How to split a Lightroom catalog by "Export as Catalog"?

[dtraughber]

I'm cataloging photos (for a particular project) into a Lightroom 2 catalog. At this point it has about 30,500 images (~ 165 GB of jpgs) .The catalog size itself at this point is ~ 450 MB. The preview size is set at 1440 pixels, and the quality is set at Medium.  I have actually keyworded only about one third, or less, of the photos so far. All photos have been renamed, and have contact and copyright info added.

The original photo files are on one hard drive, the catalog is on another, with catalog and photos backed up on two more internal hard drives, plus externals, plus on DVDs. So far, so good, until the 1 TB's run out of space, which is soon!

There's probably another 60 GB of older photos to add. Then the catalog size will increase with keywording, and decrease by deleting some photos. Just to bring the catalog up to date, the photo files would total around 225 GB.

Perhaps this is no problem for now, but (even though I have a beefy Mac Pro) I'm concerned about the future size of the catalog, as I'm now adding RAW files to the catalog.

Although I want to keep this whole project live and local, and in one catalog, I need to plan ahead right now, especially with RAW files being added.

I have considered splitting it into two catalogs. I have not found any definitive answer on Lightroom 2 catalog sizes, other than it being limited by the computer itself. I'm not interested in keeping adding to the catalog until it's "bursting at the seams" and slowing the computer down. I have no idea at what point this could happen.

My question is how to do this. Can I select the folders of photos in Lightroom, then "Export as Catalog" and put that new catalog on the same hard drive? Would I have to create a new catalog and import this into it? How do I do this?

The original photo files will stay in the same place. I've read both Kelby's, and Evening's books on Lightroom 2, and I'm not clear about how to best SPLIT a catalog.

Does anyone using Lightroom 2 have any experience with this?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to do this properly and painlessly?
Can anyone enlighten me about reasonable, comfortable catalog sizes for Lightroom?
Can a Lightroom catalog be renamed in the Finder without consequences?

I'm in the throes of trying to finish this catalog right now while there's a window of time, so I'd be MOST grateful for a timely response.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Dadre Traughber

[johnbeardy]

I would advise you to keep things as they are, and not breaking up control of your pictures into more than one catalogue. There is no definitive size limit, but you don't sound remotely close to one. I regularly work with someone whose catalogue just went through 200 000 items and it's working fine on a less well specified machine than yours.

In Finder, you can rename the lrcat file as you want. Make sure you also rename the previews.lrdata file to match the lrcat file - if you don't, the lrcat won't know where its previews are and will simply start rebuilding them.

John

[dtraughber]

Thank you, John, for your reply. Keeping it all in one catalog certainly helps. And having an idea of a rough number of photos that one catalog can manage is good to know.

At some point in the future I will try to make a different catalog for just one subject, and build a keyword list for that. It's too much to do in a regular keyword list (say, a native plant list, or a marine life list in Latin and English, split into families and species). At that time I'd need to move the photos from the main catalog to a separate catalog because of the keyword list issue.

For now, my hands are full with this project.

Thanks again.

Dadre Traughber

[WaltSorensen]

I have thought about splitting my Lightroom catalog one for work done for clients one for other stuff like photos shot at family events.

last time I played with the idea in 1.3 I duplicated a number of photos.....

my conclusion was to stick to one catalog for easier management and avoid the duplication issue

~Walt

[peterkrogh]

Walt,
Yes, with Lightroom it is a bit tricky, since you can't open 2 at a time and make sure noting is in twice, and nothing is omitted.

If one does want to split, the most important thing is that no files are skipped and therefore go missing.  One good practice is, therefore, to split along bright lines in the directory structure, as well as some other line like content or chronology.
Peter