Lightroom help needed

[The goblin]

Hi,

I have been using LR for a few months now and have watched countless tutorials (a lot of Adobe.tv) I am having major issues with staying on top of my numbering and filing system and really need some tips. I'll try and explain.

When I first open the import box I have a look through and uncheck all the photos I have decided are no good and import the rest, I use the convert to DNG route. I also shoot in both JPEG and RAW, but I don't import the JPEGs, I use them for comparison, I add generic keywords and rename with the date (I've still not decided on a naming convention yet)

I then use the compare function and delete some photos that were otherwise identical, then I work through the photos and edit them. The trouble I have generally begins here. I am happy with the export box and choose my settings, but if I decide to edit any in photoshop I do it through LR and save it as a PSD. So now I have both the PSD and the DNG. If I try and rename them the numbering system goes to pot because there's a PSD in there. I also find occasionally that it renames each JPEG and associated DNG file separately so 40 photos becomes 80

Then I export my images only to discover the colour is over saturated so I need to re-edit/ export and then this adds to the confusion as I can't replace the current image as I need to figure out what the hell I need to correct! I have the export box checked for sRGB.

In short, I seem to be getting in quite a pickle! I'm not sure I've explained it very well. All I want to do is rename, edit, export to show off to family and friends, without taking four hours to do eight photos

I would happily do everything in LR, if I knew how to!

Many thanks in advance for any help offered. I see huge potential in LR but currently it's slowing me right down

 

[StewartR]

Why do you feel the need to rename the images AFTER you've edited them in Photoshop? That's your problem.

In fact, why do you feel the need to rename them at all, other than renaming on import to Lightroom?

 

[The goblin]

I think I have OCD, I like everything in order :bonk:

 

[surfg1mp]

It is a good idea to import with minimal previews, that way you can import all the images quickly. Go through them picking the ones you want to work on and deleting the duds. Do another sweep to make sure your happy with the picks.

From here I will then hit the filter and select flagged only.....I will be left with the images I have picked. Select them all and make a collection. Build 1.1 previews To make editing faster. From here I will process the images. If I want to take any images to ps I will do it first, then when back in LR I will remove the original from the collection. You still have the file it's just not in the collection. Once all images are processed, reorder and rename. Export if required.

 

[Chappers]

I think the problem is that you are renumbering after the images have been edited. I renumber ( and rename) before I do anything else in Lightroom (Apart from deleting the duff ones). That may be where your problem lies.

It's worthwhile taking a short while to think of a naming convention. In many cases you can simply use the event as a name. You can use keywords to further refine your search parameters.

Alternatively you could use the sort menu option to sort by file type. This would select your DNG's separately from PSD's. You can then just select the DNG's to be renumbered. This will leave the PSD's separate from the DNG's

 

[The goblin]

It is a good idea to import with minimal previews, that way you can import all the images quickly. Go through them picking the ones you want to work on and deleting the duds. Do another sweep to make sure your happy with the picks.

From here I will then hit the filter and select flagged only.....I will be left with the images I have picked. Select them all and make a collection. Build 1.1 previews To make editing faster. From here I will process the images. If I want to take any images to ps I will do it first, then when back in LR I will remove the original from the collection. You still have the file it's just not in the collection. Once all images are processed, reorder and rename. Export if required.

Thank you, I am getting to grips with the flags, I love how LR can easily select a large number of files by various parameters! I've just watched an Adobe TV tutorial and she renames after she has sorted them all!

Can you explain what build 1.1 previews is? Sorry if this is a stupid question!

I think the problem is that you are renumbering after the images have been edited. I renumber ( and rename) before I do anything else in Lightroom (Apart from deleting the duff ones). That may be where your problem lies.

It's worthwhile taking a short while to think of a naming convention. In many cases you can simply use the event as a name. You can use keywords to further refine your search parameters.

Alternatively you could use the sort menu option to sort by file type. This would select your DNG's separately from PSD's. You can then just select the DNG's to be renumbered. This will leave the PSD's separate from the DNG's

I think renaming prior to fiddling with any is probably the easiest approach, I shall try this and see how I get on.

As for a naming convention, I want to (eventually) rename and refile all my stored photos (only 10,000+ ) Most of those are family photos that need a good clear out, finally editing a lot of the earlier shots and filing them more organised! Currently they're all in an folder (and sub folders) called 'baby photos' well the baby it was started on is now five! So I want to sort through my 18 month back log of 'photos that need filing' before starting back on the older lot! I'm thinking of just dating and tagging them for now and then batch renaming once I've finally caught up! It's a good job I 'retire' next month!

This is why I am trying my hardest to learn LR before starting on a mammoth job!

Many thanks for your help.

I have other LR questions, can I ask them here as well?

