Lightroom Libraries In The Media Browser?

[PhilippeR]

New to Mac and Toast.

 

I installed Toast 11 and according to the specs (and the main video tutorial), the media browser should show the Lightroom library (libraries?) under the Photos tab. My installation doesn't, whether or not Lightroom is running at the time.

 

I must say that my Lightroom library (LR calls it a catalog) is no longer at the default place/name, since I originally installed LR on Windows at version 1. I don't even know what the default name and place for a brand new LR installation on Mac OS X is. When migrating to the Mac from Windows, I moved over my catalogs from the PC world and put them under a subfolder of my Pictures folder. Do I need to move/rename that catalog, or is there some settings (which I must be overlooking) to configure Toast to point to my LR library/catalog? I saw a similar question in this forum about Aperture, but of course the answer there does not help me...

 

Thanks!

[tsantee]

Toast looks for the Lightroom catalog in your Pictures>Lightroom folder.

[PhilippeR]

Toast looks for the Lightroom catalog in your Pictures>Lightroom folder.

 

Thanks for the reply. I do indeed have a Pictures>Lightroom folder. Underneath it I have 2 catalog folders named Jobs-LR3 and Personal-LR3 (as well as a plug-ins folder where I keep my third-party plug-ins eg jSmugmug). I assume that one of those catalog folders (say Personal-LR3, if I use this one the most) needs to be renamed to some default name that Toast is looking for. Would you happen to know what that name is? Thanks again!

[tsantee]

Thanks for the reply. I do indeed have a Pictures>Lightroom folder. Underneath it I have 2 catalog folders named Jobs-LR3 and Personal-LR3 (as well as a plug-ins folder where I keep my third-party plug-ins eg jSmugmug). I assume that one of those catalog folders (say Personal-LR3, if I use this one the most) needs to be renamed to some default name that Toast is looking for. Would you happen to know what that name is? Thanks again!

This is the name of my Lightroom catalog: Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat

 

Maybe if you started your catalog name with Lightroom it might read okay. Also, drop the hyphen.

[PhilippeR]

Thanks again.

 

I was just about to post that I had found the solution by looking at the strings contained inside the application binary (use the command: strings /Applications/Toast\ 11\ Titanium/Toast\ Titanium.app/Contents/MacOS/Toast\ Titanium in a command line window, the \ being necessary because of the spaces in the name...) I reorganized my catalog to match this (note that Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrcat is also supported) and it worked, sort of.

 

What I found is that instead of presenting a hierarchy of folders matching the hierarchy of folders inside Lightroom, the Media Browser of Toast shows everything flattened, with a single level of folders, organized not by alphabetic names and subfolders as Lightroom does, but by date (the latest created being shown at the bottom of the window)! In other words, it made a huge mess out of my ~40000+ pictures and numerous folders.

 

Furthermore, Media Browser does not use the previews kept in the <catalog name>Previews.lrdata database, and just shows what the raw files contain, without any processing, cropping, etc... For instance, if I make a virtual copy to add a black and white image out of a color one, while also keeping the color one, they both show as color (i.e. from the raw file), under the SAME name!! Talk about useless!!

 

Thanks for your help, but I will actually rename my catalog the old way, precisely so as to NOT see this mess in the Media Browser...

 

It looks like one more disappointment with this software... I'd say if you are going to implement a feature, implement it properly or don't bother implementing it at all! What a joke this is.

 

Cheers,

[tsantee]

Thanks again.

 

I was just about to post that I had found the solution by looking at the strings contained inside the application binary (use the command: strings /Applications/Toast\ 11\ Titanium/Toast\ Titanium.app/Contents/MacOS/Toast\ Titanium in a command line window, the \ being necessary because of the spaces in the name...) I reorganized my catalog to match this (note that Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrcat is also supported) and it worked, sort of.

 

What I found is that instead of presenting a hierarchy of folders matching the hierarchy of folders inside Lightroom, the Media Browser of Toast shows everything flattened, with a single level of folders, organized not by alphabetic names and subfolders as Lightroom does, but by date (the latest created being shown at the bottom of the window)! In other words, it made a huge mess out of my ~40000+ pictures and numerous folders.

 

Furthermore, Media Browser does not use the previews kept in the <catalog name>Previews.lrdata database, and just shows what the raw files contain, without any processing, cropping, etc... For instance, if I make a virtual copy to add a black and white image out of a color one, while also keeping the color one, they both show as color (i.e. from the raw file), under the SAME name!! Talk about useless!!

