Multiple Photos libraries

[nicholasg]

I'm thinking about getting a Macbook Pro. How I want to manage my photos is with libraries: -

1) Current year's photos on the laptop drive. My photography is mostly travel related, so I would load the photos on the laptop and delete the bad ones and do some editing while away from home.

2) Archive on a NAS at home. This is about a 1TB, so too big to keep on the laptop.

At the year end the plan would be to add the laptop photos to the NAS and delete them off the laptop.

I don't think this is possible in Photos. Anyone figured out a way to do this?

 

[robgendreau]

I'm thinking about getting a Macbook Pro. How I want to manage my photos is with libraries: -

1) Current year's photos on the laptop drive. My photography is mostly travel related, so I would load the photos on the laptop and delete the bad ones and do some editing while away from home.

2) Archive on a NAS at home. This is about a 1TB, so too big to keep on the laptop.

At the year end the plan would be to add the laptop photos to the NAS and delete them off the laptop.

I don't think this is possible in Photos. Anyone figured out a way to do this?

You can certainly have different libraries in Photos. But note that only one, the "system library," can synch with iCloud Photo Library. And that must be a managed library, ie the images must be copied into the Photos library.

Use on a NAS could be slow depending on the setup. Perhaps a referenced library would work better? meaning the images stay on the NAS but the actual library and previews is on a faster SSD boot drive say. But if you're just archiving there, maybe it won't matter.

I assume you're using one computer. Take a look at Fat Cat's Power Photos. It allows you to do certain merging tasks and such with multiple libraries. It might help. With Lightroom we often export/import catalogs to manage this sort of workflow, and maybe you can hack together something similar using that software.

 

[nicholasg]

Thanks for the suggestion. It looks like a nice piece of software, but it is limited in the data it can copy from one library to another e.g. it can export the original or the edited photograph, not both.

I think I'll change my proposed workflow to: -

1) Load photos from DSLR to Photos library on laptop SSD

2) Cull, but no editing

3) When home, export photos from Photos library on laptop drive. Open Photos library on DAS and import photos from trip.

You can certainly have different libraries in Photos. But note that only one, the "system library," can synch with iCloud Photo Library. And that must be a managed library, ie the images must be copied into the Photos library.

Use on a NAS could be slow depending on the setup. Perhaps a referenced library would work better? meaning the images stay on the NAS but the actual library and previews is on a faster SSD boot drive say. But if you're just archiving there, maybe it won't matter.

I assume you're using one computer. Take a look at Fat Cat's Power Photos. It allows you to do certain merging tasks and such with multiple libraries. It might help. With Lightroom we often export/import catalogs to manage this sort of workflow, and maybe you can hack together something similar using that software.