- Did you unplug the external drive where the image was located?
- Did you change the name of the drive? Or folder?
- Did you move the files outside of Lightroom (in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder)?
- Did your drive crash?
- Are you restoring from a backup drive?
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Working On A Couple Of Lightroom Images From The Road
James Maynard - May 16, 2013 | Lightroom, Lightroom Tips, Storage, Workflow
Sometimes, you will find yourself wanting to make edits to your photos while you are out on the road but you will not have your entire of Lightroom master catalog with you and could not fit the photos on your laptop.
With Lightroom, there is an easy way to create and small catalog from a subset of your master catalog and then merge it back to the master catalog when you are done editing the images.
To do this, make sure you are in the library module of Lightroom. From here, go to your file menu and choose “Export as Catalog.” Then, save that catalog to an external drive.
From there you can edit your photos on a second computer that has the external hard drive plugged in.
After you are done working on the images and are ready to merge the smaller catalog back into the main catalog, select “Import from Another Catalog” on your master Lightroom catalog. Then select the smaller catalog and it will get merged in. Lightroom even keeps track of duplicates!
Don’t Import Duplicate Photos in Lightroom
James Maynard - April 18, 2013 | Lightroom, Lightroom Tips, Photography Gear, Photography Tips, Storage, Workflow
Importing duplicate photographs is easy to do using any photo editing program. Sometimes, with pictures filling a folder, bringing them into your library can create multiple copies of certain pictures. This can lead to confusion and wasted time as you create a series of edits on one photograph. Using Lightroom, however, there is an easy way to prevent this from happening.
In the import dialog box within the program, look under “File Handling” panel on the right-hand side of your screen. There, you will find a check box marked “Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates.” Make sure this option is selected before importing photos from a SD card, from another drive or off the cloud.
Lightroom recognizes duplicates when they have the same original name, capture date/time, and file size. The image window on the left of the screen will still show the suspected duplicates, but grayed out.
This is an option that most people leave on all the time, as there is little reason not to do so – having this option selected has no drawbacks to your editing process. It also helps make your imports faster, as time is not wasted importing photos that are already in your library.
New Version of Mosaic Coming! Tighter Integration with Lightroom
Gerard Murphy - January 31, 2013 | Aperture, Archiving, Backup, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, DAM, Digital Asset Management, Entrepreneurship, Lightroom, Mosaic, Photographers, Photography Business, RAW Photos, Storage, Uncategorized
We are very happy to share with you some details about our upcoming release. This release is packed with awesome new features that we are super excited about.For our existing customers there are a couple features we are retiring that you should know about.
We are taking our Lightroom integrated approach that has been very popular with our Mosaic View product and expanding it to include online RAW photo backup.
Our photo viewing app has also gotten a complete redesign. The new version of the App is faster, more stable, and also works on smartphones including the iPhone. You will also be able to see which photos are backed up from the Mosaic App.
Backing up using Lightroom data has a lot of advantages including the ability to better manage your cloud backups.
Photographers take a lot of photos (and videos) that generate a lot of data. As any photographer knows, not every photo is amazing…. or even good. One of the things we love about Lightroom is the ability to keep track of your “good photos”.
Many customers said to us that they didn’t want to pay to have their 50 bracketed photos backed up when really they only cared about the 1 complete HDR image. Why not automated this process?
Backing up images within Lightroom allows the flexibility to backup automatically by Lightroom metadata. You will be able to backup using stars, flags, dates, and/or collections automatically and easily. Or just automatically backup everything in Lightroom. This keeps your costs down while giving you all of the benefits of an automated backup solution.
This does however mean we will no longer backup any documents that are not in Lightroom.
If you are a current customer who uses Aperture, you are most likely asking, what about us? We are sorry to say we will not be supporting Aperture moving forward.
Another major change with this release is that we are moving our data infrastructure from our own servers and data center to Amazon. When we first launched Mosaic there was no scalable, offsite, redundant and cost effective cloud storage solution for photographers. So we built it. This changed when Amazon launched their Glacier service.
This is a win-win. Amazon are experts at keeping data safe. They have a stellar track record in large data management. This also frees up development resources on our end to work on the customer facing stuff as opposed to server side stuff. This should allow us to pump out more releases and features more quickly going forward. (We are also hiring!)
One temporary result of this change is that we will not be accepting new hard drive shipments. We will reactivate the service in the future.
All Mosaic Archive customers will have complete access to anything in Lightroom from our App included in their subscription fee.
We know these changes are going to delight many customers. But for others, Mosaic may no longer be a good fit for your online backup needs. Customers can cancel their accounts at any time using the “My Account” link at the bottom of our webpage. We sincerely hope that we can keep your business.
At some point in the near future, we will be shutting down our data center and discontinuing support for our current product. Lots of notices will be given before this happens.
We are very excited about this release. If you are interested in trying this service in beta, please email us. We will add you to the list!
We have lots of ideas about how to improve our product and give you more options in your Lightroom workflow. This is just the beginning!
