Bayla
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Post by Bayla on Sept 7, 2015 12:57:32 GMT
After my recent back-up débacle (see I Thought I Had Backed Everything Up) I have ended up losing my Organiser catalog. Now I may still go down the avenue of paid data restoration which might (no guarantees) be able to get it back for me, but to be perfectly honest, having decided to install LR6 I'm wondering whether it might be best to cut my losses and just use LR for organising my photos, and forget about the Organiser. What would everyone advise? Bayla |
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bnk1953
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 183 
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by bnk1953 on Sept 7, 2015 13:37:21 GMT
I'm on a Mac and never really liked PSE for organizing. I just started with Lightroom 6 - and really never had any organization before then except by year and event. I followed Scott Kelby's recommendation of having a large hard drive to have all of my photos in before starting up lightroom. So far I have been happy with how Lightroom works.
~bruce.
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Bayla
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Posts: 555
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Post by Bayla on Sept 7, 2015 13:41:06 GMT
Bruce,
I think that's the way I'm heading....but am doing some serious housekeeping before I start with LR so as to organise all the photos to the same place on my computer - at the moment they are a nightmare, all over the place! I have put off doing this before because of not wanting to move anything outside of the Organiser, but if that is out of the equation then there's really nothing to stop me.
Bayla
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Post by michelb on Sept 7, 2015 14:37:59 GMT
Bruce, I think that's the way I'm heading....but am doing some serious housekeeping before I start with LR so as to organise all the photos to the same place on my computer - at the moment they are a nightmare, all over the place! I have put off doing this before because of not wanting to move anything outside of the Organiser, but if that is out of the equation then there's really nothing to stop me. Bayla A few thoughts about preparing the file organization to the same place on your computer. The good idea is to have all your picture files under the same master folder. That can be on an internal or external drive; that's true for the organizer or Lightroom. The logical organization of the folder tree is not as important. You don't need a clean and tidy folder tree look, provided you have the right keywords, categories etc. Make sure you can find your way for your pictures easily. You know that Lightroom is able to convert PSE catalogs. I would advise working first in the organizer (you are already acquainted with it). Of course, don't move files or folders outside of the organizer. The organizer has a few advantages in the pre-migration phase. It recognizes more file formats than Lightroom (there are LR plugins to use later); maybe important for scrapbookers. Then, your best safety before the migration is an organizer full backup, which saves both your picture files and your catalog. The backup can also restore a library split over many disks to a single master folder. Another nice thing is that if your backup runs successfully, that's a good confirmation that everything is well. Lightroom can convert your catalog (well, nearly everything) and you can run the conversion again if you have updated your organizer catalog. The general consensus is to forget the organizer after the migration to LR. I am not sure it's true for scrapbookers; it could make sense to store scrapbooking assets in a dedicated organizer catalog. Make sure you have a good backup system for the picture files in Lightroom. It only cares for the backup of catalogs. |
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angelag
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Post by angelag on Sept 7, 2015 15:26:17 GMT
Bayla I can't comment on PSE Organiser because I never did use it, but my experience with Lightroom has been excellent, both for organising and for editing. I would like to suggest that, if you have time, and before you begin with LR, it would be a good idea to watch Tim Grey's excellent video on getting started: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSwkDC3q7uk The video is for LR 5 but all the same principles apply. I should warn that it's a long video, but the explanations are very clear. Good luck--I hope you enjoy using LR. AngelaG |
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Post by Sepiana on Sept 7, 2015 15:57:46 GMT
Bayla,
One thing to keep in mind (as Michel mentioned) is that the Organizer recognizes more file formats than Lightroom does. Fortunately, PNG, a common format in scrapbooking, is now supported by Lightroom. Unfortunately, the GIF format is not.
Supported file formats
However, if you work with GIF files, you can use this plug-in.
Any File (The name John R Ellis should ring a bell.)
As a side note -- If you are interested, CreativeLive offers this class.
Lightroom for Scrapbookers |
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Madame
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Posts: 504
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by Madame on Sept 7, 2015 17:24:11 GMT
I never liked the Organizer. Lightroom is my first choice everyday. Import, export, organizing, keywording, collections... and so on.
I make smart previews and let my files live on an external hard disc.
With a copy on a second hard disc. I only use Elements when I work with layers.
With smart previews I can work with all my files without worrying about my hard disc getting full.
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Post by muskokan on Sept 17, 2015 0:02:35 GMT
This is exactly my concern. I am currently using PSE 11 but have purchased a new computer. I am wondering if this might be the time to switch to Lightroom. Then I would still need PSE for editing.
Am I correct in understanding that LR uses less memory than PSE?
Could LR read the tags I have attached in PSE? I have been using "Write metadata to files" but only in the last year.
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Post by michelb on Sept 18, 2015 14:29:56 GMT
Am I correct in understanding that LR uses less memory than PSE? Could LR read the tags I have attached in PSE? I have been using "Write metadata to files" but only in the last year. LR does not use less memory than PSE, but it can use 'smart previews'. In the organizer, you store small 'thumbnails' into a cache file to be able to browse your files rapidly. They are very small. In Lightroom, you store 'previews' in a cache file; you can choose the size of those previews. Even if you don't choose 1:1 (real size) the previews are high quality. The idea of 'smart previews' is really smart. Since LR is a 'parametric' editor, it only stores the edits (the sliders settings) in its database together with the original file (often a large, raw one). Now, if you keep your catalog and smart previews on your small laptop, you can have your big originals elsewhere, on an external drive. That means you can not only organize and tag, but also do edits which will be good with your large previews. Even if the originals are not on line. The catalog will be updated, 'synced', when you are back to your main computer. The result is that your laptop requires much less disk space. With the organizer, I simply store my catalog and image files on an external drive. Today's external drives are very small, high capacity and low price, so that it's not a burden to carry the small drive along with my laptop. The tags you have written to files are available for any external editor including Lightroom. If you have written only a part of your tags, you can still write the tags to ALL your files. If you have a PSE catalog with all your tagging, Lightroom can convert it to its own format, keeping most of your organization. |
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Post by muskokan on Sept 19, 2015 0:37:47 GMT
If you have written only a part of your tags, you can still write the tags to ALL your files. I appreciate your explanation of Lightroom. Looks like it is not yet ready for Windows 10. Is there a command or aan easy way to write metadata to ALL my files? |
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Post by michelb on Sept 19, 2015 11:36:11 GMT
To write metadata to all your files, simply use the shortcut Ctrl A to select all thumbnails when you are in media view (no selection active, no selected albums), then use the short cut Ctrl W. Be patient !
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bnk1953
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 183
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by bnk1953 on Sept 19, 2015 15:22:30 GMT
Being new to Lightroom - what is Media View?
~bruce.
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Post by Andy on Sept 19, 2015 21:01:40 GMT
Being new to Lightroom - what is Media View? ~bruce. I believe that is a reference to the PSE Organizer, not to Lightroom. |
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Post by Andy on Sept 19, 2015 21:02:38 GMT
I switched from the Organizer to LR a few years back and haven't regretted it once. I switched primarily for the organization benefits, but then realized what a powerful editor LR is for RAW files.
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juliab
New Forum Member
Posts: 19
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Post by juliab on Jan 8, 2016 13:46:22 GMT
I use Lightroom for converting my raw images & editing but haven't yet used any of it's organization features. I don't know how yet. My new years resolution is to start doing that because currently it's really a pain to try & find anything.
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