@Chris Eyre-Walker First time ever seen your channel and LOVE IT!!! THIS HELPED ME SOOOO MUCH!!! If you've done a newer version for 2020-2021, I'd LOVE to watch it!!! Thanks again!! #Liked #Commented #Subscribed
@@JeremyWilliamson Thanks man! My workflow hasn't changed that much over the years... So a newer version would look rather similar. Tells me that I've done the right thing ;-)
thnx mate. good video. One note to mention for new Carbon Copy users aswell as Chronosync, or Timemachine, these programs do not keep track of Renamed/Moved files. Be aware. It will simply re-upload everything new. This takes extra unnessecery time, espessialy if you have decided to rename a top-level folder tree. Your entire folder tree will need to be re-uploaded from scratch!!! Thats the only downside of these "dumb" backup apps. Its much better to have RAID 1 or RAID 10. Because, all the Renaming and Moving of files and folders are tracked by the OS with the mirroring ability, thus saving you alot of re-upload times.
Man this was an awesome video. I have really been struggling and a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out how to approach this process but your video illustrated everything perfectly. I am going to start working on gathering up the externals and programs and hope to have a smooth flow going soon. Thanks so much!
A Windows / free alternative for Carbon Copy Cloner would be FreeFileSync. It's free, Open Source and available for all 3 Platforms. It's amazing and never let me down.
Gorgeous Video Chris! Do you always carry your SSD with you? Do you see any disadvantages if you have your catalog on your computer? I have outsourced all RAWs except my catalog and Smart Previews. But they are still backed up.
Thanks. Yes I carry my SSD with me. The general idea is that I could access my catalog from any computer with LR installed when I attach my SSD. Also, after a while the smart previews and catalog itself become quite big, so having it on the computer isn’t the best place for it.
This is a super smart and thought-through workflow! Had that exact problem with losing files before too... BIGGEST PAIN EVER! Thanks for sharing, will actually give this exact flow a try!
This is great information! I am new to this workflow. I have two drives and 1TB SSD. I don't have Photo Mechanic, don't think I need it at this moment. But when importing RAW files into LR, how do you make sure it doesn't end up in the SSD card. I watched the Smart Previews video and understand how you use it. Previously my work flow was to simply import into LR, that ensured that my RAW files, catalog and edits were all on the same drive... but now that the catalog isn't on the same card. I am guess I am little lost on how you import into the catalog and only Smart Previews import? ALSO! how do you make sure the Catalog (SSD) sync up with the HDD?
Thanks. When importing your images directly into Lightroom you can, on the top side of the import window, select what to do: copy, move or add the photos to the catalog. You want to make sure that Lightroom doesn’t copy or move, but instead just adds them. This will leave the RAW files whenever you put them (on an external HDD for example) and Lightroom will build the smart previews where the catalog sits (on the SSD for example). The files get synced automatically as soon as you attach the HDD with the original files on it while in Lightroom. It’s so fast you don’t even notice it. It has never failed me.
hey chris! absolutely love your workflow! i was wondering though, when you export a photo for social media or a client, do you plug in your hard drive with the RAW files to export in the best quality? thanks :-)
For clients: yes. Always export from raw. For social: I don’t bother. The smart previews are good up to 2500px. For social I only need 2048px on the long end
It's true, at ~8:35 if your "file drives", you do have a problem (!Fails!) :) I loved that quick edit! Thanks for this. I've been revisiting tools in this field. I'm non professional though I did manage and shoot photos for a dance studio for a while and was using Aperture/Photoshop. Now, turning to my own massive personal collection including a few years travel overseas left untouched still.... I'm trying to figure out the right mix. It's not going to be Photoshop so I switched to Affinity, and thanks to your vids got turned towards Photo Mechanic!! Now working to figure out that middle piece(RIP Aperture.) Thinking it might be either Luminar or Capture One 20 Pro. Oh yes, and I've been using BackBlaze for the last year, good stuff. Thanks again, be well.
Great video Chris - backups are so important! Had a drive fail on me during my return flight - but thankfully had a backup and all was well. Curious - how come you're using collections so extensively over say keywords? The keywords seem like ideal usage for the location hierarchy - plus that metadata can be exported with the file.
SO great to hear that you had a backup! ;-) I actually also use keywords, the location info is inserted as keywords too in my import process with Photo Mechanic (using Variables) + I usually try to add GPS info in Lightroom by dropping the images into the area where I shot them (roughly) to triple up on the location info. I use collections mainly to organise my catalog inside Lightroom. I like that I can have the same image in 5 different collections without affecting the actual RAW file (or its location). Collections based on keywords could do this too of course.
I’m using the Easter band holiday to finally sort out my messy messy image archive and watching your video for the fifth time! Thanks for sharing your workflow Chris!
You have a really good grasp of workflow; what works for you. I look at several professionals and see that we each must choose what works for outselves. Thank you very much for sharing your workflow.
Great tips Chris, and as a long time user of Backblaze I could not agree more, have your files in (at least) 3 places with one being in the cloud. It saved me before when a ship sank and all electronics died. Floating drybags that's another story... ;-)
Great video! One more thought: how about storing an additional backup copy at a remote location (friend, storage box, etc) to avoid loss due to burglary or fire?
Great video! I've been thinking on getting PM.. its a great use case you show. A comment on backup though: being super aware I would not buy two identical drives but rather different makes. Because I remember this: techreport.com/news/28473/some-samsung-ssds-may-suffer-from-a-buggy-trim-implementation which potentially could lead to a catastrophy.
Very impressive video. Well thought out, organized, and stayed on topic. Sometimes people make these videos, tlka bout something, say they'll "get to that later", and then never do because they foget to cover the side bar topic.
