Using Adobe Lightroom with OSX Photos

You proposed a system that uses two apps and two libraries for different purposes, which is not what the question asked, and as to how practical it is, that's for each person to judge for themselves.

but both are two software into one: cataloguing and editing (actually three if you add cloud capability). It is therefore not silly to imagine the apps exchanging/integrating for part of their functionality.

I don't believe that I said anywhere that to imagine this is silly. What I said was it's not possible. I also believe it never will be for several reasons:

• different makers with different ambitions for their apps
• who are in competition with each other
• exchanging and integrating would involve sharing proprietary code - that is jealously guarded - with a competitor

Theres a way to have all your Photo Library in Adobe Lightroom, but you need to sync the folder every time you have new photos in your Library.

First you need to locate the master folder of your Photo Library by right clicking on it and Show Package Contents, you will see the master folder there (keep the folder opened), then open Adobe Lightroom and press import, you have to drag and drop the master folder in the import section of LR where it's written "Please select a source." there's no other way to import it because Adobe LR won't recognise the Photo Library File.

Don't forget to SYNC!

🙂

This is very unwise. As both LR and Photos can move files, as LR can rename files, there is a very high risk that one app will corrupt the other's library in the hands of an unwary user. Even experienced users can and do make mistakes.

Further, of course, this is not having "all your Photo Library" in LR or anything remotely like it. It's just the Masters. No work done on the images in Photos will be available in LR and vice versa. No updates to metadata, nothing. There is no way to have the Library of one app available in the other.

webjames, it depends on your philosophy, especially now that Photos is non destructive. LEt me work through a couple of examples:

1) Your life is mostly iPhone centric, cataloguing is less important than faces and places

Perhaps you use your iPhone for a majority of your snaps/quality snaps and bring out a better camera only occasionally. Even then, you're quite happy to use Photos to import from that camera and do basic editing in Photos (which is a lot less basic than it used to be in iPhoto)

Every now and then you do a special shoot and enjoy editing in LR.

Then you make Photos your main catalogue and export high quality jpegs from LR into photos. You only use LR for 'keepers' and perhaps to store originals of RAW shoots as they would take up too much space if you use iCloud

2) You use a combination of cameras/image sources and need cataloguing to find your way around. You're happy to use your i-devices as a combination of snaps/showcase

The first thing to do is to decide when to leave your snaps alone and when to organise them. Let's assume that you're going on holiday in sunny Spain and you collect pictures from your DSLR, your phone, your friend's phone etc. Here is my workflow:

- Import memory cards into LR using a preset renaming

- Do the same with 'i-images' but once in LR, apply a colour flag so that you know which is which

- Run through your keepers to cull your photos, then keyword and edit to your heart's content

- Run another coloured flag on any picture that has been edited (even if just for cropping)

- Then export those edits to disk, but export the unedited i-images as originals (save for the renaming)

- Delete originals from your phone

- Import this 'show library' to your devices/iCloud

PS: the reason for the coloured flags etc. is that if you re-export jpegs from LR they may degrade and they are much larger than the originals (no idea why)

Hope this helps...

Fair enough 😉

However I don't think things have moved on that much: iCloud is still an expensive way to hold a large library together so my preference is to have Photos as a Snaps + Keepers combination, keeping the bulk of my originals on duplicated HDDs and/or a cheaper cloud service.

I don't think things have moved on that much

They haven't and they won't move on at all. As I said back then these two apps can't work together as they both have the same place in the workflow. What you're describing is using both independently of each other, whereas the original question was trying to find a way to integrate them...

...a way of using Photos for the iCloud integration and Lightroom for the editing and post processing

There is a didactic reply and a practical one... Yes they both occupy the same space but both are two software into one: cataloguing and editing (actually three if you add cloud capability). It is therefore not silly to imagine the apps exchanging/integrating for part of their functionality.

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.