Please never hesitate to reach out to us directly if you would like to share your thoughts or ideas.
Thank you again for your support.
Best,
Gerard and Andy
Co-Founders of Mosaic
Cloud Storage – the First 50 Years
James Maynard - January 03, 2013 | Cloud Computing, DAM, Digital Asset Management, Storage
Cloud storage can be a nebulous as its namesake. But, like the natural phenomenon, what it holds onto can also be released in a torrent or a sprinkle. What cloud storage means, practically, is the ability to upload your files (often including automated backups) to computer storage devices off your network. Then, you can access these these files from anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection and a device capable of reading the data. Cloud storage is especially useful for photographers, both professional and amateur, who wish to keep their photos safe, regardless of what might happen at their home or work site.
The safety and reliability of cloud storage is accomplished through the redundancy of computer networks and maintaining your data in a professionally-run, climate-controlled environment. The best cloud storage companies like Mosaic Archive take great care to make sure that your data is safe and accessible at all times.
Access to photographs or other data you may have saved through cloud storage is usually achieved though a web browser or web-enabled smart phone.
Cloud storage is generally believed to have first been developed by Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider in the late 1960′s. Licklider, also known as J.C.R., is considered by many computer historians to be one of the biggest names in the history of computing. In addition to cloud computing, he was among the first to envision interactive computing, which comprises such applications as spreadsheets and word processing programs.
Amazingly, this internet pioneer even foresaw a version of the World Wide Wide decades before its actual development in 1989. During August of 1962, about the time Marilyn Monroe died and Roger Clemens was born, Licklider circulated a series of memos concerning ARPAnet, the direct predecessor to the internet. In these notes, describing what he called the “Intergalactic Computer Network,” Licklider laid the basis of cloud computing and storage down for the first time in history.
Almost concurrently with Licklider, John McCarthy, another early pioneer of the computer industry, first developed the idea that a public network could be delivered to homes and businesses as a utility like electricity or water. This idea was essential to the widespread usage of the internet that is essential to cloud storage.
Throughout the 1990′s, the cost of hardware and architecture began to make cloud storage more affordable, which brought the practice into use with the general public. It was just 15 years ago, during a Dallas meeting in 1997, that the term cloud computing was first coined, by Emory University Information Systems professor Ramnath Chellappa. He stated during this meeting that the goal of cloud computing would be a “computing paradigm where the boundaries of computing will be determined by economic rationale rather than technical limits alone.”
(more…)Lightroom Intro Tutorial Video – Interview Style Demo
Gerard Murphy - December 04, 2012 | Hard Drive, Lightroom, Photography Gear, Photography Tips, RAW Photos, Storage, Tips, Workflow
My friend Alan is getting more into photography. He decided to invest in Lightroom. But like many people he had some questions about how to manage his photos, edit them and ultimately use them using Lightroom. Lightroom can be a little intimidating, but a couple simple instructions can go a long way.Because Alan is a good friend, I volunteered to point him in the right direction. He agreed to record the conversation in hopes that it would help others get started with Lightroom.
The result is a more conversational approach to demonstrating Lightroom than other tutorials I have seen. Hopefully it will help folks learn Lightroom to better manage their photos and to use the editing magic to make their photos pop.
This was recorded using Google Plus. Feel free to add me to your G+ circles.
Here was the basic overview of what topics where covered: (more…)
Three Methods of Backing Up Digital Photographs
James Maynard - November 29, 2012 | Archiving, Backup, DAM, Digital Asset Management, Online Photo Backup, Photography Equipment, Photography Gear, Photography Tips, RAW Photos, Storage
Protecting digital photos is a priority in today’s world. We hear horror stories of people who have rushed into burning buildings in order to save photo albums, only to perish themselves. And although, that may be extreme, preserving digital photographs is a way of saving our own memories. You never know when your computer may suffer a mechanical breakdown or virus that will wipe out all the photos on your computer, or make them inaccessible. But how to you preserve digital photographs, making sure that your photos will survive in perpetuity? There are several ways of backing up your digital photos, and each one has advantages and disadvantages.The first of these is to purchase an external hard drive. These are fairly inexpensive, as you can purchase a one-terabyte drive for around $100. The advantage of these is that being connected directly to your computer, it is a breeze to back up your digital photos to such a drive after editing. There’s also plenty of space for all of your images. However, because the drive is attached to your computer, it can also be subject to viruses (although unlikely) and mechanical failure. Also, being on the same site as your computer means that should your house suffer a fire or break-in, the external drive containing your digital photos can also be lost. This technique can be a great first line of defense in preserving your digital photos, however, it should not be relied upon exclusively.
Many photographers choose to have redundant arrays of external drives. These drives are typically bundled together in a RAID 5 or RAID 6 type of mirroring. If you are technical you can deploy a redundant RAID system yourself or you can purchase a hardware system like a Drobo that comes prepackaged with this level of redundancy.
