DAM and Lightroom

[reed_rowe]

I am just starting to use Lightroom and had only used Bridge before. I am also

at the point where I now need to start moving a lot of files offline. I know

that Lightroom can catalog offline files, but what I need to know is the best

way to do this. I would like to keep current photo sessions on my HD, but as new

sessions come in, I would like to let the oldest sessions then get backed up to

DVD. Just to keep the most recent files on my HD and ready to use. Does anyone

have any suggestions for how to stay organized doing this? Can Lightroom keep

track of files that I moved offline that originally were cataloged on the HD? If

I am looking for a file in Lightroom that actually is on a DVD, will Lightroom

be able to know WHICH DVD it is stored on? If anyone gets where I am going with

all of this, I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and current methods.

[ellis_vener_photography]

Have you read "The DAM Book" by Peter Krogh?

[patricklavoie]

im not sure because i dont realy need that feature, but i hear it should. Let me see in Martin Evening new Lr Book if he suggest any of this.

[reed_rowe]

I have not read "The DAM Book" but I guess that I should....? Sounds like a great place to start.

[ellis_vener_photography]

It's a pretty good place to start. Peter Krogh, on the forums at http://

www.thedambook.com has said that he doesn't like Lightroom as a DAM product. His

points may be well taken but on the other hand may not be. His basic argument against it

as a DAM solution is that it is new and as such may be open to revision. Lightroom v1 is

certainly different in this regard than the final public beta of the program. My take on that

is that if Adobe revises DAm in Lr 2.0 it they will take pains to support legacy files.

 

Martin Evening also has a large and in depth chapter on "Managing the Library" in his new

book "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book". That may be a better place for you to start.

But even Evening refers readers back to "The DAM Book" for back up and archiving

strategies.

[tim_biehn]

I have been moving a lot of old my pics lately to DVD.

The process that works for me is to simply add a KeyWord (such as "Archive-1")pointing me to the name of the Disk that I have stored my pics on.

Simple and effective.

[godfrey]

I recommend and read Peter Krogh's excellent book for the concepts of data management

he

articulates, not for his specific software recommendations, likes or dislikes. ;-)

 

I have active work on the main drive, and several years of prior work on mirrored external

drives. To keep Lightroom's operations brisk and my system tidy, the main library on the

main drive contains only active files from the main drive.

 

I have a second master library on the backup drives that contains everything, so when I

need to search through older work I startup one of the older drives and tell Lightroom to

open that library. I then import all the latest active work that was backed up there and

have the complete repository at my disposal.

 

Godfrey

[fanta]

Reed, right now LR offers limited functionality to handle off-line files. A pretty complete functionality for that is in other applications, like IMatch. I hope the next LR release will have actual support for off-line images.

 

For now, what I do is to tag pictures in LR database with a keyword with the serial number of the removable media. You can check it out from the Windows command line, with a DIR command (e.g. DIR G:\ if your DVD player has letter G: ). Then I write the same serial number (8 hexadecimal digits) on the DVD with a marker. Major issue I had with this approach is that if two pictures (even on different discs) have the same file name and are off-line, then LR will assume they are the same picture and will not import the second one. Un-checking Ignore Duplicate doesn't help. So if you used the same numbering/naming convention for different pictures on multiple discs, you are stuck.

[vadim_zaitsev]

Reed,

 

I suggest to use root's folder name as dvd label. All photos on DVD (or folders contained them) should be placed inside this folder. For example:

 

d:\dvd01\07-05-2007

 

d:\dvd01\10-05-2007

 

Locate in LR new place of the photos on DVD.

 

Write down 'dvd01' on the dvd's surface.

 

When You click on photo which is offline, LR shows that this photo was last time in folder d:\dvd01\... Then You know which dvd disk You need to put in your dvd-rom. (Which is have label 'dvd01')

 

In this approach You will avoid duplicate photos on different dvds, as they will have different root folder name.

[ceesmaas]

<p>Reed,<br /><br />Just finished reading the second edition of Peter Krogh's The DAM Book. This book is even better than the first edition and includes also a very good sample of a Lightroom workflow.<br />The book provides a very stable workflow and image management system for long in the future to come. The DOF in the book (476 pages) is unbelievable.<br />Peter Krogh (he manages an archive of about 300.000 photographs) knows what he is talking about. The Dam Book is a great tool for any serious photographer.<br />Go for it.</p>