RAW to DNG and file management

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Mario.Q

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I’m a new Lightroom user, and I’m currently working on importing, key wording, and tagging my existing photos in Lightroom, and I’m also looking for a good general workflow for using this software. In doing so I’ve had some questions come up that I’d like to run past all the lightroom experts here.

First off, before using lightroom, I did a majority of my photo editing in canon’s Digital Photo Pro. I did most if not all of my editing to my CR2 raw files and then exported TIFFs as necessary for heavier editing, which was not that often, and then saved JPEG files as necessary.

So, I have all of these raw files that I have edited in DPP and now when I import them into Lightroom they do not show the edits I made in DPP. Is there any way to retain my editing info from DPP? I’m guessing there isn’t since lightroom probably doesn’t know how to read the data DPP uses to save adjustments in the file, but I’d thought I’d ask anyway. Is it possible to covert the CR2 files to DNG and retain the editing information from DPP?

Also, I’m thinking about using DNG files for my editing work in Lightroom. I like this instead of using all the sidecar files that are necessary when working with CR2 raw files in Lightroom. I also like the idea of having a better chance of my photo files being compatible with future software advancements. So, I’d like to use DNG files but I’d also like to archive a copy of my CR2 files as a “just in case” measure. My question is what is the best way to achieve this when importing my files into lightroom?

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
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Mario.Q said:
Also, I’m thinking about using DNG files for my editing work in Lightroom. I like this instead of using all the sidecar files that are necessary when working with CR2 raw files in Lightroom. I also like the idea of having a better chance of my photo files being compatible with future software advancements. So, I’d like to use DNG files but I’d also like to archive a copy of my CR2 files as a “just in case” measure. My question is what is the best way to achieve this when importing my files into lightroom?

Thanks in advance for the help!
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I use ImageIngester Pro instead of LR when I convert my NEF files to DNG (it works in conjunction with Adobe's free DNG converter program). IIP will rename the files and back them up, both NEF and DNG if I so choose, to another drive with my preferred folder scheme. After IIP is finished, I just have LR import the files that are on the working drive, again using the same folder scheme. My renmaing scheme has identical names for my NEF and DNG files, except for the respective files extension. A simple arrangement, but it meets my needs.

--Ken
 
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Mario,
LR will in the import menu import the camera files, convert to DNG and back up the originals all at the same time.
Sounds like what you want.
 
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Thanks for the replies. Just to explain my thoughts on workflow a little more - I would like to be able to import my raw files into lightroom, sort through them and delete out bad shots, then rename and convert to dng. I don't want to just convert and backup all the photos I import, because I usually end up deleting 5'%+/- of my non-keeper shots. I don't want import and backup all my photos, and then have to go to the folder where the CR2's are archived and then have to figure out which photos I ended up deleting. Maybe Lightroom does this for you automatically though??

I would like to be able to do all this in lightroom, but the alternative would be to use another program (like Ken suggested) to do my weeding of bad photos, renaming and conversion to DNG. Then manually move my CR2s to an archive folder and import the DNGs into lightroom.
 
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Mario.Q said:
I would like to be able to do all this in lightroom, but the alternative would be to use another program (like Ken suggested) to do my weeding of bad photos, renaming and conversion to DNG. Then manually move my CR2s to an archive folder and import the DNGs into lightroom.
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Sounds like your best option as LR would have no connection to your CR2 files once they have been backed up on import.
 
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As an alternative, I go about things slightly differently.

I'd import all as CR2, weed out the duds, rename, and then copy those CR2's to your backup. Then I'd select the CR2's in Grid view, and go to Edit menu > Convert Photos to DNG and select 'delete original raw files' in the dialog that appears, as you'll have already copied those off to your backups.
 
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Victoria Bampton said:
As an alternative, I go about things slightly differently.

I'd import all as CR2, weed out the duds, rename, and then copy those CR2's to your backup. Then I'd select the CR2's in Grid view, and go to Edit menu > Convert Photos to DNG and select 'delete original raw files' in the dialog that appears, as you'll have already copied those off to your backups.
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I bow down to the lightroom master! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
 
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Mario.Q said:
I bow down to the lightroom master! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
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Actually Victoria is THE LIGHTROOM QUEEN! And while her suggestion is a good one, you could also use a program like FastStone if you want to delete files before importing. It is a great browser, and its free, although the author does ask for a donation if you are feeling charitible.

--Ken
 
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Replytoken said:
Actually Victoria is THE LIGHTROOM QUEEN! And while her suggestion is a good one, you could also use a program like FastStone if you want to delete files before importing. It is a great browser, and its free, although the author does ask for a donation if you are feeling charitible.

--Ken
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Thanks Ken, but I'd much rather just keep my work in one piece of software as much as possible.


Can anyone comment on or confirm not being able to extract adjusment settings done in DPP when working with a CR2 file in lightrrom?

Thanks!
 
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Correct, one raw processor's settings will mean nothing to another, unless you're switching between LR and ACR which are based on the same pipeline.
 
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Victoria,

If you delete files after renaiming, does this not make it a bit more difficult if you have to restore at some future point since file names will not be contigious, and you might not know if a file is missing? I do not mean to be OC, but I personally like a file naming system that is as sequential and contigious as possible. This makes it much easier to spot lost or missing files.

--Ken
 
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Erm, follow it back through Ken.

I'd import all as CR2, weed out the duds, rename, and then copy those CR2's to your backup. Then I'd select the CR2's in Grid view, and go to Edit menu > Convert Photos to DNG and select 'delete original raw files' in the dialog that appears, as you'll have already copied those off to your backups.
Click to expand...

So you've weeded out anything that you definitely don't want to keep, THEN you rename (with your contiguous structure if you like), and then copy those proprietary files off to the backup (obviously with sensible temporary backups in between). So the proprietary backups have the same names as the files in the catalog, which you're now going to convert to DNG and delete the proprietary files from the working drive. Make sense?
 
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My mistake, Victoria. I read your suggestions, and Marios's needs, a bit too fast and garbled up the order. As a token of my apology, please accept these little guys below for an encore performance!

--Ken

DonRicklin said:
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Victoria, thanks again for the help with my workflow. I used that system you outlined for family photos I took over the holidays and it worked very well.

So back to part of my original problem: I have a ton of CR2 files that have been edited in DPP which I’d like to import into lightroom for key wording, cataloging, etc. Since I’d like to import files which reflect the editing I’ve done in DPP, and there’s now way lightroom can read the editing to the raw files I’ve done in DPP, I’ll have to import JPEG or TIF files which have been converted using DPP. Part of my old workflow was exporting full size JPEGs of images after editing was done, so I do already have the jpeg files which I could use for importing into lightroom. The only drawback would be if I ever what to do some editing of these files, it will either have to be done to the JPEG file in lightroom, or I’ll have to go back to DPP to edit the original CR2 file. I could go back and export all my CR2s to 16-bit TIFs in DPP and import those files into lightroom, but I don’t know if it will be worth my effort, since I have 1'’s of 1'''’s of images.

If you made it through my jumbled mess of thoughts, thank you! And if you see any room for improvement, please let me know. Thanks!!
 
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Yeah, I followed you. Personally, I'd import the raw and jpegs in that case. The jpegs will be there for quick export already processed, but the raw files will be there in case you decide to re-edit one day, you can do so using LR's tools from the original raw.
 
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Sorry I'm lazy and away from my personal computer and can't try this myself right now, but would what you describe create two copies of each image in lightroom (i.e. one raw one jpeg)??
 
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Yes, you'd have 2 copies.
 
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