Am I missing something re: importing??

[stillwatergal]

I know that if I shoot in RAW + jpeg, I can uncheck every other box on the import screen if I only want to quickly load the jpegs. What I want to know is if there something quick and easy I can set that tells LR to "load jpegs only."
(I expect to be traveling with a laptop that doesn't have enough RAM to load my RAW files. They'll go onto a portable hard drive. But I'd like to quickly review what I shoot each day and make appropriate camera corrections to avoid some post processing later. I expect I'll easily shoot 300 images a day and it's a long trip!).
thanks
stephanie

[Patrick]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

I know that if I shoot in RAW + jpeg, I can uncheck every other box on the import screen if I only want to quickly load the jpegs. What I want to know is if there something quick and easy I can set that tells LR to "load jpegs only."
(I expect to be traveling with a laptop that doesn't have enough RAM to load my RAW files. They'll go onto a portable hard drive. But I'd like to quickly review what I shoot each day and make appropriate camera corrections to avoid some post processing later. I expect I'll easily shoot 300 images a day and it's a long trip!).
thanks
stephanie

Hi Stephanie

There is no reason to put the images on the laptop, load them each day to your portable hard drive, You can then connect it to your laptop, run Lightroom import all the images to the library in the usual way.
The full images themselves will not be put on the laptop just thumbnails along with information as to where they are stored, which is what it does anyway.
The thumbnails can be viewed any time but if some adjustments are required the portable H/D will have to be connected to gain access to the full size image. Work can be done on the image and themselves saved to the H/D. In fact the portable H/D shows on the laptop as if it is an internal H/D and part of the machine, at least while connected.
If you want to maximise space and your first choice is to work on RAW files there is no need to record JPG's at all.

I suggest you have a practice and try it out before setting out on your trip and familiarize yourself with how it works.

Patrick

[stillwatergal]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

Hi Stephanie

There is no reason to put the images on the laptop, load them each day to your portable hard drive, You can then connect it to your laptop, run Lightroom import all the images to the library in the usual way.
The full images themselves will not be put on the laptop just thumbnails along with information as to where they are stored, which is what it does anyway.
The thumbnails can be viewed any time but if some adjustments are required the portable H/D will have to be connected to gain access to the full size image. Work can be done on the image and themselves saved to the H/D. In fact the portable H/D shows on the laptop as if it is an internal H/D and part of the machine, at least while connected.
If you want to maximise space and your first choice is to work on RAW files there is no need to record JPG's at all.

I suggest you have a practice and try it out before setting out on your trip and familiarize yourself with how it works.

Patrick

This sounds rather straightforward, Patrick. But somehow it clashes with a prior experience, which was a bit different. Then what I did was to use a card reader and load images from the reader to LR. I shot only RAW--no jpeg. Half way through our trip the laptop's memory was full and I couldn't review any more images. What am I missing here? Is this somehow about a preferences setting that I would set in some way I may be missing?
Stephanie

[stillwatergal]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

As I read your answer again Patrick, I guess what I'm missing here is that I don't understand what you mean when you say that I don't actually put the images on the laptop but that after I load the images to the portable storage device I'll be able to import all the images to the LR library but see only the thumbnails. I'll try this out without understanding it :-) and see what happens.....
thanks
s

[Patrick]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

This sounds rather straightforward, Patrick. But somehow it clashes with a prior experience, which was a bit different. Then what I did was to use a card reader and load images from the reader to LR. I shot only RAW--no jpeg. Half way through our trip the laptop's memory was full and I couldn't review any more images. What am I missing here? Is this somehow about a preferences setting that I would set in some way I may be missing?
Stephanie

Lightroom does not import the image at all, it simply records where you have stored them, be it CD, H/D or memory card.
By importing from the memory card, you told it that's where the full images were stored. It would add side car files which tells Lightroom where the image is and what adjustments you made, this is probably what filled up.
You could have only filled up the laptop if you downloaded to the Laptop H/D, then on into the Lightroom library, that way Lightroom sees them on the laptop H/D.
As I say try it out and see for yourself. You will notice that images on a portable drive loaded to the Lightroom library will highlight automatically in red if the storage drive is not connected, this is because it has no access to the full image.