 

Thanks for your help, but I will actually rename my catalog the old way, precisely so as to NOT see this mess in the Media Browser...

 

It looks like one more disappointment with this software... I'd say if you are going to implement a feature, implement it properly or don't bother implementing it at all! What a joke this is.

 

Cheers,

Some of your issues are not exactly Toast's fault. Lightroom doesn't apply its adjustments to a photo until that photo is exported as a new file. What you're asking Toast to do is instruct Lightroom to process that image before Toast adds it. How can Toast make Lightroom do anything? All Toast can do is use Lightroom as an image locator and the actual image is coming from the one saved to your hard drive.

 

As for the directory, what I'm seeing is a list of folders with the dates the way I have Lightroom save my images on import. I also see my collections including subfolders within those collections. So the collections are not flattened. I notice that the Lightroom directory does not appear in the media browser if Lightroom is open at the time I open Toast.

 

I'm not saying that having direct access to Lightroom's filing system is very useful. I choose to export the photos I want from Lightroom so they get their adjustments applied and then add those exported images to Toast (unless I was just trying to back up the originals). Something to consider is making a custom Export preset in Lightroom that you use whenever you want the processed photos to be burned to disc. There is a preset already for using Apple's burn tool, but I don't think that will get you the photo disc with the playable slide shows.

[PhilippeR]

Hi agsin,

 

I hear what you say about Toast not being able to render the pictures, but it could at least try to use the previews (in the Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews.lrdata database). Or at the minimum, not show the same original file multiple times for virtual copies. What I am saying is that this whole thing is not at all well thought out... To wit, if you have multiple Lightroom catalogs (or iTunes libraries for that matter) or if they are in a non-standard location (for example on external discs), Media Browser does not even see them or let you tell it where they might be.

 

Yes, I do see collections with sub-folders too, which begs the question why not show sub-folders for the folder view as well? As for the flattened folder mess, I am not labeling my folders with a date nomenclature (like many/most people do?), such as 2011/May/Client1 and 2011/May/Client2. If I had, they would probably look ok, as they then would be ordered by date of folder creation in the Media Browser. Instead, I have my folders named by shoot or theme, for example Travel/Hawaii-2005 and Travel/Hawaii-2008 and Holiday/Christmas-2011 and Holiday/Thanksgiving 2010. Guess what since Holiday was created after Travel, it shows up later in the Media Browser list, even though alphabetically, Holiday should show first. Trust me, the last folder I created in Lightroom (a top-level one, as the same level as Travel and Holiday in the example) is listed last in the Media browser, despite definitely not being last in alphabetical order. In Lightroom, it shows in the middle of the list, in Media Browser it's last! When you compound that with a flat organization and a gazillions pictures (and folders), Media Browser is a mess, and best not used at all, IMHO.

 

I will look at your suggestion of creating a preset in Lightroom, to burn exported images/slideshows. Thanks much!

[tsantee]

Hi agsin,

 

I hear what you say about Toast not being able to render the pictures, but it could at least try to use the previews (in the Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews.lrdata database). Or at the minimum, not show the same original file multiple times for virtual copies. What I am saying is that this whole thing is not at all well thought out... To wit, if you have multiple Lightroom catalogs (or iTunes libraries for that matter) or if they are in a non-standard location (for example on external discs), Media Browser does not even see them or let you tell it where they might be.

 

Yes, I do see collections with sub-folders too, which begs the question why not show sub-folders for the folder view as well? As for the flattened folder mess, I am not labeling my folders with a date nomenclature (like many/most people do?), such as 2011/May/Client1 and 2011/May/Client2. If I had, they would probably look ok, as they then would be ordered by date of folder creation in the Media Browser. Instead, I have my folders named by shoot or theme, for example Travel/Hawaii-2005 and Travel/Hawaii-2008 and Holiday/Christmas-2011 and Holiday/Thanksgiving 2010. Guess what since Holiday was created after Travel, it shows up later in the Media Browser list, even though alphabetically, Holiday should show first. Trust me, the last folder I created in Lightroom (a top-level one, as the same level as Travel and Holiday in the example) is listed last in the Media browser, despite definitely not being last in alphabetical order. In Lightroom, it shows in the middle of the list, in Media Browser it's last! When you compound that with a flat organization and a gazillions pictures (and folders), Media Browser is a mess, and best not used at all, IMHO.

 

I will look at your suggestion of creating a preset in Lightroom, to burn exported images/slideshows. Thanks much!

Good points. Thanks!