Taking Lightroom on the road

[krisheylen]

I did a shoot, and have imported the pictures into Lightroom in the usual way: convert to DNG and copy to (multiple)

external drives.

 

Now I have to take my laptop to the designer to make some final edits, sorting, choosing, etc... I have already written

my metadata to the DNG files, copied to the drive of the laptop and made another catalog in LR where I have imported

these copies.

 

Now, after those edits, how can I sync my main catalog with the edits we will make with the designer ? Is it really

necessary to delete all the pictures from this catalog, overwrite with the new DNG-files and re-import everything? Or is

there a quicker way.

 

I also have my normal catalogs on the external drive, and prefer not to mess too much with them either, and I also

don't want to take all the drives with me, just the laptop.

 

Thanks for your suggestions.

[mark_sirota1]

(1) On the laptop: Export As Catalog. No need to include the negative files.

(2) Copy the exported catalog to the computer hosting the main catalog.

(3) On that computer, "Import From Catalog".

 

Also, the easier way to get what you need onto the laptop would be to select the relevant images, then Export As Catalog, including the negative files. Then move the folder containing the exported catalog and negative files to the laptop.

[krisheylen]

Thanks Mark.

 

Will the older edits be overwritten with the newer ones in my main catalog? That would be just what I

need. Also, there is no "other" computer. Everything will be on the same laptop, so I can just skip step

2. It's just that at home, I have everything (pictures and catalog) on external hard drives, which I don't

want to take with me, hence copying only what I need to the build-in drive.

 

I guess the question is: How will LR handle importing a catalog of pictures that are already in it? Ignore

(skip) them or update them, or even duplicate them (which I don't want)?

[mark_sirota1]

You have that choice when you import from catalog. Give it a try before needing to use it for real, you'll see -- it's quite straightforward.

[jason_fudge4]

You can also select the photos from your main catalog that you want to use on the road. Then export them as a catalog. Then on the laptop computer, you can import the newly created catalog.

 

There is a video on how to do this on www.lightroomkillertips.com. The how to is called "Moving Between Laptop and Desktop" and can be found here: http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/2008/friday-video-moving-between-laptop-and-desktop/

 

I think this is what you want.