Q: Using Adobe Lightroom with OSX Photos

No one and really, there is no way to sensibly use the two apps together, as they sit at the same point in the workflow. Both are Asset Managers with non-destructive processing. They have no way to talk to each other as they are both databases. Both require that an image is imported before doing anything, and can only speak to the other by exporting to the Finder first.

So, a workflow where you import to LR, process and then export to the Finder, and thereafter add to Photos is about the best there is, but that involves a lot of duplication.

Honestly for me, coming from Aperture, Photos has nothing.

It looks exactly like Lightroom

I have been wondering the same thing. I think that there are two possibilities:

1. Forget Photos and rely on Smugmug. Get the SM LR plugin. This syncs photos with SM. Then get SM for iOS. Use PhotoSync to automatically upload photos to SM from your iOS device. It's a 3-vendor solution, but it sort of works and you benefit from the infinite capacity of SM for just $30/yr. You can have offline galleries in SM iOS so you can have photos available without an Internet connection. I have not checked if I can create an album / sync of  "all photos from the last 12 months" or "all 5-star photos". I'm just getting started with LR.

2. Just an idea and totally untried: Both LR and Photos allow you to have referenced photos. It may be possible to create a automator / applescript that creates references in Photos for anything in our LR library. You'd do all of your work in LR, you'd use Photos only for the purpose of viewing, building albums / books, and syncing to iOS.

In relation to 2: That will only be able to show you your original unedited images from Lightroom as all editing is virtual, and only committed to file on export.

Oh, right. There is another option of using LR Export to run automated exports. I think that this gets the edited images, but then you'll end up with duplicate images (perhaps not the end of the world as then it serves as a backup). LR Export -> temp folder -> automator / applescript -> Photos

I was thinking about option 3: Similar approach to #1

- Photosync up to Dropbox or to a local folder. It can be set to do these automatically when you arrive at a location (e.g. home)

- LR Import from those locations.

- On the opposite side, you can set LR exports to Photos, Dropbox or other to have easy access to photos elsewhere.

I have not subscribed to CC yet (plan to this week) so I don't know how good the sync ability is between iOS and LR if you have CC. The nice thing about Photosync is that you don't need to open it for the sync to happen. When you cross the geofence, it just starts.

See what I mean:

there is no way to sensibly use the two apps together,

Terence Devlin wrote:

 

See what I mean:

 

there is no way to sensibly use the two apps together,

Yes, from the Photos + Lightroom together perpsective.

But taking it back to the root, what is the best way to have the same benefits offered by photos (tight integration between iOS and LR)? If Adobe weren't so stingy with their cloud storage, it would be a lot simpler answer because you'd just stick the their storage and product suite.

How can someone who takes a fair # of photos on iOS get those seamlessly to LR and conversely have access to their photo catalogues on iOS when they want to show them? I think the answer may be CC Photography + Smugmug but there are pitfalls to the smugmug iOS client (does not background sync,  nowhere near as good as Photos, does not integrate with other apps where you may want to use the photos collection).

Rather beyond the scope of the forum so I'd point you to the Adobe ones. But I seem to recall that they have an iOS app now that integrates with LR.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/how-to/setup-computer-mobile-devices.html

Regarding the ability to link Adobe Lightroom with OSX Photos, this is a feature that all users should request from both Apple and Adobe. So far, nothing seems to be available.

Given the disappointing move to discontinue Aperture, I made the decision to adopt the new version of Lightroom (Lightroom CC 6.0). I simply exported all the pictures from the Photo library to an external hard drive, and them fired Lightroom to use them in a new catalog. I further installed the LR plugin "Photo Upload," which allows me to upload the pictures directly to SmugMug. So far, this workflow seems to function smoothly and, obviously, this was impossible with Photo. From now on, I will import new pictures directly into Lightroom and completely bypass Photo. We will see how it works, since I only started this yesterday...

I don't have an iOS device and therefore don't care so much about iCloud for pictures but I thought I would share this story with other users frustrated by Photo.

Best wishes!

Regarding the ability to link Adobe Lightroom with OSX Photos, this is a feature that all users should request from both Apple and Adobe.

This won't happen, nor should it. Photos  and Lightroom do the same job in the same way. There is no sensible way to negotiate which is the master between the two apps. Confusion will ensue and that's the mother of dataloss. It certainly should happen with apps like Photoshop.

It was also possible to upload to SmugMug directly from iPhoto with a plug, and is also currently possible with iPhoto and Photos via the media browser.

Hello webjames,

At last someone with the same problem!!! :-)

I was asking me the same question.. and next week I'm programming a trip to the Apple Store to ask the customer service about this process.

My problem is about the same as yours.. I don't want RAW (heavy) files to upload to the new iCloud Library. I shoot a lot of photos and I want have all of it in JPG, in that great service call iCloud Photo Library and shared across all my device.

I want to modify it in Lightroom because is the only Pro solution available in market that can compete with Aperture. Hope that Apple made a Plugin or a workflow that work in the correct way.

There is also a secondary problem I discover.. the EXIF of the images exported from Lightroom are not compatible to the organization of the iCloud Photo Library.

Thanks if anyone find a solution!

Efrem Spataro