Storage Solution for Lightroom/Photoshop Setup

Chiz · 19 Oct 2018 at 15:36

I really didn't know the best place for this so apologies if it's in the wrong place...

I'm looking for a storage solution for my MacBook Pro (and possibly, but not essential iPhone) that allows me not to worry about redundancy or storage limits and can be accessed remotely. Both pieces of hardware are for work. Lightroom/Photoshop is where 90% of the storage requirements come from.

My current config:

Old PC with 8TB scattered across multiple drives, MacBook Pro 256GB, iPhone 256GB, OneDrive 1TB, Create Cloud 1TB (this will be reduced once I find an alternative), iCloud 5GB(which is currently full).

Initially I thought saving my Lightroom library to CC would do, but unfortunately, it is synced locally so that's not exactly ideal as it's burnt through the 256GB of the MacBook within a month. I guess OneDrive would do the same.

Essentially I'm wanting to access the data without storing it / syncing it to my device (similar to how Google Photos works.)

So now I'm thinking iCloud? That would give me access to all my data across both pieces of hardware, seamlessly. I already need to update it as 5GB is nothing.

Other alternatives would be a NAS, AWS or even Azure which would all be completely scalable.

I work away a lot so remote access is key here.

Let me know what you think,

Cheers guys.

Energize · 20 Oct 2018 at 02:33

You always want local storage in addition to cloud storage, otherwise any disruption to their service could result in you being unable to access your data or even the complete loss of it. Never mind the more mundane problems like losing your internet connection!

NAS synchronised with the cloud provides the best of both worlds.

I presume you are creating smart previews to avoid the slowdowns inherent to cloud based solutions?

TheSkateyBird · 20 Oct 2018 at 11:25

Having a physical and cloud backup is great. I invested in an external drive, iCloud upgrade and Carbon Copy Cloner.

The Carbon Copy app automatically makes a copy of new photos to a folder in my iCloud Drive (not iCloud Photo Library), and images my whole Mac to the external drive whenever I connect the drive. iCloud Drive on Mac has the same optimise storage option as it does on iPhone so it will remove local copies of the backup if you're running low on space.

Chiz · 23 Oct 2018 at 09:31

Thanks for the replies you two.

The solution I've come to should hopefully allow me to work on recent files without worrying about performance loss while also allowing remote work.

My MacBook will host data younger than 30 (or 60) days.
Data that's older than 30 (or 60) days will be whisked away to the NAS using an Automator script that will be scheduled (through iCal) to run weekly.
The NAS will be backed up weekly.

The NAS will also have remote access, which will allow me (if needed) to access older data without issues.

In theory, this sounds like a sound solution, but in practice I'm unsure, more for the fact that I'm not sure what sort of impact it will have on my Lightroom catalogue / library?

TheSkateyBird · 23 Oct 2018 at 14:02

Lightroom works fine with a NAS assuming your connection is of a good speed and quality. Only issue I could see is that when your Automator script moves files from the Macbook to the NAS the files will probably show as missing in Lightroom as it does when you move a folder manually.

Energize · 23 Oct 2018 at 18:32

Have you considered using smart previews? It creates a small local copy of the photo on your laptop that you can edit as if it were a raw file so it's very fast, any changes you make to the smart previews are automatically synchronised to the master raw file.