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Archive 2015 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?

  
 
rw11
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


I'm thinking of getting LR for use on my mac mini (Nikon D610, and Sony RX100M3 files to be processed).

I am wondering if it creates a large number of huge files - bigger than the Nikon .nef files - when doing edits.

Thanks.



Sep 09, 2015 at 05:51 PM
jrhoffman75
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


Lightroom is a non-destructive editor, so it simply files editing instructions. Negligible increase in storage requirements.


Sep 09, 2015 at 08:11 PM
mhayes5254
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


My photos take up 550 GB. My LR catalog, previews, catalog backups, etc take up 50 gb, so a 10% increase


Sep 09, 2015 at 09:57 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


the only way LR will create large numbers of 'huge ' files is if you let it do DNG conversion (i don't) on import and have it set to include the original RAW (nef , cr2 etc) inside which basically doubles the size of the DNG file .

other files that are created or can be created by LR

sidecar .xmp files - these are tiny . not created by default (you have to set lr to create them) they contain edit data so other programs can use those edits .

LR cat file . - this contains all the data about you catalogue and all the edit data about your images . size will vary according the number of images and the edits etc . but its sill not a huge file (my catalogue is about 100k of images and the cat file is less than 2gb )

Preview file - this has to be in the same location as the cat file . again varies in size according to the number of previews plus how many of those previews are 1:1 . I think LR by default deletes preview data after 30 days . but you can set this in the preferences to whatever you want . if you were to set it to never delete previews and kept loads of 1:1 previews then this file could grow pretty large . but I doubt most normal users files are more than a few GB (mine is currently 11gb)

Smart Preview file - again has to be in the same loacation as the Cat file . not generated by default . you can select to generate them at import or once files are in the catalogue . these are used if the original file cannot be accessed . ideal if you are on a laptop away from you main machine as they let you still edit you images . they are in effect 4mp (approx.) DNG raw files . by their nature they are not designed to be large files . if I converted my entire catalogue it would be less than 100gb .

LR also creates a couple of files as its running but these are not large and are deleted when it closes .

also there is a setting for RAW cache . By default its 3gb i think . if you get performance issues raising it to about 10gb may help (it was cure for issues on the 5k iMac)


LR is a pretty space efficient way of working with image files . as mentioned above its a non destructive editor . you can edit an image in many ways using virtual copies but you still only have 1 RAW file .
you only create extra image files when you export the images .



Sep 10, 2015 at 01:49 AM
schlotz
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


One more thing to remember, prior to LR6, all the backups it made were full size copies of the catalog file and they were NEVER deleted i.e. each time you backed up what ever the fill size was you duplicated it in the backup folder. You had to manually go in an clean it up once in a while to preserve space. LR6 now zips these automatically and things don't pile up so fast in terms of used space for backups.


Sep 10, 2015 at 08:16 AM
rw11
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


Thanks much! I now have a followup question - is there a way to have LR6 stick all the additional files it creates into subdirs (folders) that the Apple OS-X finder won't search, so I don't clutter up my results when searching?


Sep 10, 2015 at 04:00 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


rw11 wrote:
Thanks much! I now have a followup question - is there a way to have LR6 stick all the additional files it creates into subdirs (folders) that the Apple OS-X finder won't search, so I don't clutter up my results when searching?



No .

they have to be in the same folder . but your images don't have to be in that location . if those files are not in the same folder as the Cat file LR will just generate fresh ones .



My setup is :

I have a Lightroom folder in my pictures folder . in this folder I have folders for each LR cat I'm using . this is normally only 1 which is in a folder called MASTER LR6 CAT . (i have the older MASTER LR5 Cat folder as well) + plus I have folders for catalogues I have created for other purposes .

Not sure why your worried about finder searching them though .



Sep 10, 2015 at 05:07 PM
rw11
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


Thx - my concern was it may clutter up the list of search results, making the 'right' file hard to find


Sep 10, 2015 at 07:30 PM
mhayes5254
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


I doubt you will continue to use finder for searching images if you have LR. Searching within LR is much more powerful


Sep 10, 2015 at 10:01 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


rw11 wrote:
Thx - my concern was it may clutter up the list of search results, making the 'right' file hard to find



Yeah But LR's not really going to 'clutter' much

the files are :

Catalogue - NAME.lrcat
Previews - NAME Previews.lrdata
Smart Preview - NAME smart previews.lrdata

and 2 auto generated files that only exist while LR is open

NAME.lrcat-journal

NAME.lrcat.lock

(obviously NAME = whatever you name the catalogue )

if you have those in a separate folder that contains nothing else (you could also have your plugins folder and settings folder in here as well ) then you will hardly ever use finder on that folder



Sep 11, 2015 at 01:32 AM
OntheRez
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


rw11 wrote:
Thanks much! I now have a followup question - is there a way to have LR6 stick all the additional files it creates into subdirs (folders) that the Apple OS-X finder won't search, so I don't clutter up my results when searching?


There are a number of ways to exclude folders from Spotlight (if that's what you're searching with). Personally I hate Spotlight cause it's truly lame. Highly recommend EasyFind (cheap). Vastly superior.

Robert




Sep 11, 2015 at 09:52 AM
rw11
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


there are only 5 files generated? what about all the sidecar files for each processed .nef?


Sep 11, 2015 at 05:18 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Extra storage needed for Lightroom use?


rw11 wrote:
there are only 5 files generated? what about all the sidecar files for each processed .nef?



only generated if you tell LR to generate them . not turned on by default . LR keeps all its edit info plus all the LR stuff (pick flags etc) which is not in a sidecar file wether you use sidecars or not .
if you use a lot of other software that can use them then they may be an idea but other than that I don't see the need .

Back up you LR cat often (i.e. whenever you work on files) and you'll be good


the sidecar files are .xmp . they have to be with the image file (hence sidecar ) so they will be in the same folder as you images . you can filter finder so it won't show .xmp .

the problem is its too easy to move one file and not the other which results in lost edits .

also they slow things down if you use external drives for images as the traffic is increased .



Sep 11, 2015 at 06:11 PM





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