Short summary: how having RAW images on an External drive can improve LR
performance.
Frequently, for working with LR, people recommend storing the RAW photos
on the internal drive, which is typically the fastest, especially if it is
an SSD. I've read at least one analysis that has shown that the
difference is rather small for many "bulk" operations, so that it wouldn't
be a big deal (i.e. those bulk operations are limited by other resources,
such as CPU or RAM). However, the same study mentioned that other
operations, - such as switching from one photo to another, or from one
module to another would benefit from the RAW images being on the fast
internal SSD drive.
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/blog/will-an-ssd-improve-adobe-lightroom-performance/
However, there is yet another factor:
In LR 5+, when you create smart previews, switching
between photos (especially in Develop module) is much faster if the RAW
images are not available, and you work only with the smart previews (+
regular previews, which I choose to be full-size previews).
The difference is striking. This fact has been noted.
However, so far, I have not seen this fact to be used as the foundation
for keeping the RAW images on an external drive (but I haven't tried
hard to search for it).
For a while, I've been using this configuration myself, first with a
laptop (internal SSD) and external USB-3 HDD, due to the lack of space on
the internal SSD. But now, I am using the same with a desktop computer.
I have a portable USB-3 HDD that has the "primary" collection of RAW
images. An added bonus is that I can use the same photos on both laptop
and desktop, if needed.
My work flow is as follows:
1. I copy RAW images from the SD card to the external HDD (using a fast
USB-3 SD card reader), which I can do on ANY computer (on some trips when
I don't take my laptop, I borrow my wife's laptop for this purpose).
1a) I also copy the same RAW files to another HDD that contains all
backups. (This step is irrelevant for the consideration here, and it is
mentioned just for completeness.)
2. On my "processing" computer, I import these images into LR (without
moving them! - you must deliberately uncheck that option and it will stay
that way)
3. At the same time (importing), I check the option to generate full size
previews AND smart previews.
4. Once the previews are generated, I "eject" the external HDD, and
perform ALL sorting, selection, develop, web-gallery generation work with
the external HDD disconnected.
5. I connect the external HDD only before:
a) printing;
b) generating any jpegs, including web galleries;
c) exporting/opening the images in an external application (such as PS).
My "main" LR catalog and previews are kept on the internal drive.
(I occasionally create a smaller, special purpose catalog that I store on
the external HDD, especially if I need to move it between different
computers.)
Maybe these thoughts would be useful for some PDMLers.
All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Igor
PS. This Adobe webpage suggests increasing the size of the Camera Raw
cache:
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/optimize-performance-lightroom.html
That should improve the response time when switching between different
images. I haven't tried this myself, so, I don't know how much this
improvement would be compared to what I suggested. However, I know that
often, even when going back and forth between just a handful of images
(2-3) - I see a huge difference in the response time when the raw images
are available and not.
So, that advice probably helps when you are actively working with a large
set of photos, so that you are hitting the default limit (of 1 GB).
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