Lightroom classic question

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sh1209

sh1209

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Until a few years ago I kept my images on my internal Mac ssd then eventually moved the images to an external drive. I’ve always kept the catalog on the internal ssd as well for increased performance. As of lately I’m considering keeping the current years images back on my internal ssd which imo is just so much better. Just curious if anyone does this and if you like it that way?
 
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I don't use a Mac, but I always keep my most recent photos on my fastest drive (internal SSD). They get moved to a spinning drive/NAS after my attention moves to the next project.
 
It's a good practice I think. I keep one Lightroom catalog for all photos all years on the ssd, and keep one folder for this year's photos on the local drive, the ssd if I have room. As I run out of room I archive the folder for previous years to an external drive, but keep it linked to the one lightroom catalog. Don't forget backups.
 
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I have a 4tb internal drive with only about 500GB on it currently so I have a ton of space. Just sorta sick of constantly messing with the external drive.
 
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I keep my catalog on the Mac drive but I save all the raw and jpg files on an external LaCie big dock drive. I am curious what performance gains do you see by not doing this? I am going to likely upgrade my 2017 iMac to a new loaded M2 Ultra Studio later this year and when I do this I am going to transition my external drives to SSD. I appreciate any insight you all may have.
 
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DavidT said:
I keep my catalog on the Mac drive but I save all the raw and jpg files on an external LaCie big dock drive. I am curious what performance gains do you see by not doing this? I am going to likely upgrade my 2017 iMac to a new loaded M2 Ultra Studio later this year and when I do this I am going to transition my external drives to SSD. I appreciate any insight you all may have.
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Basically uploading the files from the card is exponentially faster and there’s zero lag whenever going form image to image. I had My iMac custom built in 2020 and wanted to have extra space for photos hence the 4tb ssd. At the end of the year I’ll just offload the originals onto the spinning external drive. I used to do this every 3 to 4 years with my MacBook pros but I shoot a lot more images now so it will have to be done most likely once a year. it’s just really nice logistically having everything internally. I also load smart previews of all edited images into Lightroom web. If I need to access these at any time on my phone or anything, I have access to a smart preview, which is nice.
 
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I agree keeping your catalog & images on the internal is best if you have the space. Since upgrading to a Mac Studio (4TB internal SSD) I have enough storage currently. If I need to archive I can either do it to my Synology NAS which is always connected to the network which can be mapped to Lightroom under folders. Obviously the network connection is slower but I can still access all the original files. You could also map your external drive using this technique and only plug it in if you need access to the originals. Doing it this way still allows preview of the thumbnails in your catalog and you only need access to the original files if you were wanting to edit in an external app (Photoshop, Topaz, DXO, etc.).
 
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gnpToday said:
I agree keeping your catalog & images on the internal is best if you have the space. Since upgrading to a Mac Studio (4TB internal SSD) I have enough storage currently. If I need to archive I can either do it to my Synology NAS which is always connected to the network which can be mapped to Lightroom under folders. Obviously the network connection is slower but I can still access all the original files. You could also map your external drive using this technique and only plug it in if you need access to the originals. Doing it this way still allows preview of the thumbnails in your catalog and you only need access to the original files if you were wanting to edit in an external app (Photoshop, Topaz, DXO, etc.).
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Yeah, in my opinion, just about every aspect of use is improved by having everything internally and it’s easy to offload images once a year or so to an external drive and not have to mess with it every time you use it
 
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With the 4TB drive it seems like a no brainer. Use that. Move your files with LR as others said.

I don’t have the internal space so here is what I did.

For those that want something akin to an internal drive but external, OWC sells a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure to which I added 2TB Samsung 970 NVMe drives. Total cost was around $230 for each 2TB drive. I can get 1400mb/s read write vs say 650-700 for a Samsung T7 or my Synology NAS with 10gb port which hits about 550-600. As far as LR and PS are concerned the faster internal and the external MVMe are likely the same. I haven’t confirmed but seems to be just from working on some images.

EDIT - based on current prices you can get these for about $190 for the enclosure and drive.

