with Multiple Catalogs
I often am asked about the circumstances under which it makes sense to employ a multiple catalog approach to working with Lightroom Classic. There’s no absolute right answer, but if you understand the limitations of catalogs, you can make the best decision for your circumstances (however, for most people, just having a single catalog works best).
That said, if you have unique circumstances where groups of photos are so discrete that you might want or need to keep them separate from each other (for example, having a separate catalog for each client or job), a multi-catalog approach might make more sense. You still need a system for managing all these catalogs so that you can get your hands on the right image when you need it, though.
Some people are concerned about the size of a single catalog as a limiting factor, seeing that as a reason to have many smaller catalogs, but Lightroom Classic imposes no limit on the number of photos that you can import into a catalog. Your system components are a bigger limiting effect on performance when working with large catalogs. Generally, maximizing your RAM, maintaining ample free space on your startup disk (an SSD drive here is also a good idea), and using fast multicore processors all improve the performance of working with very large catalogs. I do know of many people working happily with catalogs in excess of 500,000 photos.
I can imagine one scenario, though, where multiple catalogs might make sense: when you’re working with a laptop on the road and away from your desktop (and master catalog). Because this set of circumstances is probably common, I think it makes sense to look at what’s involved in transferring information between two catalogs.
Transferring data between catalogs
Okay, in this scenario you have a desktop computer and it contains your master catalog. You do most of your image processing and printing from this workstation. The catalog on this computer is the hub through which all your work passes through. However, as the saying goes, you can’t take it with you, so you also have a laptop for working offsite (or while watching TV).
Pretend you’re leaving for a week of shooting at some exotic location (hey, you’re imagining, so you may as well enjoy it). You need to be able to import and process the photos on your laptop while on location and then get all that work into your master catalog upon your return. In this circumstance, you must do the following:
Import and process new photos into the laptop while on the road.
Get all the work from the laptop to the desktop (and master catalog) upon returning.
Is this possible? Yes, by using Lightroom Classic’s catalog Export and Import functions. The next two sections give you the blow-by-blow.
Exporting a catalog
Okay, you’ve returned from the trip with a laptop full of photos and the laptop’s catalog full of data. The first part of your (imaginary) process is to get these photos and the catalog data from the laptop to the desktop computer. Here are the steps for one way to do it:
1 Open Lightroom Classic on the laptop.This opens your temporary working catalog from the trip.
2 Expand the Catalog panel in the Library module and click All Photographs.For this example, you’ll want to export all the photos in the laptop catalog, and this is the easiest way to gather them up. You’ll see the thumbnails of all imported photos appear in the content area.
3 Choose File ⇒ Export as Catalog from the main menu.Doing so launches the dialog shown in Figure 2-9.
4 Choose the location where you want the exported catalog and photos to be saved.The goal is to get the data from the laptop to the desktop. High-speed external drives are great for data transfers of this size. You can export across a network, but a high-speed external drive may be faster if you’re moving a lot of data. I like using external drives so I can do the export before I get home and then simply connect the external drive to the desktop for transfer. The choice is yours.
5 Enter a name in the Name field.
6 Configure the check boxes at the bottom.Figure 2-9 shows I am exporting a catalog with 1108 photos and 4 virtual copies (more on virtual copies in Chapter 5). By clicking All Photographs in Step 2, I told Lightroom Classic I wanted to export everything, so I don’t want to check Export Selected Photos Only (this option appears only if one or more photos were selected before invoking the menu). The Export Negative Files option means that Lightroom Classic will include a copy of every imported photo along with the exported catalog, so that needs to be checked. (This is how you move the photos from the laptop to the desktop.) Including available previews is not required, but it will enable you to see the thumbnails when you import this catalog into the master catalog. There isn’t a need to create Smart Previews now, so leave that unchecked.
7 Click Export Catalog.Your export begins.
FIGURE 2-9: The dialog that appears when exporting a catalog on Mac. In Windows, the dialog box looks like a File Explorer window but functions the same.
When the progress meter is complete, a copy of your catalog has migrated to the new location you chose. It’s a fully functional catalog containing all the data the master catalog has on those exported photos. Look in the exported folder, and you see the folders containing the photos alongside the catalog file. Phase 1 is done. Time to connect that catalog to the one on your desktop computer.
Importing from a catalog
Now that you have a folder containing your exported catalog as well as copies of your photos, you need to make it accessible to the desktop computer. In my example, I used an external drive that I moved from the laptop to the desktop computer. Here are the steps to import from a catalog:
1 Connect the external drive to the desktop computer.
2 Open the desired Lightroom Classic catalog on the desktop computer.This opens the catalog you want to import the data from the other catalog into.
3 Choose File ⇒ Import from Another Catalog.A file browsing window appears.
4 Navigate to the exported .lrcat file on the external drive, select it, and then click Choose (Open on Windows).Doing so launches the Import from Catalog dialog shown in Figure 2-10. Note: The name of the .lrcat file you’re importing from is shown on the Title bar of the dialog. If your photos aren’t visible in the Preview section, select the Show Preview check box.
5 Choose
