New computer - desktop PC, laptop or Mac?

[philsmove]

More options on the brush tool

the back and white "Wang bars"

improvement on the clarity slider

as mentioned before, look at Matt K's training videos @ Kelby Training

Matt Kloskowski is, with out question, THE Lightroom Master

or, for a downloadable book, look up "Lightroom Queen"

[Lynn]

Thanks! I'm about to download a card of shots from a wedding on Tues so that will be my first trial with it. (Then need to transfer over lots of stuff from the other drive and rebuild all my links!).

[philsmove]

Don't forget to change the default back up drive, for the catalogue, to an external drive

then back up the catalogue

[Lynn]

Thanks for the reminder. Can't do this yet as I've still to take things off the external HD and transfer over, and I need to reformat it as its not FAT32. But have copied the raw files to my laptop as well (as a back up mean time).

I need to sort out where all my files are and where back ups are going - I think I'll get a new external hard drive as well though - need to look into all that.

[cederic]

Don't forget to change the default back up drive, for the catalogue, to an external drive

then back up the catalogue

Curious. The catalogue backups are for the database holding catalogue data/metadata, not for the photos that are in the catalogue.

So to back those up, you need to run a backup process of some form outside of Lightroom itself.

Given that constraint I do my catalogue backups to a local folder (which means that works when I'm not at home too, and works faster as it's local) and do regular backups of my photos and the attached 'catalogue backup folder' to external as my loss prevention mechanism.

[philsmove]



Curious. The catalogue backups are for the database holding catalogue data/metadata, not for the photos that are in the catalogue.

So to back those up, you need to run a backup process of some form outside of Lightroom itself.
.

Correct. The LR default, is to back up the catalog to C drive ( not much use in a hard drive failure)

My work-flow

I shoot RAW and only RAW
import with LR4 (The LR program should/ must be on your fastest internal C hard drive)
LR copies all RAW files to one of two internal 1TB hard drives ( Y&Z)
LR also makes a second copy to an external 1TB hard drive (E)
I Organize/filename/metadata/etc with Lightroom
Rejects are deleted from the internal drive,( Yor Z) but all duplicates stay on the external (E) for about one year
All editing is done on with LR. RAW files stay on the main drive (Y or Z), no duplicates made, but I do make virtual duplicates
LR catalogue is backed up to external drive (E)
From time and always after a wedding, another copy of the RAW files and the LR catalog is back up to a 2TB external drive (D)and put in a fireproof safe

As mentioned before, look at Matt K's training videos @ Kelby Training

and needles to say, once you have a back up system in place

Test reinstating everything on to another computer ( imagine you have come home and have been burgled)

[Franck]

I just saw this article today, and it might answer your questions about whether you should get an iPad or a MacBook air.

http://gigaom.com/apple/how-an-advan...aOM%3A+Tech%29

I only skimmed it but hope it helps.

[Lynn]

Phil - thanks for sharing your workflow. I was thinking of a 2TB external HD for Time Machine and then another (prob 1TB) for back ups I want to keep long term and to store offsite/in fire safe. But need to sort it all out and decide which external HDs to buy.

Franck - thanks - though that guy is doing different things with images and processing than I would be - still need to think that one through but in no hurry at the mo.

[Franck]

Franck - thanks - though that guy is doing different things with images and processing than I would be - still need to think that one through but in no hurry at the mo.

yeah, I hadn't read the article before posting and was disappointed by the content. Title misled me.

is your iMac running mountain Lion? I'm sure you can get a free upgrade if not.

[Lynn]

is your iMac running mountain Lion? I'm sure you can get a free upgrade if not.

I got my iMac I think the day before or the day Mountain Lion came out so it wasn't on it - but yes it was easy to send off for a free code for upgrade - I left it a day or two as knew it would be busy and downloaded and upgraded yesterday.

[Lynn]

More options on the brush tool

the back and white "Wang bars"

improvement on the clarity slider

as mentioned before, look at Matt K's training videos @ Kelby Training

Matt Kloskowski is, with out question, THE Lightroom Master

or, for a downloadable book, look up "Lightroom Queen"

Month's trial of LR4 was about to expire so I purchased. Definitely worth it and I agree for those sliders - the clarity slider has a lot more punch to it and the highlight recovery slider is excellent. LR is just a fantastic tool for what I need - rating, batch editing, and then more detailed work on some images (came home with 1000 images from wedding on Fri between mine and second shooter).