Chris Eyre-Walker, I’m so impressed with “European” videos. Yours is one of those. I’m in The United States, but so many videos I watch, and the people I subscribe to are in Europe. I read your blog and see you’re from Belgium, and reside in Australia now. I envy your passion and travels. Keep up the good work.
great video Chris, should I back up raw wedding images from import to external hard drive first then use photo machanics to cull images b4 import to lightroom ? Thanks in advance ROb
Thanks Rob. I use Photo Mechanic as an import and first cull/sorting tool before I head over into Lightroom. As it’s most powerful at importing and working through many photos at a high speed pace. As for the backup, I do it later. I don’t format my cards until I have imported the photos and culled them in PM. Then I copy them across to a backup drive.
I feel really dumb since I don't do most of these. I started out with photography really young with a simple workflow and just stuck with it. Basically, I makes folders for a location like you. Right off the bat, I delete 30-40% of the photos which are blurry or trials at composing. I don't do the star rating thing. I create a separate folder and select and copy the top 10% photos. Then I right click on those to edit in LR. How much am I losing out in this process? Now even a bigger problem. I never shot in RAW for some reason. I realized the importance since I aged. Is these anyway I could recover some of it from jpg? Or edit jpegs that's less destructive in nature? Also, in the earlier years of my photography I edit photos that were destructive in nature. Like increasing noise and sharpness in the whole image instead of just selections. Can they be reversed if it's still in the catalog?
Thanks, Chris, I just found your channel and this video. Your workflow is very interesting, I did know about Photo Mechanics and I researched it on the web, and in my case where I work in personal art projects is an extra layer of work, but it is interesting the extensive metadata support. The workflow strategy depends on each individual, the number of photos, and the clients; I personally try to keep myself away from collections, except when archiving my work. I'd rather spend money in storage because if I want to move from LR in the future it is easy to manage the physical assets (Collections are handier to manage of course). One aspect that you did not talk is about Archive. Where to keep those final photos for digital archiving, I guess you create a special collection. Cheers and I started following you.
I am curious to know if you also have a process for folder structure and if you plan to do a video of it? For instance do you separate out client work from personal work, do you have set folders each time you have a new project? I plan to have 4 root folders for all of my data: Personal, Client, Assets, Template folder. Then the folders will dive deeper into specifics.
Wow, thanks for sharing your neatly organized and professional workflow! Please tell more about your smart albums - what criteria do you use to organize it this way, if you are not using ratings? How do you then organize your ‘best’ photos?
Thanks! I don't use smart collections much. It's mostly manual 'selections' that make up collections. Each project is usually sorted by country and location and inside there I'll make the 'best of' collections. Additionally I create collections for clients, web, portfolio etc. which I add to from those 'best of'. ie. if I shoot beautiful forests in Germany and on a later project forests in Norway, I might create a collection of: Forests Of Europe, which will contain the best shots of each. (just a as an example).
omg this is overwhelming having to back up and then back up some more due to the ever changing technology. I miss film because you had a physical negative where you could see, hold, and file away in a safe. Don't get me wrong, I love digital photography but backing up is hell.
Thank you for the helpful video but I'm missing the end to the story. Once you've edited in LR, do you export back to your original folder? How do I get PhotoMechanic to see the changes? Thanks!
Hi Chris, I have once lost my images so have paranoia to lose images. What happens to the raw images which is in the 2nd card. Do you rename them and then copy to hdd or just back them up. My concern is if any error happens to the first copy that has been made then backup will be having the original ones.
Does your .lrcat or .lrdata (preview) files stay within a reasonable size? It seems like my preview file has grown kind of big. Is there a way to build certain size previews or is it not an issue for you?
Since I pretty much only shoot with Olympus it all ends up in the one folder. But if i were to shoot multiple cameras I’d probably still put them in the same folder. I can separate the cameras easily inside Lightroom. And if needed make collections per camera.
Wow, what a fast response! One quick follow up question. Sorry for being a bother.....how would you search multiple catalogs for the exact photo you need to show a client?
Not quite... I keep all my RAW files on external drives. However, my Lightroom catalog is on a separate external SSD (which also contains all the Smart Previews), meaning I can edit a 'low resolution' version of all my RAW files without actually having to access them directly. Check out my Smart Preview video for more about that: ua-cam.com/video/vq92mqUI4qE/v-deo.html Also check out my blog post about this video for more detailed information: bit.ly/CEW-PhotoWorkflow
Great video Chris! I constantly look for ways to improve my backup, and most videos I watch online talk mostly about a stationary setup, which is not the best solution if you're on the move or don't have a lot of physical space. A couple of questions though; You have mentioned that you import the RAW images into your laptop first, in order to process them and then move them to your external drive for backup. First - how do you do that? through Lightroom? Second - do you then remove the RAW files from your computer? I really enjoy your content. It's magical to watch and always enjoyable. Keep it up!
Thanks Ido! Great to hear that you found it interesting. I do all the importing to my local drive (MacBook) with Photo Mechanic. Then work through them on Lightroom Once I’m done I move them to an external HDD. Best check out the blog article for this video too. More details and info there. 😉 Hope that helps. Chris
@Chris: your content in phenomenal! Thanks so much for sharing your workflow. As an amateur photographer I’ve felt stymied by the importing process, such that it’s been difficult to be motivated to even bother editing my photos. Your method makes so much sense and is well worth the software and hardware investments. @Ido: Thank you for asking your questions! These are the same burning questions I’ve had in my mind, and I now have my answers. Cheers!