If you have fast internet, the OWC Thunderbolt Pro doc has two good things - a super fast CFE and SD reader built in and a 10gb Ethernet connection. It only has 2 thunderbolt ports and one has to go to the MAC. That’s its only downside to me. This dock is what enables my faster NAS. I mention this here for those that are looking for a fast card reader and other expansion.

I haven’t decided yet on my approach as the NAS is too new and haven’t tested the speeds on images but I will likely keep current images on the NVMe drives.

For you the internal drives makes a ton of sense especially with smart previews.
 
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There was a discussion at LR Queen Forums a few months ago about the location of the image files and its impact on speed. While keeping image files on the internal drive is probably the fastest, the gain over a fast external drive with a fast connection (TB or USB-C) is often not as great as expected, especially if you have previews generated (esp. 1:1). LRC at this time, does not do an extensive amount of reading of the image file. Opening it in the develop module is probably the biggest read. So, you may gain some speed, but it probably will not be of a great magnitude in daily operations. Of course, YMMV.

--Ken
 
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sh1209 said:
Basically uploading the files from the card is exponentially faster and there’s zero lag whenever going form image to image. I had. My iMac custom built in 2020 and wanted to have extra space for photos hence the 4tb ssd. At the end of the year I’ll just offload the originals onto the spinning external drive. Are used to do this every 3 to 4 years with my MacBook pros but I shoot a lot more images now so it will have to be done most likely once a year. it’s just really nice logistically having everything internally. I also load smart previews of all edited images into Lightroom web. If I need to access these at any time on my phone or anything, I have access to a smart preview, which is nice.
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Interesting. I have been debating on how big of a drive to get in the Mac Studio since Apple charges a lot for storage.

Currently what I do is pull images from cards onto a 2TB NVME in a Thunderbolt 4 enclosure, it is really fast! I then upload them into photomechanic and do my quick selections and save those into a separate folder. Then I move those images into the correct folder inside of Lightroom which saves to my external LaCie drive and then I edit and save copies from there. My M1 MacBook Pro is significantly faster than my iMac for sorting so I have been using it for sorting etc but once that is done I move it all to the iMac.

I have plans to buy a 4TB Thunderbolt 4 NVME drive which replaces the need for the super expensive onboard drive and I think I will just do a 2TB onboard drive in the new studio and spend that money in the ultra and ram.
 
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DavidT said:
Interesting. I have been debating on how big of a drive to get in the Mac Studio since Apple charges a lot for storage.

Currently what I do is pull images from cards onto a 2TB NVME in a Thunderbolt 4 enclosure, it is really fast! I then upload them into photomechanic and do my quick selections and save those into a separate folder. Then I move those images into the correct folder inside of Lightroom which saves to my external LaCie drive and then I edit and save copies from there. My M1 MacBook Pro is significantly faster than my iMac for sorting so I have been using it for sorting etc but once that is done I move it all to the iMac.

I have plans to buy a 4TB Thunderbolt 4 NVME drive which replaces the need for the super expensive onboard drive and I think I will just do a 2TB onboard drive in the new studio and spend that money in the ultra and ram.
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I think I will definitely stick with 4TB regardless if I go to a studio or MacBook Pro because its just better to have the space if needed plus that extra space can act as swap for performance if needed.
 
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On upgrading to M1 MacBook Pro with 4TB internal, I really enjoy the speed and ease of use with nothing hanging off the MBP. I find it so much simpler, relaxed and yet ‘focussed’ 😉 I can easily move rooms and edit where I want. Backup to Seagate and La Cie hard drives.
 
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BorderBirder said:
On upgrading to M1 MacBook Pro with 4TB internal, I really enjoy the speed and ease of use with nothing hanging off the MBP. I find it so much simpler, relaxed and yet ‘focussed’ 😉 I can easily move rooms and edit where I want. Backup to Seagate and La Cie hard drives.
Click to expand...
Same thoughts here and if I go back to a MacBook Pro that’s exactly what I’ll do
 
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