Post processing workflow - from Picasa to Lightroom/ Photoshop howto

[nycandre]

Background:
One of the main consequences of digital photography is the ever larger number of files (photos taken with their versions, raw, jpg, processed, printed.. ) that has become possible to create. The issue then is to have a good system to store and retrieve them.  Over the years I've stuck to a basic simple way: naming folders yymmdd-subject for each card I unload (the discipline being to always.. well as much as possible - unload all my cards after a shoot and reformat them so there is never a chance of overwriting/ losing some).
Then came Picasa, and it was too hard to resist its simplicity and power. The big problem is ... it really isn't meant for very large archives, since its database *has* to be on the C:\ drive, so very much tied to one computer.  A quick research showed that for serious photographers the standard way would be use either Lightroom (or Aperture for Mac addicts) as main cataloging program.

Question is: how to migrate a couple terabytes worth of photos from Picasa to Lightroom without losing tags and images. For example, Picasa *nicely* creates special folders automatically to store the original after any retouching for example.  Somebody must have done this, I would prefer not to reinvent the wheel..
Any one knows of a good resource?

FYI - I tried asking/ searching in Adobe's forums but haven't found any solid info. 

[Bob Atkins]

I can't answer your question personally because it's something I've never done, but there do seem to be possible solutions to your problem. For example:

http://www.worldinmyeyes.be/2083/convert-picasa-albums-lightroom-collections/

It seems quite complicated, but then I expect it probably will have to be. I doubt anyone has written a piece of software to do the transfer automatically.

Hope this helps!