Anyone gone from LR Classic to LR Cloud

[nicholasg]

I've been using LR Classic for a few years but my annual subscription is up for renewal soon so I'm thinking about alternatives.

I'm not a great fan of Classic. For my use its probably too powerful and the GUI is so ugly, I also find the fudged cloud sync annoying (and not 100% reliable).

My wife and I both take photos which I load and edit on my iMac. She likes to make books, calendars etc. from the photos and both of us like to show photos to friends on our iPads.

I'm thinking what I lose in functionality going from LR Classic to LR Cloud (for me) is not a big deal.

I can only see 2 issues - i) Cloud does not support JPEG+RAW, it just shows them as 2 separate photos; ii) we have c. 750 TB of photos, so getting near the point of having to pay for an additional TB (which is pricey at $10/month).

Any one here made this move? Are there any other gotchas OR another eco-system that does every LR cloud does (access to photo library from PC, phone, tablet; synchronized edits; interfaces to 3rd parties like Blurb; camera app)?

Thanks!

Nicholas

 

[whiteonline]

I have made the transition, and couldn't be happier.
750TB?! I assume you mean GB.... I have yet to exceed 250GB and have been shooting for many years. Though I only use LR for "serious" images. Otherwise, snaps are stored in Photos app.

Yes, the storage gets pricey. I think it's time to consider which images you have accessible at all times. Otherwise you may want to consider local storage (such as NAS) and continue to use Classic. There are third party apps such as Mylio which will make your photos just as accessible with a mixed storage approach.
There's a breaking point where it makes very little sense to have ALL of your images in cloud.

Though if you can make use of Mac Photos, why not use it? Their 2TB plan is bundled with Apple One, which in my opinion is a great deal.

Sorry for the disjointed response, complex subject with many caveats.

 

[Ray2]

Hopefully others will chime in. I’m thinking about a move to the cloud version as well. However, I like Classic and I like Classic's superb DAM. Where I’m at now is perhaps bailing on Adobe altogether and looking at some alternatives. DAM is the major criteria. Editing apps are a dime a dozen.

 

[MCAsan]

If I were to leave the referenced catalog world of Adobe, it would be to another referenced catalog world such as C1P, or use Photo Mechanic in front of DxO PhotoLab. To me a managed catalog such as old Aperture, Photos or Lr CC is not something I want from any company. And I certainly don't want that managed catalog on their servers where I have to pay more and more. Reading and writing from my SSDs is MUCH faster. ?

 

[IsItJeremy]

I have made the move, but I still use Classic for Smart Albums and Publishers.

History:

Moved from Photos -> Lightroom Classic as I wanted more control on the organisation front, I was running out of storage and reference albums were a pain in Photos at the time.

Then 15 months ago I moved to CC as my main storage and I really do / did love it.
I do miss smart albums for sorting my workflow and publishers so I can push my favours to Google and Apple Photos for the curated albums as well as keeping my wife updated. But other than that Non classic just feels better. And I loved editing / sorting photos on my iPad.
The annoyances are no copy on the iPad (still grates today)

Of course then I stopped commuting and the need to have originals everywhere has lapsed, i used to edit on the train/whilst waiting in pubs etc
I am looking to simply my workflow and enjoy the photos more.

Options:

Lightroom non Classic, just give up on Smart Albums and Publishers (I can rig something up with keywords that will be good enough)

Lightroom classic, would save £5 a month, and could store originals on NAS or iCloud but its a bit fugally and slow (I have picked up a new M1 Air so that may help with that)

Go back to Apple photos with an external editor for non global edits and things like Dehaze, its probably good enough and it supports live photos (shoot me I have kids I take a lot of snaps) I think the biggest blocker here is the effort of migrating back And can it handle large libraries ?

Something else and just publish my best to apple/goggle, this would probably give me the ultimate flexibility, but the time / effort doesn't way up against the cost of Lightroom.

Back to your question, re JPEG/RAW (yes its annoying) but do you need the JPEG?

 

[Ray2]

One thing to keep in mind. To build a workflow around Photos requires a lot of faith Apple will not chuck it in the can, like they have so often, and replace it with something “simple” for all those folks that need a silo to store 1,000's of shots of the same crooked selfie.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact Apple spends money to develop apps, that they provide for free. It costs Apple zero to sell Adobe products and they make 35% of the price. Apple enjoys paying big time executive comp. Where's more profit? Photos is not a product I’d build anything around. Nor any other Apple app.

 

[IsItJeremy]

One thing to keep in mind. To build a workflow around Photos requires a lot of faith Apple will not chuck it in the can, like they have so often, and replace it with something “simple” for all those folks that need a silo to store 1,000's of shots of the same crooked selfie.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact Apple spends money to develop apps, that they provide for free. It costs Apple zero to sell Adobe products and they make 35% of the price. Apple enjoys paying big time executive comp. Where's more profit? Photos is not a product I’d build anything around. Nor any other Apple app.

That is true, and a valid point. But Photos is a big driver for iCloud storage so it cuts both ways.

I've got my current subscription until Nov so I have decided to stick with it.
Lightroom Cloud as my Primary, still use Classic for publishers (and run it locally on the MBA not on the Mini as I was)

Then see how it goes in a few months. Classic seems to run very nicely not the M1 MBA, so If I had to I could go back ...