Lightroom on the Web for a Shared workplace Photo Database

[Scott-PCTA]

As many of you know, there have been numerous discussions about Lightroom's inherent liability when it comes to being a shared workplace photo database solution (it's really designed to be used by individuals, not teams).

That said, I plan to try to use Lightroom on the Web as a shared photo database solution for our small organization (20 people). I am the only person who edits photos, so all I need is a way to create collections, upload them to the web, then allow others in our organization to review those collections and download any images they need.

Before giving this a go, I have some questions that are not adequately addressed on this page:

Learn to use Lightroom on the web

1. The page above says "When you start Lightroom on the web for the first time, the first window that opens is the All Photos view. This view is a timeline-based view of all the photos in all your Collections that you created in Lightroom for mobile, desktop, or web." I'm assuming this does not happen automatically (Lightroom doesn't automatically sync everything on my desktop to the web). But I'm not sure how to "create photos for mobile, desktop, or web." does this simply refer to exporting photos at different sizes? Or is there a "Create a web version of this photo" menu item somewhere?

UPDATE: I just noticed the "Make Public" button when creating a collection—which I'm guessing is how you get your collections onto the web. (But that still leaves the question of size—see #3 below).

2. I'm unclear on how much total storage we have in the Creative cloud for web-based photos—is the capacity/quota one in the same as our CC capacity/quota for everything else? Or is it a separate CC quota specifically for this purpose?

3. Is the size and quality of photos that are uploaded (synced) to the web determined entirely by me?

4. When I create a collection and click the "Make Public" button, a URL is generated which I can share to others in my organization to view the collection. I'm thinking that what I will probably do is simply share our organization's Creative Cloud login credentials with everyone-because I'd like others in my organization to be able to go to Lightroom on the Web and browse multiple collections (and not just the one I sent them a shared URL for).

I'll continue working with this. I'm excited that Lightroom on the Web may at least be partly able to make up for Lightroom's "one person only" paradigm.

Scott

[selondon]

Hi Scott,

This will have to be quick.....

To sync images from Lr Desktop to

Web and Mobile (Lightroom's Cloud) you have to turn on sync to Mobile in Lr Desktop.

You have to create a Collection and turn on sync for it.

Lr Desktop only syncs Smart Previews to

the Cloud whilst Lr Mobile syncs Originals (you can also upload them into Lr Web via browser).

The storage in not stated and often said to be unlimited although its not advised as a back up solution.

[Scott-PCTA]

Thx selondon—appreciated!

So it sounds like there are two methods of getting photos into the cloud:

• turn ON "Sync to Mobile" in Lightroom Desktop, or...

• click the "Make Public" button for any collection

Is this correct?

As an aside, Adobe's terminology strikes me as vague, because most people (IMO) have different definitions for "syncing to mobile" and "syncing to the cloud" (though technically I get that they're both "the cloud"). In my case, I want to sync to the cloud NOT so I (or anyone can view on a mobile device), but so my colleagues can view specific photos and collections on their desktop computers via a browser.

And I definitely do NOT want every photo I import into Lightroom to be synced to the cloud-that would be disastrous (and likely destroy Adobe's servers, LOL). I only want to syn *selected* photos and collections to the cloud.

RE: Cloud storage for Lightroom mobile/cloud sync: if this is truly unlimited, that's HUGE. I'd like to try to get clarification on this, because it's obviously critical when I could be using this for business/organizational purposes.

Thanks,

Scott