Lightroom intro resources

Bob Michaels said:
Froyd: Don't feel bad. While 99% love LR, I am in the other 1%. I have 12 years of using Photoshop and 12 years of images organized into subdirectories by topic.

While I cannot search for all the images I ever shot on a Tuesday with a Zeiss 28mm lens set at f5.6, that is not important to me. But I can find all the select images I shot in the Mississippi Delta, including the ones before LR existed, in one place. And all the related non image files, like Word docs, are there as well.

Maybe I am just an old fart who lives in the past. But I spend a lot of time editing up front to select the very best photos and never go back to the massive volumes of those that were not selected. I find that once you start using LR, you are making a commitment to the program unless you export your select images in a universal file format like a TIF or JPG (which I do)
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Dear Bob, I fear you are right! being an old fart is part of my problem! I've been a compulsive folder organizer since the invention of nested directories. And that comes from an OCDC approach to filing fim negatives with the aid of the earliest computer databases. I'm dyed in the wool, so this idea of "virtual" copies and sidecar edits gives me the heebee jeebees :)

From all the advice above, I think I can continue working with my current file structure and then make sure I EXPORT any image that I'm done editing to my satisfaction.

I'm sure in time I'll become comfortable with the idea that sidecar edits are ONLY visible in LR and that LR is always required to access them unless the file is exported...but for now, it's a bit of an uncomfortable concept!
 
LR is flexible enough to work with your existing folder hierarchy. I have a filing system that I devised that mirrors my slide box and negative binder organization. It is set up so that if I'd want to go back to an original from a digital file i know exactly which box to open based on its name and folder name. I set this up long before LR. Now I have imported the whole folder system into LR, and if I need to move something around, I do it in LR instead of in the finder. It is however still accessible in the finder, and any other files I choose to store there are just not imported into LR. If I would add an image in the finder, I can 'synch folder' and it will import the new image to keep the LR catalog up to date.
I think LR is worth it even if you would only use it for its organizational features. I imagine you have a back catalog of images that don't need any more editing, they still can live in LR side by side with something you shot yesterday.
 
Saul said:
The edits you do are still "in" lightroom as they are contained in sidecar files, essentially a set of instructions that track edits to each image. One of the LR preferences you can set is to automatically have this editing info incorporated into each file's metadata.
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A correction: The edits are in the Lightroom catalog. Sidecar .XMP files, or edit parameters stuffed into the original DNG, TIFF or JPEG files as metadata, are mostly irrelevant unless you're using other software in the Adobe Creative Suite that reads and uses the XMP information.

With a Lightroom workflow, you take original files as import, you do your adjustments and rendering work, then you export new files which contain all the changes and annotation when you're finished. The original files themselves are not changed.

Backup the Lightroom catalog regularly, and of course back up your original files and finished work.

G

(It should also be said that playing with the Lightroom 5 Public Beta as your first Lightroom experience is probably less valuable than downloading and working with Lightroom 4.4 ... a Public Beta has many potential areas of problems which could get in the way of your using it.)
 
Godfrey said:
A correction: The edits are in the Lightroom catalog. Sidecar .XMP files, or edit parameters stuffed into the original DNG, TIFF or JPEG files as metadata, are mostly irrelevant unless you're using other software in the Adobe Creative Suite that reads and uses the XMP information.

With a Lightroom workflow, you take original files as import, you do your adjustments and rendering work, then you export new files which contain all the changes and annotation when you're finished. The original files themselves are not changed.

Backup the Lightroom catalog regularly, and of course back up your original files and finished work.

G

(It should also be said that playing with the Lightroom 5 Public Beta as your first Lightroom experience is probably less valuable than downloading and working with Lightroom 4.4 ... a Public Beta has many potential areas of problems which could get in the way of your using it.)
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I've been messing with LR 5 and can confirm I've had a couple issues with it and have been able to crash it a couple times doing the same thing. :bang:
 
Godfrey said:
A correction: The edits are in the Lightroom catalog. Sidecar .XMP files, or edit parameters stuffed into the original DNG, TIFF or JPEG files as metadata, are mostly irrelevant unless you're using other software in the Adobe Creative Suite that reads and uses the XMP information.


G
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I'm not sure you are right about this. It may be true for XMP files, but I have collaborated on a book project where I sent someone a DNG containing my LR adjustments. Once opened in ACR (across the Atlantic) all my settings were there, and more editing was done in photoshop. So with DNG's it is possible to save all the settings in the file, but I think you do need to set a preference to allow it. The edits are also stored in the LR catalog. Because of this the catalog and the file sometimes need to be brought back into synch.
 
I have always been hesitant to use an applications program (LR) as a method of organizing files. It appears to me that once you start using LR to organize files you are committing to doing so forever. I cannot find any way of escaping. I can change my organization system from windows since sub directories are somewhat of a standard, like TIFs or JPGs. I can leave Microsoft is I want, but with a LR organization, you you seem to be dependent on Adobe forever.

