Re: My lightroom workflow

[Brian Walters]

Mine is pretty similar except that I use Zoner Photo Studio for culling
and cataloging instead of Bridge. I export those I want to work on to
Photoshop.  Zoner has some good editing tools but I'm too used to PS to
change.

I have Lightroom 5.7 but, try as I might, I can't warm to it.



Cheers

Brian

++
Brian Walters
Western Sydney Australia
http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/



On Tue, Jun 20, 2017, at 12:22 PM, Paul Stenquist wrote:
> I don't use Lightroom. I work with Bridge and Photoshop. My workflow is
> complex. I look at the photos I've taken, and I render the ones I like.
> If I like one a lot, I print it. 
> 
> Paul via phone
> 
> > On Jun 19, 2017, at 9:33 PM, Stanley Halpin  
> > wrote:
> > 
> > Good detailed description Larry. Some good ideas here.
> > 
> > I won’t go into my workflow now nor attempt a complete compare/contrast. 
> > But I do note a couple of things:
> > 1 - your Lightroom workflow as described is pretty much all about filing 
> > and storing for ease of retrieval. 
> > 2- You say 
> >>I'll make gross technical adjustments that apply to groups of photos, 
> >> and only rarely tweak specific photos
> > 
> >The major departure of my workflow from yours is that for me no image 
> > rises above a 2 rating until I have spent at least a few seconds looking at 
> > color, contrast, sharpness, noise and other aspects. If I have worked on an 
> > image and/or don’t think in needs much if any additional post processing, 
> > then it gets a 3 rating. Once I have finished with a day or week or month’s 
> > worth of images, I go back to the 3 rated ones and decide whether they are 
> > worth additional time, good to go as they are, or maybe overrated and 
> > reassigned a 1 or 2. If I am doing a themed gallery (e.g., "My Trip to the 
> > Store” or “Memories of My Friend Mrs. Smith”) I may dip into the 1s and 2s 
> > if I need to find an image to tell part of my story but would mostly work 
> > from 3s and above.
> > 
> > The thing I most like about Lightroom is that is does not force any sort of 
> > workflow. So you can do it your way, I can do it my way, and we are each 
> > taking advantage of the capabilities in the program that matter to us.
> > 
> > stan
> > 
> >> On Jun 19, 2017, at 6:49 PM, Larry Colen  wrote:
> >> 
> >> A friend asked about going through 7500 photos from his trip to the UK, so 
> >> I wrote up my workflow for him.  I get teased a lot for treating my 
> >> shutter like film was free, but this is what works for me.  By throwing 
> >> away 550,000 photos, I end up with a hundred good ones.
> >> 
> >> On the remote chance someone is interested in how I do it and it would be 
> >> helpful to them, here's an outline of my workflow
> >> 
> >> The premise that for the first several passes quick decisions are better 
> >> than right decisions, so if you can't decide whether something is worth 
> >> keeping, just keep it and move on.
> >> 
> >> I also (to a first approximation) don't throw files away, because I've had 
> >> my two star files be the best recent photo of a friend who recently died.
> >> 
> >> My nominal rating system is: (total 560k photos in lightroom)
> >> 0: unrated (90k)
> >> 1: significant technical errors (2600, most could be deleted, many have 
> >> been)
> >> 2: nothing particularly wrong, but not worth looking at (314k)
> >> 3: good enough to post on the web (152k)
> >> 4: good enough to spend money on a print (3k)
> >> 5: My absolute best work (38)
> >> 
> >> Note that I don't post everything that is a 3 star, nor do I print every 4 
> >> star. I probably have another 50-100 that I should bump up to 5 stars.
> >> 
> >> workflow, first load the files onto the system with basic keywording, 
> >> before any basic rating.
> >> Import raw files into lightroom (shooting jpeg is like throwing away your 
> >> negatives, and with lightroom and cheap hard drives saves you nothing)
> >> 
> >> I have a directory structure of 6 month top level directories, directories 
> >> for each month, and directories for each logical photo session.
> >> 
> >> /Volumes/photo_c/photo4/pictures_2017a/1701
> >> in 1701 I have
> >> 170103_jan_eriksson
> >> 170103_power_line
> >> 170104_macro_test
> >> 170104_tail_lights
> >> 170106_covered_bridge
> >> 170107_tv_van
> >> 
> >> Note that each top directory for each shoot is named with the date, and 
> >> some short description. This way in addition to LR cataloging, I also have 
> >> a logical directory structure in case I ever change my photo management 
> >> software.
> >> 
> >> I may also sort things into subdirectories below that. This makes it 
> >> easier to compare like with like when rating. For example with a band, 
> >> I'll put photos of each band member in a separate directory.
> >> 
> >> As soon as I enter my photos, I do basic keywording, at some point I'll 
> >> also do facial recognition and try to ID people.
> >> 
> >> I have 

Re: My lightroom workflow

[Ken Waller]

Mine is only a little bit less complex - Using bridge I keep what I like, 
perfect my RAW captures in Photoshop and don't print unless I have a 
request.


