Please help. How do I edit from two different drives?

[johnl72961227]

Here is the situation, I need to know the proper procedure so I dont screw anything up.

I have wedding photos on my internal hard drive on my desktop.  I want to put a copy of the photos on a portable SSD drive and edit them on my laptop while at a seminar.  When I get back from the seminar how do I synchronize the changes I made to the files on the SSD to the ones on my desktop?

Thanks!

[JohanElzenga]

Select the images and choose 'Export as catalog'. Check the option to build and include smart previews, then you do not have to include the 'negative files' (but you can do that too). Export this to the SSD. When you get back, use 'Import from Another Catalog' to get the edits back into Lightroom on your desktop machine.

[johnl72961227]

Ok sweet thanks!  When I export the catalog to the ssd what do i do on the laptop to get the catalog to come up on it?

[JohanElzenga]

Just double click on the catalog file (the .lrcat file) on the SSD.

[cmgap · Accepted solution]

I would recommend that you test one image on your laptop before you go to the seminar to make sure you've got your workflow down.

You can either merge the seminar catalog when you return or if you have Write changes to XMP sidecar files you may be able to copy the XMP files from the external hard drive when you get back to your desktop.

Something to keep in mind is that if you are shooting large volumes of images (like at a wedding) you will quickly fill up your internal hard drive. You may want to store your images on an external drive as part of your regular workflow to keep as much free space as possible on your internal hard drive.