Great Video Chris! I find it always interesting to see how other photographers organise their work. One quick comment though, your backups are only ever as good as their restore. Now this shouldn't be an issue for just copying files between disks. But I wonder if you have ever tried doing a large-scale restore from BackBlaze?
I assume they’re good and their product works, but without trying, how do you know if it works and isn‘t corrupted? I work in IT and ideally we‘d do a test restore of some of our backups every 1-2 months. I guess you wouldn‘t need it that regularly, but it usually is a hood thing to do. It also means you‘ll have a better idea of how to get your data back if you ever need to ;)
Thanks for this video! Just curious, why do you cull in Photo Mechanic? It seems to me like you could import to Lightroom, cull there, since that's where you will do everything else (even search for photos in the future using the catalog)... ect... I'm trying to figure out if I need photo mechanic or if it will just confuse me more. Thank you!
I use T on the keyboard to ‘Tag’ when I want to mark it for deleting. Once finished on my first pass I will then press Cmd + T to select all images that are tagged. Then Shift+Backspace to delete all tagged images. Hope that answers the question?
I have been yes! Loved it. I really enjoyed Almaty actually. Very cool city to explore and the mountains so close by. I also loved exploring Charyn Canyon and the lakes nearby in the mountains. 👌🏼
i have a question, if you're copied with both drives, what happens when those two become full? you no longer have a valuable solution? I want to be able to work from working drives on a laptop, then import them into a backup large solution like a 10tb external on my desktop. what suggestions would you have for me then?
I would be unable to clone drives from the external to a desktop solution due to the fact that the cloned drives would be full, where as the desktop solution is not.
Hey Chris, since you've got one drive for catalog and another drive for RAW files, I was wondering what do you really use for editing: do you connect both drives while editing on lightroom (catalog + raw files) or just edit with smart previews and have only one HD connected? Thanks man.
Actually, I initially keep the RAW files on the SSD (with the Catalog and Smart Previews) for a week or two. That way I can deliver these images in full res to a client faster if needed. After about a week or so I then move these files (inside Lightroom) to an external drive and work off the Smart Previews. Hope that makes sense.
Cool, just subscribed. I've been revamping my workflow because it got a bit overwhelming (both photo and video), so Im stealing tips from here and there and putting together the setup that will work for me.
Good info! So are you keeping your catalog file on the external SSD just to be able to edit on different computers? I would think you’d want that on the internal drive typically.
Hi , i am a bit confused i understand using the external ssd for the smart previews but what about times that i might forget the drive or maybe dublicating the catalog with only the most recent work ive been working on .. i dont know, if carrying around a drive defeats the purpose.
Well, it depends how much you move around. My SSD is so small I have it with me everywhere my laptop goes. Just like my charger. I have never forgotten it. But I have the added flexibility of being able to attach it to any computer that has Lightroom installed and accessing all my 160k photos.
@@chriseyrewalker Hey thanks for the fast reply ! So you have nothing on the computer it self! I also noticed you DONT import photos into lightroom but add them .. could you please please do a video on that? I cant find much info on that subject with peoples workflow, to import or not to import in Lightroom ... ughh Correct me if thats not an important part to mention for this workflow you talk about . Kind regards
How much is your work worth though? How much have you invested in cameras, lenses, accessories and travels to capture that work? Isn't backing it up worth that money? 100x *yes* in my case.
Instead of Carbon Copy you can use FreeFileSync. All platforms supported: www.freefilesync.org/ Backblaze? You should just get it if you value your work at all. I'm an amateur and don't sell my photos but losing my 12 year worth collection would be disaster. Plus I have a Synology NAS at home with RAID-1 cloned disks that holds everything.
Find it in Finder and copy the entire folder across (while Lightroom is closed), then open it from Finder/Explorer and Lightroom will know where to look for it from then on.
Awesome video, Chris. Love hearing how other photographers are managing their workflows. Definitely going to be implementing some of what I've seen here. Couple of questions though - how often do you find yourself working on different computers where you need your LR catalog on that external SSD? It sounded like a great idea to me but then I doubt I'd really ever work on anything but my primary Macbook Pro so I'm thinking about just keeping my catalog there with the smart previews. I still work off the smart previews since all my RAW images are on external HDs and usually detached. Second, what will you do when your 2TB external drives for your RAW images reach capacity? You must be getting close with 100k+ images. Will you split up your catalog (or maybe create a new one?) and add 2 new 2TB drives or perhaps just get bigger ones and copy over what you have and continue along with your normal workflow and add new images to them? Thanks again!
Thanks for watching David. You're right, I don't often plug in my SSD (catalog) into other computers... BUT I do like that I can take it with me anywhere. And as a travelling photographer, it just puts my mind at ease when I have it on me... (literally in my pocket) And yes, I have more than one hard drive of RAW files. But Lightroom doesn't mind, you can have multiple drives attached to your catalog. So I just keep adding more drives as they get full. And it's very very unlikely that I'll ever have to connect multiple drives to export RAW files. And if I do I'll do it in batches. So no need to split up the catalog...
Plus I would assume some of the remote places you travel that a nice laptop may be the number 1 theft target for thieves, along with cell phones and watches.
Lightroom knows where the Catalog is since that is what you’re looking at when lightroom is open. There’s no way to open lightroom without opening a catalog. As for the RAW files, on the left side of the Library panel you can see all drives attached to your computer. You can move files inside Lightroom to these drives or you can also import files from drives by the regular import process or just drag and dropping them to Lightroom to open the import panel. Hope that clarifies things.
