Workflow woes

D

DavidBloor

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193
Edit My Images
Yes
First post, here goes!

I seem to get no where when it comes to processing images, I have hundreds of images which just sit on memory cards or on a hard disk.

I shoot in RAW and I want to use Lightroom v2 to process my images.

Now I know I need to sort out the images that are to be kept but would you do that before or after importing into Lightroom, I don't really see the point of importing them only to have to delete them if that makes sense but I am not sure the best way to go about this.

Also how would you suggest the images are kept in terms of folders on the PC, what I do now is create a folder for each event and then within that have a folder where all the RAW images are dumped, it is this point where I am non productive so to speak.

Storage is not an issue as I have ample disk space. so what would you all suggest in terms of file formats, I know that for the web JPEG is best but is best for in terms of having images ready to print?

The end result I want is printable copies and up loadable versions.

Thanks in advance!
 
Well you first need to work out where you want to put them on your pc.

I have a folder Photos... then within that, landscapes, birds etc and one called RAW. within RAW they are in dated folders of each month etc.

Now, when you insert your card and lightroom opens, it asks where you want to import your photos to. I put them into the RAW folder in August (making a new months folder each month obviously!)

Once they are in the RAW folder... they willl all come up along the bottom as thumbnails in Lightroom. These arent actually IN lightroom it its just showing your the thumbnails you have just imported.

If you nip along the thumbnails you can put an X on the ones you dont want and at theh end you can to into Photos/ remove selected and it will delete them all either from lightroom catalogue or from your complete harddrive depending on what you want.

now when you have a photo you want.... I will alter in lightroom, then edit more in Photoshop (dont know if you have that) and save it as a large jpg or tiff in my folder Photos/Landscapes. I can print this from there.. or if i need to put on web resize it.

if you put a whole load of big ones for printinng and need to make another folder of the imiages as smaller for web... you can use Faststone image viewer.....free download... great tool for batch resizing, renaming etc.

now this is just what I do... and may be a load of CARP!! :D
 
If you choose to import from a disk instead of a device when you stick your memory card in, you can ask lightroom to move them (delete them off the memory card when done) and generate folders for the images to be stored in.
 
I have CS2 so I can use that too.

I understand the way you organise your folders, you also add a "month" folder in which is useful the more I think about it.

As for importing into Lightroom I did not realise that you could filter the images you want during import, I never took much notice of the screen that automatically appears when you insert a memory card.

On my PC I have a folder containing 800 RAW images that I copied from my memory cards of my nieces wedding, how do I go about getting these into Lightroom without importing the images that are out of focus etc can I just import and then deselect via the thumbnails you mention?
 
I haven't used lightroom for a while but I think you import them all and the delete the ones you don't want and light room should ask you if you want to delete it from the disk as well as the library.
 
Yes you can either state where you are importing them FROM....(go to File, Import/ from disk) ie a place on your hard drive or a card... and when the thumbnails come up you can go thru and untick the rubbish.... but to be honest its best to iimport them all and look thru when they are a bit bigger to make sure.
 
I'd say janice is right, I import everything, set lightroom to setup dated folders in one big 'photography' folder applying a preset I use on most images for shapening and clarity. Then go through and flag the picks and rejects, delete the x's and work on the picks, keep the maybes just in case you need to do anything with them.

Get the lightroom import dialog right when you plug your card in, ie your set keywords and any metadata stuff then you don't really need to change it, unless you want to use a different develop preset on import.
 
DavidBloor said:
As for importing into Lightroom I did not realise that you could filter the images you want during import, I never took much notice of the screen that automatically appears when you insert a memory card.

On my PC I have a folder containing 800 RAW images that I copied from my memory cards of my nieces wedding, how do I go about getting these into Lightroom without importing the images that are out of focus etc can I just import and then deselect via the thumbnails you mention?
Click to expand...

If the images are already on your PC use the import button, choose to leave them where they are or move them to a new location. On the import screen you can choose to view the images, then select the ones you want.

Personally I would import all 800, then you can asses the quality of the images in lightroom, marking the poor ones for deletion with an "x" or any other marker you choose. At the end you can choose to delete the ones marked "x" or just filter them out when ever you are viewing the folder.

When importing from my camera, I tend to scan through the CF card using the camera and delete any obvious rubbish (I generally do this every hour or so on a shoot), then I import everything that is left and do the final filtering in LR - that is what the tool was designed for...
 
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