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Workflow for finished edits - Lightroom and Photoshop

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iwaddo

Active Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2020
Messages
130
Lightroom Version Number
9.2.1
Operating System
  1. macOS 10.15 Catalina
I have a number of workflow scenario questions that I've never really settled on an answer too so any help appreciated.

Background: I like to create and enter images into our local camera club competitions. I like to keep my LR Catalog and images on disc 'OCD' tidy.

If I Develop an image in LR Classic the result, a Virtual copy (I create Virtual copies as I like to always see the originals), the result stays with the original, appearing to be in the folder with the original. I have to be careful that I create a virtual copy for each different edit so as not to mess up the original edit which would be a specific competition entry. I have toyed with keeping the exported jpg copy that I submit into the competitions but it seems I am just creating more and more copies of the same thing so do not bother.

My question: If I take an image from LR Classic into Photoshop, where should I store the resulting TIF file? In the folder with the original image or in an 'edited' images folder? I have done both but never sure which feels better. I suspect the answer is 'it is up to me' :) but I'd be interested to hear what others do and whether or not there are any specific advantages or disadvantages.

I keyword my competition entries with competition details and sometimes I add them to a competitions collection(s) so I can see them on my iPad via LR Cloudy (I have a plug-in from Jeffrey Friedl which creates a Collection from a Smart Collection to help with this). I can always find the images I entered into a specific competition and I can always find images that I have ever entered into any competition.

Thank you for your help.
 
I think you just found out why using folders to organise your images is a bad idea. Folders are the physical containers where your images need to be stored, but they are very poor for the organisation of images. The main reason is that an image can only be in one folder, while for organisation reasons you'll often want it to be in several folders. That is why collections and smart collections were invented. You can place an image in as many collections as you like, making this a so much better method for organising images.
 
Yes I agree, but I have to put the TIF\PSD file somewhere so interested to learn if there is a better way.

Thank you for your help.
 
In the past i used the 'bucket' approach from Peter Krogh. In short: using folders until they are 'full' , matching backup media like DVD or BlueRay.
So, once a folder is filed with photo's untill 20 Gb, i started another.
When i made edits in Photoshop, the returning TIF did not 'fit' anymore (the folder would exceed the 20 Gb) so i had to put it in another directory. So i made another directorystructure for my edited originals.

However, these days i don't backup on WORM media anymore and i left the bucket system. It's all now in one date oriented structure and i put my edits from Photoshop next to my camera originals. Most derivatives i do not keep b.t.w. I will make them again when needed.
 
Yes I agree, but I have to put the TIF\PSD file somewhere so interested to learn if there is a better way.

Thank you for your help.
I import images and use smart collections and keywords. For images that are designated camera club competition candidates, I assigned a pick flag, and a camera club competition keyword. Using the "Edit-In" option, Photoshop Tiffs return to the same smart collection (keywords) and date named folder and the source. The images that are selected to be published are assigned a color label "Published". With all of the images that have the same source, together. It is easy to compare. There is no benefit from creating a Virtual Copy of the original since the original RAW file is processed by the time it reaches Lightroom. I create virtual copy when I need a different treatment (e.g. crop, or B&W). They all go into the same date named folder scheme reflecting the same capture date.
I have a special Publish to hard disk Publish service for Camera Club Colpetitions since there are two broad categories (Print and Digital) and competition categories have specific naming conventions for submitted images.

In summary, I have one master copy (RAW), as needed a Photoshop Derivative for those few images that need processing that can't be handled in Lightroom Classic. If I have more than one treatment (e.g. B&W is a separate category) I'll have a virtual copy of the RAW that could also have a Photoshop derivative. My final submitted images are manages exclusively in the Publish Service. I don't keep exports the publish folders since I can always republish.
 
My preference is to store TIF/PSD in a separate folder structure. That's because I like having multiple backups of my originals, but only one of the big TIF/PSD files which I can always recreate from the originals. Keeping them separate makes that easier, and in LR it's simple to sort All Photos (or whatever) and see the originals and derivatives, and there is other metadata such as keywords and even filenames which make it easy to gather files.
One other practice is to reserve the purple colour label for TIF/PSD files. It just makes it easier to distinguish originals from derivatives.
 
Yes I agree, but I have to put the TIF\PSD file somewhere so interested to learn if there is a better way.
If you send a photo from Lightroom to Photoshop, then you should use 'Save' from Photoshop to get it back into Lightroom. That will save the TIFF/PSD in the same folder as the original, and unless you have a compelling reason to change that, I would just leave them there.
 
That is what I do. I use the Save command and let the TIFF reside next to the original file. When doing for example 300 edits I may send 10 or so to PS. I don't want to export the original RAW, only the TIFF so I do this. When the file comes back to LR I immediately flag the RAW file. When done editing I Select Flagged Photos and then Invert Selection. All but those 10 flagged RAW files are exported. I realize I can do this using metadata but my method is just as fast.
 
Thank you there are some great ideas here, and as I suspected and probably already knew, there is so much flexibility that the great answer is the one that works for you.

Thank you
 
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