A Lighter Load When Traveling

[Anjin San]

I currently use LrC (classic) for my cataloging and PP on the Mac Studio at home and a separate catalog on the laptop on the road with export/import back at home but am looking to see if there’s a way to get a lighter laptop bag while traveling.

I know that several here use their iPad along with a hub, SSD, and card reader to backup images…and import anything they want to edit and post on the road to Photos or LR mobile…and I’m considering that as an alternative.

I’ve looked at a bunch of videos forom people advocating entirely to the mobile platform for LR but am not interested in doing that yet…the mobile version still has missing features compared to Classic and despite various YouTube personalities and Adobe telling me that their cloud serves as my backup it’s not really a good enough backup for an old IT guy…I want one that I control and even if I trusted Adobe to manage them it would cost a lot to backup my entire photo library.

So…I’m wondering if anybody has found an easy, simple way to combine the mobile and classic versions…I've found a few kludges but nothing straight forward that allows import into the mobile version on the iPad on the road and then an easy copy back to the folder based structure on the RAID back at home and thence into my existing backup schemes. The ones I’ve found require a whole bunch of setup changes on the iPad between sync and non sync depending on which step you’re at in the process and still requires enough iPad space to hold all the original images and they build up pretty quickly at 50MB per shot, 20FPS bursts, and lots of opportunities on photo oriented trips.

I’ve even considered taking my wife’s M1 MBA instead of my M1 MBP…but that doesn’t really save much weight so haven’t seriously considered that option...and we (well, me as I have the laptop bag when traveling) are going to carry 2 iPads and the laptop.

 

[StevieJSmall]

So I think my solution probably doesn’t work for your case but in the off chance…here’s what I do…

In Lightroom Classic, under the Library module, I have my folder structure set up how I like to sort my photos in the Folders section. I also have a folder called Unallocated.

I then mirror that same structure in the Collections section since that is what is synced between LrC and Lr.

So when I have access to my home computer, I import into LrC and put in appropriate folders. And then copy those into the appropriate folders in collections which then sync to Lr.

If I don’t have access to home computer, I then use phone or tablet and upload photos into that Unallocated collection in Lr.

Then when I get to home computer, since that collection is synced, I just copy those to the Unallocated Folder in Folder section and then organize them appropriately and backup through my established methods.

Then I can delete the photos in the Unallocated collection and just copy them from the Folder section to the appropriate collection section (or you can just move from Unallocated collection directly to the appropriate collection, whatever floats your boat).

Hopefully that makes sense in terms of process and terminology? This has worked for me and while not a system that works for all, may be an option?

 

[Anjin San]

So I think my solution probably doesn’t work for your case but in the off chance…here’s what I do…

In Lightroom Classic, under the Library module, I have my folder structure set up how I like to sort my photos in the Folders section. I also have a folder called Unallocated.

I then mirror that same structure in the Collections section since that is what is synced between LrC and Lr.

So when I have access to my home computer, I import into LrC and put in appropriate folders. And then copy those into the appropriate folders in collections which then sync to Lr.

If I don’t have access to home computer, I then use phone or tablet and upload photos into that Unallocated collection in Lr.

Then when I get to home computer, since that collection is synced, I just copy those to the Unallocated Folder in Folder section and then organize them appropriately and backup through my established methods.

Then I can delete the photos in the Unallocated collection and just copy them from the Folder section to the appropriate collection section (or you can just move from Unallocated collection directly to the appropriate collection, whatever floats your boat).

Hopefully that makes sense in terms of process and terminology? This has worked for me and while not a system that works for all, may be an option?

