Move from Paperport photo management to Lightroom? A Good Thing?

[Sorbz62]

Hi guys (and gals!),

I'm new here having just bought myself a Sony A35' and having been working on scanning my thousands of negs in over the last few years. I have been using Paperport for cataloguing all my pics and CS3 to edit them. Although I have Lightroom 1 I havn't yet used it. But now that I have got my new 'toy' and will be working in RAW as well as other formats, I have a few questions:

a. Will lightroom be better than paperport for cataloguing my pictures. Paperport has an Explorer like Folder view in which you can make new folders and move files around between them. Is this possible in L/R?

b. I want to keep all my image files on a particular Hard Drive in a folder structure. Can L/R accommodate this?

c. Quite a few of the files were converted into the Paperport proprietry format - .max - and I need to know how to batch file them back to TIFFs or JPEGs. Can L/R do this? or how do I do it?

d. Is there any other software that would be better for me?

btw: I work on a PC not a Mac.

Regards,
Jim

 

[Brad Snyder]

Hi guys (and gals!),

I'm new here having just bought myself a Sony A35' and having been working on scanning my thousands of negs in over the last few years. I have been using Paperport for cataloguing all my pics and CS3 to edit them. Although I have Lightroom 1 I havn't yet used it. But now that I have got my new 'toy' and will be working in RAW as well as other formats, I have a few questions:

a. Will lightroom be better than paperport for cataloguing my pictures. Paperport has an Explorer like Folder view in which you can make new folders and move files around between them. Is this possible in L/R?

Yes. I use Paperport for a number of things, but not for cataloging pictures. LR will add a number of retrieval functionalities, including hierarchal keywording, ratings, labels, pick/reject, and full metadata based browsing/search.

b. I want to keep all my image files on a particular Hard Drive in a folder structure. Can L/R accommodate this?

[COLOR=#''''ff]Yes.[/COLOR]

c. Quite a few of the files were converted into the Paperport proprietry format - .max - and I need to know how to batch file them back to TIFFs or JPEGs. Can L/R do this? or how do I do it?

[COLOR=#''''ff]LR can't. I don't use the proprietary format, so I can't tell you how to get them back. I'd recommend outputting in lossless TIFF tho', so you don't get re-compression of the JPEG export.[/COLOR]

d. Is there any other software that would be better for me?

[COLOR=#''''ff]Not that we are willing to discuss here on the Lightroom Forum![/COLOR] :shock:

Seriously, there are other choices, which depend a great deal upon your workflow needs and personal preferences.


btw: I work on a PC not a Mac.

Regards,
Jim

.............

 

[Sorbz62]

Yes. I use Paperport for a number of things, but not for cataloging pictures.

What do you use Paperport for. It seems a bit like a toy compared to the Adobe Stuff.

...................

 

[Brad Snyder]

I use it to organize/archive the non-photographic image stuff that accumulates. Still trying to create the 'paperless' office.

My photographic usage is only incidental. For instance; PDF equipment manuals, screen captures pertinent to discussion topics, archived scanned/e-copies of maintenance agreements and purchase receipts, things like that.

Since a lot of this stuff is PDF, I guess you could say that I'm still in the Adobe camp. :cheesy:

 

[Denis Pagé]

The more Brad writes in this forum the more I feel we are in the very same situation and workflow! :mrgreen:

Jim, useless to repeat Brad's correct answers but I may add about your point "c" on PaperPort proprietary format. The more folders you have with .max files the more tedious it will be. Inversely, many .max files in fewer folders will be easier.

This is under PaperPort 9.': Select all .max files. Right click on one of the highlighted ones and "Save As...". Under the type of files, you will have many options. One of them will be "TIFF - Uncompressed (*.tif)". This is also working very well with stacked photos.

But you will then get a file naming problem: If you still have the "Examples" folder that installed with PaperPort, there is a stack of three photos of flowers in one .max file named "Flowers", a text with embedded images called "Hawaï" and a photo of a cat named "Ludo". Selecting the flowers stack and Ludo and Saving As will ask you for a file name in addition to choosing the format. If you save as "Flowers2", it will then create the tifs as follows:
Flowers2.tif
Flowers2 (2).tif
Flowers2 (3).tif
Flowers2 (4).tif
The last one being the cat.

So this will be up to you to choose if you name files individually or by batches. Once in TIF, you will then be able to import in Lightroom from their actual location with all renaming options offered by Lightroom.

Finally, welcome to the best Lightroom helpdesk!

 

[Denis Pagé]

What do you use Paperport for. It seems a bit like a toy compared to the Adobe Stuff.

Maybe a toy for photos compared to Lightroom but not at all when it comes to OCR! It can even make OCR on photos! Lightroom can't. But what Lightroom does to photos in comparison make one feel that PaperPort came out of a "Kinder Surprize" egg. :mrgreen: