Lightroom 4 with Google Drive Part II

Right, so I've started testing my implementation before uploading the greater part of 100GB of photos. My plan was to see how Drive handles the syncing uploaded files to a second device, if I already copied these files over locally. Although it isn't really important for me at the moment, it will be important if I were to have a laptop and wanted the same catalogue working off of two computers.

First of all, I copied roughly 700mb of photos into the Google Drive folder on OS X and let it sync. I switched over to my Windows 8 partition and put the same folder into my user folder.

I then ran the Google Drive installer and selected the user folder that I had copied over, in the hope that Google Drive would immediately recognize it as fully synced.

Unfortunately, Google Drive would not install using  location that already had files in it, so I had to try a workaround.

I selected a different directory finished the installation, but quit the Drive application before it had a chance to start downloading files. The result was the Dive folder with no files, but with the right folder layout. I copied my other files over to this directory, and then started the sync application again.

For about two seconds I felt really happy s a green tic appeared over the 700MB folder I had copied over, but alas it was replaced by a refresh symbol and a second folder was created with y photos being downloaded.

The repercussions of this experiment for me aren't a big deal, as I don't have a second computer at the moment. If I did want to keep two computers completely in sync though it would involve the second one having to download a massive amount of data, for me about 20% of my monthly limit.

I've read that Dropbox doesn't have this issue that you can copy files locally and it will recognize them, but I haven't tested it yet. I can only imagine that it's also a feature Drive will get eventually. But for anyone oping to this kind of thing right now, an alternative provider might be best if bandwidth is an issue for you.


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How I Plan to Use Lightroom 4 with Google Drive

So Google Drive is finally here with, as far as I can see, the  best prices for cloud storage available at the moment. With all my music backed up to Google Play Music, the only things of significant size that I would really miss with a hard drive failure are my photos. These currently stand at about 80GB, but with an extra gigabyte for every forty photos from my 60D this is a number that will grow quickly. I have thus decided to go for 200GB on Google Drive, and at $10 a month I believe this is a fantastic deal for the kind of redundancy I'll be getting.

So, now I've started planning how I'm going to set this up in a way that will not require constant maintenance and copying of files. What I really want to do is configure it in a way that my Lightroom catalog and all my photos are kept constantly in sync.


The plan...

Basically, I am going to have all my photos and my Lightroom catalog on my main pc, in the Google Drive folder that will always sync with the cloud. Any other computers that I have set up for Drive will only sync a folder I'm going to call "Sync Everywhere" that will be used for general file sharing.

Assuming my research is correct, if I convert all my photos to DNG I will be able to set up Lightroom to save adjustments to the DNG file itself instead of the catalog. I'm hoping this will help make my photos, including adjustments, compatible with future software. Before fully committing to this, I am going to have to do some testing over the weekend to see how it works in practice between my desktop and a laptop.

I know there are concerns being voiced by some people over Google's T&C's, but personally they don't concern me and seem no worse than Skydrive or Dropbox.


The implementation...

...will take a while to be realised. I have 3mb upload speeds, which means it will probably take an absolute minimum of 65 hours to upload everything. I don't feel comfortable leaving my computer on 24/7, so this will probably take a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I will keep updating my progress to let people know how successful it works in implementation in case anybody else had considered something along these lines.


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Manfrotto MMC3-02 Monopod & 234 Head Review

I've just posted a review of the Manfrotto MMC3-02 Monopod and Manfrotto 234 Tilt Head over on my main CraigDoesTech blog. Click here to see (:


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So, introductions are in order...

My name is Craig, and I’m from Dublin, Ireland. I’m 21, and an intern .Net developer at a small company specialising in the food sector. Something I imagine is pretty unusual for a .Net developer, is that at home I am currently transitioning to use Mac OS X on a personal build. This blog will cover some of my experiences in that, but also focus on more tech reviews, thoughts, and opinions.

Every time I have 5 minutes to spare in work, there’s usually a list of technology websites I make my way through. Obviously, I’m hardly unique in this regard, but I hope to provide my personal perspective and reviews on hardware and software, here and on YouTube, in the hope that someone finds them interesting. I am by no means a professional or expert however, and welcome comment and critique.

I’m also an enthusiastic amateur photographer, with a toe dipped into videography. I hope to be covering photography gear, and post screencaps of Premiere, Lightroom, and Photoshop edits.

Hope someone out there enjoys,

Craig. (:


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