Q: Using Adobe Lightroom with OSX Photos

There used to be a nice, third-party iPhoto export plugin for Lightroom but that obviously no longer works. What I'm doing with my latest shoot is to export them as iPad-quality JPEGs, import them as an album into Photo and sync that with my iOS devices. I'm also trying a Lightroom Mobile sync of the same collection to see how it works out. I'm still hoping that somebody will come up with a Lightroom-->Photo plug-in so I can go back to my easy workflow for showing of photos on my mobile devices.

Hi Everybody,

Maybe I can bring you some piece of solution.

I always used LR as primary catalog and editing tool (the best one IMO) but preferred to use iPhoto to "show" pictures, do limited slideshows, have my library well integrated into OS X and iOS, syncing to iOS devices, etc...

Here is my usual workflow :

1) I always (regulary) export my photos (my LR 3/4/5 stars pictures) from LR to Finder folders as jpg with the help of Jeffrey Friedl's collection / folder publisher. It's really doing a great job, customization option are amazing if well defined:

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/collection-publisher

2) With the help of Jacques Rioux, we created (he mostly did 99%...) a specific applescript to import / sync those jpg's into iPhoto by automatically creating albums, replacing new pictures (based on last modification date), etc....

iPhoto - Automator Import Script Improvements

3) Continue to use LR for new import / new or re-editing / use iPhoto to "show" / sync to iOs, etc...

Feel free to use it and comment. Please be aware that my applescript skills are closed to 0, I just had the idea / need....

The next improvement I would like to implement (but as previously told... no skills in applescript...) :

- Automatically launch the applescript when LR export is finished - it's possible with Jeffrey's LR plugin but I didn't manage to write well in LUA..

- Modify the script written by Jacques for new OS X Photos instead of iPhoto....

I hope it could help you... and I also hope someone would be interested by improving it.

Regards

I have Lightroom 3 (old, I know) and have been using it happily , uploading from memory cards or my iPhone. Now, i've upgraded to iPhone 6 - and suddenly my Lightroom import window will not see my iPhone when it's connected via USB to my iMac.

anyone know why?

I can't even get iPhoto to see it.

??

K.

I use both, Lightroom and Photos, the latter to just share captures with my friends who mostly use Apple product. I create Collection and sync it with Lightroom Mobile. From Mobile on iPad or iPhone I select Share and then select 5 images (only five! there is a restriction). Then press the mark in the right upper cornet and choose save to iCloud. Now your images are in iCloud library and can be used inside Photos. Repeat as many times as needed. Then share it with your friends. Alternatively, you can share from Lightroom Mobile and send link to lightroom.adobe.com gallery to your friends.

Same problem .... No Plug-in in LR ?

olivev wrote:

 

Same problem .... No Plug-in in LR ?

and there will  not be one

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.

LN

Ok.. so my workflow now is a bit different but easy and quick.

1 - Import from SD to Lightroom. Adjust all the setting and add the Location.

2 - Export the set of photos as JPG in a folder with all the EXIF.

3 - Open Photos on Mac and copied them inside.

The imported photos in "Photos for Mac" take the correct date, position and other stuff.

LarryHN wrote:

 

olivev wrote:

 

Same problem .... No Plug-in in LR ?

and there will  not be one

 

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.

LN

Yes and no...

The wrong question is being asked. It's not an LR plug-in for the Photos app that is required. It's a plug-in for iCloud Photos. The workflow should be:

1. Import into LR

2. Edit/tag in LR

3. Export to iCloud through a plug-in in the same way that you would to Facebook, Flickr, etc. (i.e. the export process should be contained within LR)

4. All iCloud clients, including the Photos app, can then automatically download the new images.

The LR copy is still the master. The copy in iCloud is simply a copy in the same that the copy in Facebook, Flickr, etc. is. Any changes you make in Photos to the iCloud copy is not transferred back to the LR master, just as it isn't if you make changes in Facebook, Flickr, etc.

And there are genuine reasons for doing this:

1. The main one is that iCloud for Photos can be used to share photos. Yes, you can use other tools to share. But, why should you given that we've all got iCloud accounts? Particularly given that Apple are trying to make iCloud your single cloud solution and Apple themselves pointed "advanced" Aperture users in the direction of Lightroom. Surely those two points combined say that Apple should be ensuring that an LR->iCloud plug-in exists, regardless of whether it is by encouraging Adobe to create it or developing it as a third-party one themselves?

2. Even if you don't want to share photos with others, you can only install LR onto two desktops. So, only two desktops can view your images through a DAM interface. For my photography I have a laptop and a desktop that use my LR licenses. But, I also have a further desktop at the day job's office, plus a laptop for that job. I also have an Apple TV. I also have an iPhone and iPad, and LR Mobile is only available for CC customers and LR6 licenses (and, even then, I'd argue that LR Mobile isn't the simple image viewer that most people are asking for on their iOS platform). iCloud is the best and correct place to be linking all of those together.

3. Images taken on my iOS device automatically go into iCloud. An iCloud plug-in for LR should be bi-directional to allow new photos in iCloud (i.e. ones put there by my iOS device, not those put there by the LR plug-in) to be imported into my LR library (at which point, the copy in the LR library becomes master).

