All is quiet in the Lightroom world this morning – the calm before the storm perhaps. But it’s the beginning of a new year, so it’s a good time to stop and reflect.
There have been some excellent posts on two of my favourite Lightroom blogs, talking about getting Lightroom ready for the new year and updating your copyright metadata, but tell me, what are YOUR plans for Lightroom for 2012?
- Is there a specific Lightroom feature you want to master?
- Perhaps you want to make your workflow more efficient?
- Do you need to improve your backup strategy?
- How about creating photo books of your older photos? Or putting them online for your friends and family to see?
Personally, I have 3 Lightroom goals – I want to finish keywording my personal catalog (I know, the painter never paints his own house… ;)), I want to put my favourites on Flickr, and I want to scan all of my old film negatives and prints.
As far as the Lightroom Queen website goes, plenty of plans… but for those, you’ll have to wait and see!
So, what about you? Anything I can do to help you reach your goals?
Gene McCullagh says
January 5, 2012 at 11:18 amLOL! Take heart, Victoria. Keywording is like paying bills… It never gets finished. 😉
TheWombat says
January 5, 2012 at 12:46 pmYou’re three goals seem to suggest ideally what I should do. Whether I get through the nineteen thousand odd images or not remains to be seen.
Keep up the good work.
Victoria Bampton says
January 5, 2012 at 12:49 pmThen I guess we’ll be comparing notes at the end of the year! Whether I get through them remains in doubt too! 😉
Scott G says
January 5, 2012 at 1:28 pmThe three goals match what I should do. Doubt I’ll get to it, though! I have yet to find a cost- or time-effective way to scan the hundreds (thousands?) of old prints and negatives I have, however.
Scott G says
January 5, 2012 at 1:28 pmThe three goals match what I should do. Doubt I’ll get to it, though! I have yet to find a cost- or time-effective way to scan the hundreds (thousands?) of old prints and negatives I have, however.
Scott G says
January 5, 2012 at 1:28 pmThe three goals match what I should do. Doubt I’ll get to it, though! I have yet to find a cost- or time-effective way to scan the hundreds (thousands?) of old prints and negatives I have, however.
Victoria Bampton says
January 5, 2012 at 5:13 pmI’ve heard of a few companies who will do it, like ScanCafe, but I don’t have any personal experience of them. I’m thinking it might leave the scanner set up in the dining room, so I can scan a few dozen at a time while watching tv in the evening, but we’ll see if that ever happens!
Parkylondon says
January 5, 2012 at 1:28 pmThis comment isn’t about Lightroom but it does concern you!
One of my New Year Resolutions was to say thank you more often – especially to the legions of on-line friends I have made both in the photographic world and elsewhere.
So, Victoria, thank you for everything you do here and on the Adobe site. It’s been a great help to me and I know lots of others. We truly appreciate it.
Victoria Bampton says
January 5, 2012 at 5:15 pmAaaaaw, thank you Paul! That’s a great resolution, and an example we should probably all follow. Talking to Lightroom users like yourself make all the work worthwhile.
Anonymous says
January 5, 2012 at 9:48 pmSounds like a great plan to me! I’m working on my personal catalog basics as my number one goal with
a secondary goal of publishing my best online.
But, I’m a follower. Lead on MacDuff!
And yes, thank you!
Victoria Bampton says
January 7, 2012 at 6:46 pmI’m going to end up posting status updates, just to keep us all on track, aren’t I! Oh well, a bit of accountability might not be such a bad thing. Check in with you in a few months time then!
TexasEx94 says
January 6, 2012 at 2:01 amMy two main goals are to make my workflow more efficient and back up photos more consistently. I have started a new Catalog for 2012. Now that I have a few months’ experience I hope I can correct some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past. I also got a new computer so I feel motivated to use the improved features.
TexasEx94 says
January 6, 2012 at 2:01 amMy two main goals are to make my workflow more efficient and back up photos more consistently. I have started a new Catalog for 2012. Now that I have a few months’ experience I hope I can correct some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past. I also got a new computer so I feel motivated to use the improved features.
TexasEx94 says
January 6, 2012 at 2:01 amMy two main goals are to make my workflow more efficient and back up photos more consistently. I have started a new Catalog for 2012. Now that I have a few months’ experience I hope I can correct some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past. I also got a new computer so I feel motivated to use the improved features.
