Thanks, Michael!

This is a partial repost of my comment on the first in this series but may also help answer your query. There is an underlying assumption in Rob’s (very good!) three part series, that you will only have one LR catalogue. I work quite differently using multiple catalogues on different drives to better suit my changing need for access to the photographs over time:

Due to the issues I’ve had over the years when the LR database just gets too big and slow, I work with LR slightly differently than most people. I create an LR catalogue for each job and store that catalogue within the file structure for the shoot. Those jobs each run to multiple shoots each with, potentially, thousands of photographs.
Current jobs are all stored on an internal SSD drive for maximum read/write speed. When the job is completed I move the entire folder structure for that job off to an external drive and later (usually after a year) off to an archive drive (networked large capacity NAS drive that only runs when needed). The backups of the catalogues are all stored together on another external RAID drive.

By doing this the LR catalogues never get too big and cumbersome, they are easy to find while I’m working on them as I don’t keep too many on the “work in progress” SSD drive (can also be found and switched under “recents” in LR), which also means I don’t need massive capacity SSD drives which are still very expensive and the catalogues can be ported to other drives easily while maintaining everything in the catalogue for that shoot (including develop histories, flags etc).

As I have no use for the “publish” module, losing any settings in there each time I create a new catalogue is not an issue. All my import/develop/print presets and settings etc are always replicated each time a new catalogue is created.

One last additional comment: I spoke to a professional colleague who uses a similar approach but he adds one extra step. He keeps one LR catalogue into which he imports EVERY other catalogue once he’s finished a shoot. It’s massive and cumbersome but does allow him to search every photo he’s ever taken which, like me, now numbers in the millions!

Good idea!

You’re welcome!

I don’t think there is one right answer for this for everyone. Some people want the performance gains of keeping it stored on the internal drive (especially if SSD), while others are more space conscious and want to keep the internal free of the catalog and previews. I’ve done both at different times, and will probably do both again in the future. Do what works for you, as long as you know where it is! 🙂