Switching to the new cloud-based Lightroom CC - First Impressions

MBestPhoto

MBestPhoto

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Hi all,

I have written an article on my experience making the switch from Lightroom Classic to the new cloud-based Lightroom CC.

https://mike-best.com/switching-to-the-new-cloud-version-adobe-lightroom-cc-2017/

Hope it may be helpful to some!

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which would probably be a non-issue with most software, but when its gigs of your precious images, you always have this moment of, ugh, did that just mangle everything? Anways ta :)
 
Very interesting, thanks for writing that up. With the stuff that's missing and the metadata errors I'm happy not to make the jump at this stage.
 
Interesting blog. I've recently moved to CC but I went with the classic subscription option. I was tempted by the mobile version with 2TB storage option as I currently only use Lightroom. The mobile version and cloud storage is interesting but there were a few issues that stopped me, firstly it seems to be missing a few Lightroom tools that I would miss, secondly being cloud based it is reliant on internet speed and mine is shocking with a 0.7MB upload speed! I like going to the lakes, internet there can be awful, most of the time it's either slow or not working.

Have to say I don't seem to experience problems losing links to images. I do all the file management in Lightroom and never touch the hard drive they are stored on outside of LR. All that's on the drive are the RAWs and LR catalogue. Everything gets exported out of LR to another drive. That way I never enter the Lightroom drive so I don't seem cause any hard drive/LR corruption. In a way it's a bit like Adobe own cloud storage except it's my own drive.

I can see Adobe dropping the classic version in the future once they get mobile working properly with comparable functionality. For mobile to work for me there would have to be a workable local storage option whilst it's uploaded the files to the cloud if internet was poor. In principal I like the like of mobilise and cloud based storage but still like having control of my storage and backup.
 
I'm like you Rob. I never go into my Lightroom folder where the images are stored so the chance of me deleting links or files are pretty remote.

If you have a good consistent work flow then mishaps are rare. Most of the help I give to people who have got themselves in a mess is down to poor management of the Lightroom catalogue and file folder.

I have a big distrust of cloud based storage, I prefer to be responsible for my own files. I hope Adobe don't finish Classic when they eventually build a cloud based version that does everything that Classic does. If they do I'll be off to Capture One.
 
Gaz J said:
I have a big distrust of cloud based storage, I prefer to be responsible for my own files. I hope Adobe don't finish Classic when they eventually build a cloud based version that does everything that Classic does. If they do I'll be off to Capture One.
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I'm not a big fan of the idea of cloud based storage only. I like to have control of my own storage and the backups of those too. Backups are all automated to the point minimal actions are required by myself (taking 1 offsite backup HD offsite and swapping it with the other). Whilst I could see Adobe having several backups of the data I wouldn't trust it to one company. The reason I can see Adobe going the cloud based route is purely because there will be profit to be made selling cloud storage. I would love to see a local storage option that has a way to access by mobile. I've only just moved to CC so yet to research smart previews.

4wd said:
This seems to assume you have fast Broadband and 3G if not 4G, still completely lacking here at least.
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That's the biggest flaw I see at present.
 
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Great to see this discussion pick up. Thanks all for the feedback. I have to agree that I would never leave my storage only in the hands of Adobe (or any 3rd party) so it's a good thing Lightroom CC does allow me to still keep local originals on my own HD which I can then also backup offsite. Connectivity is, of course, a major issue - here in London where I am it's not a problem - plenty of bbandwidth - but traveling in SE Asia not so much! Still I suppose it allows me to upload onto my laptop while away, and then start syncing what I can, with the ability to sync the rest when back at home - that's the theory, but I haven't actually tried this out yet - like I say, just dipping my toes with it at this point, as still not totally sure....
 
MBestPhoto said:
...so it's a good thing Lightroom CC does allow me to still keep local originals on my own HD which I can then also backup offsite. ....
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If this was clear in the info you got when looking at each version, there might be a few more takers for the New CC - but if it is mentioned, they've managed to hide it.

Thanks for clarifying this.
 
I have thought about the same thing, it's nice to see some thought has gone into the practicalities of your switch.

Personally I haven't bothered yet.
However, I do work like this but with a work around.
I process boxing photos, 1000-3000 for a gig and output 800 or so for the event.
So I put the RAWs into one directory on my Home PC.
Then I build a lightroom catalogue for the event in my onedrive and build smart previews which references the folder of RAW photos (which are not under the onedrive location)
When my laptop syncs up I can edit everything I would wish to do so without compromise apart from the ability to move files between different folders but I star-rate them mostly anyway.
Then when I'm done I can just do the moves on my home PC and output from there at full resolution using all the watermarking, or batch output options that I couldn't find properly in the new CC version, including options for the LRmogrify plugin which I use a lot.

It's not without some flaws; I need to be careful not to run LR before the software has sync'd the files and then when working, I disable the auto sync for an hour or two so that it's not working overtime...but apart from that it works for my purposes.
 
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I quite like CC and I like the cloud based approach although there are a few features missing which will hopefully be added. LR mobile is nice too, for editing on the go.

My big issue with it is the cost of cloud storage, the cost of 1TB is about bearable as a hobbiest but for a product aimed at people who shoot in raw it just isn’t enough space and adding more gets expensive quickly. I guess there are workarounds such as saving all externally every year but then you need a way to catalogue those too (can you do that using save locally?).