Kenneth Waller
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/kennethwaller

- Original Message - 
From: "Paul Stenquist" <pnstenqu...@mac.com>

Subject: Re: My lightroom workflow


I don't use Lightroom. I work with Bridge and Photoshop. My workflow is 
complex. I look at the photos I've taken, and I render the ones I like. If 
I like one a lot, I print it.


Paul via phone

On Jun 19, 2017, at 9:33 PM, Stanley Halpin <s...@stans-photography.info> 
wrote:


Good detailed description Larry. Some good ideas here.

I won’t go into my workflow now nor attempt a complete compare/contrast. 
But I do note a couple of things:
1 - your Lightroom workflow as described is pretty much all about filing 
and storing for ease of retrieval.

2- You say
   I'll make gross technical adjustments that apply to groups of photos, 
and only rarely tweak specific photos


   The major departure of my workflow from yours is that for me no image 
rises above a 2 rating until I have spent at least a few seconds looking 
at color, contrast, sharpness, noise and other aspects. If I have worked 
on an image and/or don’t think in needs much if any additional post 
processing, then it gets a 3 rating. Once I have finished with a day or 
week or month’s worth of images, I go back to the 3 rated ones and decide 
whether they are worth additional time, good to go as they are, or maybe 
overrated and reassigned a 1 or 2. If I am doing a themed gallery (e.g., 
"My Trip to the Store” or “Memories of My Friend Mrs. Smith”) I may dip 
into the 1s and 2s if I need to find an image to tell part of my story 
but would mostly work from 3s and above.


The thing I most like about Lightroom is that is does not force any sort 
of workflow. So you can do it your way, I can do it my way, and we are 
each taking advantage of the capabilities in the program that matter to 
us.


stan


On Jun 19, 2017, at 6:49 PM, Larry Colen <l...@red4est.com> wrote:

A friend asked about going through 7500 photos from his trip to the UK, 
so I wrote up my workflow for him.  I get teased a lot for treating my 
shutter like film was free, but this is what works for me.  By throwing 
away 550,000 photos, I end up with a hundred good ones.


On the remote chance someone is interested in how I do it and it would 
be helpful to them, here's an outline of my workflow


The premise that for the first several passes quick decisions are better 
than right decisions, so if you can't decide whether something is worth 
keeping, just keep it and move on.


I also (to a first approximation) don't throw files away, because I've 
had my two star files be the best recent photo of a friend who recently 
died.


My nominal rating system is: (total 560k photos in lightroom)
0: unrated (90k)
1: significant technical errors (2600, most could be deleted, many have 
been)

2: nothing particularly wrong, but not worth looking at (314k)
3: good enough to post on the web (152k)
4: good enough to spend money on a print (3k)
5: My absolute best work (38)

Note that I don't post everything that is a 3 star, nor do I print every 
4 star. I probably have another 50-100 that I should bump up to 5 stars.


workflow, first load the files onto the system with basic keywording, 
before any basic rating.
Import raw files into lightroom (shooting jpeg is like throwing away 
your negatives, and with lightroom and cheap hard drives saves you 
nothing)


I have a directory structure of 6 month top level directories, 
directories for each month, and directories for each logical photo 
session.


/Volumes/photo_c/photo4/pictures_2017a/1701
in 1701 I have
170103_jan_eriksson
170103_power_line
170104_macro_test
170104_tail_lights
170106_covered_bridge
170107_tv_van

Note that each top directory for each shoot is named with the date, and 
some short description. This way in addition to LR cataloging, I also 
have a logical directory structure in case I ever change my photo 
management software.


I may also sort things into subdirectories below that. This makes it 
easier to compare like with like when rating. For example with a band, 
I'll put photos of each band member in a separate directory.


As soon as I enter my photos, I do basic keywording, at some point I'll 
also do facial recognition and try to ID people.


I have an SSD primary drive, and that is where I load my files to 
initially. When I'm all done with my photos from each shoot, they go 
into long term storage in the above calendar directory tree.