 

[Chappers]

1:1 previews are the large full res previews that Lightroom builds when you ask it to show a full size ( not full screen ) image. You would usually do this when checking sharpness. These can and do occupy a lot of disk space, but by default they are deleted after one month, t stop clogging up your hard drive.

Just a small tip. Produce a trial database to work with while you are getting comfortable with Lightroom. You can use this to try different naming conventions and different approaches to cataloguing your images. Then when you are happy with your approach you can revert to your normal database. Stops you having to start re importing thousands of images. I know it saved me a lot of time and trouble when I first started with Lightroom.

 

[The goblin]

Ok, I'll give that a go, thanks.

I'm curious, is there any way of checking what size JPEG will be exported? I know in Photoshop the little box pops up and sometimes having it all the way up on 12 would result in a 20+mb file that would cripple my internet if I tried to upload it, so I put it down one or two.

I know in the export box you can chose what size to export, i mostly keep it on 100%. But is there a way of finding out before you import it what size it will be?

I am sorry, but I may become a LR pest for a while!

 

[StewartR]

I'm curious, is there any way of checking what size JPEG will be exported? I know in Photoshop the little box pops up and sometimes having it all the way up on 12 would result in a 20+mb file that would cripple my internet if I tried to upload it, so I put it down one or two.

I know in the export box you can chose what size to export, i mostly keep it on 100%. But is there a way of finding out before you import it what size it will be?

I am sorry, but I may become a LR pest for a while!

I think you're confusing size with quality.

In Photoshop you can resize your images as you work with them. Then, when you save as a JPEG, the size is whatever size it is, and you choose the quality level. (Low quality = high compression = small file size.)

Lightroom is different. You're always working with the original, full size image. Even if you crop it, that's undoable. So when you export it as a JPEG you have to choose the size (ie pixel dimensions) as well as the quality level. The export dialogue has a panel which allows you to do this. Once you've found it, it's pretty self-explanatory.

 

[Byker28i]

I dont convert to dng on import. I found that too much of a pain. I import the raw files to a date based file structure, under years hierarchy so I can split my raw files around. I have the current years raw files on a fast disk, and move previous years raw files to a slower, bigger disk.

If I need to go to photoshop, I use the edit in photoshop option, creating a new copy of the image with Lightroom corrections. This gets numbered IMg-XXXX- edit automatically, so I know it's linked to the original raw.

Everything is tagged with keywords on import, I use categories for a more personal hierarchy, so main subject (family, transport, studio, course work) then subcategories, such as year or event. I mimic this for any exported images.

Within Lightroom this makes any image instantly findable, either through folders/date, by category, or search the metadata in the library module. Usually I just use the category.

For exporting, naming depends on what I'm doing. For coursework I use custom name by sequence. For personal stuff, usually just the image name suffices. For web based I just export at 800 long side at 70% quality, which is a reasonable compromised between size, quality and file size. When submitting images to print labs for printing I use the print module, using the labs colour profile and save to jpeg file.

 

[Chappers]

Lightroom is generally used for batch operations, so if you have multiple images then the JPEG size will vary from image to image. Probably this is why the Lightroom engineers left it out . Not because the image size is different but the level of compression the JPEG algorithm applies.

The more detail there is in the image the more data that has to be put into the JPEG file, hence it will be much larger than one with little detail . For example I did some product photography recently. Nothing complicated just items on a white background. A simple bottle shot was around 6Mb in size, yet one of mesh bags was nearly 10Mb. More detail in the mesh bags meant a larger file. All at 100% quality.

 

[The goblin]

I think you're confusing size with quality.

In Photoshop you can resize your images as you work with them. Then, when you save as a JPEG, the size is whatever size it is, and you choose the quality level. (Low quality = high compression = small file size.)

Lightroom is different. You're always working with the original, full size image. Even if you crop it, that's undoable. So when you export it as a JPEG you have to choose the size (ie pixel dimensions) as well as the quality level. The export dialogue has a panel which allows you to do this. Once you've found it, it's pretty self-explanatory.

Thank you.

I dont convert to dng on import. I found that too much of a pain. I import the raw files to a date based file structure, under years hierarchy so I can split my raw files around. I have the current years raw files on a fast disk, and move previous years raw files to a slower, bigger disk.

I'm interested why you find the DNG files a pain? The only reason I do it is so I don't have the XMP side sars. Up until I started using LR I didn't know what they were for and had been deleting them:bonk:

If I need to go to photoshop, I use the edit in photoshop option, creating a new copy of the image with Lightroom corrections. This gets numbered IMg-XXXX- edit automatically, so I know it's linked to the original raw.