Just saw this video. I like your workflow. I'm just wondering: do you really have your whole catalog on just one external drive (with the backup on another one)? Doesn't that slow down your work in LR, considering you're working from an external instead of an internal drive? And how do you make sure that that catalog drive is backed up to Back Blaze when you're on the road? Finally, with Back Blaze deleting files that haven't been found on your connected drives for 30 days, what do you do with the images on older drives or do you always make sure all your images are on those two external drives? Sorry for the number of questions. Thanks.
As said in the video: i keep my entire catalog + smart previews on the external SSD. It’s connected via USB 3.1. So the speed is fine. That catalog is backed up to another HDD drive which is also backed up to BackBlaze. So double backed up there. All images are always backed up. I don’t delete them. So backblaze wont remove them either. Hope that answers everything.
5:15 - it looks like you drag your raw photos from your Mac SSD to your HDD and skip right over your external SSD catalog...So is your external SSD only for running your Lightroom catalog, and you never actually move photos onto that Lightroom drive tab?
that's correct. I only use the SSD for the Catalog + Smart Previews. This means I can access ALL my files and edit them even when the HDD with the RAW files isn't attached. Also, Lightroom is so much faster when working with the Smart Previews. Any changes made will be written to the RAW files the moment the HDD is connected to the computer and Lightroom is open.
@@chriseyrewalker at 3:38 you say that you add them to your catalog, in your blogpost you have a screenshot of this under step 5 "To My Catalog", which hard drive is this, external HDD?
ok, my bad. Occasionally I will copy them to the SSD (where the Lightroom Catalog is) before I then move them over to the HDD. This is to simply speed up my importing process after a day of shooting and avoiding handling and plugging additional drives into the laptop. This also means I can quickly deliver original size images if needed on that day. However, once I get to the office/home I'll plug the SSD + HDD into my laptop, open Lightroom and move across the RAW files from the SSD to HDD. The Smart Previews will always stay with the catalog on the SSD. So later on I can still keep editing the images, even when the HDD is disconnected. Hope it makes sense now.
Hi Jennifer. I don't really backup my phone images since I don't take any 'serious' photos with my phone. If I would, I'd probably just use apple icloud services.
No. They are virtual... they don’t take any space really. And I tend to create collecrion sets and collections that last and add to the catalog organisation.
Raid is handy to mitigate hardware problems. However you still need offsite backup to avoid loss during a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or theft. The problem with BlackBlaze is it's tricky to use if you have things on network storage, RAID or not. For that consider Crashplan.
is the photo mechanics faster for selecting photos_? I always struggle when i try to make selection...... lightroom need like 1-2 seconds to render the image and that so time consuming when u have to select from like 2k images ....... i wish to go as fast as u said bin one star bin one star but in my case its more like bin ....one second .... 1star.... 2 seconds ....bin thanx
Get a *FREE MONTH* of BackBlaze: bit.ly/CEW-BackBlaze
@Chris Eyre-Walker First time ever seen your channel and LOVE IT!!! THIS HELPED ME SOOOO MUCH!!! If you've done a newer version for 2020-2021, I'd LOVE to watch it!!! Thanks again!! #Liked #Commented #Subscribed
@@JeremyWilliamson Thanks man! My workflow hasn't changed that much over the years... So a newer version would look rather similar. Tells me that I've done the right thing ;-)
Love watching other photographers workflows. So important to find a way that works for you. Great video :)
thnx mate. good video. One note to mention for new Carbon Copy users aswell as Chronosync, or Timemachine, these programs do not keep track of Renamed/Moved files. Be aware. It will simply re-upload everything new. This takes extra unnessecery time, espessialy if you have decided to rename a top-level folder tree. Your entire folder tree will need to be re-uploaded from scratch!!! Thats the only downside of these "dumb" backup apps. Its much better to have RAID 1 or RAID 10. Because, all the Renaming and Moving of files and folders are tracked by the OS with the mirroring ability, thus saving you alot of re-upload times.
Your videos are so simple to understand while being simultaneously very thorough and thoughtful. Thanks!
tHanks for the tips. I have an easy system my Triple Drive back ups. Your suggestions are sage advice
Helpful...I need to up my game. I’ve got copies in multiple places but the organization is sorely lacking ;-(. Thanks for the tips
This was really helpful thank you
Man this was an awesome video. I have really been struggling and a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out how to approach this process but your video illustrated everything perfectly. I am going to start working on gathering up the externals and programs and hope to have a smooth flow going soon. Thanks so much!
A Windows / free alternative for Carbon Copy Cloner would be FreeFileSync.
It's free, Open Source and available for all 3 Platforms. It's amazing and never let me down.
Thanks for your suggestion! Will look into it
Gorgeous Video Chris! Do you always carry your SSD with you? Do you see any disadvantages if you have your catalog on your computer? I have outsourced all RAWs except my catalog and Smart Previews. But they are still backed up.
Thanks. Yes I carry my SSD with me. The general idea is that I could access my catalog from any computer with LR installed when I attach my SSD. Also, after a while the smart previews and catalog itself become quite big, so having it on the computer isn’t the best place for it.
This is a super smart and thought-through workflow! Had that exact problem with losing files before too... BIGGEST PAIN EVER! Thanks for sharing, will actually give this exact flow a try!
Thanks Florian. It’s been 6 years in the making. Can only get better from here ;-)
This is great information! I am new to this workflow. I have two drives and 1TB SSD. I don't have Photo Mechanic, don't think I need it at this moment. But when importing RAW files into LR, how do you make sure it doesn't end up in the SSD card. I watched the Smart Previews video and understand how you use it. Previously my work flow was to simply import into LR, that ensured that my RAW files, catalog and edits were all on the same drive... but now that the catalog isn't on the same card. I am guess I am little lost on how you import into the catalog and only Smart Previews import? ALSO! how do you make sure the Catalog (SSD) sync up with the HDD?
