How to Use Lightroom Classic While Travelling, Plus a Free PDF Guide
For the photography holiday I tutored in Puglia this September, my laptop carried a Lightroom Classic catalogue holding nothing but the trip. My main catalogue never left Scotland. Using Lightroom Classic while travelling gets far simpler once you stop trying to take your whole library with you.
The simplest way to use Lightroom Classic while travelling is a separate travel catalogue on your laptop. Import, cull and edit each evening, keep a second copy of the files on a portable SSD, then merge it into your main catalogue at home with Export as Catalog and Import from Another Catalog.
I have written the whole method up as Lightroom Classic on the Road, a free 31-page PDF with 27 screenshots from Lightroom Classic 15.6. The download link is at the end of this post.
So why not copy your main catalogue onto the laptop and carry on exactly as you do at home?
Why a travel catalogue beats a copy of your main catalogue
A copy of your main catalogue works perfectly until you get home, when two versions of the same catalogue exist, and the trip lives in only one of them.
To bring the trip home, the laptop copy has to replace the catalogue on your desktop. Anything you changed at home while you were away is overwritten, and copying in the wrong direction overwrites the trip instead. The copy is also the full size of your main catalogue, and every older photograph shows as missing on the laptop unless the whole library travels too.
Lightroom Classic cannot keep two catalogues in step either. It can merge one catalogue into another, but it cannot sync them, and only one catalogue can sync with Adobe's cloud at a time. A travel catalogue works with that rather than against it. It holds only the trip, it stays small and quick on a laptop, and it joins your main catalogue at home without replacing anything. That keeps the single catalogue I recommend in One Catalog or Many? exactly as it should be.
What has changed in Lightroom Classic 15.6
Most travel advice online still describes the older settings, and three changes in Lightroom Classic 15.6 matter on a laptop.
Catalog Settings now has a Backups tab, where the backup folder and the schedule sit together, and Lightroom Classic warns you when the backup is on the same drive as the catalogue
The Previews tab can cap the preview cache with Limit Preview Cache Size, so previews never fill a laptop drive
The Library module has an Assisted Culling panel that suggests selects and rejects for a first pass
Assisted Culling deserves a word of caution. When I ran it over 159 frames of Baroque courtyards and church interiors from Puglia, it suggested 66 rejects, and plenty of those were dark, deliberate exposures I wanted to keep. Adobe pitches it at weddings, portraits and events, which is where it is strongest. On architecture and travel work, I use it as a sorting aid and make my own decisions using the P and X keys.
An evening routine for Lightroom Classic while travelling
Half an hour each evening is enough to keep a week's photographs filed, rated and backed up.
Import with Copy, a renaming template, your copyright preset, and Make a Second Copy To pointed at a portable SSD
Make a first pass with Assisted Culling if it suits the subject, then flag your own picks and rejects using the P and X keys
Rate the picks and add subject keywords while you still remember which village that church was in
Apply lens corrections and synchronise them across similar frames
Close Lightroom Classic and click Back up, so the catalogue backup runs every night
Leave the card unformatted until the next morning. By then, the photographs are on the laptop, the portable SSD, and the card, three copies on three devices for the price of a little patience.
Bringing the trip home
Two commands carry every rating, keyword and edit across: Export as Catalog on the laptop and Import from Another Catalog on the main computer.
In the travel catalogue, click All Photographs in the Catalog panel and set the Library Filter bar to None
Choose File > Export as Catalog..., untick Export selected photos only and tick Export negative files
Check that the dialogue says Exporting a catalog with the full number of photographs you took
On the main computer, choose File > Import from Another Catalog... and set File Handling to Copy new photos to a new location and import
The third step is the one that catches people out. Export as Catalog exports whatever the grid is showing rather than the whole catalogue, so a single folder or a forgotten filter cuts the export short. If the dialogue says 10 photos when you took 1,500, stop and fix it before you click Save.
What is inside the free guide
Lightroom Classic on the Road follows the trip in order, from setting up the laptop to formatting the cards at home.
Setting up the laptop, with the Backups, Previews and Metadata tabs in Catalog Settings
An import that renames your files, adds your copyright and makes a second copy on another drive in one pass
Culling, rating and keywording each evening
Lens corrections and synchronised settings that keep a laptop responsive
A backup routine for the road, including what a catalogue backup does not protect
Export as Catalog and Import from Another Catalog, step by step
Troubleshooting for missing files, short exports, duplicates and catalogues that refuse to open
At the back there is a Quick Reference of shortcuts for Windows and Mac, and a Travel Checklist to print and pack with the laptop.
Questions I am asked about Lightroom Classic on the road
Can two Lightroom Classic catalogues sync with each other?
No. Lightroom Classic can merge catalogues but cannot sync them, and only one catalogue at a time can sync with Adobe's cloud. Import from Another Catalog is how a travel catalogue comes home.
Should the catalogue go on the laptop or a portable SSD?
Keep the catalogue on the laptop's internal drive, where it is fastest, and put the photographs on either. The catalogue backup and the second copy of the files belong on a different drive from the catalogue.
Can I install Lightroom Classic on both my laptop and my desktop?
Yes. A Creative Cloud plan lets you install Lightroom Classic on two computers and sign in on both, although only one can be in use at a time.
Will my ratings, keywords and edits survive the merge?
Yes. Flags, ratings, keywords, metadata, Collections and Develop settings all come across with Import from Another Catalog.
Is this the same as moving to a new computer?
No. A move takes the whole catalogue across for good, and my guide to moving Lightroom Classic to a new computer covers that. A travel catalogue is temporary and joins your main catalogue when you get home.
Download the free guide
The guide is free. Open the product page below, add the guide to your basket and check out with no payment, and the PDF is yours to download.
Set up the travel catalogue at home before your next trip, even a weekend away, rather than on the first evening in a hotel. If anything in the merge catches you out, tell me in the comments and I will help you sort it.
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