Everything is tagged with keywords on import, I use categories for a more personal hierarchy, so main subject (family, transport, studio, course work) then subcategories, such as year or event. I mimic this for any exported images.

Within Lightroom this makes any image instantly findable, either through folders/date, by category, or search the metadata in the library module. Usually I just use the category.

For exporting, naming depends on what I'm doing. For coursework I use custom name by sequence. For personal stuff, usually just the image name suffices. For web based I just export at 800 long side at 70% quality, which is a reasonable compromised between size, quality and file size. When submitting images to print labs for printing I use the print module, using the labs colour profile and save to jpeg file.

Thanks for that, it's helpful knowing what others do.

So I've come close to throwing my PC out the window this afternoon! I imported some photos that I took in Cyprus. I've put a selection of the photos in the quick collection while I work on them. I did the basic edit and exported them to photoshop (I can't remember why I did that over edit in photoshop) I batch edited most of them and tweaked others here and there, then tried to save them. My PC had a major moment and photoshop crashed half way through! Some were saved but the majority of the work was lost. So I've done them all again individually using the PSD file that had been exported. I imported those back into LR and tried to sort out the numbering as they were too messed up for my pea sized brain!

I sorted them all by file extension and selected to batch rename. I then check afterwards and they've all messed up. Suddenly one image is repeated and another is missing. It's almost as if it's renaming one file by changing it to another one!

My stress level couldn't cope, I walked away and came to work! Now I'd like to add that I'm an air traffic controller so not a complete dim wit, but why does something so simple seem to be such hard work! I just want done with this one tiny batch of photos so I can try other ways mentioned here on the next 1000's waiting!

 

[The goblin]

Lightroom is generally used for batch operations, so if you have multiple images then the JPEG size will vary from image to image. Probably this is why the Lightroom engineers left it out . Not because the image size is different but the level of compression the JPEG algorithm applies.

The more detail there is in the image the more data that has to be put into the JPEG file, hence it will be much larger than one with little detail . For example I did some product photography recently. Nothing complicated just items on a white background. A simple bottle shot was around 6Mb in size, yet one of mesh bags was nearly 10Mb. More detail in the mesh bags meant a larger file. All at 100% quality.

Yeh, I'm always amazed when some images seem to be massive file sizes and others are 3-4mb!

 

[Chappers]

Marsh

You might like to try to do most of you editing in Lightroom. I understand you may be more comfortable in Photoshop, as Lightroom is completely different. However I seldom go from Lightroom to Photoshop now. Probably less than 5% of the time, and that's usually for cloning or similar.

I think the Lightroom develop module is far better than a lot of the options that Photoshop has to offer and quicker and easier. OK Lightroom can't clone ( yet) but everything else is so much quicker and simpler in Lightroom.

May I suggest you get one of the excellent books on Lightroom, I'd recommend either Martin Evening ( who I prefer ) or Scot Kelby. Take some time to learn Lightroom as I think you'll find it one of the best tools for Photographers

John C

 

[The goblin]

I finished work early, counted to 10 and took a deep breath! It had (somehow) changed one image into another, out of curiosity I tried to edit it in photoshop and sure enough it opened a different file :bonk: Sorted now! That set of photos is done! And the best ones are in a collection now!

Marsh
May I suggest you get one of the excellent books on Lightroom, I'd recommend either Martin Evening ( who I prefer ) or Scot Kelby. Take some time to learn Lightroom as I think you'll find it one of the best tools for Photographers

I was going to ask for one for Christmas! I've just downloaded the Kindle trial version of both books!

I'm not one to be beaten and I see HUGE potential in this software! Thankfully I have another five weeks before I rejoin the family Cyprus and I'm hoping by then I'll have sorted my life out!

I totally agree and do do most of my editing in LR. This particular set of photos were all very under exposed and needed extra help. I also seemed to suffer a lot of my images looking over saturated when exported as JPEGS (export box is set to sRGB) but they seem ok now.

I'm now off to bed and tomorrow I will start work on a new file structure! I never was good at admin:amstupid:

Many thanks again. I'm sure I'll be back soon with another simple question!

 

[StewartR]

This was good advice.

Just a small tip. Produce a trial database to work with while you are getting comfortable with Lightroom. You can use this to try different naming conventions and different approaches to cataloguing your images. Then when you are happy with your approach you can revert to your normal database. Stops you having to start re importing thousands of images. I know it saved me a lot of time and trouble when I first started with Lightroom.

 

[The goblin]

I think I'm finally getting somewhere

I now sort through first then import photos with just the date on. Sort again if needed, then edit, batch rename and save the faves to a collection.

I think it's pretty much what has been advised here but I'm more aware that renaming has potential complications with any files that have been edited prior to importing so I'm just starting again where needed!

Cheers for the tips.