Lightroom Workflow Help

[chenchilla]

Hello, I am new to Lightroom 2.2 and wanted to get some input on workflow. I am having trouble getting started.
A bit of history...

I previously used iPhoto and only shot in jpeg. I recently got my new Canon 5'D and want to take my photography to the next level. I started shooting in RAW not too long ago. I just got Lightroom 2.2 with hopes of doing faster post-processing, smoother workflow, better organization of pictures. Here's what I am doing so far....

-Import pictures from camera -> external harddrive -> RAW Archival Folder
-Import those RAW pictures into LR and convert to DNG -> Save to DNG Folder on external HD
-Sort through DNG pictures on LR and do picks/rejects. Delete rejects from folder (still with all files in RAW folder)
-Convert to JPEG

At this point, I am confused what to do. I want to keep the harddrive on my laptop clean. I only have a laptop (no desktop), so I don't want to oversaturate it and make it slow. (I do have over 1',''' pictures)

So, I am mainly working through my external hard drive. However, I wanted to possibly keep a folder of JPEGs on my laptop hard drive in order to work with the pictures later through flicker/webpages/emailing/printing, etc...without having to access my external. I also want to make a copy of JPEGs for the external hard drive (for backup). Is this being redundant? Do I need to add those JPEGs to the LR catalog? (Then would have two copies of pictures in LR...DNG and JPEG)

Any help from those who are more experienced would be great!

Thank you in advance!

Yolanda

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Yolanda, you don't need to keep jpeg copies, these can be generated/exported at any time from the DNGs.
However if you are wanting to work on the DNGs from your laptop you will need a system where they are accessible by Lightroom.
Maybe something like import them as you are but instead of to the external when converted to DNG you could keep the DNG's on your laptop and when worked shift the folder using LR to the external.

 

[dj_paige]

I don't think that convert to .jpg should be a part of your general workflow. Only do this when you need a specific photo(s) as a .jpg.

.jpgs do not serve a "backups" for .dng files, at least as I use the term "backup". There is a quality loss when you convert to a .jpg, and so the original quality of your raw photograph cannot be recovered from a .jpg. The only thing that serves as a backup of a .dng file is an exact copy on a different physical medium.

I don't understand why you are imposing on yourself a restriction that "I wanted to possibly keep a folder of JPEGs on my laptop hard drive in order to work with the pictures later through flicker/webpages/emailing/printing, etc...without having to access my external". You may have a perfectly good reason why you don't want to access your external drive, but you are making things difficult for yourself with this restriction. Wihtout this restriction, you don't make copies of everything and save them. You can let Lightroom generate the .jpgs as you need them, and erase the .jpgs after you are done with them. In addition, there is a Lightroom plug-in for uploading to Flickr, so you don't even need to make a .jpg first.

And when you make a .jpg, you don't want to import it into the Lightroom catalog, it is a temporary file there for a purpose. It is not intended to be permanently in your collection, as re-creating it is a simple task.

 

[dj_paige]

At this point, I am confused what to do. I want to keep the harddrive on my laptop clean. I only have a laptop (no desktop), so I don't want to oversaturate it and make it slow. (I do have over 1',''' pictures)
Yolanda

Having lots of photos does not make a laptop operate slowly. Problems can arise if you have a huge percentage of your laptop's hard disk filled (say 9'% of the hard disk or more) and/or your hard disk is highly fragmented (which is easy to fix). Of course, this depends on the age of your laptop and how large the hard drive is, and how much disk space the photos take up.

So, I don't think it would be unreasonable to move the .dng photos to the hard drive if you absolutely can't have the external hard drive attached.

 

[chenchilla]

Thank you so much for all of your input. It has helped a lot. My other question is that currently the great majority of my pictures are in jpeg (as I just started shooting raw). they are currently in iphoto. would you import all of those jpegs into lightroom as a way to organize pictures? (i wouldn't be pp'ing them at all...)

thanks!

 

[dj_paige]

Yes definitely include your .jpg photos in your Lightroom Library.

The whole point of the Library is to help you find these photos with more powerful tools than you have in Windows. You want to find these .jpg photos at some point in the future, don't you?

Now why on earth would you refrain from doing post-processing on .jpgs? I spent a lot of time learning the editor in Photoshop Elements, and my .jpg photos look better when adjusted in Lightroom than anything I could accomplish with that more powerful editor (and it took me less time in Lightroom than it did in PSE).

 

[chenchilla]

thanks paige.
what i meant is that i wouldn't be pp'ing them anymore b/c they are pics from the last 5 years and they have all been previously pp'ed...

also, should i have different catalogs for each year? how do you organize your catalogs? i currently have over 1',''' pictures and i dont want to slow down LR...how many should be in each catalog...preferably?

 

[chenchilla]

also, if i am working on current pictures out of my desktop harddrive and let's say 2 years from now, i want to move everything to an external harddrive and clean up my laptop HD....is it pretty easy to transfer everything and relink everything through LR?

 

[Denis Pagé]

also, if i am working on current pictures out of my desktop harddrive and let's say 2 years from now, i want to move everything to an external harddrive and clean up my laptop HD....is it pretty easy to transfer everything and relink everything through LR?

Easier than that! Just make the external visible in Lightroom and move what you want WITHIN Lightroom so you won't have to relink. Avoid moving any image with the file system if it is already imported in (read: Linked To) Lightroom.

 

[dj_paige]

also, should i have different catalogs for each year? how do you organize your catalogs? i currently have over 1',''' pictures and i dont want to slow down LR...how many should be in each catalog...preferably?

One Catalog! One Catalog! One Catalog! (Get the idea?) Lightroom can handle lots more photos than you have without slowing down. In fact, there is no known limit on how many photos you can put into Lightroom, but because it is a database, large number of files doesn't usually slow it down, and the limit is most likely determined by your hard disk space and hard drive speed rather than anything else.

The only possible reason I know of to split things into different catalogs is if the subject matter is entirely non-overlapping, such as work and personal catalogs.

Separating photos into catalogs by years ... well, I just hate the whole idea ... Lightroom can separate photos by almost any metadata, so if today you only want to see the 2''7 photos, its easy! Tomorrow, you want to see 2''6 and 2''7 photos combined, its easy! The next day you want photos from 2''5 and 2''8, its easy! If the photos are in different catalogs by years, you can't easily view photos from different years. Let the software do the work of splitting things and finding things, instead of you doing the work of splitting things and finding things.

So, how do I organize my catalogs? I have only one. Organization of catalogs is then extremely easy. I keep my one catalog in alphabetical order on my hard disk (that's a joke...), but if I wanted, I could also keep my one catalog in reverse alphabetical order. I haven't yet figured out how to keep it upside down...

 

[RobOK]

There are many ways to set things up. I have a whole RAW file directory for the SOURCE, but I do create JPGs. I know they are generated easily, but I like having my best shots (like the 5 out of 5's) available and rendered. So then I have a JPG output file directory that is separate.

As others have said, this directory is not imported into Lightroom and I would consider it "throw away" if I ever needed the space. In thinking about it now, I would say it is like a two month cache of recent photos that I might email, post or whatever. I like the convenience of already having them rendered. Many of the folders are task specific, like "Photo Frame For Mom".

Once it gets beyond a month or so, and i need to find things, I use Lightroom to search and find things in the RAW (not in the JPG holding area) and perhaps make a new collection depending on the task.

Hope this helps,
rob.