# shall I get iCloud storage and Lightroom



## kumaD (Oct 6, 2021)

I wonder whether someone can help me. I used to do a lot of amateur photography around the early 'naughties' and used Photoshop to a reasonable standard. 
Since then, family has meant lots of kids photos and no time to edit them. Now I am thinking about getting Lightroom in some form as I want to do professional looking edits to some photos rather than needing the full Photoshop package. I also like the organisational side of Lightroom. 
I have close to 1TB of photos on a hard Drive unbacked up so am desperate to protect them in a cloud (possibly iCloud) but notice that Lightroom has cloud storage too. 
What do you think is my best way forward to back up my files but give myself some access to an editing software (which version of Lightroom )?
Grateful for any words of wisdom


----------



## tspear (Oct 6, 2021)

There are two products with multiple pricing/usage schemes. 

There is Lightroom (old name, new product) which is available on multiple platforms (mobile, desktop and web) and is focused for all storage in the cloud. 
The other product is Lightroom Classic, which is the old Lightroom product, and you will find a lot more videos for online. This solution is focused on local file storage and provides no online backup, and extremely limited online backup of a small subset of information.
Both have editing tools, Lr Classic has a few more than Lr , but not substantially. The real difference in capability is in organization and outputs and AI. Classic has many more options on organization and outputs; but is missing Adobe's AI tools for search and other capabilities. 

So with that said, if you have all photos in a single folder, just import into Lightroom and away you go. 
If on the other hand you have been organizing images in folders, you can continue to do so in Lightroom using *albums *much more  easily than in Classic. However, I have not tested the recent import to see if it can build albums from the folders. My solution a while back was to import into Classic, than build collections based on folder names, and then import into Lr. Kinda round about, but it worked. 

Note: I am likely one of the few that has jumped from Lr Classic to Lr completely. So my view is a little different than most.

Tim


----------



## Paul McFarlane (Oct 6, 2021)

Both work well, obviously the Cloud one looks after all your backups for you. You may find this comparison useful:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-cc-vs-classic-features/


----------



## kumaD (Oct 7, 2021)

Paul McFarlane said:


> Both work well, obviously the Cloud one looks after all your backups for you. You may find this comparison useful:
> 
> https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-cc-vs-classic-features/


Thanks for the information. I spent all day researching this and I think Lightroom cloud ecosystem fits best with my current shooting habits (iphone mainly).
I am still not sure about the storage options. I could get  the1TB storage and put all the photos with Adobe, but my family  would also want access for kids shots etc.  So if I take photos on my iphone, do they automatically get backed up in the iCloud, and Lightroom cloud (ie a duplicate) and then once adjusted in Lightroom, do I then have to export and send into iCloud so my wife can use the photos to make calenders and photo albums. ...  I really am just using photos mainly for family and friend use these days
David


----------



## Jim Wilde (Oct 7, 2021)

If you are going to use Lightroom, rather than Lightroom Classic, you'll probably want to buy the Lightroom-only plan, which excludes Classic and Photoshop, but includes 1TB of cloud space.

Regarding family access, what sort of access do they need.....just to be able to view, or to have their own copies of the edited images? You can do all of that using the Adobe cloud, you wouldn't need to use iCloud as well (in fact, you'd be better off not using iCloud for Photos at all if using the Adobe Cloud, as that can cause some complications on the iPhone....I have iCloud disabled for Photos on my iPhone and iPad).

Sharing albums with family and friends is easy, and has the major benefit that there's no need to continually export images as you edit them....what the family and friends see are always the current edited state of the shared images. And of course they can download local copies (Jpegs) if you enable that option.


----------



## kumaD (Oct 7, 2021)

Hi Jim
It would be for mainly viewing of files and sharing files with friends after holidays etc. I can't get my head around switching off iCloud on my iPhone as then I won't be able to see all the photos accumulated in the past 5 years. I know there are them in the iCloud but how would I get them into Lightroom so I could see again. Download copies from iCloud to desktop and then upload into LR?  Sorry, I'm not very technical


----------



## clee01l (Oct 7, 2021)

kumaD said:


> Hi Jim
> It would be for mainly viewing of files and sharing files with friends after holidays etc. I can't get my head around switching off iCloud on my iPhone as then I won't be able to see all the photos accumulated in the past 5 years. I know there are them in the iCloud but how would I get them into Lightroom so I could see again. Download copies from iCloud to desktop and then upload into LR? Sorry, I'm not very technical



As Jim has said, iCloud and Lightroom do not play well together. Import all of your iCloud/Photos into Adobe Lightroom. All of your images will be available at the Lightroom Website. Online photo editor | Photoshop Lightroom. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Jim Wilde (Oct 7, 2021)

kumaD said:


> Hi Jim
> It would be for mainly viewing of files and sharing files with friends after holidays etc. I can't get my head around switching off iCloud on my iPhone as then I won't be able to see all the photos accumulated in the past 5 years. I know there are them in the iCloud but how would I get them into Lightroom so I could see again. Download copies from iCloud to desktop and then upload into LR?  Sorry, I'm not very technical


No need to worry, it is possible to keep iCloud and use the Adobe Cloud as well, but there are things you would need to know. Are you an iPhone-only shooter, or do you use a dedicated camera as well? 

I'm a bit tied up right now, but I can send you a more detailed answer either later tonight or tomorrow, but knowing how you'll be capturing new images going forward would be a help.


----------



## kumaD (Oct 7, 2021)

clee01l said:


> As Jim has said, iCloud and Lightroom do not play well together. Import all of your iCloud/Photos into Adobe Lightroom. All of your images will be available at the Lightroom Website. Online photo editor | Photoshop Lightroom.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


OK now I get it. Thanks for helping me out on this.


----------



## clee01l (Oct 7, 2021)

kumaD said:


> OK now I get it. Thanks for helping me out on this.



II should have pointed out that any images stored locally in Photos and in Lightroom take up duplicate amounts of local storage. Both Photos and Lightroom use caching solutions to only store current images offloading those not in use to the cloud.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------

