A Lightroom CC workflow

Ton14

My LR workflow at the moment, with a WiFi Eyefi mobi 32gb SD card in the second slot of the camera.
Eyefi is now called Keenai.

Download the Keenai app for iPhone or Android and follow the steps they gave you for the connection. You then have a local WiFi connection which has nothing to do with internet, it is just WiFi between your camera Eyefi card and your phone or tablet.
When the connection is made decide what you want to do, depending on the space you have on your phone. Will you have your RAW files transfered or JPG's, is up to you. LR for Android can also process RAW files now. I have a 128gb SD card in my phone, (my second SD slot ).

When you take a photo now it is send to your iphone or Android, no LR involved yet. The advantage is, that you have direct a backup. This is step one.

If you have another WiFi method to put your photo's on your phone or tablet, that is ok too ofcourse.

I go on, give me some time

Ton14

Step 2.

Install LR Mobile on your mobile device, it is free. When you don't have a subscribtion for the LR CC and Photoshop you have to register to get an Adobe ID and LR cloudspace.

When installed, run it and tap the Lr icon in the left corner and set your preferences. One VERY IMPORTANT switch on "Sync Only Over Wifi" because your data is gone very quick and it can become very expensive. When you have an unlimited data subscription by your provider, then better use data, safer and quicker.

2. Switch on, Use SD Card, when you have one.
3. Switch on, "Auto Add".

This last one picks the photo's from your device and put them in your LR mobile. The default is that you get a folder on your device for the photo's, sometimes you have to switch on "Auto Add" on that folder.

OK, now you can experiment with just the photo's you shoot with your phone, the best way to practise in the first place.

Ton14

Now watch.

Th UPLOADING is done when you have an internet connection.

What happens is that LR mobile synchronize your photo's with your LR cloud and you can view them via the WEB on your LR cloud (Adobe ID) and every device where you connect with your LR mobile.

Ton14

Step 3

When you have a LR subscription and installed on your PC, then you must activate the network connection to download the photo's to your computer.

Edit - Preferences - Network
Here you provide your Adobe ID and you can set the folder where you want your photo's.

Then LR start to synchronize your photo's with your LR cloud. Be patient LR and WiFi are not quick.

Ton14

I hope I covered the process now, but we shall finetune.

Now the fun part and the question from @turnthedarncranks in the other discussion, what happens when you do this with RAW photo's and quality, there are mobiles which can shoot in RAW, nice to practise with.

1. The RAW from the camera
2. Still RAW when transfered to your phone or tablet (nice backup)
3. Automatic Imported in LR mobile
4. When you have an internet connection photo's are uploaded to your LR cloud IN RAW!!
5. When you are at home and switch your PC on, the RAW !! files are downloaded to your computer and only a "smart preview" is kept in the cloud, which you can access from everywhere and the resolution is perfect, no matter which device you use to view. (to view hé !!).

When the process is done you have your photo on the SD card, on your mobile device and on your computer. I have an automated backup from my computer to my Synology NAS, so four different places and many, but never enough backups

I also have a smart preview in the LR cloud, but those change every day.

Ton14

Make collections. The LR cloud synchronize all your connections with your LR cloud and you can then view them on every device. You can also share them. There is nothing downloaded to your mobile device, LR mobile works stand alone and synchronize when there is an internet connection.

You can also edit your photo's, using barely data, because it is just a byte what is uploaded over the net. All edits you make will be synchronized.

Ton14

Oh Snapbridge transfers 2gb JPG maximum only, so I don't use it and now nothing about this app.

Ton14

One advice, when you decide to use LR, do everything in LR. Everything you do with your photo outside LR will mess up your LR database. I hope this kind of workflow can help.

turnthedarncranks

Thanks. This is quite a bit to consider. There's a lot that seems good about it, but my quest for simplicity seems like it will go out the window.

PB_PM

Sounds like an overly complicated workflow to me. Skip all the wireless stuff and just stick the SD card into a card reader. It's way faster and skips all the wasted time putting it on your phone.

If you are worried about data redundancy and your camera has dual card slots, just set it to "backup" rather than overflow, instant backup. Your camera will be slowed down by many of those wireless SD card, and they eat battery life needlessly.