But I have been around since Lotus was the king of spreadsheets, Word-Perfect was king of Word processors, and CPM was THE operating system. So I never want to find myself locked in. And, yes, every really important photo is backed up with a hard copy print.

CNNY said:
LR is flexible enough to work with your existing folder hierarchy. I have a filing system that I devised that mirrors my slide box and negative binder organization. It is set up so that if I'd want to go back to an original from a digital file i know exactly which box to open based on its name and folder name. I set this up long before LR. Now I have imported the whole folder system into LR, and if I need to move something around, I do it in LR instead of in the finder. It is however still accessible in the finder, and any other files I choose to store there are just not imported into LR. If I would add an image in the finder, I can 'synch folder' and it will import the new image to keep the LR catalog up to date.
I think LR is worth it even if you would only use it for its organizational features. I imagine you have a back catalog of images that don't need any more editing, they still can live in LR side by side with something you shot yesterday.
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CNNY said:
I'm not sure you are right about this. It may be true for XMP files, but I have collaborated on a book project where I sent someone a DNG containing my LR adjustments. Once opened in ACR (across the Atlantic) all my settings were there, and more editing was done in photoshop. So with DNG's it is possible to save all the settings in the file, but I think you do need to set a preference to allow it. The edits are also stored in the LR catalog. Because of this the catalog and the file sometimes need to be brought back into synch.
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There's no conflict here.

Lightroom's *primary* storage for the edits is the .LRCAT file, the Lightroom database.

IF you're going to use the files with other applications that can read the .XMP data (like the Camera Raw plugin for PSCS) outside of Lightroom, having LR save the metadata to the files (DNG, PSD, TIFF or JPEG), or to .XMP sidecar files (proprietary native raw formats) is the right thing to do. You can have LR do this by explicitly using the "Write metadata to file" command in the Metadata menu, or by setting the "Automatically write changes into XMP" and the "Include Develop settings in metadata inside JPEG, TIFF, and PSD files" in the Catalog Settings, Metadata preferences pane.

But it's neither required nor necessary if you're only going to use Lightroom to render edit the original files.

The LR .XMP metadata written to sidecar files or into those file formats designed to handle it will contain the adjustment parameters that LR applied to the original files as well as any IPTC annotation. What it doesn't contain is Lightroom's editing history, previews, or virtual copies. Those are stored ONLY in the LR catalog and preview files.

My workflow is 99% Lightroom nowadays. Even when I "Edit in Photoshop" with LR adjustments on an original file, I have Lightroom render a TIFF file which contains all my edits rather than have Photoshop open the DNG or native raw file and read the parameters. So I leave the options to write XMP data to the files automatically off, and only write metadata to the original files when I know I'm going to need it.

G
 
Bob Michaels said:
I have always been hesitant to use an applications program (LR) as a method of organizing files. It appears to me that once you start using LR to organize files you are committing to doing so forever. I cannot find any way of escaping. I can change my organization system from windows since sub directories are somewhat of a standard, like TIFs or JPGs. I can leave Microsoft is I want, but with a LR organization, you you seem to be dependent on Adobe forever.

But I have been around since Lotus was the king of spreadsheets, Word-Perfect was king of Word processors, and CPM was THE operating system. So I never want to find myself locked in. And, yes, every really important photo is backed up with a hard copy print.
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Lightroom's way of organizing your image files, if you choose to use it, is to simply put them into a directory structure in the pattern you choose when you do an import operation. Nothing else, there's no magical or hidden tricks to it because Lightroom ALWAYS works with files by reference.

If you don't want some variant of a date or category ordered directory structure, just put your files where you want them to go first and tell Lightroom to import them in place ("Add" mode in the import dialog).

You are ALWAYS in complete control of where your image files are with Lightroom, and if you stop using Lightroom, you can open the image files with any other application from the same directory structure that Lightroom put them in. You just have to understand how Lightroom's import file copying/moving system works to realize that you have complete control of where it puts things. It's not like some other image management systems that shuffle your files around into a hidden repository that you can't get to or understand from outside the application context.

My LR main working catalog references an original image repository which now spans two 2T hard drives. I can get to every single file in the original image repository without Lightroom's help at all if I so desire, and they're organized into a directory tree exactly the same as I'd have organized them if I put them there myself manually.

G
 
That is a good input, thanks. Now I noodle out what LR would then do beyond what the directory structure does not do.

It is not like I have the huge number of files that others do. When I edit, I edit with commitment. As in DELETE.

Godfrey said:
Lightroom's way of organizing your image files, if you choose to use it, is to simply put them into a directory structure in the pattern you choose when you do an import operation. Nothing else, there's no magical or hidden tricks to it because Lightroom ALWAYS works with files by reference.
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