Workflow my Brain Hurts

[thorrrr]

Hi

I am an avid watcher of Photoshopuser TV of LR killer tips and Layers but me and my other half looking for some advice on work flow!
We have 2 Pc's and a Buffalo NAS Server .
I load all RAW images onto No1 pc in separate catalogues depending on subject matter. So for example i have
Trips in UK
Trips Abroad
Wedding Images
In each cat i have several folders covering different subjects is in the Trips Abroad i have USA, Spain, Germany etc etc
I also have a global LR catalogues that looks at all images but the main images are located in the relevant catalogues
It is then synced from Pc 1 to Buffalo server for backup purposes.
Pc 2 user cannot look directly at catalogues on Buffalo because LR does not support it!!! They have to download catalogues onto PC 2 works on images.
We both work on images in LR & Photoshop with the intention of selling them on our own website www.digitalpig.com (still under construction). So we tend to take images from LR as TIFFS work on them and then take them back.
Questions
1. We do most of the work in LR then go into PS to finish off then back to LR should we save as tiff or PSD????
If Pc2 sync back it may over write something i have done from Pc1 ??
Do you have any advice for us to get a better work flow????
Sorry for all the detail but we are struggling with work flow not using the products!!!
I hope it doesn't sound to dumb but we are really freaking out over the best solution.

I know we need to keep a copy of TIFFS for printing orders i need to have an export of jpg for the website with a watermark in. But being on 2 separate PCs we going mad with where images are! We have 1''’s of TIFFS mixed with DNG then we have loads of jpg plus we have our own images that we want to keep but would never try to sell.
We are collapsing under a poor work flow model and need help please.

Cheers Thorrrr

 

[Denis Pagé]

Welcome to Lightroom Forums Thorrr!

I just took 5' minutes to write you a complete workflow and at the end missed a key on the keyboard and the web page changed carrying my answer to the NUL device!

GRRRRR! >

 

[thorrrr]

Hi Denis

I was going to say you should use Word or Notepad but as i am asking for help i am not going to be so rude

Sorry to hear about your 5' min loss of work to save you time we can Skype or IM if that is easier.

Thorrrr

 

[Denis Pagé]

Use TIFF as PSD is now more of a convenience. Keep your TIFFs with the original DNGs and stack them for easy retrieval. Your JPEGs shall not be near your originals; Create a WEB folder with its subfolders for them and it will just be easier to work with your Web site creation.

As you discovered, you are always at risk of overwriting each other's work! Here is a workflow to avoid problems:

From now on decide that Lightroom licence #1 will be the only one allowed to touch your catalogs. Licence #2 will work with subsets.

For example, Licence #2 want to work on the ABC images so Licence #1 select the ABC images and tag them RED to remember to itself to avoid them. With the ABC images still selected, Licence #1 export them as a Catalog. Licence #2 can then work with the ABC images as needed while Licence #1 can work on any image not being tagged red. Once Licence #2 is done, it remove the red tags and close its Catalog. Then Licence #1 use the Import Catalog function choosing the one Licence #2 just worked on to overwrite/update the ABC images in the master catalog. Licence #1 can now export another temporary catalog with images XYZ for Licence #2 to work on and so on.

Here we assume that both computers see the Buffalo server with same drive letters and that the images are kept on it. You may need to transfer the temporary Catalogs over it...

I am not criticizing the fact that you choose to use multiple master catalogs but being in a similar situation to you, I choose to use a combination of the old folder organization and the Lightroom organizational tools. Rather than splitting my work in multiple (few) catalogs, I have the following structure in Lightroom:

PHOTOS
Personal
YYYY
yyyy-mm-dd Short_Subject
yyyy-mm-dd Short_Subject
yyyy-mm-dd Short_Subject
...
Sports
Football
YYYY
yyyy-mm-dd Game
yyyy-mm-dd Game
yyyy-mm-dd Game
...
YYYY
yyyy-mm-dd Game
yyyy-mm-dd Game
yyyy-mm-dd Game
...
Nautical
YYYY
yyyy-mm-dd Event
yyyy-mm-dd Event
yyyy-mm-dd Event
...
Hockey
YYYY
yyyy-mm-dd Game
yyyy-mm-dd Game
yyyy-mm-dd Game
...
Other
YYYY
yyyy-mm-dd Event
yyyy-mm-dd Event
yyyy-mm-dd Event
...
Weddings
yyyy-mm-dd Client
yyyy-mm-dd Client
yyyy-mm-dd Client
...

Thus, it reprocuce having a Personal Catalog, a Sports Catalog and a Wedding Catalog into one. I just have to choose the proper next to top level folder at import time.

EDIT: Yes! Just used Notepad this time as I normally do when posts are getting long...

EDIT: Changed "From decide" to "From now on decide"...

 

[thorrrr]

Hi Denis

Thanks for that but that will not work really because we have a very different eye and sometimes work on the same image but do different things to the same image. So i guess we need to come up with a rename convention. Also LR will not import a catalogue from Link-station we have to copy it! WHich is a pain in the ass very poor design from LR but sure they have a reason.

The main problem with the rename is a do not want double the same images. I guess license 2 can rename the only ones he works and star or flag so license 1 knows which have been duplicated.

 

[Denis Pagé]

But I am sure you never work the very same ones at the very same time! Isn't it? In my scenario, nothing prevents you from reworking what the other done... (?)

Yes, when you export, you may have to move the exported catalog to the Buffalo server for the other to take it on his machine and same way back. But at home, when I come back with the laptop, I import the laptop's catalog directly from the desktop. I took care to keep the laptop's catalog and images in its shared folders so I can access it over the LAN...

 

[thorrrr]

Denis i think i am poor at explaining! what i mean is we work the same image independent and produce 2 differt photos we might sell. So we are not reworking but creating 2 different photos from one.

Does make me think why i am using the link station in this fashion. I should only use it to back up what we both work on. But have the main images in a shared folder on my main pc. I think i used the Linkstation because it is always on were PC with license 1 might be switched off!!

Its such a nightmare what to do really

 

[Denis Pagé]

With the use of Virtual Copies (VC), Lightroom can maintain different versions of the same original. When importing from Catalog, in the Replace options, you can check the box to "Preserve old settings as a virtual copy". So my suggested forkflow still hold for as many different renderings you may want to keep from the same original.

The advantage is that you avoid duplication with VCs. It gets more of a problem with TIFF derivatives yes. But you can change the "-edit" suffix in preferences to make it different on each editor's machine. Can you try that?

 

[thorrrr]

OK Denis cheers would you consider a IM or Skype chat just to go through things indepth at my expense obviously

Dale

 

[Denis Pagé]

I have to install Skype to communicate with Phillipines in the coming days. May be a nice idea to test it sooner... See my e-mail by clicking my name above the LG badge...

I have to logout for now.