(more…)The History of Photo Storage
James Maynard - November 14, 2012 | Backup, Cloud Computing, Hard Drive, Photographers, Storage
There are moments that are captured in photographs which can never be repeated again; sometimes a photo is all we have left of a loved one who has passed – some pictures tell a story in their composition and bring back memories years after they occur.
For that reason, people have done everything they can to preserve photos, with some ideas and methods being far superior to others. Storage of photographs has come a long way since the early days of the mid-nineteenth century, when photography first began to gain popularity.
Around the time of the Civil War, the first photo albums began to make their appearance. They were largely well-constructed tombs or leather and cloth, often ornately decorated with gold and porcelain latches and knobs. The pages of these albums was constructed of card stock, on top of which was glued a piece of paper with a center window cut out of it. When a photograph was slipped between the two, the image showed through the window in the paper.
As the Twentieth Century dawned, the paper on which photographs were printed became heavier and sturdier. This increased the popularity of photo albums, and more people began to store their photographs. However, the albums at this time used card stock, paper and ink which were destructive to the photos they held, and they began to fall out of favor among serious collectors and photography aficionados.
There are so called “magnetic” photo albums which are quite common today and they should be avoided at any cost, as they will damage photos quickly.
(more…)Lightroom Setup And Work Flow For Beginners
Guest Writer - October 09, 2012 | Archiving, Backup, Digital Asset Management, Hard Drive, Storage, Workflow
Guest post by Mitch Russo. Mitch is on the Mosaic advisory board. In addition to being a serial entrepreneur, he is a master photographer. Check out his travel photography blog.This is all about workflow; you know… how you get your photos from your camera to that beautiful, amazing killer 30×40 framed jaw-dropping masterpiece hanging over your living room sofa. I know you want to, don’t deny it. So lets see what it takes and in the process I’ll share with you some of my secrets for making it pretty darn easy.
But first… we have to get serious and think about organization even before we start. Bummer. I know. But lets get it out of the way so we can move on to the creative stuff we all love to do.
Lightroom is both a file management system and a photo editor. The only problem is that you can’t really use it as an editor until you understand how it manages files. If you are like me, you probably loaded Lightroom on your computer and started playing around. How’d that work for you? Not so good, right?
Best we take a moment and think a little about making sure that whatever system we set up can last us into the next decade. So lets start with file management.
Basic photo organizing for most people means storing photos by date. An alternative is to store photos by “place” or “event.” Either one is fine. If you’ve been consistent, you have a great place to start. Even if you haven’t there’s still hope for you too.
Recently I worked with a professional portrait photographer who organized by client name. That works fine so let’s start with your hard drive and group images together by any means you want but you will need this as a start. Go ahead and do that before you go any further since it may be the most important part of getting Lightroom to work for you. Back so quick? Good. Lets launch Lightroom and start setting it up before we go any further.
(more…)Fixing Offline or Missing Photos in Lightroom
Gerard Murphy - October 03, 2012 | Archiving, Backup, DAM, Digital Asset Management, Hard Drive, Lightroom, Storage
Is there a question mark in your Lightroom catalog with a big warning saying, “The file named “X” is offline or missing.”? Don’t panic. Most of the time this is easy to fix.
A couple things could be going on.
Let’s start with the easy one. If you keep your images on an external drive and you unplug the drive, basically Lightroom is telling you that they can’t find the images… at the moment… If you plug in the drive, the question mark will magically go away. While the file is offline, you can still make catalog types of changes like keywords, stars, colors and flags. If you go to the Develop module, the controls will be grayed out.
(more…)Find and Show Your Best Photos Using Lightroom Collections
Gerard Murphy - September 27, 2012 | DAM, Lightroom, Storage, Workflow
As a serious photographer you take thousands of photos. Using collections in Lightroom is one of the best ways to find and share your images.Part of the challenge in the digital photography age is to find the good files quickly. Collections offer a nice way to do this.
Think of collections as “Albums”. This is an easy way to find your best photos.
The key thing to keep in mind is that moving a photo to a Collection in Lightroom does not create duplicate file. You can add an image to 100 collections and it will not take up any additional room on your hard drive.
I tend to use collections when sorting and filtering won’t work.
For instance, I use star ratings. I also keyword many of my images. So if I wanted to see my best photos of my son James from 2012, I would just create a filter of 3 star plus photos from 2012 with the keyword James. I can do this search quickly. It is also constantly getting updated with new photos. If I use this search often, then I would create a smart collection. Smart collections essentially save a search for you so you can access that list of photos easily.
Think of collections like playlists in iTunes. Collections are a list of photos that meet a certain objective like photos to show a client, the best photos for a holiday card or just photos you like from your recent vacation.
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About:
Mosaic was founded by prosumer photographers Andy and Gerard in 2010 because they were frustrated with the existing options for managing their photos. Andy and Gerard are on a mission to make digital asset management easier for photographers, while enabling the anywhere access that we have come to expect. Mosaic is located in the beautiful state of New Hampshire where Andy and Gerard met over 20 years ago.Blog:
Company:
Mosaic Storage Systems, Inc.Toll Free: (855) 667-2429
Local: (603) 263-0841
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