Now the bit you were asking about.
I tell lightroom to only show unrated photos. I go quickly through them 
setting any one I might like to 3 stars. When I get to the end, I set 
the rest to two stars. If something is totally trash, I set it to one 
star. If I know right off hand it's amazing I "pick" then set it t

Re: My lightroom workflow

[Paul Stenquist]

I don't use Lightroom. I work with Bridge and Photoshop. My workflow is 
complex. I look at the photos I've taken, and I render the ones I like. If I 
like one a lot, I print it. 

Paul via phone

> On Jun 19, 2017, at 9:33 PM, Stanley Halpin  
> wrote:
> 
> Good detailed description Larry. Some good ideas here.
> 
> I won’t go into my workflow now nor attempt a complete compare/contrast. But 
> I do note a couple of things:
> 1 - your Lightroom workflow as described is pretty much all about filing and 
> storing for ease of retrieval. 
> 2- You say 
>>I'll make gross technical adjustments that apply to groups of photos, and 
>> only rarely tweak specific photos
> 
>The major departure of my workflow from yours is that for me no image 
> rises above a 2 rating until I have spent at least a few seconds looking at 
> color, contrast, sharpness, noise and other aspects. If I have worked on an 
> image and/or don’t think in needs much if any additional post processing, 
> then it gets a 3 rating. Once I have finished with a day or week or month’s 
> worth of images, I go back to the 3 rated ones and decide whether they are 
> worth additional time, good to go as they are, or maybe overrated and 
> reassigned a 1 or 2. If I am doing a themed gallery (e.g., "My Trip to the 
> Store” or “Memories of My Friend Mrs. Smith”) I may dip into the 1s and 2s if 
> I need to find an image to tell part of my story but would mostly work from 
> 3s and above.
> 
> The thing I most like about Lightroom is that is does not force any sort of 
> workflow. So you can do it your way, I can do it my way, and we are each 
> taking advantage of the capabilities in the program that matter to us.
> 
> stan
> 
>> On Jun 19, 2017, at 6:49 PM, Larry Colen  wrote:
>> 
>> A friend asked about going through 7500 photos from his trip to the UK, so I 
>> wrote up my workflow for him.  I get teased a lot for treating my shutter 
>> like film was free, but this is what works for me.  By throwing away 550,000 
>> photos, I end up with a hundred good ones.
>> 
>> On the remote chance someone is interested in how I do it and it would be 
>> helpful to them, here's an outline of my workflow
>> 
>> The premise that for the first several passes quick decisions are better 
>> than right decisions, so if you can't decide whether something is worth 
>> keeping, just keep it and move on.
>> 
>> I also (to a first approximation) don't throw files away, because I've had 
>> my two star files be the best recent photo of a friend who recently died.
>> 
>> My nominal rating system is: (total 560k photos in lightroom)
>> 0: unrated (90k)
>> 1: significant technical errors (2600, most could be deleted, many have been)
>> 2: nothing particularly wrong, but not worth looking at (314k)
>> 3: good enough to post on the web (152k)
>> 4: good enough to spend money on a print (3k)
>> 5: My absolute best work (38)
>> 
>> Note that I don't post everything that is a 3 star, nor do I print every 4 
>> star. I probably have another 50-100 that I should bump up to 5 stars.
>> 
>> workflow, first load the files onto the system with basic keywording, before 
>> any basic rating.
>> Import raw files into lightroom (shooting jpeg is like throwing away your 
>> negatives, and with lightroom and cheap hard drives saves you nothing)
>> 
>> I have a directory structure of 6 month top level directories, directories 
>> for each month, and directories for each logical photo session.
>> 
>> /Volumes/photo_c/photo4/pictures_2017a/1701
>> in 1701 I have
>> 170103_jan_eriksson
>> 170103_power_line
>> 170104_macro_test
>> 170104_tail_lights
>> 170106_covered_bridge
>> 170107_tv_van
>> 
>> Note that each top directory for each shoot is named with the date, and some 
>> short description. This way in addition to LR cataloging, I also have a 
>> logical directory structure in case I ever change my photo management 
>> software.
>> 
>> I may also sort things into subdirectories below that. This makes it easier 
>> to compare like with like when rating. For example with a band, I'll put 
>> photos of each band member in a separate directory.
>> 
>> As soon as I enter my photos, I do basic keywording, at some point I'll also 
>> do facial recognition and try to ID people.
>> 
>> I have an SSD primary drive, and that is where I load my files to initially. 
>> When I'm all done with my photos from each shoot, they go into long term 
>> storage in the above calendar directory tree.
>> 
>> Now the bit you were asking about.
>> I tell lightroom to only show unrated photos. I go quickly through them 
>> setting any one I might like to 3 stars. When I get to the end, I set the 
>> rest to two stars. If something is totally trash, I set it to one star. If I 
>> know right off hand it's amazing I "pick" then set it to three stars.
>> 
>> I tend to do this for all of my directories.
>> 
>> At this point I'll make gross technical adjustments that 

Re: My lightroom workflow

[Stanley Halpin]

Good detailed description Larry. Some good ideas here.

