Workflow Help
- This topic has 14 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated Dec 3, 2009 at 8:25 am by
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Hey guys, I wanted to see if I could get some ideas on how you guys handle all your images.
Currently I am uploading my raw files from my flash card to Lightroom, and after editing them I am exporting them as jpeg to an external hard drive. After doing this for a few months, I have hundreds of these raw files still in lightroom. How do you guys do it? Should I upload the raw files to my external drive and then import to light room from there? My thinking is that if I do that, after exporting the edited images I can delete them from lightroom and still have a raw copy save on my external drive. Any ideas?I have a folder called “canon” inside which all the original files live.. its where lightroom dumps all the imported files into a date based folder system (/canon/200d/11/09 for ex.)
I do the same as Eric – pretty much anyway.
Also – I mark with “X” the shots in LR that I know I’m deleting – I can then later go back and show just those images, select all, and delete them from the drive.
I bought Lightroom, loaded it and then tried to use it – no such luck.. :-[ 😀
Bridge/Photoshop still seems far easier to me and is just the one stop shop.
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
I am with you on that one David! Got my own system worked out and am just to scared and/or stubborn to throw a wrench into something as seamless as it is. Hey, just picked up the LaCie 526 monitor… WOW, you would love this thing and the calibration report put me at a DE average of 0.3 with 98% of the ISO coated scale covered 🙂
Josh, LR is a great program so, don’t think that I am saying it isn’t. Just kind of an old school guy that hates having to become a programmer instead of focusing on my primary. 🙂
Lightroom – great for editing – absolutely sucks for filing and access. I still use it and have a system worked out that works for me. I probably need to spend more time working it out properly but couldn’t be bothered. There are some functions in there that are just so good I’m prepared to put up with the cataloging crap just to use them.
Morsie
Morsie –
I’m utterly perplexed by your complaint about filing and access.
Collections can be created for access by type.
Keywords can be easily applied by set – or individual image.
Queries can be run on those keywords.
File sets can be browsed by loupe/thumbnail view.
I recognize we all work differently, but I’m genuinely curious what’s hard for you.
Kendal
Ben Cochran and I have gone back and forth about the Lightroom vs Bridge issue for some time (LR for me, Bridge for him). Â I simply can’t understand why people love Bridge given it’s inherent catalog deficiencies. Â For me LR is one of the best file management programs out there. Â However, this debate will no doubt continue. Â
I have been using Lightroom 3 beta for some time now and must admit that the major upgrades are specifically targeted toward the importing functionality and cataloging.
The problem for me with Lightroom is I don’t want a catalog.
I generate a lot of shoots at work and want them in, edited, backed-up and out in a couple days to make room for the next job.If Lightroom had a simple file browser like Bridge it would be perfect, but it insists you do thing their way not yours.
Very strange.
(yes, I am the ALPHA dinosaur.. ;D)
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
Kendall, I’m being a stubborn old bastard so I’m sure the problem is mostly mine. My filing system is done by trip names and dates, for example Northern Territory Dec ’09. On the course of a 10 day trip cards are downloaded daily to this file on my laptop and daily edits are done there. I don’t want to catalogue this file onto my laptop because its not going to be stored there when I get home, I don’t want 15 gigs or whatever of RAW images stored on my laptop, so they go onto a couple of hard drives when I get home. This is when the problems begin. When I move the file to the hard drives I want to delete that file from the desktop and work from the hard drive. The chain is broken and all kinds of work is required to re-establish the links. As DA says they want you to work their way, but I want to work my way.
Morsie
Once uploaded I will begin to rate the photos that I will edit and put on my website.
www.mattjonesphotography.com
Kendall, I’m being a stubborn old bastard so I’m sure the problem is mostly mine. My filing system is done by trip names and dates, for example Northern Territory Dec ’09. On the course of a 10 day trip cards are downloaded daily to this file on my laptop and daily edits are done there. I don’t want to catalogue this file onto my laptop because its not going to be stored there when I get home, I don’t want 15 gigs or whatever of RAW images stored on my laptop, so they go onto a couple of hard drives when I get home. This is when the problems begin. When I move the file to the hard drives I want to delete that file from the desktop and work from the hard drive. The chain is broken and all kinds of work is required to re-establish the links. As DA says they want you to work their way, but I want to work my way.
Morsie
Heh – I can relate to being a stubborn old bastard.
Not sure if this will help, but here goes……..
I don’t go near ACR or Lightroom until I have downloaded, edited, renamed and keyworded my RAW files in Photo Mechanic, whether that be on a small laptop when I am travelling or at my desk when I am at home – lightning fast, a programme that is designed purely for editing (no processing), does what it says really well. Don’t have to wait ages for RAW files to generate etc. and there is no “hang” time.
I have always worked with a simple filing system here from the days of trannies – if it works for you, it’s just fine.
Was using ACR and not LR because I hate the way LR tries to force you into creating some kind of LR-based database filing system, when I have been doing it myself just fine.
But somebody here told me I could essentially go around this database system in LR (my thanks), and I use LR all the time now – import the RAW files, do my stuff and then export them as aRGB JPEGs at 100%, and then delete the RAW files from LR – but only from LR, not from my hard drives. This I believe stops LR from trying to keep track of all my RAW files on my computers and drives.
I do like LR, same processing engine as ACR, I like the “look” it gives RAW files straight off, and it works for large numbers of images, but you can’t get away from the fact that it is still not the fastest RAW processor around. But I can live with it. Perhaps one day it will have the blazing speed of the old RawShooter (RIP).
Sharpen etc. in Photoshop.
Now I put my RAW files (with XMP sidecar files) and processed JPEGs into my filing systems on my various hard drives, and then back up everything. Essentially I am using LR solely as a RAW processor and nothing else. And that’s the way it’s going to remain, unless things change in the future.
Reading back it kinda sounds a bit tricky, but it works really well for me and I can get stuff in and out really efficiently. Always refining it over time as well.
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