Now if you are shooting in a tethered studio situation, that might be nice to work with, but otherwise I don't see the point.

Ton14

PB_PM said:

Sounds like an overly complicated workflow to me. Skip all the wireless stuff and just stick the SD card into a card reader. It's way faster and skips all the wasted time putting it on your phone.

Yes that is what I always did.

kanuck

PB_PM said:

Sounds like an overly complicated workflow to me. Skip all the wireless stuff and just stick the SD card into a card reader. It's way faster and skips all the wasted time putting it on your phone.

If you are worried about data redundancy and your camera has dual card slots, just set it to "backup" rather than overflow, instant backup. Your camera will be slowed down by many of those wireless SD card, and they eat battery life needlessly.

Now if you are shooting in a tethered studio situation, that might be nice to work with, but otherwise I don't see the point.

+1 after my color troubles with Adobe software and my computers, simpler the better workflow I think. Interesting post though Ton14.

heartyfisher

Seems like a nice system.. only issue for me is the phone data plan ... other than that seems like a great scheme!

I have the dual card on my camera. So thats not an issue. However, its always good to have backups as soon as possible. And I am always keeping my eyes out for good methods..

As for snapbridge.. its an ok option for backup.. I am still experimenting so .. not really decided yet.. still the 2mp picture on the phone is fun..

Ton14

@heartyfisher

You can skip the first part, it is a possibility, that is all, no .. phone plan .. involved then.

The first thing I did was to put LR mobile on my tablet and phone. Then made a collection in my LR desktop, switched on LR mobile and connect with my Adobe id.

The LR desktop synchronize the collection *switch that on) with your LR cloud and those were automatic synchronized with my tablet and phone, just via the normal WiFi at home. That is an easy step. You now have just the links in LR mobile on your phone. I have many collections and the possibility to view and edit 2.600 photo's at the moment on my phone and tablet, off line or connected.

Then I can do everything anywhere with this collection, view, edit, view on the web, share, everything off line. When I have a WiFi connection (mostly at home), the edits I made on my tablet or desktop were synchronized. I can also download, or give permission to somebody else to download these files, then you have a RAW smart preview available, much better then a JPG.

So you can stay by your normal and quicker way, putting the SD card in the computer, import your photo's in LR, make a collection from what you want, switch on the synchronization for that collection (just a click) and use only your local WiFi for uploading your photo's to your LR cloud. This is done once. Now you have "RAW smart previews" in your LR cloud available wherever you are. These files are not downloaded to your mobile phone or tablet, but available in your LR mobile.

When you move a slider now in LR, you only change a couple of bytes, so it uses hardly data in this stage.

You have instead of 2mb JPG's, now RAW smart previews as backup in your LR cloud. In the worst case, when all your photo's are lost, you can make a 40 x 30 print from these kind of files. In LR I only work with smart previews (see preferences), which I make by the import and this makes LR much quicker. If I will make a print from LR, the original photo is always used with all the edits I made.

Warning, set your LR mobile in your phone or/and tablet to "Sync only over WiFi" that is all, then there is no dataplan involved.

I always make a regular backup from my LR catalog (see your preferences) and I then have RAW smart previews from all my photo's as a backup and send a copy to Dropbox (or whatever you use). My 100.000 photo's are then in a 300 mb backup ZIP file. It is outside my computer, always an extra and better then nothing.

Ton14

My LR catalog is on a very small 500gb SSD (Samsung T3) working drive. First for speed of course, but I can open it on every computer and work off line with all my photo's, even if the real photo's are not available. So you can put your photo's on a USB drive and disconnect it from your computer, you then see the photo's with a ?. You can edit them and when you connect the drive again, your photo's are updated.

Of course everybody who works with LR knows this. There are many ways to work with it, this is only the way I do.

heartyfisher

The Nikon infrastructure seems to be going in that direction. Nikon image space gives you UNLIMITED 2MP image storage. so that could be useful in case of total failure.

Only problem I see at the moment is snapbridge doesn't seem to allow you to specify the sdcard on my phone as a storage location of the images synced from the camera.. ie its filling up my main space on the phone when I have 98% free on the micro-sdcard !!