TexasEx94 says
January 6, 2012 at 2:01 amMy two main goals are to make my workflow more efficient and back up photos more consistently. I have started a new Catalog for 2012. Now that I have a few months’ experience I hope I can correct some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past. I also got a new computer so I feel motivated to use the improved features.
TexasEx94 says
January 6, 2012 at 2:01 amMy two main goals are to make my workflow more efficient and back up photos more consistently. I have started a new Catalog for 2012. Now that I have a few months’ experience I hope I can correct some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past. I also got a new computer so I feel motivated to use the improved features.
Victoria Bampton says
January 7, 2012 at 6:47 pmWorkflow is a topic on my mind at the moment, because I’m working on a workflow chapter for the next book. If you want to drop me an email, I’d be very pleased to help find some areas that could be more efficient, and I’m sure I could learn from it in the process.
Malcolm Kafetz says
January 6, 2012 at 6:16 pmI am rather old, 75 years and have been taking photos and processing since I was 11 years old. I started using Photoshop at version 2. I still use a copy of version 7 to read the 3,500 Kodak Photo CD files.
Problem is that I have 8,500 2×2 colour slides mounted in magazines, 20,000 B&W images from 35mm to 5″x4″ 16,000 images in Lightroom. As I started Lightroom at its beginning there was little in the way of instructions so I have Catalogs in 3 different drives. The only information on merging files does not say if the collections go with the catalogs. If the collections move with them I think it would be a good idea to move everything to a 2TB Sata external disk that that would keep all my images in one place. At the moment if one disk sector is damaged I will loose the image data. All the files are backed up after transfer from the memory card in a separate place. All is backed up on Carbonite. I will spend my remaining years selecting the best images and scanning them for posterity. The image quality from the Canon 5 II is quite amazing and the 24x36mm format helps to achieve amazing detail on B2 prints.
Would you agree with my plan to streamline my system?
Keep up your good work,
Many thanks,
Malcolm
Victoria Bampton says
January 7, 2012 at 6:45 pmWow, that’s quite a job you have on your hands Malcolm!
The good news is the collections do go with the catalogs, as long as you use import from catalog rather than just importing the photos afresh. The only significant bit that doesn’t go along for the ride are Publish Services. I think your plan seems sensible, and if you get stuck, just drop me an email or post on the forum and I’ll be pleased to help.
Alandb says
January 7, 2012 at 4:06 pmTo master the Basics Panel and understand all the tone controls and how they relate to what I actually see.
Victoria Bampton says
January 7, 2012 at 6:43 pmAh, that’s an ongoing battle Alan! Great plan though, and one that I think many people will end up with for this year.
Victoria Bampton says
January 7, 2012 at 6:43 pmAh, that’s an ongoing battle Alan! Great plan though, and one that I think many people will end up with for this year.
Anonymous says
January 11, 2012 at 9:03 pmMy Lightroom goals for 2012 are to …
… finish releasing the CE2 series of my Web plugins for Lightroom. Just a few more plugins to go! http://theturninggate.net for details.
… shift away from my long development cycle and more into educating my fellow Lightroom users how to better use the Web module, how to better use my plugins, and how to better maintain a photographic portfolio website.
… finish reprocessing my pre-Lightroom “Project Seoul” photography from 2005-2008, and maybe get it published again, online or otherwise.
… get my old film negatives from Italy and Seoul 2002-2004 scanned and brought into my Lightroom catalog.
… take more photos. 2011 was a year focused mostly on plugin development, and I have too little new photography to show for myself.
Anonymous says
January 11, 2012 at 9:03 pmMy Lightroom goals for 2012 are to …
… finish releasing the CE2 series of my Web plugins for Lightroom. Just a few more plugins to go! http://theturninggate.net for details.
… shift away from my long development cycle and more into educating my fellow Lightroom users how to better use the Web module, how to better use my plugins, and how to better maintain a photographic portfolio website.
… finish reprocessing my pre-Lightroom “Project Seoul” photography from 2005-2008, and maybe get it published again, online or otherwise.
… get my old film negatives from Italy and Seoul 2002-2004 scanned and brought into my Lightroom catalog.
… take more photos. 2011 was a year focused mostly on plugin development, and I have too little new photography to show for myself.
Victoria Bampton says
January 13, 2012 at 11:42 amGreat goals Matt – you’re going to have a busy year!!!