Ya know…that might work although it would require me to buy more Adobe cloud space (but then any serious use of the mobile versions is gonna require that anyway. Like you…I keep folders in Library in Classic and then create collections and only some of the collections are synced…but the Unallocated album in mobile which syncs to the Unallocated collection in Classic would work to get the images smart previews synced to Classic…so at that point all I would need to do is set the location in Classic for downloaded image to the Unallocated folder, select all in Unallocated collection and download originals. Then once I verified that the originals were in Unallocated it's easy to move them from there to the appropriate other folder in Library which gets all originals on the desktop and hence backed up appropriately. Then it would just be a matter of removing them from Unallocated collection in Classic…followed by deleting them all from the Unallocated album in mobile to get them out of my Adobe cloud storage.

As I said…I'm really looking only for a way to import all on the road and then easily move them into Classic. I have no need to sync everything to the Adobe cloud…just the Published folder and collection in Classic for each year which has all the ones that went to the blog so that I can show them to people at bars and whatnot on the iPhone or iPad as necessary. And your system looks like it would work for me…so at this point I just need to setup the Unallocated album, collection, and folder and then try and see if it works as I think it will work.

 

[Patrick M]

Not Lr but I use Affinity Photo on both my Mac and iPad Pro.

 

[jerrylwatson]

I travel with a 17" LG Gram. 32gb RAM and 4tb of ssd. Weight is just under 3lbs.

 

[StevieJSmall]

Ya know…that might work although it would require me to buy more Adobe cloud space (but then any serious use of the mobile versions is gonna require that anyway. Like you…I keep folders in Library in Classic and then create collections and only some of the collections are synced…but the Unallocated album in mobile which syncs to the Unallocated collection in Classic would work to get the images smart previews synced to Classic…so at that point all I would need to do is set the location in Classic for downloaded image to the Unallocated folder, select all in Unallocated collection and download originals. Then once I verified that the originals were in Unallocated it's easy to move them from there to the appropriate other folder in Library which gets all originals on the desktop and hence backed up appropriately. Then it would just be a matter of removing them from Unallocated collection in Classic…followed by deleting them all from the Unallocated album in mobile to get them out of my Adobe cloud storage.

As I said…I'm really looking only for a way to import all on the road and then easily move them into Classic. I have no need to sync everything to the Adobe cloud…just the Published folder and collection in Classic for each year which has all the ones that went to the blog so that I can show them to people at bars and whatnot on the iPhone or iPad as necessary. And your system looks like it would work for me…so at this point I just need to setup the Unallocated album, collection, and folder and then try and see if it works as I think it will work.

That should work equally as well I would think!

 

[Anjin San]

Not Lr but I use Affinity Photo on both my Mac and iPad Pro.

I'll take a look at Affinity…not sure I want to switch from LR because switching platforms is really hard and too much muscle/brain memory gets lost…but it might help solve the problem.

 

[mdirvin]

My attempt at using LR mobile did not go well. Going back two years so my memory is a bit lacking in the details. Like you I decided that I could forgo the laptop, use a 13" iPad pro (2TB), a hub, two SSD's and LR mobile to manage my files on the road. I didn't work out. Shooting thousands of photo's a day, back in the motel room I "thought" I was using LRM to transfer files to my SSD's . LRM gave me a message saying all the XXXX number of files had been transferred. Fortunately I checked the SSD, and was suprised to find that out of 2000 files, at best few hundred were actually on the SSD. Even though LRM indiated all the files had been transfered OK. Subsquently I discovered that If I only transfered mayb a 1000 files, stopped, turned off the iPad, then back on I could keep transfering 1000 files at a time. Not sure if was IOS, or LRM that was screwed up, in either case it didn't matter. That was the end of my LRM, iPad experiment. Now its a 16" M1 Macbook pro, and two 4TB SSDs. The iPad wasn't a total loss, now I have 2TB's to store movies on when I'm on the road..