Thanks. When importing your images directly into Lightroom you can, on the top side of the import window, select what to do: copy, move or add the photos to the catalog. You want to make sure that Lightroom doesn’t copy or move, but instead just adds them. This will leave the RAW files whenever you put them (on an external HDD for example) and Lightroom will build the smart previews where the catalog sits (on the SSD for example). The files get synced automatically as soon as you attach the HDD with the original files on it while in Lightroom. It’s so fast you don’t even notice it. It has never failed me.
@@chriseyrewalker Thank you so much for your response, very helpful.
hey chris! absolutely love your workflow! i was wondering though, when you export a photo for social media or a client, do you plug in your hard drive with the RAW files to export in the best quality?
thanks :-)
For clients: yes. Always export from raw.
For social: I don’t bother. The smart previews are good up to 2500px. For social I only need 2048px on the long end
I came for the workflow tips but ended up rethinking my backup. Thanks for the warnings and feel very sorry for your lost work.
It's true, at ~8:35 if your "file drives", you do have a problem (!Fails!) :) I loved that quick edit! Thanks for this. I've been revisiting tools in this field. I'm non professional though I did manage and shoot photos for a dance studio for a while and was using Aperture/Photoshop. Now, turning to my own massive personal collection including a few years travel overseas left untouched still.... I'm trying to figure out the right mix. It's not going to be Photoshop so I switched to Affinity, and thanks to your vids got turned towards Photo Mechanic!! Now working to figure out that middle piece(RIP Aperture.) Thinking it might be either Luminar or Capture One 20 Pro. Oh yes, and I've been using BackBlaze for the last year, good stuff. Thanks again, be well.
this is such a great video, my catalogue is such a mess atm and this is motivating me to get it sorted. THANK YOU
Great video Chris - backups are so important! Had a drive fail on me during my return flight - but thankfully had a backup and all was well. Curious - how come you're using collections so extensively over say keywords? The keywords seem like ideal usage for the location hierarchy - plus that metadata can be exported with the file.
SO great to hear that you had a backup! ;-)
I actually also use keywords, the location info is inserted as keywords too in my import process with Photo Mechanic (using Variables) + I usually try to add GPS info in Lightroom by dropping the images into the area where I shot them (roughly) to triple up on the location info.
I use collections mainly to organise my catalog inside Lightroom. I like that I can have the same image in 5 different collections without affecting the actual RAW file (or its location). Collections based on keywords could do this too of course.
I’m using the Easter band holiday to finally sort out my messy messy image archive and watching your video for the fifth time! Thanks for sharing your workflow Chris!
Great to hear that you’re finding it useful 👍🏼
You have a really good grasp of workflow; what works for you. I look at several professionals and see that we each must choose what works for outselves. Thank you very much for sharing your workflow.
Quite similar but with LR only.
Also works.
It’s just the processing of large amounts of images is always faster when using Photo Mechanic.
Great tips Chris, and as a long time user of Backblaze I could not agree more, have your files in (at least) 3 places with one being in the cloud. It saved me before when a ship sank and all electronics died. Floating drybags that's another story... ;-)
Really interesting and helpful video. Thanks for sharing workflow, Chris, I saw few useful tips. Looking for next videos!
New View
Thank you very much for this explanation of your Workflow!
I found it very interesting and very VERY helpful!!
Liked and Subscribed!!! *__*
Thank you so much for this. Great, simple and easy to track
My workflow breaks down at the star rating step. Your system solves the problem. I’ll check out Photo Mechanic. Thanks.
Glad I could help
Great video! One more thought:
how about storing an additional backup copy at a remote location (friend, storage box, etc) to avoid loss due to burglary or fire?
Thanks. Cloud backup covers that for me through backblaze.
Great video! I've been thinking on getting PM.. its a great use case you show.
A comment on backup though: being super aware I would not buy two identical drives but rather different makes. Because I remember this: techreport.com/news/28473/some-samsung-ssds-may-suffer-from-a-buggy-trim-implementation which potentially could lead to a catastrophy.
Thanks!
That would be some serious bad luck though... luckily with a triple backup strategy not really a concern I think.
Very impressive video. Well thought out, organized, and stayed on topic. Sometimes people make these videos, tlka bout something, say they'll "get to that later", and then never do because they foget to cover the side bar topic.
Thanks Scott. Great to hear that you find my video useful.
Chris Eyre-Walker, I’m so impressed with “European” videos. Yours is one of those. I’m in The United States, but so many videos I watch, and the people I subscribe to are in Europe. I read your blog and see you’re from Belgium, and reside in Australia now. I envy your passion and travels. Keep up the good work.
I really like how well organized is your work Chris. This video is so so so valuable, thanks for sharing!
great video Chris, should I back up raw wedding images from import to external hard drive first then use photo machanics to cull images b4 import to lightroom ? Thanks in advance ROb
Thanks Rob.
I use Photo Mechanic as an import and first cull/sorting tool before I head over into Lightroom. As it’s most powerful at importing and working through many photos at a high speed pace.
As for the backup, I do it later. I don’t format my cards until I have imported the photos and culled them in PM. Then I copy them across to a backup drive.
I feel really dumb since I don't do most of these. I started out with photography really young with a simple workflow and just stuck with it.
Basically, I makes folders for a location like you. Right off the bat, I delete 30-40% of the photos which are blurry or trials at composing.
I don't do the star rating thing. I create a separate folder and select and copy the top 10% photos.
Then I right click on those to edit in LR. How much am I losing out in this process?
