Toronto Photography Meetup Group

So I recently made the switch to LR, and it is such an improvement over what I used to use.

Ok, so now when I import, I select the option to backup to my external disk.

I go through my photos, set rejects, delete them from my working disk.

I open up the LR backup, and find that the files deleted from the working disk are still on the backup external disk.

Now, I know that that is the function of a backup, but is there an option where I can sync the backup disk with the contents of my catalog, so I don't have to manually dig through the backup disk to select and delete pictures?

I know it's probably something simple, but I've tried doing that for the last 20 minutes or so and can't seem to find an obvious answer.

You can't do this via LR. That's not what it is designed to do. LR is for processing and cataloging your images.

To do what you are wanting to do which is store your photos and have a live and automatic backup you should look at a RAID set up with two drives.

For instance I keep all my image files on a server and my LR catalogue references them there. That drive on the server is set up in RAID so that there is a second drive in the server that is constantly backing up and making a duplicate of everything that is on the main drive. If I delete something on the main drive then the mirror'd drive does the same thing.

Then every so often I then make a copy of the main drive on an external drive and move it to another location.

If my main drive goes down I have a back up on the RAID disk. If that fails then I have a copy of everything on my external drive that i can go from.

But the short answer is, no you can automate this via LR.

Well, I understand LR is built for processing and cataloguing images, but when you're done deleting the rejects, shouldn't LR also delete the images from the backup. With Apple Aperture, the backup vault can be periodically synchronised, with deleted pictures from the main database also deleted from the backup.

So, you're saying the LR does not do backup synchronisation?

Ok, that means I have to manually delete images from the backup that LR maintains? That's a bother.

you are plenty confused.

LR creates a backup of your catalogue but not your actual photo files. Lr simply references your RAW, jpeg, PSD files through sidecar files. They are like little recipe cards for each photo with instructions for all the settings you want applied to that image. The sidecar is created in the same folder as your original file and is refenced there.

Your LR back up is a backup of your catalogue file, preferences and links to photos and sidecar files. It's not actually backing up your image files. That's not what it is made to do.

When you delete a file in Lr you can choose to delete it completely from your computer or just remove it from your catalogue. If you have a backup of your image files you'll need to either remove it from your backup or have it sync another way.

That is like asking why Photoshop is not a word processing program. That's not what it is made to do. LR is to process and catalogue your images not to organize and backup your files although limited organization abilities are possible.

I understand what LR does, and the non destructive editing via sidecar files.

LR backs up the catalogue, yes.

However, when importing, there is an option available for me to backup the camera raw files (I set LR to convert pictures to .DNG). When I open up my backup disk, I do indeed see backup catalogues, and copies of all the .CR2 files that were imported.

When images are deleted from the catalogue via 'delete rejects', .DNG files are removed to trash. However, the .CR2 files in my backup still remain.

The CR2 files are what I want managed.

I guess it is clear from what you say that LR2 does not do that.

Thanks for your input.

So how do people do it?

manually go through all the backed up raw files to delete the unwanted ones?

Is there a more efficient way to do it?

easiest solution is to setup a raid, which will mirror files in 1 drive to another. so when you delete a file from the hard drive that you are working on, it will get deleted on backup as well.

the other way is to use a backup software which will sync the two drives either on the fly or periodically like every week or so.

Oh I see my problem now.

I just imported a batch of files, and I had been importing into .DNG instead of leaving them as .CR2.

Are there any advantages/shortcomings to converting files to .DNG instead of leaving them as .CR2?

Mike, if you are diligent about backing up your data then you don't need to use the Lightroom backup feature upon import - namely for the reasons you cite.

I import my photo's from a card reader locally to my hard drive. Then I sort and delete any duds. I have a free utility called Synctoy from MS that runs every evening that backs up my local drive to a NAS. The script will delete any files on the NAS that no longer exists on the local drive so everything remains synced up. I have also heard good things about Syncback Pro.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

I'm using a Mac, so Time Machine can perform the backup management for me.

Guess I'll do the CR2 to DNG conversion without backing up the CR2 files to a location external to the LR picture folders.

Personally I have not been converting my CR2 files to DNG, the LR book by Scott Kelby I am reading says "Advantage #1 - DNG files are smaller", "Advantage #2 - DNG does not require a seperate sidecar file".

I also meant to mention there is a great forum on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/adobe_lightroom/