# Lightroom & Photostream



## jburk (Mar 1, 2012)

I'm a mac user and my primary camera is my iPhone 4. I've been using Photostream to some success inside of iPhoto and have recently upgraded to Aperture in an attempt to have more total control over my photo library. I'm not real thrilled with how Apple products handle my photos and it seems that my Aperture library is just exploding in size and at times seems to be very slow. 

So I'm checking out the beta for Lightroom 4 and was wondering if anyone knew of a graceful solution to get Lightroom to import my Photostream. I've debated nixing Photostream altogether and just settling for pluggin my phone into my MBP but then I have to contend with getting the images off my wifes phone as well every couple of weeks, while Photostream takes care of all that for me. 

I'm a complete newb when it comes to Adobe products so I'm not sure how everything works, and I figured this was the best place to ask.

Thanks!


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## MarathonMax (Mar 2, 2012)

You will find the answer on my blog here:

http://maximegousse.wordpress.com/2...ightroom-integration-with-photostream2folder/


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## clee01l (Mar 2, 2012)

As MarathonMax has indicated Photostream2Folder.app is the solution to get your iOS photos from iCloud to LR.  However, It is not without some wrinkles.  The process only works one way. And it works by intercepting the photostream from the iCloud BEFORE iPhoto can get them.   The website to down load is http://www.petits-suisses.ch/PhotoStream2Folder/index.php  Laurent Crivello is the author of the app.  The App works with LR's AutoImport function.  I can go into specifics if you need to set this up. 

I have asked Laurent to look into the upload to iCloud, which Apple has not made very transparent. Surprisingly, the upload and download to iCloud on Windows is very transparent and very easy to integrate with LR. (Again using the AutoImport for downloads and using Publish Services for uploads to iCloud). 

I am presently working on a solution to Publish to the iPhoto Auto Import folder which will let iPhoto do the 'heavy lifting' to send the fruits of your LR labors to iCloud.  I still have details to work out but after I get the process nailed down, I'll present it here.


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## portilaj (Apr 9, 2012)

It's possible to do a one-way import of your Photo Stream images into Lightroom without removing them from your Photo Stream by using Automator in OSX...

Instructions from here:  https://plus.google.com/101906353514641308377/posts/e1K1iZZFVbD



> *Step 1: Create an Automator folder action to copy all files added to your hidden Photo Stream folder to a folder elsewhere on your computer.
> 
> Start in Automator by creating a 'Folder Action' workflow. Click 'Choose folder', then press SHIFT-COMMAND-PERIOD while the Automator folder picker is open so that you can browse hidden folders. Choose the iCloud Photo Stream folder here: {USERNAME}/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub
> 
> ...


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## clee01l (Apr 9, 2012)

I think it really is best to keep your photos out of iPhoto completely. iPhoto only runs on my computer to send photos to the iCloud Photostream after I've published them to the folder where they can be automatically posted to iCloud Photostream.  And this is only because I have not found another means on OSX to get my LR published images to iCloud. 
Photostream2Folder.app is an excellent solution for bypassing iPhoto to bring iCloud photos directly into LR without the additional iPhoto overhead and file clutter. 

Now if you can create an Automator app that will watch the iPhoto AutoImport folder and push the images to the iCloud Photostream, I would like to see this.


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## portilaj (Apr 9, 2012)

I think what you suggest _might_ be possible...

The automator action I posted monitors a '/sub' folder where incoming photostream assets are stored.   There is a '/pub' folder next to it that I believe is used for publishing to iCloud.   It may be possible to use Automator to copy items added to a Lightroom publish folder into the pub folder where they can be picked up by iCloud.   It's also entirely possible that Apple keeps this locked up so that only items placed here by iPhoto and Aperture will be uploaded.  I'll need to look into it...

Also...  the automator import action I posted above doesn't actually use iPhoto at all.   It works just like the Photostream2Folder app,  except it uses OSX native folder actions instead of a monitoring app.   iPhoto is only required for activating Photo Stream in the first place.


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