I won’t go into my workflow now nor attempt a complete compare/contrast. But I 
do note a couple of things:
1 - your Lightroom workflow as described is pretty much all about filing and 
storing for ease of retrieval. 
2- You say 
>   I'll make gross technical adjustments that apply to groups of photos, 
> and only rarely tweak specific photos

The major departure of my workflow from yours is that for me no image rises 
above a 2 rating until I have spent at least a few seconds looking at color, 
contrast, sharpness, noise and other aspects. If I have worked on an image 
and/or don’t think in needs much if any additional post processing, then it 
gets a 3 rating. Once I have finished with a day or week or month’s worth of 
images, I go back to the 3 rated ones and decide whether they are worth 
additional time, good to go as they are, or maybe overrated and reassigned a 1 
or 2. If I am doing a themed gallery (e.g., "My Trip to the Store” or “Memories 
of My Friend Mrs. Smith”) I may dip into the 1s and 2s if I need to find an 
image to tell part of my story but would mostly work from 3s and above.

The thing I most like about Lightroom is that is does not force any sort of 
workflow. So you can do it your way, I can do it my way, and we are each taking 
advantage of the capabilities in the program that matter to us.

stan

> On Jun 19, 2017, at 6:49 PM, Larry Colen  wrote:
> 
> A friend asked about going through 7500 photos from his trip to the UK, so I 
> wrote up my workflow for him.  I get teased a lot for treating my shutter 
> like film was free, but this is what works for me.  By throwing away 550,000 
> photos, I end up with a hundred good ones.
> 
> On the remote chance someone is interested in how I do it and it would be 
> helpful to them, here's an outline of my workflow
> 
> The premise that for the first several passes quick decisions are better than 
> right decisions, so if you can't decide whether something is worth keeping, 
> just keep it and move on.
> 
> I also (to a first approximation) don't throw files away, because I've had my 
> two star files be the best recent photo of a friend who recently died.
> 
> My nominal rating system is: (total 560k photos in lightroom)
> 0: unrated (90k)
> 1: significant technical errors (2600, most could be deleted, many have been)
> 2: nothing particularly wrong, but not worth looking at (314k)
> 3: good enough to post on the web (152k)
> 4: good enough to spend money on a print (3k)
> 5: My absolute best work (38)
> 
> Note that I don't post everything that is a 3 star, nor do I print every 4 
> star. I probably have another 50-100 that I should bump up to 5 stars.
> 
> workflow, first load the files onto the system with basic keywording, before 
> any basic rating.
> Import raw files into lightroom (shooting jpeg is like throwing away your 
> negatives, and with lightroom and cheap hard drives saves you nothing)
> 
> I have a directory structure of 6 month top level directories, directories 
> for each month, and directories for each logical photo session.
> 
> /Volumes/photo_c/photo4/pictures_2017a/1701
> in 1701 I have
> 170103_jan_eriksson
> 170103_power_line
> 170104_macro_test
> 170104_tail_lights
> 170106_covered_bridge
> 170107_tv_van
> 
> Note that each top directory for each shoot is named with the date, and some 
> short description. This way in addition to LR cataloging, I also have a 
> logical directory structure in case I ever change my photo management 
> software.
> 
> I may also sort things into subdirectories below that. This makes it easier 
> to compare like with like when rating. For example with a band, I'll put 
> photos of each band member in a separate directory.
> 
> As soon as I enter my photos, I do basic keywording, at some point I'll also 
> do facial recognition and try to ID people.
> 
> I have an SSD primary drive, and that is where I load my files to initially. 
> When I'm all done with my photos from each shoot, they go into long term 
> storage in the above calendar directory tree.
> 
> Now the bit you were asking about.
> I tell lightroom to only show unrated photos. I go quickly through them 
> setting any one I might like to 3 stars. When I get to the end, I set the 
> rest to two stars. If something is totally trash, I set it to one star. If I 
> know right off hand it's amazing I "pick" then set it to three stars.
> 
> I tend to do this for all of my directories.
> 
> At this point I'll make gross technical adjustments that apply to groups of 
> photos, and only rarely tweak specific photos. I'll often do color balance at 
> this point, finding something black or silver to set my white balance on.
> 
> I then go to the end of each directory, and working backwards "pick" each one 
> that I think is good enough to look at further.
> 
> At that point I start setting up a collection structured, using collection 
> sets and 

My lightroom workflow

[Larry Colen]

A friend asked about going through 7500 photos from his trip to the UK, 
so I wrote up my workflow for him.  I get teased a lot for treating my 
shutter like film was free, but this is what works for me.  By throwing 
away 550,000 photos, I end up with a hundred good ones.


