Lightroom Question..

If memory serves the LR3 installation isn't very big (it doubled with LR4, probably due to the stupid photobooks; LR5 beta is about the same).

I assume you upgraded your LR3 catalog to LR4, right? It isn't backwards compatible. You can't open an LR4 catalog in 3. So unless you still have LR3 catalogs you want to work in 3 (which makes little sense since you could merely select process version 2010 rather than 2012 in LR4), it's just wasted space.

As for what you do when you hit 1TB... Buy more hard drives.

LR5 allows you to work with your source images offline after it builds some smaller stuff. May be a solution you want to investigate.

Edit:

Smart Preview: Lightroom allows you to edit offline images by storing a smaller version of the original image, called a smart preview. Edits made to the smart preview will automatically apply to the original once reconnected to Lightroom.


In other words, I believe you could for example go get a large external drive (like this 4TB USB3 seagate: http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2013/04/12/61519/Seagate-4TB-Expansion-USB-3-0-External-Desktop-Hard-Drive), and import your .NEF files to it. Build smart previews with LR5. Then you don't need to be connected to the external drive in order to use the Develop module.

 

Sorry, not offline as in connected to the Internet, but rather as in your massive D800 .NEF files aren't on a hard drive which is connected to the machine running LR (ie they are "offline"). It's a huge improvement for people who use laptops. They can store the data externally but don't need to drag the external drive around in order to post process (once the smart previews are built).

It seems a little faster, especially when changing modules, but it's still pretty buggy so I have to restart it a bunch.

They've added some Photoshop-esque functionality to the touch up brush which is nice. I'll likely upgrade, but IMO it's not on par with the massive leap they made from 3 to 4 with the introduction of process version 2012. More like iPhone 4 to 4s style upgrade than 4s to 5, if you get my meaning.

I believe they are going to a once-a-year release cycle, so we'll start seeing fewer major overhauls with each new version.

 

Uninstalling will only get rid of the software. It should save a few hundred megs, maybe a few gigs if you include old previews and .LRCAT, but not hundreds of gigs unless you duplicated your source files when you went to 4 (and even then uninstalling wouldn't trigger those duplicates to be deleted anyway).


May I suggest launching LR3, right clicking an image and clicking "show in explorer(/finder if osx). That will take you to where the bulk of the data resides. I'm guessing your LR4 catalog points to the same data.

 

No problem.

LR is essentially a database management tool: it knows where the photos are stored, and it saves information ABOUT the images (your post processing history for example), but those photos and videos are not stored within the LR3 installation. If you go to Program Files/Adobe/, right click the LR3 folder and hit properties, you'll see exactly how much space it's using. It's likely about 500MB (my 4.4 and 5.0 are each roughly 900MB). The catalog file and previews aren't in there (maybe My Documents), nor are the images themselves (maybe My Pictures).

So in short, I'd not expect getting rid of LR3 to put a dent in that pie chart. It is wasted space, but only a few D800 raws worth of it

LR5 + big external drive seems like a great solution for you.

 

As for duplication: don't worry about it. You'd have to have intentionally done it i.e. gone into wherever your pictures reside, copied them, pasted them elsewhere, and then imported them into LR4. I suspect you upgraded your LR3 catalog (which basically means LR4 created a new one with all the pertinent info from the old one). The only redundant data is the old .LRCAT file from LR3 and the previews (what you actually see inside lightroom) associated with it. If you never plan to use LR3 again (and I maintain there is no reason to), you can safely delete the software, the LR3 catalog, and the LR3 previews. Just make sure you don't accidently delete your current LR4 catalog. They may be named very similarly. Mine with entries for roughly 50,000 images is only about 500MB, so again not much savings relative to high res cameras. If you aren't certain which catalog is which, don't delete any of them.

Deleting the previews on the other hand is not a big deal. Even if you accidently delete the LR4 previews, you can always re-create them. And unless you routinely go back and look at old photos within LR, they serve little purpose.

 

Just a hobby and generally anal about how I maintain computer data (and thus want to know how and where it is created on my computers).

 

why wait, you can download the beta version right now for gratis to test drive for the next few months until they release the 1.0 version...

so far so good on my win8 system. smooth, plays nicely with my nik suite.

I passed on lr4 and do a every other upgrade for these so it'll be time to pony up when this one comes out officially...

 

Yah I've read it's much friendlier with plugins. I don't use any so I have no reference.

Mine crashes out occasionally, and frequently the adjustment brush stops working (rather than adding a spot, it just zooms in and out - restarting it is the only resolution I've found).

I'm still working through a couple hundred images I started on Monday. Slow going due to crashes, but noticeably faster when it works.

 

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LR5 is final. Can't wait to get home and see if they've fixed the bugs!