Lightroom - Initial workflow and how to catalogue photos?

Matt-P

Matt-P

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Matt
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As the title says really - I'm struggling to come up with a system I can use consistently for my workflow to select the photos I want to keep and then rate them and catalogue them for later use.

I'm probably guilty of machine gunning too many photos at airshows or zoos and then finding my hard drive filled with lots of photos that are near identical where I only ever want to process a few.

About the only consistent tool I use is Pick / Reject to review photos immediately after import and then discard the ones I don't want. After that I can't settle on any of the many different systems of stars and colours for indicating quality, stage of processing, end use etc. Then it comes to keywords, smart collections, collections - I've got too many options!

Would be good to hear how others manage it - any good suggestions?
 
I copy, off card(s), to a temporary folder. Then use perfect browse 9 to go through the photos. I use edit in, rather than edit out, i.e. I pick the ones I want to keep not the ones I reject. I delete the rejects and then import the photos to LR.

My hierarchy is time based and I only use collections when I want to highlight certain events, e.g. airshows, birthdays, weddings, etc.

If they've made it through this stage, they are ready for developing, but there will be times I still delete images if I feel they didn't meet the standard.

Would use LR, to import and sort, but it's way too slow :mad:
 
Thanks John - I'd never considered a "edit in" approach. I agree with you about lightroom's speed - Perfect Effects has been gong cheap recently so I may pick up the trial and have a look
 
Matt-P said:
Thanks John - I'd never considered a "edit in" approach. I agree with you about lightroom's speed - Perfect Effects has been gong cheap recently so I may pick up the trial and have a look
Click to expand...

Would be worth trying, on the free trial period, to see if it fits your needs.

I actually got a copy free, which they do now and again, so it might be worth signing up for their newsletter.
 
I use FSviewer for an initial cull - out of focus = delete.
I only use the X key in LR - everything else therefore is a pick...
 
I dont either - lol....

Download: FSViewer
It works with RAW just fine & as a viewer works fine.
Do your initial cull in FSviewer - just delete - no editing.

Import all the rest into LR.
once imported:
single star the ones you like,
x key the ones you absolutely DONT - any that I X key, I then delete.
any unstarred you can leave alone..
Work on the starred pics, once edited (finally) give them 3 stars so you can then easily track which ones you have finished with.
 
For culling sets where I know there's a lot of duds I like FastStone. It uses the embedded jpeg, so it's fast, but that gives enough details to tell the crud from the potentially good stuff. If set up correctly then you can press the 'Delete' key to remove the current image and move to the next, space bar moves to the next image without deleting.
 
Have a look at FastRawViewer, I'm just starting to evaluate it. It's not freeware, costs around £12.00 until the end of July, but has a months trial. I have it running under 10.10.4. It's manual is a separate download.

See http://www.fastrawviewer.com
 
I also choose the ones to keep rather than reject.

I use the survey mode with the filmstrip visible, selecting 5 or so pictures at a time and flagging as picked the ones I wish to develop further. Once I have gone through the shoot, the picks get put into a subfolder imaginatively called 'picks' and unflagged.

These then get developed, in batches, typically all those shot in the same lighting get grouped together and developed en masse. While I am going through these I flag my favourites, and once the developing is complete, these favourites get put in an equally imaginative folder called 'favourites'. I aim to keyword the picks and favourites, but I am pretty lax at keyboarding despite knowing the advantages it brings.
 
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