 

[Anjin San]

My attempt at using LR mobile did not go well. Going back two years so my memory is a bit lacking in the details. Like you I decided that I could forgo the laptop, use a 13" iPad pro (2TB), a hub, two SSD's and LR mobile to manage my files on the road. I didn't work out. Shooting thousands of photo's a day, back in the motel room I "thought" I was using LRM to transfer files to my SSD's . LRM gave me a message saying all the XXXX number of files had been transferred. Fortunately I checked the SSD, and was suprised to find that out of 2000 files, at best few hundred were actually on the SSD. Even though LRM indiated all the files had been transfered OK. Subsquently I discovered that If I only transfered mayb a 1000 files, stopped, turned off the iPad, then back on I could keep transfering 1000 files at a time. Not sure if was IOS, or LRM that was screwed up, in either case it didn't matter. That was the end of my LRM, iPad experiment. Now its a 16" M1 Macbook pro, and two 4TB SSDs. The iPad wasn't a total loss, now I have 2TB's to store movies on when I'm on the road..

I've played a bit with the most recent versions on both iPad and computer…and the mobile version has gotten a lot better than a couple years back but it's still not as capable and requires more expensive Adobe plans to really be effectively used on the road. At this point I'm not really looking at actually switching but using it on the road…and like you on the road for a photo trip I'm gonna have a lot of photos to import/manage/cull and hotel bandwidth isn't going to support uploading them anyway most of the time. I'm more likely…I think at this point anyway…to potentially use the iPad as a transfer medium on the road with a hub, SSD, and card reader attached to move the files like Patrick (I think) does rather than bring them into LR for processing…in other words it's more of a backup without a laptop strategy. Most of the time…a trip isn't really going to be long enough in days to make the extra hassle of PP, writing the blog post, etc at night because by the time I'm done taking pictures and other related Fun Stuff© as bride and I call it and get to the hotel we're (a) tired and (b) it's Happy Hour and dinner time and PP really isn't going to be a desired option after cocktails/dinner/wine anyway. So on the road I'm more likely to after backing up the images to either just post a quick blog with a shot from my iPhone or maybe pull one or a few of the images into Photos for some lightweight editing and send out with a quick blog post…and leave the detailed one with when/where/how and a bunch of shots until I get home.

And in reality I' gonna always have the iPad along even if I take the laptop…because for email and browsing and other non photo related stuff I use that most of the time even at home because small/light/good enough for the purpose.

 

[mdirvin]

Test you setup before leaving. I used LR to do the file transfer, and thoroughly tested it at home. My mistake was that at home I tested it with only a few hundred files on the memory card. Once in the field I had cards with several thousand images on them. LR just choked, of course things have changed since then. I would still go with the files app on the the iPad to transfer to the SSD's. Not even bother with LR except to spot check, and certainly not try to sync with the motel/hotel wifi.

 

[Anjin San]

Test you setup before leaving. I used LR to do the file transfer, and thoroughly tested it at home. My mistake was that at home I tested it with only a few hundred files on the memory card. Once in the field I had cards with several thousand images on them. LR just choked, of course things have changed since then. I would still go with the files app on the the iPad to transfer to the SSD's. Not even bother with LR except to spot check, and certainly not try to sync with the motel/hotel wifi.

Oh yeah…always test the setup ahead of time. I've got all the parts I need to use the iPad to backup images to SSD but before seriously taking it on the road will make sure that (a) it works and (b) the transferred images import as expected into LR…as I said in the other reply I'm not really interested in switching to the mobile version at this point but am considering it as one of the options to potentially take over the backup routine via the laptop…and that I'm more likely to just use the iPad to copy originals to an SSD than pull them into LR mobile…especially as I have zero need to have my entire catalog available all the time on any device. A lot of the "switch because it's better" folks shoot a lot less frames per outing/day than use 20FPS wildlife shooters do…and throw away most of what they shoot anyway…so what works with 40 photos isn't going to necessarily work with 400 or 4000 photos (well, it's surely not going to work on the road with hotel wifi for 4000).

 

[Replytoken]

Can you elaborate on how much weight you want to carry (or shed) and how much editing you want to do in the field? Effective solutions are quite personal, and it is not clear if an iPad is an acceptable alternative weight wise to a MBA if you get a keyboard cover.