Now even a bigger problem. I never shot in RAW for some reason. I realized the importance since I aged. Is these anyway I could recover some of it from jpg?
Or edit jpegs that's less destructive in nature?
Also, in the earlier years of my photography I edit photos that were destructive in nature. Like increasing noise and sharpness in the whole image instead of just selections.
Can they be reversed if it's still in the catalog?
Thanks, Chris, I just found your channel and this video. Your workflow is very interesting, I did know about Photo Mechanics and I researched it on the web, and in my case where I work in personal art projects is an extra layer of work, but it is interesting the extensive metadata support. The workflow strategy depends on each individual, the number of photos, and the clients; I personally try to keep myself away from collections, except when archiving my work. I'd rather spend money in storage because if I want to move from LR in the future it is easy to manage the physical assets (Collections are handier to manage of course). One aspect that you did not talk is about Archive. Where to keep those final photos for digital archiving, I guess you create a special collection. Cheers and I started following you.
Great video. It's a keeper!
I am curious to know if you also have a process for folder structure and if you plan to do a video of it? For instance do you separate out client work from personal work, do you have set folders each time you have a new project? I plan to have 4 root folders for all of my data: Personal, Client, Assets, Template folder. Then the folders will dive deeper into specifics.
Wow, thanks for sharing your neatly organized and professional workflow! Please tell more about your smart albums - what criteria do you use to organize it this way, if you are not using ratings? How do you then organize your ‘best’ photos?
Thanks! I don't use smart collections much. It's mostly manual 'selections' that make up collections. Each project is usually sorted by country and location and inside there I'll make the 'best of' collections. Additionally I create collections for clients, web, portfolio etc. which I add to from those 'best of'.
ie. if I shoot beautiful forests in Germany and on a later project forests in Norway, I might create a collection of: Forests Of Europe, which will contain the best shots of each. (just a as an example).
omg this is overwhelming having to back up and then back up some more due to the ever changing technology. I miss film because you had a physical negative where you could see, hold, and file away in a safe. Don't get me wrong, I love digital photography but backing up is hell.
Thank you for the helpful video but I'm missing the end to the story. Once you've edited in LR, do you export back to your original folder? How do I get PhotoMechanic to see the changes? Thanks!
Hi Chris,
I have once lost my images so have paranoia to lose images.
What happens to the raw images which is in the 2nd card. Do you rename them and then copy to hdd or just back them up. My concern is if any error happens to the first copy that has been made then backup will be having the original ones.
I keep the second card until I know the first one has been checked, edited and backed up.
Does your .lrcat or .lrdata (preview) files stay within a reasonable size? It seems like my preview file has grown kind of big. Is there a way to build certain size previews or is it not an issue for you?
Depends on how big you have told lightroom to build the preview files. I have them set to medium (I think it was...)
Interesting! How do you handle different cameras? Do you create subfolders for each camera/drone?
Since I pretty much only shoot with Olympus it all ends up in the one folder.
But if i were to shoot multiple cameras I’d probably still put them in the same folder. I can separate the cameras easily inside Lightroom. And if needed make collections per camera.
Hi Chris, excellent video! I was wondering if you use multiple catalogs, and how you would manage that. Again, thanks for the informative video
Hi Scott. Great to hear that you enjoyed it.
Simple answer: no. I use one single catalog.
Wow, what a fast response! One quick follow up question. Sorry for being a bother.....how would you search multiple catalogs for the exact photo you need to show a client?
You can’t... that’s why I use the single catalog.
Unless you do a catalog per client. Then having multiple catalogs works fine of course.
Hi Chris - so you have an external card for your RAW files and also an external card to save edited LR files?
Not quite... I keep all my RAW files on external drives. However, my Lightroom catalog is on a separate external SSD (which also contains all the Smart Previews), meaning I can edit a 'low resolution' version of all my RAW files without actually having to access them directly. Check out my Smart Preview video for more about that: ua-cam.com/video/vq92mqUI4qE/v-deo.html
Also check out my blog post about this video for more detailed information: bit.ly/CEW-PhotoWorkflow
This was so thorough and helpful!! Thank you!
My pleasure
Great video Chris! I constantly look for ways to improve my backup, and most videos I watch online talk mostly about a stationary setup, which is not the best solution if you're on the move or don't have a lot of physical space.
A couple of questions though; You have mentioned that you import the RAW images into your laptop first, in order to process them and then move them to your external drive for backup.
First - how do you do that? through Lightroom?
Second - do you then remove the RAW files from your computer?
I really enjoy your content. It's magical to watch and always enjoyable. Keep it up!
Thanks Ido! Great to hear that you found it interesting.
I do all the importing to my local drive (MacBook) with Photo Mechanic. Then work through them on Lightroom
Once I’m done I move them to an external HDD.
Best check out the blog article for this video too. More details and info there. 😉
Hope that helps.
Chris
@Chris: your content in phenomenal! Thanks so much for sharing your workflow. As an amateur photographer I’ve felt stymied by the importing process, such that it’s been difficult to be motivated to even bother editing my photos. Your method makes so much sense and is well worth the software and hardware investments. @Ido: Thank you for asking your questions! These are the same burning questions I’ve had in my mind, and I now have my answers. Cheers!
Great Video Chris! I find it always interesting to see how other photographers organise their work. One quick comment though, your backups are only ever as good as their restore. Now this shouldn't be an issue for just copying files between disks. But I wonder if you have ever tried doing a large-scale restore from BackBlaze?
Thanks!
To be honest, I haven’t done a large scale restore from BackBlaze, but I’ve heard many good things so far. Worth a try I suppose.
