A catalog is a database that stores a record for each of your photos. This record contains three key pieces of information about each photo:. When you import photos into Lightroom Classic, you create a link between the photo itself and the record of the photo in the catalog. Then, any work you perform on the photo — such as adding keywords or removing red eye — is stored in the photo's record in the catalog as additional metadata.
When you're ready to share the photo outside Lightroom Classic — upload it to Facebook, print it, or create a slideshow, for example — Lightroom Classic applies your metadata changes, which are like photo-developing instructions, to a copy of the photo so that everyone can see them.
Lightroom Classic never changes the actual photos captured by your camera. In this way, editing in Lightroom Classic is nondestructive. You can always return to the original, unedited photo. The way Lightroom Classic works is different from a file browser such as Adobe Bridge. File browsers need direct, physical access to the files they display. Files must actually be on your hard drive, or your computer must be connected to a storage media that contains the files, for Adobe Bridge to show them.
Are you familiar? When closing LR and backing up I am now seeing a message about the size of the backup on my Mac is over 4GB and if I want to open I need some form of zip reader to open the file.
What is causing this to occur? This is a bug in Lightroom for Mac. Or maybe that is all in my mind. Your email address will not be published. Scott Kelby. December 16, Best, -Scott P. This is a widely used database system used in many other software products and it is designed to store millions and millions of pieces of data with minimal to no latency in accessing that data. The way SQLite databases work, database size has zero effect on the speed of accessing data.
What can slow you down is the size of the specific piece of data that you are accessing. This means that working with a photo that has a lot of edits performed can slow you down but the overall size of the database does not. This is the reason you will see some individuals with anecdotal stories complaining of slowdowns with large databases.
Most likely, there are other causes such as a slow hard drive, slower computer, or trying to access photos with a lot of editing done on them. Keywording your photos is probably the best way to organize your photos.
The biggest benefit to keywording is that a single photo can fit multiple keywords. And when you use keywords well, having one catalog allows you to make the best possible use of keywords. As you might expect, searching for certain keywords in a catalog of photos will be faster than searching for a keyword in a database of , photos.
But citing faster keyword searching as a reason for using multiple catalogs is a bad argument because it takes a LOT longer to open and close multiple catalogs than it ever would to keyword search even the most massive of Lightroom catalogs.
That image could be keyworded with vacation, landscape, Grand Canyon, sunrise, and probably a few more. Collections are one of the most powerful tools in Lightroom and probably one of the most underused features as well. Less moving actual files around means less chance for file corruption, misplacing, or accidental deleting. It also means that you can have photos that fit into multiple collections.
That means that you can categorize and break down your photos however you like, delete a collection, change a collection, or do just about anything you want, and your original photos are safe in their folder. How would I do it.. Does Lightroom support one catalog and multiple storage drives? My first drive is full and I have now purchased a second. Do I need a new catalog for it, or can one single catalog file contain images sitting on multiple storage drives?
Lightroom is quite happy with multiple drives, they show in the Folders panel when you add the photos. Make sure to back up the additional locations. Hi there, thanks for this great post! Cheers, Nadine. LR-MasterCatalogv10 will be the upgraded catalog created when you installed Classic Checking the dates used will confirm this. So, assuming LR-MasterCatalogv10 is your current catalog and is working fine, the other is no longer needed.
Your email address will not be published. There are Quick Start eBooks for both the traditional desktop-based Lightroom Classic, and for the new Lightroom cloud ecosystem. The eBooks are yours to download absolutely FREE, along with a number of other free member benefits, when you register for a free account. Already registered? Sign in to download your copy. Mobile sync only works with one catalog.
Why do some people recommend multiple catalogs? Some people say that small catalogs are faster than big catalogs, and this is true in some circumstances: Smaller catalogs are faster to open and back up than very large catalogs — but how many times a day do you need to open and back up?
Who should consider multiple master catalogs? How do you differentiate between shoots in a single catalog? For example, your Folders, Collections and Keywords panel may have separate hierarchies for each style: This way, you still have all of the benefits of a single catalog, but with the ability to quickly and easily view and search specific photos. If you decide you need multiple catalogs, there are also a few questions to ask yourself: How are you going to divide the catalogs?
By client all of the shoots for the Jones family — engagement, wedding, baby, family By job the Jones baby shoot By date How will you know which catalog you should open to find a specific photo?
Do you ever need to search through all of your photos to find a specific photo, or group together your best shots for your portfolio? If so, you may choose the best of both worlds: keep your current photos in a small working catalog or a catalog per job , and then use Import from Catalog to transfer them into a large searchable archive catalog when completed. Where will you store the catalogs? Will you keep all of the catalogs together in a single folder, or keep the catalog in the same folder as the photos?
How will you make sure your keyword lists are consistent in all of your catalogs? Conclusions So, should you have one catalog or multiple catalogs? Comments Thank you for this clarification of large vs. The key wording, rating and editing is a work in progress and a labour of love. Thanks for the article. Well timed! Thanks for any thoughts! Just putting in my 2c. Great example Agnieszka. Travel is one occasion I do recommend a temporary extra catalog.
When I asked about searching multiple catalogs, I was told this of course is not possible. When I asked about system speed degradation, he said multiple catalogs would resolve this. Thanks for an informative post! Thanks so much for your help!
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