I did a recent trip to Chile with just an iPad Pro with LR mobile for editing and it works well (along with Affinity for stitching) but when I got home transferring them all through the paltry 20GB you get free proved to be a right PITA of copying to Classic a bit at a time over the sync function which kept adjustments but lost flags which was frankly annoying. Also, it would be great to be able to import straight to LR rather than having to go through Photos (as that many raws quickly fills your iCloud = more file management).

But for a product in its infancy it shows promise.
 
In my opinion cloud based software is potentially very risky investment. For example what will you do exactly if you have to switch to a different solution either because 1) price increases 2) new better competing product 3) something else. Cloud is a sure way to lock yourself in with Adobe for the good or for the worse. If you avoid cloud at least you have the options if the worst comes to fruition. Now imagine Adobe being hacked and everything corrupted!

It is very easy to switch between computers with the Classic application. All you need is an external USB drive with all photos and LR catalog all stored on it. This will open instantly on any device without ANY moving or fiddling. Backups to a different disk would be advisable too. It is rather hard recommending to use internal storage anyway for a number of reasons (small HDDs on laptops, headaches on upgrade, multiple devices, disk failures, etc).
 
LongLensPhotography said:
In my opinion cloud based software is potentially very risky investment. For example what will you do exactly if you have to switch to a different solution either because 1) price increases 2) new better competing product 3) something else. Cloud is a sure way to lock yourself in with Adobe for the good or for the worse. If you avoid cloud at least you have the options if the worst comes to fruition. Now imagine Adobe being hacked and everything corrupted!

It is very easy to switch between computers with the Classic application. All you need is an external USB drive with all photos and LR catalog all stored on it. This will open instantly on any device without ANY moving or fiddling. Backups to a different disk would be advisable too. It is rather hard recommending to use internal storage anyway for a number of reasons (small HDDs on laptops, headaches on upgrade, multiple devices, disk failures, etc).
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Makes sense,i would be scared if i didnt have at least 3 storage depots
 
[QUOTE="LongLensPhotography, post: 8027899, member: 16301...It is very easy to switch between computers with the Classic application. All you need is an external USB drive with all photos and LR catalog all stored on it. This will open instantly on any device without ANY moving or fiddling. Backups to a different disk would be advisable too. It is rather hard recommending to use internal storage anyway for a number of reasons (small HDDs on laptops, headaches on upgrade, multiple devices, disk failures, etc).[/QUOTE]

Or alternatively you could argue that Cloud offers the simplest portability between multiple devices - be they Desktops, laptops, tablets or smartphones.

And while an external (preferably off-site as well) backup is certainly a very wise precaution, Internal storage will, in most cases, be far faster than an external solution, so is the most sensible recommendation for working files.

There is no 'one solution fits all' - each user needs to look at their own requirements (and technical ability, budget, etc) and make a choice that is appropriate for them.
 
Right now LR CC seems quite cheap as they try to entice people away from their standalone program on to their subscription based program. However I fully expect Adobe to increase the cost for CC once they've shut down both LR 6 and LR Classic.What happens when Adobe has killed off LR Classic and someone is pushed on to the cloud based program but decides a year later they no longer want to pay for the CC version? Can someone copy all their RAW files off of Adobe's servers? I can see this being a headache that will deter people away from Adobe LR CC once they've uploaded a ton of photos on to Adobe's servers.
 
I didn't give the new Lightroom much of a look in - when it's key marketing element is being cloud centric it did not seem like it will work for my 8TB and ever expanding RAW archive.

I will take another look, but if you were to ignore the cloud element completely, is it still worth a look?
 
dancook said:
I didn't give the new Lightroom much of a look in - when it's key marketing element is being cloud centric it did not seem like it will work for my 8TB and ever expanding RAW archive.

I will take another look, but if you were to ignore the cloud element completely, is it still worth a look?
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It depends how much work you do. It lacks some key features at the moment but the interface is actually quite nice and simple yet functional. It is much quicker too, with less lag.
 
Nawty said:
It depends how much work you do. It lacks some key features at the moment but the interface is actually quite nice and simple yet functional. It is much quicker too, with less lag.
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Will be ok for processing weddings? what key features?

I was halfway through the selection process for a wedding - but i'll load it into the new LR to see how it goes
 
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Key missing features for me are lack of HDR mode and Panorama stitching, export (or rather 'save') options are very limited too (can't seem to rename or select jpg quality). However for weddings it has all you'd need I think, brushes, clone/heal, split toning, sharpening masking, it also has grads and all that good stuff.

However, the ability to jump between my iMac, Macbook and iPad to edit is actually fantastic and solves one of my major annoyances.

My only real issue is the cost of cloud storage but I guess it will end up being like managing my iMac with external drives - keep this years photos on the cloud and save everything else to physical drives (which is possible I believe).
 
Stacking photos is a nice way to split a wedding into manageable chunks :)

unfortunately it appears buggy.

i've a filter to remove rejects, and the disappear from the bottom thumbs when I press X - but as I cycle from thumb to thumb the wrong image now appears in the main window.
 
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Ok having finished editing a wedding with the new Lightroom 'cloud' - it seems unlikely that I will do it again.

Thankfully I can save as 'original + settings', import them into Lightroom Classic and finish the job properly :D
 
dancook said:
Thankfully I can save as 'original + settings', import them into Lightroom Classic and finish the job properly :D
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Annoyingly that seems to leave off the flags (but maintains the * rating).

Edit, or if you sign into CC on LR Classic you can import them straight from there.
 
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