--Ken

 

[Anjin San]

Can you elaborate on how much weight you want to carry (or shed) and how much editing you want to do in the field? Effective solutions are quite personal, and it is not clear if an iPad is an acceptable alternative weight wise to a MBA if you get a keyboard cover.

--Ken

I had no real expectations on how much weight reduction it would be beyond looking for less…and figuring out what less meant in terms of loss of capability. On a week or even 3 trip, on the road processing would be minimal and I’m interested more in image backup…for so,etching longer term I would probably put up a blog post every 3 days or so with a dozen to 20 shots in it…which would mean doing the whole LR import/cull/process/export routine. I don’t carry and would likely never get a keyboard cover for an iPad…if I need a keyboard I pick up the laptop both at home and on the road (if I have both). I will always have the iPad anyway for mail/browsing so leaving the laptop at home would save 3.5 pounds or so…but given the time frames above I would not try and sync to the cloud over hotel wifi and an iPad only trip would essentially only be for image backup.

A lot of my questioning was seeing several well respected people switching to mobile LR and watching some of their videos on it and its pros but the cons weren’t mentioned as much…and as I last looked at mobile a year or more ago and it’s gotten better I tried it a bit recently and found it still mostly lacking for overall use…but decided to do some more fact finding on possibilities. I’ve about decided that unless I’m willing to switch completely to the mobile version that it isn’t worth using mobile at all and just lug the laptop along. For any serious photo trip I would take the laptop anyway.

 

[Patrick M]

I only take my iPad Pro on trips. Then I use the apple photos app to transfer to my iPad. I create an album to make it clearer / easier to find. Then I use the apple Files app to copy the images to the external SSD. Never had an issue with this in 5 years. I’m not a prolific shooter so I’ve never had more than a couple of thousand images after a few days even.

 

[Anjin San]

I only take my iPad Pro on trips. Then I use the apple photos app to transfer to my iPad. I create an album to make it clearer / easier to find. Then I use the apple Files app to copy the images to the external SSD. Never had an issue with this in 5 years. I’m not a prolific shooter so I’ve never had more than a couple of thousand images after a few days even.

That’s going to be my plan if light amd backup images only is more important than PP while I’m gone. I do have a powered hub but copying from card direct to hub is somewhat problematic for me…to the iPad without the SSdbattached then remove the card reader, plug in the SSD, copy and delete from ipad works more reliably but it’s still a lot slower than the same card reader and SSD hooked up the laptop…but if light is most important I can live with that limitation. It is an iPad Air 4 so the now 2 or 3 year old processor and slower USB 3 vice 3.1 or 3.2 is the bottleneck.

 

[Replytoken]

FWIW, Microsoft still sells the Surface Go 3. It has a basic Win OS, but it does have ports and allows for easier copying from card or camera to an external SSD. Not a popular option, but it is an option if the iPad setup is not what you find workable.

--Ken

 

[Anjin San]

FWIW, Microsoft still sells the Surface Go 3. It has a basic Win OS, but it does have ports and allows for easier copying from card or camera to an external SSD. Not a popular option, but it is an option if the iPad setup is not what you find workable.

--Ken

I was a Windows sysadmin the last dozen years I worked and had all macOS at home…and have always found the UI of anything past XP pretty much impossible to deal with…so I swore off of Windows when I retired in 2011. I did keep a VM with XP on it to run for the travel planning program on Windows for the first couple of years in the RV lifestyle but switched to Google maps about 2015 or so.

 

[Replytoken]

I was a Windows sysadmin the last dozen years I worked and had all macOS at home…and have always found the UI of anything past XP pretty much impossible to deal with…so I swore off of Windows when I retired in 2011. I did keep a VM with XP on it to run for the travel planning program on Windows for the first couple of years in the RV lifestyle but switched to Google maps about 2015 or so.

Understandable. The small form factor combined with access to ports was the primary reason that I offered it up as a possible alternative.

