Photo organization with iOS, Leica FOTOS and Lightroom

[Ken Ford]

I’m trying a different workflow with my Q2M, SL2 and soon to arrive Q2. I traditionally have shot digital RAW + JPG and have downloaded images to my laptop with processing done there. The issue is that this has become an albatross, I really don’t enjoy post and my backlog is ridiculous.

I recently started using the Leica FOTOS app on my iPhone 15 Pro. As I dig into it I’m finding it’s actually really well thought out, it seems to be functional as a front end for viewing all Leica sourced photos both in Apple Photos and Lightroom.

What I can’t figure out is if there is a way of automatically placing photos in Apple Photos albums by camera, it seems to just dump them in the main library and you need to manually add them to albums. One complicating issue with this is that they display in date order, not by recent activity. Also, it’s a manual process that I need to remember to do. Ideally I’d like to see FOTOS automatically place downloads into Photos albums by camera.

I’m also struggling with Lightroom - I can’t quite figure out to configure things to put processed images into albums. My ideal would be two albums for each camera in Photos - one for everything and one for processed photos.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to handle this? Are there other organization apps that would work better for this?

 

[shawn]

I’m also struggling with Lightroom - I can’t quite figure out to configure things to put processed images into albums. My ideal would be two albums for each camera in Photos - one for everything and one for processed photos.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to handle this? Are there other organization apps that would work better for this?

Can't help with Photos or FOTOS but can you explain more about what you are trying to do in Lightroom? If you are just looking to move your finished files into a different location in Lightroom you just drag and drop within Lightroom when in the library view looking at folders. You can add a folder in there and name it whatever you want. Then either drag other folders into it or selected images.

Alternatively, if you like to keep your pictures chronological by folder (I do) you could just use either the rating or 'pick' for any completed images. Then when in grid view you can use the library filter to just show picked photos, or unpicked, in that folder.

 

[Ken Ford]

I was thinking I’d use Photos as my main library and pass things back there from LR, but you bring up a good point - leverage metadata instead of file location. (I hate Sharepoint so I have a learned blind spot to using metadata.)

Maybe I should be using Adobe Creative Cloud for images instead?

 

[shawn]

I used photos as my library a long time ago but switched to Lightroom many years ago, around LR2. As I edit in Lightroom it makes the most sense to use that as my primary storage as it is so well integrated and removes the need for redundant copies of files. At least at the time, Lightroom also handled multiple storage locations easier. My laptop really only holds current photos, the bulk of my library is stored on a RAID NAS. Because of Lightroom's quick preview function I can be completely disconnected for the NAS but still see small version of the images and even perform some edits that would be exported when reattached to the NAS.

Metadata makes it much easier to deal with things. Keywords on import along with all the camera EXIF and then storage in folders by date is how I have mine organized and find things. Also recently started using the face feature too which is really just adding more metadata to search on.

 

[Darthfeeble]

Apple hasn't had a serious photographers program since they dumped Aperture. Photos is primarily designed for the phone group. I didn't get going with the Leica program as the abandoning Aperture made me a Lightroom fan. I have an auxiliary drive attached to both my laptop and iMac. I have a "Photographs" folder on each and when I download with Lightroom I make a second copy to the Aux Drive and the appropriate camera sub folder. The Folder on the computer is for the worked images, the folder on the Aux drive is untouched images. Both have separate sub folders for each camera. This too will become a burden if you don't religiously keyword your work, much easier to do at the time of downloading rather than after. I didn't and spend several hours searching for photos. I also would recommend sorting by topic rather than camera. It seems that is what drives nearly all of my searches. You can keyword in which camera. Lightroom will add dates and create subfolders if you wish it to. There's a reason it is the world's most popular photo program.

 

[shawn]

The Folder on the computer is for the worked images, the folder on the Aux drive is untouched images.

Every file you have have ever imported into Lightroom is the untouched original image, not matter what edits you do to them. That is the whole point of non-destructive editing. Every edit you make to a file in your catalog is just metadata, not changes to the original file. You only get a copy of the image with the edits baked in when you Export from Lightroom or if you use the 'edit in an external editor' feature. If you want multiple versions of an image (say one color, one B&W) use the virtual copy function.

 

[Ken Ford]

The issue here is that I am trying to avoid using the laptop for everyday processing. That’s where my backlog occurs.

I need to find a clean way of doing this using my iPhone for normal linking and downloading and then the iPhone for quick field edits and the iPad back home. The MacBook may get used at times but all three devices are going to be accessing the same library of images.

 

[mrtoml]

Have you thought about using Lightroom (the cloud version)? I just transferred my Classic library to the cloud. The problem with this is that you may need to pay extra for a large online storage. I have the 3TB version.

The advantage is that you can get to your photos on iPhone, iPad, web browser and laptop and edit them so long as you are online.

 

[shawn]

Have you thought about using Lightroom (the cloud version)? I just transferred my Classic library to the cloud. The problem with this is that you may need to pay extra for a large online storage. I have the 3TB version.

The advantage is that you can get to your photos on iPhone, iPad, web browser and laptop and edit them so long as you are online.

You can use Adobe cloud with Lightroom classic too. It looks like it would sync photos and even developer settings with Lightroom Mobile. That might be an interesting way of doing it. Anything in the field edit with LR Mobile and sync with the cloud. Then when back home move your stuff out of the cloud into permanent storage in LR classic.

I haven't used that though as I just develop everything on my laptop. Didn't want to deal with the inconsistencies of different monitors as so on.