would be so kewording or whatever is possible or looking for old images…then on return the SSD gets hooked to the desktop again and archived photos go out to the RAID.

I will be carrying 2 external SSDs with my laptop anyway for backup purposes and will have backup handled for both on the road and back at home…so I’m not looking for recommendations there…just wondering if this single catalog idea has merit over the 2 catalog and export/import scenario…it would certainly make keeping a consistent keyword list easier…and having the catalog and say the current yer originals on the SSD will obviously make for quicker PP.

I will implement more backup schemes for the external SSD both on the road and at home. Imam also going to play a bit with the internet based version of LR but last time I checked it was less fully featured than classic and connectivity on the road is slower and more iffy than at home so I anticipate staying with LR Classic at this point.

So…does the single catalog idea make more sense? Seems to me it does but wanted to make sure I had thought of all the pros and cons both ways…and my smart friends here likely have some thoughts.

Thanks.
 
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Replytoken said:
Have you considered using Smart Previews? This may help you in your decision on choosing to use one or two catalogs.

--Ken
Click to expand...
I generally use standard previews since Smart means it takes longer to view each photo…if I go the SSD route then I will probably try 1:1 but other than drive space…which isn’t an issue with either scenario…I’m not sure how tht helps me decide…but it’s entirely possible I’m just not grokking your question correctly.
 
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Thanks for clarifying that storage is not the primary issue. But I would say that it is secondary if you plan on accessing all of your images if they do not fit on the TB SSD drive. Then you would want to use Smart Previews and leave the original files at home. As to the question of one catalog or a primary with a travel catalog, you could go either way. If you decided on one catalog to live on the TB SSD, you could use the Smart Previews (as I mentioned) and then just add your new travel images to the catalog. When home, you could move those images to where you store your other photos. That is reasonably simple if you have a folder/filing system that allows you to move images inside of LR without a lot of hassle. This gives you your keywords as you have mentioned above. It sounds like you have a good catalog backup strategy, so if you see no loss of speed, which should be quite minimal with a TB SSD, then give it a spin.

--Ken
 
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Replytoken said:
Thanks for clarifying that storage is not the primary issue. But I would say that it is secondary if you plan on accessing all of your images if they do not fit on the TB SSD drive. Then you would want to use Smart Previews and leave the original files at home. As to the question of one catalog or a primary with a travel catalog, you could go either way. If you decided on one catalog to live on the TB SSD, you could use the Smart Previews (as I mentioned) and then just add your new travel images to the catalog. When home, you could move those images to where you store your other photos. That is reasonably simple if you have a folder/filing system that allows you to move images inside of LR without a lot of hassle. This gives you your keywords as you have mentioned above. It sounds like you have a good catalog backup strategy, so if you see no loss of speed, which should be quite minimal with a TB SSD, then give it a spin.

--Ken
Click to expand...
Ah…I see now. I will have to check out what Smart Previews provide for the originals left behind. i won’t put all the originals on the portable if I go that route, probably only the current year ones since I don’t need full access to all the older ones when on the road but if Smart provides advantages which seem handy then I can start using them…with 2TB portables there will be plenty of space for them.
Mostly I’m just trying to decide if there are any drawbacks to having a single catalog on the portable SSD for both home and travel use as opposed to the dual catalog with export and import to the main catalog after the trip…the easier to keep an organized keyword list and no export/import needed are attractive.

I will check the LR queen thread out as well…I do keep up with her site but not the forums there.
 
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