I assume they’re good and their product works, but without trying, how do you know if it works and isn‘t corrupted? I work in IT and ideally we‘d do a test restore of some of our backups every 1-2 months. I guess you wouldn‘t need it that regularly, but it usually is a hood thing to do. It also means you‘ll have a better idea of how to get your data back if you ever need to ;)
OMG amazing.
Thanks for this video! Just curious, why do you cull in Photo Mechanic? It seems to me like you could import to Lightroom, cull there, since that's where you will do everything else (even search for photos in the future using the catalog)... ect... I'm trying to figure out if I need photo mechanic or if it will just confuse me more. Thank you!
It’s about 4x faster to cull in Photo Mechanic. In general I recommend using it if you shoot A LOT of photos. It will save you time.
Photo mehanic is crazy fast. Reading raw files like Lr reading small jpeg
Fantastic video thanks so much :)
Never give raws it's like giving away your negative. Terrible.
I wouldn’t. Unless it’s a top end client printing on something specific.
you didnt say what you tag when you trash, another star or just bin straight away??
I use T on the keyboard to ‘Tag’ when I want to mark it for deleting. Once finished on my first pass I will then press Cmd + T to select all images that are tagged. Then Shift+Backspace to delete all tagged images.
Hope that answers the question?
This was fantastic! Thanks for sharing your workflow.
My pleasure. Thanks for watching.
Wow! I can see you have visited my homeland Kazakhstan and I came from Almaty today morning. What do you like the most here for photography?
I have been yes! Loved it.
I really enjoyed Almaty actually. Very cool city to explore and the mountains so close by. I also loved exploring Charyn Canyon and the lakes nearby in the mountains. 👌🏼
Almaty is great! I really wanted to go to mountains and finally did it there. We went up to 3200m by a rope-way to Shymbulak. It's gorgeous.
Yeah we hiked the peaks trek and ended in Shimbulak and then took the cable car down. Really fun! I even made a video actually.
i have a question, if you're copied with both drives, what happens when those two become full?
you no longer have a valuable solution?
I want to be able to work from working drives on a laptop, then import them into a backup large solution like a 10tb external on my desktop.
what suggestions would you have for me then?
I would be unable to clone drives from the external to a desktop solution due to the fact that the cloned drives would be full, where as the desktop solution is not.
Great tutorial, Thank you Chris! And how do you manage your videos? Thanks.
Thanks!
I manage my videos in a similar way. But I might dedicate a separate video to that too
Hi, Chris, What kind of format do you use on your ssd/hdd portable drive?OS X or ExFAT? Thank you.
Hey Chris, since you've got one drive for catalog and another drive for RAW files, I was wondering what do you really use for editing: do you connect both drives while editing on lightroom (catalog + raw files) or just edit with smart previews and have only one HD connected? Thanks man.
Actually, I initially keep the RAW files on the SSD (with the Catalog and Smart Previews) for a week or two. That way I can deliver these images in full res to a client faster if needed. After about a week or so I then move these files (inside Lightroom) to an external drive and work off the Smart Previews. Hope that makes sense.
Hey Chris, Great content. I am following your advice....Now the my big question is what is your VIDEO WORKFLOW?
Thanks Troy!
Might make a video about that workflow that in the future. Stay tuned.
Great video, is there a link to your Photo Mechanic video?
Thanks! That videos isn’t out yet. Should be coming next week. Subscribe to not miss out 😉
Cool, just subscribed. I've been revamping my workflow because it got a bit overwhelming (both photo and video), so Im stealing tips from here and there and putting together the setup that will work for me.
Good info! So are you keeping your catalog file on the external SSD just to be able to edit on different computers? I would think you’d want that on the internal drive typically.
Correct. As my catalog is becoming so big that it wouldn’t make sense to keep internally.
Hi Chris...Great stuff. Any chance you could go over your video footage workflow, storage, backup etc..?
Might have a video on this in the works actually 🤫
Hi , i am a bit confused i understand using the external ssd for the smart previews but what about times that i might forget the drive or maybe dublicating the catalog with only the most recent work ive been working on .. i dont know, if carrying around a drive defeats the purpose.
Well, it depends how much you move around.
My SSD is so small I have it with me everywhere my laptop goes. Just like my charger. I have never forgotten it.
But I have the added flexibility of being able to attach it to any computer that has Lightroom installed and accessing all my 160k photos.
@@chriseyrewalker Hey thanks for the fast reply ! So you have nothing on the computer it self! I also noticed you DONT import photos into lightroom but add them .. could you please please do a video on that? I cant find much info on that subject with peoples workflow, to import or not to import in Lightroom ... ughh Correct me if thats not an important part to mention for this workflow you talk about . Kind regards
Check out my Photo Mechanic video. I think you’ll understand better why I don’t copy or move the files but ‘only’ add them to the catalog.
photo mech is 150 dollars
carbon copy 30 pound
back blaze 5 dollar mth 50 year 95 2 yrs
How much is your work worth though? How much have you invested in cameras, lenses, accessories and travels to capture that work? Isn't backing it up worth that money? 100x *yes* in my case.
Instead of Carbon Copy you can use FreeFileSync. All platforms supported: www.freefilesync.org/
Backblaze? You should just get it if you value your work at all. I'm an amateur and don't sell my photos but losing my 12 year worth collection would be disaster. Plus I have a Synology NAS at home with RAID-1 cloned disks that holds everything.
Awesome video! But confused how you get the “LR catalog” from main drive to that 1 TB drive. Thanks in advance mate!
Find it in Finder and copy the entire folder across (while Lightroom is closed), then open it from Finder/Explorer and Lightroom will know where to look for it from then on.
