Simon thank you for your timely, thoughtful, fulsome and comprehensive response.

My key take-aways are:
* Consider raw photo storage OFF my computer hard drive - except when processing individual images - and store instead on external HD or in the Cloud - AND have 3 copies in 3 different locations.
* Cull heavily raw files following a shoot, and only keep the 'keepers'.

I'm not quite ready to upgrade my computer, and am keen to put the first of these take-aways into practice.

The second take-away - will take more discipline and new routine and BRAVERY. Very interested to continue this conversation, and hear more or your and others' experience with this.

In regards to the 12,000 + images now stored in LightRoom, I'm going to check if these are physically on my computer or in cloud (as part of LightRoom application?)... I'm sure to have some follow up questions about the next steps.

Any other comments suggestions welcomed.

Thank you, Ruth

Of course, you can be as severe as you want to be in your pruning, but to state the obvious the more you decide to keep the more space you will need.

Typically for a keeper I would store the raw file (plus any sidecar file generated by the raw software which contains the edits I performed), together with a high quality JPEG (and, if I submit a picture to BLP, a smaller file that fits the BLP size requirements). People will differ in this depending on how they prefer to work; for example, some people choose to work with Adobe DNG files or TIFF files, and perhaps keep those with (or instead of) the original raw. This could add significantly to storage requirements particularly as TIFF files can be several times as large as raw files.

Certainly one option would be to move all your raw files off the computer. The size requirement for storing raw is much larger than for storing JPEG (perhaps 3x). In many cases, you wouldn't go back to the raw file often, if at all. But in my view it's important to keep it in case you need to process the image again at some stage.

One thing to check (and I don't know the answer to this) is the impact moving files around has on your Lightroom Catalog (adopting the US spelling). It's ages since I used Lightroom but my recollection is that it can be a real issue if you move files around after processing in Lightroom. This had something to do with the way Lightroom stored information in the catalog about the file - and I would find that the catalog then complains about missing images. It was possible to realign the catalog, but I recall it being a pain to do so. Someone who is expert in Lightroom can hopefully explain how this works (and it may turn out to not be a real issue). One of the reasons I stopped using LR was because I got tired of being locked in to LR by the catalog. My current software relies entirely on the native Window's file system. This has its limitations, but I prefer it for several reasons, particularly greater tranferability between software programs, and more direct control and organisation by me.

Simon

Hi Ruth,

I am also a Mac user and you may be interested in my workflow and the way I handle the files.
I use a MacBook Pro laptop which has 2.3Ghz 8 core processor ,inteli9 and 16 GB memory in the field and at home I have an iMac 3.8Ghz quad core i5 processor with 16 GB memory.
These are the steps I take:
1. Upload raw files (CR2and CR3 files - Canon user) on to the laptop. I upload using Canon software and files are stored in dated folders.
2. Select keepers and convert to 16 bit Tiff files using Canon DPP4 software (designed by Canon specifically for their files). I believe that Olympus has its own raw conversion software. The tiff files are saved in same folder as raw files. I do the Raw conversion on the laptop because it is faster than my iMac at handling the large CR3 files.
3. When home I transfer the folders and files to a master external hard drive (4TB is big enough for me. Preferably SSD if budget allows it)
4. Import the tiff files only into Lightroom. The raw files will remain alongside the tiff files and can be accessed in future if needed. Note that Lightroom does not contain your images but simply references them. That is why you need to setup a storage system and stick to it. On import I tag files with location and if they are bird photos tagged with "Australian Birds by Family " ( The Lightroom keywords for Australian Birds by Family are available for download from this website.)
5. Add keywords to each image - species and subspecies (you need to add the subspecies to your dowloaded keywords) . I now have a database of bird images searchable by date, location, species and subspecies.
6. Close Lightroom and backup catalog. Backup your work to further external hard drives. I backup to 3 more 4TB drives using a program called Chronsync . Remember to backup image files on master external hard drive and the Lightroom catalog which resides on your computer. Store backups in different locations for added security. You can now format the memory card in your camera ready for the next days shooting.
7.At your leisure you can finish processing the tiff files. I mainly use Photoshop for post processing as it gives me more control than Lightroom . I export a copy to Photoshop , process it and then save back to Lightroom as a tiff.(It is actually saved to the master external hard drive). If I am happy with the result I delete the original unprocessed Tiff file.
8. I only resize and convert to JPEG as needed for uploading to this website. I do that in Photoshop.

I hope that this may be of some help to you. If you are looking for good tuition for Lightroom and Photoshop I recommend Phlearn. Worth a subscription.

Doug this is extremely helpful, your sharing of your workflow, in particular as it applies to me as a Mac User.

This is so interesting to me, re saving as TIFFs etc.

I will give this further reflection and see what steps I can implement immediately and what I can set into a new systemic approach.

So, a take away: if my photo files are saved to cloud on LightRoom, that is insufficient for even minimum 'secure' storage of images. Is that correct?

Many thanks, Ruth

I looked at cloud storage and found that to migrate my collection of images would take about a week of internet time even with the fast connection I have.
I think having a dedicated external hard drive for your image files is the way to go. I don’t keep any images on the computer . After uploading and doing initial raw conversion to tiff files and then transferring them to external hard drive I delete the files from the computer. The computer runs the software and not a good idea to slow it down by using up its storage capability with thousands of image files.
As you are finding the new generation of mirrorless cameras is creating an issue with keeping the large sized files. Unfortunately the cost of a new camera body is just the start of an expensive exercise. Something to be considered by others before upgrading.

Thank you very much Simon. Sorry for delay responding, I missed this earlier. That is very helpful.