Lightroom: Catalog Backup

It is important to not only have multiple copies of your digital photos but if you are using Lightroom to manage and edit your picture collection you should backup this database catalog as well. The catalog holds all of your edits and organization of your pictures. Don’t be caught with your catalog becoming corrupt and not having a backup to fall back on.

I take the few minutes every time I close a Lightroom session to backup my current updates. Having a corrupt catalog is pretty rare but it happens. This simple procedure will keep you from wanting to slit your wrists if corruption error shows its ugly face.

There is a button that you can hit called Repair Catalog if this occurs but it doesn’t always work. So, don’t take the chance and backup.

If you don’t have a backup, you’ve lost all your edits. All your organization. All your star ratings, pick flags, photo books you created, collections — everything — you are starting over from scratch with Lightroom. I don’t want that to happen to you, and the fix is easy — all you have to do is not totally ignore the dialog below that appears when you quit Lightroom.

NOTE: These backups will be saved into a folder named “Backups” and that folder will be in the same folder where your current Lightroom catalog lives on your computer.

This was a tip from Scott Kelby, lightroomkillertips.com that I thought was important enough to reiterate.

Great Lightroom Tip from Scott Kelby

I keep thinking about purchasing a memory card with a built in GPS chip to be able to automatically geotag my photos when taking them since my camera doesn’t have a built in GPS so the suggestion is made to pull out your phone that has built in GPS and quickly take a photo from the same location that you are shooting. Then you can come back at a later time and apply that map location to your other images. See this link for more information.

Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom CC Deal

Everyone seems to be migrating towards monthly revenue models and Adobe is one of the leaders with this model. Adobe’s Creative Cloud (CC) has been available for a while now and if you are CS3 or higher owner you are eligible are eligible for a special Creative Cloud membership offer that includes all of the following for just $9.99/month: Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5, 20 GB of online storage, Behance ProSite, access to Creative Cloud training resources, and ongoing upgrades and updates. To be clear, $9.99 is not an introductory price. It is the price for those who sign up by December 31, 2013. This offer will be available the week of September 16th at the same time we introduce the new version of Lightroom 5.2. 

I haven’t seen it populate their site yet but keep you eyes open for this to become available. For those of you who only need Photoshop and Lightroom this is a very good deal. Normally Photoshop alone is $19.99/month but to have all of this bundled together for half the price it is hard to beat the price.

Need Help with LR4? Try a tutorial…

I really liked George Jardine’s Lightroom 4 Video Workshop. I enjoy George’s approach to training you on more than just how to use LR4 but from the beginning, talks to you about what you should need to know about LR4’s file structure and what you should consider when storing your pictures and where you are going to structure you catalog/library. He goes into great depths describing this and I have restructured my picture file storage to mimic his suggestions. It has worked well for me when I have gone on vacation and taken my library with me to make it easier to update process new pictures.

This new series is available to view in both flash and HTML5 formats. The second was helpful to me because I like to watch these videos using my iPad and so far it is working very well. The complete series costs $24.95 for 16 videos and over 6 hours of online video education. He has a easy to listen voice and when you watch each section you will definitely come away with a deeper understanding of the new Lightroom 4 program.

Here are the video titles:

1   The Library Structure Overview   –  14:45
2   The Lightroom Catalog Overview   –  7:43
3   The Lightroom User Interface   –  21:32
4   The Pro Workflow Overview   –  37:02
5   The Lightroom Import Dialog   –  17:31
6   The Library Module – Part 1   –  27:51
7   The Library Module – Part 2   –  42:21
8   The Keywording Panels   –  19:31
9   The Metadata Panel   –  27:52
10  File Renaming   –  22:06
11   Editing Methods in Lightroom 4   –  34:19
12   The Lightroom Filter Bar   –  14:36
13   Collections & Virtual Copies   –   24:38  (Check out the free sample movie, here.)
14   The Export Dialog & Publish Services   –  35:46
15   The Lightroom to Photoshop Workflow   –  17:09 (NOTE! This tutorial movie will be updated shortly!)
16   Photo Library Backup Strategies   –  22:00

Take a look at his blog post for more information if you are interested in this product. I really like his presentation style and recommend adding this tutorial series to your collection if you are really series about learning LR4’s photo library, workflow and asset management functions. He has more detail on the develop modules based on LR3, hopefully he will update these soon as well.

Posting at Photoshopsupport.com–Lightroom 4 Video Tutorials

Here are 5 free videos from the course Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4: New Features Workshop, taught by world renowned photographer and author Mikkel Aaland. Use coupon code LR20 for an instant 20% discount if you decide to purchase the full series. (You can download a free 30-day Photoshop Lightroom 4 trial version.)
Overview of New Features — New Models
Lightroom 4 has added two new modules, Book and Map, and in this video you'll get an overview of their features.
Using the Map Module — Working with Non-Geotagged Photos
Most cameras don't automatically add GPS data to an image, but that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of Lightroom's Map module. In this video you'll see how to manually add GPS data directly from a Google map.
New Develop Module Features — RGB Curves
Curves in Lightroom just got even more powerful by enabling you to control individual red, green, and blue channels. In this video you'll get an example of how these channels work.
Soft Proofing — Soft Proofing with a Custom Profile
In Lightroom 4 you have the option to soft proof an image using a custom profile, and this video will show you how.
Video Editing — Setting a Poster Frame
Want to select another static image to represent your video in the Library module? This video will show you how to select a new poster frame that does just that.
About The Course
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 includes some extremely powerful new features. In this workshop photographer and author Mikkel Aaland shows you what's new and how to put these new features to work.
You’ll learn about the new process version and how it improves the way images are processed in Lightroom, as well as changes to the Develop module’s Basic pane, which now offers much more intuitive controls.
You’ll also be introduced to the new modules in Lightroom 4, the Map and Book modules, which make it easy to sort your photos by location and create great photo books, respectively. Other new features covered here include soft proofing, upgraded video editing capabilities, and many more.

Lightroom Video – Everything I Know About the Adjustment Brush

I have been following Matt Kloskowski for years and he is very well known in the Photoshop/Lightroom community for his books and videos on using these products. Here is a recently published video discussing some of the secrets he is exposing using Lightroom 3’s Adjustment Brush.

Here is the link to his video: Lightroom Video – Everything I Know About the Adjustment Brush