Importing LRc Travel Catalog Learning and Best Practices

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

Later this week I will be on a 12 hour flight home. I already watched Oppenheimer and am not going to watch it 4 more times. I have an old MBA from 2018 with me. All my images including my iPhone ones are on a Samsung T7. I have Fast Raw Viewer and LRc and PS at my disposal to at least cull and maybe start to develop some images.

I have never created a second catalog. On page 490 of the LR Queen Missing FAQ she explains how to copy the new catalog and images over to the main computer, double click the travel catalog, re-link the files, and then import to main. Is it that simple? Are there other guides out there that anyone recommends reviewing?

I will certainly have backups of my main catalog and travel catalog before I do anything.

Any other “gotcha” items? I will not be key wording. I have set up FRV to match LRc in terms of shortcuts but doubt I will be using Pick and Reject for these. I will likely just rate the ones I want to use later on and those ratings should carry over when I copy the files.

Please keep the discussion to this issue and not alternatives. I wish to try this method as it will influence my future travel protocol and considerations in upgrading the old Mac which by the way is mostly used for roasting coffee. @Winston Churchill (Sir) note I don’t drill holes in my computers as they can be used as an emergency coaster for my emergency coffee cups.

Thanks everyone.

 

[jerrylwatson]

I develop images while traveling. I create a folder then import my images into the folder. I use lightroom and Photoshop to work on them. I do have the “xmp” storage option to create files, not store in library. When I get home, I copy the folder onto the computer drive that my main library is on. I then import the folder and the edits are in the “xmp” files.

 

[Viathelens]

I always use a LrC, the classic version, travel catalog when out and about. I've been doing this for years. Here is how I always do it...

1. Create catalog on laptop, using external SS drives, I have 2 two-TB but have only ever needed the one.
2. I import all images to the travel catalog so that I can view them.
3. Most often, I'll process several.
4. At home, I use the external drives to download the images to my desktop computer through my desktop catalog as I normally would.
5. In my travel catalog I use the filter bar to call up any processed images, I always five-star processed images so in my case the five-starred images. These are the only images I care about as all the other images were not processed.
6. I mark them all, control-A, then click on Export as Catalog. I do not check the Export original images (I can't recall the exact wording) because I already have those images in my desktop catalog as I downloaded them from the external drive.
7. I only export the metadata, the catalog, for those images, not the images themselves.
8. This creates a new catalog that will be tossed once I import the metadata into the desktop computer.
9. I open the desktop catalog and click on Import as Catalog and choose the file I just made from the travel catalog.
10. LrC will overlay the existing images with the imported metadata (all file names must remain the same in order to do this).
11. I toss the travel catalog and the Export As catalog.
12. There is no reason to import all the images through the travel catalog, it is faster to simply use the external drive and then strip in any needed metadata as described.
13. I have done this so many times I can't count and will be doing in a few days as I am writing this from my laptop in a motel for a trip to photograph foxes on an island outside Ventura, CA.

 

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

I always use a LrC, the classic version, travel catalog when out and about. I've been doing this for years. Here is how I always do it...

1. Create catalog on laptop, using external SS drives, I have 2 two-TB but have only ever needed the one.
2. I import all images to the travel catalog so that I can view them.
3. Most often, I'll process several.
4. At home, I use the external drives to download the images to my desktop computer through my desktop catalog as I normally would.
5. In my travel catalog I use the filter bar to call up any processed images, I always five-star processed images so in my case the five-starred images. These are the only images I care about as all the other images were not processed.
6. I mark them all, control-A, then click on Export as Catalog. I do not check the Export original images (I can't recall the exact wording) because I already have those images in my desktop catalog as I downloaded them from the external drive.
7. I only export the metadata, the catalog, for those images, not the images themselves.
8. This creates a new catalog that will be tossed once I import the metadata into the desktop computer.
9. I open the desktop catalog and click on Import as Catalog and choose the file I just made from the travel catalog.
10. LrC will overlay the existing images with the imported metadata (all file names must remain the same in order to do this).
11. I toss the travel catalog and the Export As catalog.
12. There is no reason to import all the images through the travel catalog, it is faster to simply use the external drive and then strip in any needed metadata as described.
13. I have done this so many times I can't count and will be doing in a few days as I am writing this from my laptop in a motel for a trip to photograph foxes on an island outside Ventura, CA.

So helpful. Exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Anjin San]

I always use a LrC, the classic version, travel catalog when out and about. I've been doing this for years. Here is how I always do it...

1. Create catalog on laptop, using external SS drives, I have 2 two-TB but have only ever needed the one.
2. I import all images to the travel catalog so that I can view them.
3. Most often, I'll process several.
4. At home, I use the external drives to download the images to my desktop computer through my desktop catalog as I normally would.
5. In my travel catalog I use the filter bar to call up any processed images, I always five-star processed images so in my case the five-starred images. These are the only images I care about as all the other images were not processed.
6. I mark them all, control-A, then click on Export as Catalog. I do not check the Export original images (I can't recall the exact wording) because I already have those images in my desktop catalog as I downloaded them from the external drive.
7. I only export the metadata, the catalog, for those images, not the images themselves.
8. This creates a new catalog that will be tossed once I import the metadata into the desktop computer.
9. I open the desktop catalog and click on Import as Catalog and choose the file I just made from the travel catalog.
10. LrC will overlay the existing images with the imported metadata (all file names must remain the same in order to do this).
11. I toss the travel catalog and the Export As catalog.
12. There is no reason to import all the images through the travel catalog, it is faster to simply use the external drive and then strip in any needed metadata as described.
13. I have done this so many times I can't count and will be doing in a few days as I am writing this from my laptop in a motel for a trip to photograph foxes on an island outside Ventura, CA.

I normally keep my catalog and current year images on an external TB SSD connected to my Mac Studio and for my trip to the Serengeti with Steve the past 2 weeks I just disconnected it and took the master catalog along with me. I'm doing another trip in the summer to Costa Rica through Steve with his partner down there Dennis…and I'm going to do the travel catalog thing to see which approach I like better. Your procedure for doing this is a good idea.

 

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

Just completed my first effort. I will dig into this soon enough.
Note that I tried to just have my MBP import the files from the MBA, and it gave me an error message. So I had to copy the Travel Catalog to the MBP and then it worked fine.

 

[Viathelens]

Just completed my first effort. I will dig into this soon enough.
Note that I tried to just have my MBP import the files from the MBA, and it gave me an error message. So I had to copy the Travel Catalog to the MBP and then it worked fine.

I'm drawing a blank this morning, what is MBP and MBA? I think you are saying you tried to have a partial catalog imported directly? And you found out that does not work? It's still early where I live and I'm only on my first cup of coffee....

 

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

I'm drawing a blank this morning, what is MBP and MBA?

Mac Book Pro which I use at home vs Mac Book Air which I took on the trip. Mac computers see each other easily over a network so I just tried it that way first.

I also learned on the trip that the Lightroom Queen's Missing FAQ has very extensive descriptions on how this all works. You simplified the steps but if anyone wants detail it's all there starting on about page 478.

 

[Viathelens]

Mac Book Pro which I use at home vs Mac Book Air which I took on the trip. Mac computers see each other easily over a network so I just tried it that way first.

I also learned on the trip that the Lightroom Queen's Missing FAQ has very extensive descriptions on how this all works. You simplified the steps but if anyone wants detail it's all there starting on about page 478.

It's really quite easy to do. I don't follow the LRQ so don't know what she has posted. Glad it worked out for you. I've been using this method for many years and it's always worked well for me.