• 
• 
• 

Exporting And Importing Catalogs In Lightroom, Part II

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Last week, I wrote about how to use the export/import catalog feature in Lightroom to simplify the process of using Lightroom to process images on different PC’s (see Exporting And Importing Catalogs In Lightroom, Part I at www.outdoorphotographer.com.

I detailed two specific scenarios. In the first, I showed how to make a copy of your main archive so you can take it with you on a laptop. In the second scenario, I showed how to export a collection as a catalog, a procedure I use to send a batch of images out for keywording. There is one other situation where I use the export catalog function that I’ll describe here.

In my workflow, I keep a separate catalog of images that are what I call “in production.” These are images that I have recently shot and need some basic editing before I add them to my main archive. I know some photographers like to keep every image they shoot and just add them to their main archive before processing, but I like to keep a neat house and edit out the junk before committing the hard drive space on a permanent basis. I keep this “in production” catalog on a removable drive that I can use on my laptop while travelling or with my main PC when I’m in the studio, which works great for me.

I keep the images from each new shoot in a separate collection in this production catalog, and then I process the images from each collection when I have time or I need to get the images out to a client. Once a collection is fully edited and ready to go I’ll add those images to my main Lightroom archive. Originally, I would just export those images on to a separate hard drive and then import them into my main catalog. This works great, but I’ve discovered the process goes even faster if I export the collection as a new catalog and then import that catalog into my main catalog. The advantage of this is that in addition to importing the images and the metadata attached to them, the import catalog function also copies the previews associated with those images, which means Lightroom doesn’t have to go through the process of rendering those previews a second time.

Add Comment