Lightroom photo storage?

[Journeyman]

Hello, I have sold my 5th body part and bought a new computer and installed Lightroom. The worrying part is where do the photos go to?

Using Luminar, Corel etc. the photos are not stored in the cloud.
Does lightroom require the photos to be stored in the cloud in order to process? I currently use the file system and an external hard drive for back up.

I am not fond of this compulsory online storage world. “One drive” is very upset that I don’t start it at all. The idea of the “kind” mega companies holding my info does not interest me at all.

The question for me is - I drop the program are my files or photos no longer available?
Are we forced to pay for more space when our computers have unused space?

Thanks for your help, kind regards Journeyman

[Glenda]

If you use Lightroom Classic it doesn't use the cloud.

[ameerat42]

AFAIEK* LR does not simply store your files (which you have to import) in "the cloud".
If it did, it should be clearly stated during set up. But you can tell it where to import and
save them to using preference settings.

However, such gross opacities on the part of behemoth entities is doubtless execrable
* EK - Ever knew.

[Mary Anne]

Desktop Win 10

When you open up LR and Import your photo or video and developed it, click on export it will ask you where to Export it .
Export to > I chose Hard Drive > below that Export location I chose same folder as original photo.
You can put it where you want. Mine goes into Pictures on my C Drive in Folders.

[Journeyman]

Hello Ameerat42 and Mary Anne, after I had that tantrum I began to research a little. One Drive is now running and I have come to accept the cloud a little.

The export protocol is commonly used in most programs in some form or another. Not much is new I guess more the presentation.

I appreciate your time, many thanks, Journeyman

p.s. What is interesting (to me) it that Canon''s CR3 format is accepted by Luminar.

[ameerat42]

Things I've got (purely personally, I know) against cloud storage like OneDrive are:
1) You're at the wiles of the "cloud" (Internet, storage site, etc);
2) The inordinately slow upload speeds - let's say even up to 20 Mbps - against local
storage, the slowest of which may be in the order of 20 MBps (an 8-fold factor), but
with modern USB3-ery, more like 100 MBps min, which is a 50X factor;
3) Other impressions I can't bring to mind at present.

I have a OneDrive account and I tend to use it as a place to put files something like
you do with Flickr. Another big - for 1D is the woeful linking codes they have
evolved to, where links soon fail to display the wanted image

[J.davis]

Might be way off here, but here goes anyway,
If you stop using LR , the cloud will allow you to download the adjusted photo, but, you cant get back to the original.
This is what I have been told, so I store all my pics on local hard drives.

[nardes]

Are you using LR Classic (the old, original LR6).

If so, then your photos (Files) should be located wherever you saved them on a local HDD. My photos are stored on my local Win 10 PC D Drive and I have organised them inside a Folder Structure in Win Explorer, with Names such as Travel, Day Trips, Holidays, Macro, People, Animals, Birds, etc. Within the Folders I also have sub-folders, such as Holidays, Locations, etc.

When you install LR it should create an LR Catalogue. The LR Catalogue does NOT contain any my original photos on my D Drive, it is only an INDEX and series of Thumbnails, Keywords, Metadata, etc. that POINTS to my photos on my D Drive.

When I upload new photos on my D Drive, the are stored in the Folder I choose, e.g. D:/Picture/Macro/Spiders. If I just copy them into a Folder on my D Drive, they do not appear in LR as LR does not yet know about them, I have to IMPORT them in LR.

I then open LR and "Import" these news photos to "Add" them to the LR Catalogue.

Nothing physical actually happens to these photos - they stay exactly where I put them, untouched, but LR creates an Index and Thumbnails within the LR catalogue that "Points" to them, so I can Browse my D: Drive photos within the LR Environment.

So, my original photos are on my D Drive in the Folder structure that I created and I can browse this through Explorer. If I want to delete, move or rename a Folder, I do NOT do it in Win Explorer.

I do this from within LR, so LR does not lose the "link" or "pointer" to my photos on my D Drive.

It is worth doing a Google search on LR Catalogues to get the feel of how they work before you do too much, just to make sure that when you set things up they behave as you expect.

Cheers

Dennis