Nice one chris, I'll be using some of these tips!
Thanks David ;-) Great to hear that you got something out of this one.
Awesome video, Chris. Love hearing how other photographers are managing their workflows. Definitely going to be implementing some of what I've seen here. Couple of questions though - how often do you find yourself working on different computers where you need your LR catalog on that external SSD? It sounded like a great idea to me but then I doubt I'd really ever work on anything but my primary Macbook Pro so I'm thinking about just keeping my catalog there with the smart previews. I still work off the smart previews since all my RAW images are on external HDs and usually detached. Second, what will you do when your 2TB external drives for your RAW images reach capacity? You must be getting close with 100k+ images. Will you split up your catalog (or maybe create a new one?) and add 2 new 2TB drives or perhaps just get bigger ones and copy over what you have and continue along with your normal workflow and add new images to them? Thanks again!
Thanks for watching David.
You're right, I don't often plug in my SSD (catalog) into other computers... BUT I do like that I can take it with me anywhere. And as a travelling photographer, it just puts my mind at ease when I have it on me... (literally in my pocket)
And yes, I have more than one hard drive of RAW files. But Lightroom doesn't mind, you can have multiple drives attached to your catalog. So I just keep adding more drives as they get full. And it's very very unlikely that I'll ever have to connect multiple drives to export RAW files. And if I do I'll do it in batches. So no need to split up the catalog...
Plus I would assume some of the remote places you travel that a nice laptop may be the number 1 theft target for thieves, along with cell phones and watches.
one question i got from this insightful vid: so how do you tell lightroom where the raws are and the catalog is?
cheers.
Lightroom knows where the Catalog is since that is what you’re looking at when lightroom is open. There’s no way to open lightroom without opening a catalog.
As for the RAW files, on the left side of the Library panel you can see all drives attached to your computer. You can move files inside Lightroom to these drives or you can also import files from drives by the regular import process or just drag and dropping them to Lightroom to open the import panel.
Hope that clarifies things.
Great video Chris, do you also have a NAS for storage?
Thanks. No I don’t bother as most countries I travel to have too slow internet.
dang! and i thought i'd get to see your RAID setup and all... :-/
Not so practical when I’m on the move 300+ days / year. 😉
Just saw this video. I like your workflow. I'm just wondering: do you really have your whole catalog on just one external drive (with the backup on another one)? Doesn't that slow down your work in LR, considering you're working from an external instead of an internal drive? And how do you make sure that that catalog drive is backed up to Back Blaze when you're on the road? Finally, with Back Blaze deleting files that haven't been found on your connected drives for 30 days, what do you do with the images on older drives or do you always make sure all your images are on those two external drives? Sorry for the number of questions. Thanks.
As said in the video: i keep my entire catalog + smart previews on the external SSD. It’s connected via USB 3.1. So the speed is fine.
That catalog is backed up to another HDD drive which is also backed up to BackBlaze. So double backed up there.
All images are always backed up. I don’t delete them. So backblaze wont remove them either.
Hope that answers everything.
@@chriseyrewalker Thanks for the quick reply!
5:15 - it looks like you drag your raw photos from your Mac SSD to your HDD and skip right over your external SSD catalog...So is your external SSD only for running your Lightroom catalog, and you never actually move photos onto that Lightroom drive tab?
that's correct. I only use the SSD for the Catalog + Smart Previews. This means I can access ALL my files and edit them even when the HDD with the RAW files isn't attached. Also, Lightroom is so much faster when working with the Smart Previews. Any changes made will be written to the RAW files the moment the HDD is connected to the computer and Lightroom is open.
@@chriseyrewalker at 3:38 you say that you add them to your catalog, in your blogpost you have a screenshot of this under step 5 "To My Catalog", which hard drive is this, external HDD?
ok, my bad. Occasionally I will copy them to the SSD (where the Lightroom Catalog is) before I then move them over to the HDD. This is to simply speed up my importing process after a day of shooting and avoiding handling and plugging additional drives into the laptop. This also means I can quickly deliver original size images if needed on that day. However, once I get to the office/home I'll plug the SSD + HDD into my laptop, open Lightroom and move across the RAW files from the SSD to HDD. The Smart Previews will always stay with the catalog on the SSD. So later on I can still keep editing the images, even when the HDD is disconnected. Hope it makes sense now.
@@chriseyrewalker That makes sense, thanks for clearing this up, its been very helpful
how do you back up your personal phone images etc
Hi Jennifer. I don't really backup my phone images since I don't take any 'serious' photos with my phone.
If I would, I'd probably just use apple icloud services.
Do you ever remove your collections from Lightroom when not using them ?
No. They are virtual... they don’t take any space really. And I tend to create collecrion sets and collections that last and add to the catalog organisation.
Chris Eyre-Walker wow all this time I thought they took space and I will remove them. Thank you for the video and information.
Do you convert RAW to DNG at some point?
Nope. Don’t really see the point.
Why you don't use any NAS?
Too slow.
@@chriseyrewalker interesting, thanx
Why not a NAS with a RAID?
Raid is handy to mitigate hardware problems. However you still need offsite backup to avoid loss during a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or theft. The problem with BlackBlaze is it's tricky to use if you have things on network storage, RAID or not. For that consider Crashplan.
is the photo mechanics faster for selecting photos_? I always struggle when i try to make selection...... lightroom need like 1-2 seconds to render the image and that so time consuming when u have to select from like 2k images ....... i wish to go as fast as u said bin one star bin one star but in my case its more like bin ....one second .... 1star.... 2 seconds ....bin thanx
Absolutely. Get photo mechanic