A thought!! do you use the preference to automatically load Lightroom when a memory card is connected, this I think loads to both the computer H/D and the library I always download the images myself to where I want them before putting them into the library.

Patrick

[stillwatergal]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

Hi Patrick,
OK.... I think this will work but I'm still a bit confused. I shot a number of test shots and put them on my Hyperdrive Colorspace photo storage backup unit (which, somehow--since I'm a slower learner about this stuff <g>--, I think of as something other than the portable HD it really is...). LR didn't see the the Hyperdrive as a device but saw it as a HD (a disc) sitting on my desktop. I imported them by checking "add to catalog without moving" and the thumbnails flew into LR!

I then took one image and made a couple of changes to it and then placed it in a collection. Finally I disconnected the Hyperdrive. At that point, LR did just what I expected it would, it showed those little "?s" on the thumbnails of the images until I reconnected the Hyperdrive. When reconnected, there were the changes I'd made to the image.

I realize that I never really think about where my images are, since normally, I actually do download to my Mac's HD which back up hourly to an external HD. Just not thinking here!

Then, just to be sure all worked fine, (which it does) I took one of the images and exported it to a jumpdrive. Yahoo! All is good!

Thanks so much!
Stephanie

[stillwatergal]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

P.S. no longer confused!1

[Ian]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

Lightroom does not import the image at all, it simply records where you have stored them, be it CD, H/D or memory card.
By importing from the memory card, you told it that's where the full images were stored. It would add side car files which tells Lightroom where the image is and what adjustments you made, this is probably what filled up.
You could have only filled up the laptop if you downloaded to the Laptop H/D, then on into the Lightroom library, that way Lightroom sees them on the laptop H/D.
As I say try it out and see for yourself. You will notice that images on a portable drive loaded to the Lightroom library will highlight automatically in red if the storage drive is not connected, this is because it has no access to the full image.

A thought!! do you use the preference to automatically load Lightroom when a memory card is connected, this I think loads to both the computer H/D and the library I always download the images myself to where I want them before putting them into the library.

Patrick

Just to clarify, you can set Lightroom to import your images (RAW and or JPEG), without physically importing the original images - in other words, you can choose to let them stay where they are. But I personally choose to use the Lightroom option to move them to a central storage location. You can also choose to make copies and save them centrally, without deleting the originals.

The tip about automatic importing is a good one.

Ian

[Patrick]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

Just to clarify, you can set Lightroom to import your images (RAW and or JPEG), without physically importing the original images - in other words, you can choose to let them stay where they are. But I personally choose to use the Lightroom option to move them to a central storage location. You can also choose to make copies and save them centrally, without deleting the originals.

The tip about automatic importing is a good one.

Ian

Thanks Ian I had a feeling my explanation was not as clear as it might be, it's one thing doing it and another trying to explain.

Anyway it looks as if Stephanie is sorted now.

Patrick

[stillwatergal]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

Thanks to both of you. My general (non-laptop process) is to copy as DNG and add to catalog. That way they remain on my media card until I do an in-camera reformat of the card which I never do until I am 100% positive that the images are on my HD (which backs up to an external HD hourly).

Re my preferences, I did have "show import dialog when memory card is detected" checked, but I ALWAYS had to open that dialog box anyway. Never understood why and still don't, but now I've disabled it. The test I did yesteday with my Hyperdrive worked just fine with that box checked--ODD.
thanks again
stephanie

[Patrick]

Re: Am I missing something re: importing??

Thanks to both of you. My general (non-laptop process) is to copy as DNG and add to catalog. That way they remain on my media card until I do an in-camera reformat of the card which I never do until I am 100% positive that the images are on my HD (which backs up to an external HD hourly).

Re my preferences, I did have "show import dialog when memory card is detected" checked, but I ALWAYS had to open that dialog box anyway. Never understood why and still don't, but now I've disabled it. The test I did yesteday with my Hyperdrive worked just fine with that box checked--ODD.
thanks again
stephanie

Glad to be of help

Patrick