--Ken

 

[Anjin San]

Understandable. The small form factor combined with access to ports was the primary reason that I offered it up as a possible alternative.

--Ken

Yeah…it isn’t the “it’s not an Apple device“ for me…it is the inscrutability of current Windows versions (and to be honest everything since whatever came right after XP. We were still doing Server 2003 when I retired and mostly that was all I dealt with as the desktops were handled by the Help Desk staff and not the server team.

 

[jerrylwatson]

Yeah…it isn’t the “it’s not an Apple device“ for me…it is the inscrutability of current Windows versions (and to be honest everything since whatever came right after XP. We were still doing Server 2003 when I retired and mostly that was all I dealt with as the desktops were handled by the Help Desk staff and not the server team.

Hi Anjin. I curious as to what you specifically dislike about windows.

 

[Anjin San]

Hi Anjin. I curious as to what you specifically dislike about windows.

There are a couple of things. I was a windows sysadmin for about 15 years before retiring in 2012, but always had Apple computers at home starting with Apple IIs and then shifting to Macs later on. One big reason was that viruses were pretty much non existent on Macs and the UI was just better than early windows UI. Second was problem solving…with macOS one has always been pretty much able to identify a software issue and implement a known fix that came from google or experience or whatever…but in windows with multiple DLL files with same name but different programs installing them it was a lot harder to actually fix the problem…so much so that making it go away was frequently the solution even through you didn't fix anything and really had no idea which the dozen things you tried made it go away…and whether it just went away or you had inadvertently fixed it. The UI got better up until XP/Server 2003 an whatever immediately followed XP. However…after fighting with Windows issues all day it was really nice to get home to a computer OS that just worked and didn't require nearly as much fiddling. Application installations were way simpler back then…open up the compressed file and copy the program wherever on your drive you wanted, rename it if you wanted to…and it still worked. Move it again…and it still worked. Windows apps almost always came with an installer and dropped in a bunch of registry entries so that renaming or moving the app frequently made it not work any more. Hence…I stayed with Macs because I liked the way they worked and didn't particularly want to muck about with the computer vice it just doing what it was supposed to do.

Then we switched to the unix based macOS and windows did some similar migrations…but the UI of macOS is pretty much the same as it was back in 1984…yeah, a lot of the pretty things changed over the years but it was still a desktop, Finder, folders, and easy to find things. Windows…well, their UI went all to heck as far as I was concerned…I realize that a lot of the reason for that was the whole Windows Everywhere idea so they made them all look the same even though IMO a tablet OS needs to do different things than a desktop OS and making them look and work the same mostly means that neither is optimized as well as it should be. Apple took the different approach and macOS looks and works like it should and is optimized for the keyboard, mouse and pointer interface while iOS and now iPadOS are optimized mostly for the one app at a time and a finger and touch oriented interface…fingers being inherently less precise than a mouse cursor things are bigger to tap on and all that.

Today…despite being in the computer biz pretty much the last 25 years of my working life on multiple platforms (Sun, unix, macOS, and Windows) and doing a lot of consulting on mostly Macs but some Windows up until we retired in 2012…if I sit down at a current Windows installation nothing is where I think it should be (more properly it's in a different place than I expect it I guess)…and nothing works like I expect it to.

Viruses and that sort of crap is still much more prevalent on Windows although Macs are not as immune as they used to be. Part of this is what I think is a better overall security model and part is probably due to over the years smaller market share.

HW/SW compatibility is still better on the macOS side…but then macOS only has to run on Apple hardware and Microsoft has to contend with whatever combination of part whoever built the hardware could get the cheapest today. Quality wise…the better and more expensive hardware from Dell or Compaq or HP or whoever were built a lot better than the ones from the guy that worked out of the 7-11…and still mostly even the better ones were more cheaply constructed with sharp edges, poorly fitting whatevers, and the like than Apple hardware…but then Apple wasn't ever interested in selling the cheapest hardware you could buy…just the best in their opinion.