Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/03/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 3/28/07 12:57 AM, "Frank Dernie" <Frank.Dernie@btinternet.com> wrote: > I take issue with Lightroom in the same way. I know where the > database file is, i know where my photographs are. It is better than > the Beta version in this respect but backups are a problem for me > because I do not understand well enough to be sure my backup contains > all the information. I HATE software like that. > I have lost my database once - only message was corrupt database, the > backup automatically made by Lightroom did not seem to be complete. > In the end I started again. I am still not sure the shortcomings > don't outweigh the good bits. Here is four easy steps to get over this anxiety: 1. Create a folder called "Photo Archive" on your hard drive of choice - internal or external. 2. When importing: a) make sure on you choose to copy the files to a new location and import. Choose the "new location" as the "Photo Archive" folder. b) Convert to DNG always when you import - this gets around dealing with sidecars and makes it so as much data as can be written to the file is written. 3. Turn on "Automatically write changes to XMP" in the Preferences/File Mangement dialog - this will push as much of the "truth" to the files. And since they are DNG, it is written to the file and there in case of any issues. Done. All images will be imported to the Photo Archive folder. All information about those images will be saved to the Lightroom database therein, and all the files will hold as much truth as they can logically contain (yes there are a few things that the Lightroom Library contains that does not make sense at the file-level). 4. Now, make sure your backup software is backing up that "Photo Archive" folder. Shout for joy - You're golden. Ok, I gotta tack on one more: 5. Get back to shooting pictures and don't stress it. Show those pictures to Ted and talk about how fun it was to "just shoot" and he'll be happier... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . w a d e h e n i n g e r u s e r e x p e r i e n c e a d o b e s y s t e m s , i n c