FWIW, my current workflow is:

1. Import into LR

2. Edit/tag in LR

3. Export those I want in Photos to a folder using Jeff Friedl's Folder Publisher plug-in

4. Import from that folder into Photos

5. Delete the export images (because I have Photos set up to manage, not reference images)

The benefit to using his plug-in is that it recognises when images have been updated in LR (e.g. re-developed, new keywords added) and flags them as needing to be re-exported. I don't need to do the manual status monitoring myself as I would if I was just doing a standard LR file export. But, the point is that steps 3 and 4 shouldn't have to go outside of LR and iCloud and step 4 should not be a manual process.

Graham.

Tell Adobe as that would be their product - of course that would work just fine

LN

Disagree.

Anyone can create a plug-in for LR. Smugmug have created their own one to upload to their website. 500px have created one for theirs. There are also many people like Jeff Friedl who are developing their own plug-ins to support platforms, even for platforms where there is an official one (he also has a Smugmug plug-in for example).

While I can't comment on whether he is correct or not, Friedl has said that the reason that he hasn't developed one for iCloud is because Apple haven't made enough of the iCloud API publicly documented to enable him to do that. If what he says is correct then Adobe can't develop it without Apple support, either. And given that Adobe would clearly prefer that you use Adobe Creative Cloud and give them your hard earned cash every month instead, they are unlikely to be pro-active in taking a lead to help provide a solution for an online storage competitor.

So, not only is there is nothing stopping Apple in creating a third party plug-in to help strengthen their own product, it is clearly their responsibility to do so given those constraints.

To say that the plug-in has to be an Adobe product is incorrect.

Graham.

Dream on. Why would Apple make a plug-in that adds features to the Adobe product and thereby help Adobe sell LR licences?. Given that one of the reasons you want to the plug-in is to work around Adobe licence restrictions - and therefore cost them money - why would Adobe allow this plug-in?

So, not only is there is nothing stopping Apple in creating a third party plug-in to help strengthen their own product, it is clearly their responsibility to do so given those constraints.

Sure there is as you posted except substitute Apple for Adobe in your statement and it is just as true (maybe more so)

Adobe Apple would clearly prefer that you use Adobe Creative Cloud Apple iCloud and give them your hard earned cash every month instead, they are unlikely to be pro-active in taking a lead to help provide a solution for an online storage competitor.

LN

The licensed Adobe product that Apple themselves told Aperture users that they should move to if they needed more than the consumer-level features in Photos? The licensed Adobe product that Apple themselves helped Adobe create a migration script for so we could import an Aperture library into it? Yeah, looks like Apple are *really* determined to not help Adobe sell LR licenses...

And Adobe can't stop anyone developing a plugin to support iCloud. The plug-ins don't have to be supplied as part of the base product, nor do they have to be downloaded from Adobe's own servers. There is not an approval process in place that requires any form of certification before LR will authorise use of the plug-in.

Adobe have created a full, open and well documented API specifically to allow developers to create plug-ins to export images out of LR to any platform. There are already plug-ins out there doing exactly this with other cloud storage platforms (e.g. Google Drive).

LarryHN wrote:

 

So, not only is there is nothing stopping Apple in creating a third party plug-in to help strengthen their own product, it is clearly their responsibility to do so given those constraints.

Sure there is as you posted except substitute Apple for Adobe in your statement and it is just as true (maybe more so)

 

Adobe Apple would clearly prefer that you use Adobe Creative Cloud Apple iCloud and give them your hard earned cash every month instead, they are unlikely to be pro-active in taking a lead to help provide a solution for an online storage competitor.

LN

That makes zero sense. Of course Apple would prefer us to use iCloud. The point is that we can't, at least not easily. So, given that Apple don't have a product that competes with LR (by their own admission after they killed Aperture) and that LR is the very product that Apple recommended to Aperture users who needed that product's pro-level features, they are the ones who are losing out here.

If they aren't pro-active in getting software by other vendors to support iCloud, our motivation to spend more money increasing the size of our iCloud space is reduced.

The last part of your modified quote is the wrong way round. By being pro-active they wouldn't be helping provide a solution for an online storage competitor. They'd be helping provide *competition* to that online storage competitor.

The licensed Adobe product that Apple themselves told Aperture users that they should move to if they needed more than the consumer-level features in Photos?

Can you find a copy of the Apple statement where they say that - I mean one by Apple, not some commentator on a website. I can't recall one (and an ex-Aperture, current LR user here), nor can I imagine why Apple would recommend LR over, say, Capture One ot any of the other LR competitors. I do recall a lot of comment at the time of the Aperture announcement along these lines which Apple corrected rapidly.

The licensed Adobe product that Apple themselves helped Adobe create a migration script for so we could import an Aperture library into it?

Er, no they did not. That plug-in is all Adobe's own work. It's a bit like the whole 'Apple told us to use LR' thing. It's just not true. And perhaps one of the reasons said plug-in can be a bit hit and miss, as it essentially hacks the Aperure DB. Or, again, if you know different, can you point to some statement by either Adobe or Apple where they say this - and again, not some website commentary.

And Adobe can't stop anyone developing a plugin to support iCloud. The plug-ins don't have to be supplied as part of the base product, nor do they have to be downloaded from Adobe's own servers. There is not an approval process in place that requires any form of certification before LR will authorise use of the plug-in.

But Adobe can disable any plug-in they want at any time.