On the remote chance someone is interested in how I do it and it would 
be helpful to them, here's an outline of my workflow


The premise that for the first several passes quick decisions are better 
than right decisions, so if you can't decide whether something is worth 
keeping, just keep it and move on.


I also (to a first approximation) don't throw files away, because I've 
had my two star files be the best recent photo of a friend who recently 
died.


My nominal rating system is: (total 560k photos in lightroom)
0: unrated (90k)
1: significant technical errors (2600, most could be deleted, many have 
been)

2: nothing particularly wrong, but not worth looking at (314k)
3: good enough to post on the web (152k)
4: good enough to spend money on a print (3k)
5: My absolute best work (38)

Note that I don't post everything that is a 3 star, nor do I print every 
4 star. I probably have another 50-100 that I should bump up to 5 stars.


workflow, first load the files onto the system with basic keywording, 
before any basic rating.
Import raw files into lightroom (shooting jpeg is like throwing away 
your negatives, and with lightroom and cheap hard drives saves you nothing)


I have a directory structure of 6 month top level directories, 
directories for each month, and directories for each logical photo session.


/Volumes/photo_c/photo4/pictures_2017a/1701
in 1701 I have
170103_jan_eriksson
170103_power_line
170104_macro_test
170104_tail_lights
170106_covered_bridge
170107_tv_van

Note that each top directory for each shoot is named with the date, and 
some short description. This way in addition to LR cataloging, I also 
have a logical directory structure in case I ever change my photo 
management software.


I may also sort things into subdirectories below that. This makes it 
easier to compare like with like when rating. For example with a band, 
I'll put photos of each band member in a separate directory.


As soon as I enter my photos, I do basic keywording, at some point I'll 
also do facial recognition and try to ID people.


I have an SSD primary drive, and that is where I load my files to 
initially. When I'm all done with my photos from each shoot, they go 
into long term storage in the above calendar directory tree.


Now the bit you were asking about.
I tell lightroom to only show unrated photos. I go quickly through them 
setting any one I might like to 3 stars. When I get to the end, I set 
the rest to two stars. If something is totally trash, I set it to one 
star. If I know right off hand it's amazing I "pick" then set it to 
three stars.


I tend to do this for all of my directories.

At this point I'll make gross technical adjustments that apply to groups 
of photos, and only rarely tweak specific photos. I'll often do color 
balance at this point, finding something black or silver to set my white 
balance on.


I then go to the end of each directory, and working backwards "pick" 
each one that I think is good enough to look at further.


At that point I start setting up a collection structured, using 
collection sets and collection.


In the collection set 170601_england I will then go through and make 
collections of all of my picked files based on the directory names:


170603_canterbury_00

I then select everything in canerbury_00, unpick it, then starting from 
the front, pick the ones I like the best. those become 
170603_canterbury_01, then from the end canterbury_02, lather, rinse repeat.


Once things get into lightroom collections, and I've narrowed them down 
by 60-80% then I start doing more fine adjusting, cropping, specific 
tweaking of the curves.


At some point, I will often ask someone to go through and rate the 
photos 6 (red/dislike), 7 (yellow/meh), 8 (green/like). Of those I may 
go and over ride some with 9 (blue, I really like even if you don't).
I'll use purple for "special selections" such as "sensei likes this". 
I'll also keyword photos "bill likes" or "bill dislikes", or "don't post 
on facebook".


I will be far less selective for photos on facebook, particularly event 
photos, than for photos on flickr.


From the photos I put on flickr, my absolute best for each month go 
into my monthly picks folder, which goes into my collection of monthly 
favorites, in theory, every one in that collection is rated four stars. 
I tend to average about three or four shots a month that end up in that 
collection.


In short, if I wouldn't be willing to spend $4 for a 12x8 print of 
something, it doesn't get 4 stars. In theory a photo could get that 
rating at any time in the process, but it's generally not until it's 
been posted and moved to my monthly favorites

--
Larry Colen  l...@red4est.com