Lightroom Workflow

[Ah_K]

Am new to lightroom and slightly confused as to how my workflow should be...
Is it advisable to start a new Catalog for every photo shoot / wedding, or should we just consolidate everything into one huge Catalog and then work on the folders seperately?

Can the seasoned users please enlighten me on the appropriate workflow?

Thanks

 

[Ah_K]

no one?

 

[Headshotzx]

Yes, I'm interested to know what others are doing as well so I can learn.

Anyway, using what little knowledge I have about LR(2), I created a new collection and put all the related photos inside, and used colors and flags to mark different parts of the shoot; red for VIP coverage, yellow for blabla.. etc. It's helped me a lot for the past weekend's event coverage.

Oh, TS I hope you don't mind me asking this question in your thread. Is there a way to program the software's noise reduction to say.. "Apply X amount of color reduction and Y amount of luminance reduction to photo taken with Z camera @ ISO 800" ?

 

[Michael]

i suggest that you use the same catalogue for everything... i might use two catalogues if you want to separate business from privat, but it does not make sense to create a new catalogue for each shoot, this can be done using folders or collections.

you can program such adjustments with presets... define presets for different situations and apply them to the photos... however LR does not have a feature that would do it automatically... so you need to filter first by camera and ISO and then apply the preset

 

[Manda]

Here is my workflow

Upload into folders with unique names
Rename photos as necessary
All photos are selected and put into a collection, then I can choose which collection I want to browse quickly.
Press x to select rejects delete the rubbish photos (control backspace).
press 6 to colour code my favs.
press 7 to colour code photos ready to upload with no further PS work required.
choose photo to PS right click>edit in photoshop to ensure the finished PSD doc will show in the lightroom library.

 

[canturn]

I only use 1 catalog. What is more important than that is assigning the keywords to your files. Also, you can use different color labels and ratings, for example, if I give an image 5 stars, it'll probably be used to update my website, send for competition and all.

If you want a really great way of speeding things up, you can consider this http://www.rpgkeys.com/ . It basically allows you to run Lightroom like a color lab console, and will speed up your processing dramatically.

 

[Headshotzx]

Anyone have an idea as to why photos imported into LR2 seem okay for 1-3 seconds, but then turn totally yellow and off-color after that? I'm talking about full-view in Library, without going into Develop mode yet.

EDIT: Yes, it's happening on all RAW files. I really want this to stop. Anyone? Sometimes, the settings in-camera are more than enough for in RAW for a straight conversion to JPG / TIFF, needing little PP, but now I find myself PP-ing every critical RAW shot differently. The magnitude of the yellow cast keeps changing for some odd reason.

 

[Octarine]

Anyone have an idea as to why photos imported into LR2 seem okay for 1-3 seconds, but then turn totally yellow and off-color after that? I'm talking about full-view in Library, without going into Develop mode yet.

EDIT: Yes, it's happening on all RAW files. I really want this to stop. Anyone? Sometimes, the settings in-camera are more than enough for in RAW for a straight conversion to JPG / TIFF, needing little PP, but now I find myself PP-ing every critical RAW shot differently. The magnitude of the yellow cast keeps changing for some odd reason.

Seems that LR applies certain settings that result in this yellowish cast. It takes a few seconds to load the image, nicely to see on a slower computer. So during loading selected presets are applied. Check your LR settings, especially those referring to the cam. In Development module there is a point of "Camera Calibration". You may also check at http://www.lightroomextra.com/ for help.
I use LR2 and I don't have any issues here, works perfect.

Edit: Google revealed 2 hits:
http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?t=750
http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00PB2S

 

[Headshotzx]

Did the color management things to no avail. It's still yellow after a few seconds.

 

[Michael]

Anyone have an idea as to why photos imported into LR2 seem okay for 1-3 seconds, but then turn totally yellow and off-color after that? I'm talking about full-view in Library, without going into Develop mode yet.

EDIT: Yes, it's happening on all RAW files. I really want this to stop. Anyone? Sometimes, the settings in-camera are more than enough for in RAW for a straight conversion to JPG / TIFF, needing little PP, but now I find myself PP-ing every critical RAW shot differently. The magnitude of the yellow cast keeps changing for some odd reason.

the for this is as follows:
1. The coding of RAW files is proprietary, i.e. only Nikon, Canon etc can really read the files properly, everybody else including Adobe needs to reverse engineer the coding.
2. How to get the coding? take a picture of a well defined colour chart (GretagMcBeth) and check the values in the file and create an algorithm to recreate the colours.
3. Cam manufacturer such as Nikon and Canon know that people like highly saturated photos, so they apply (even to the RAW) high contrast tone curves to the pictures.
4. The algorithm developed by Adobe creates a more neutral rendering of the RAW picture hence resulting in duller pictures. LR2 rendering is more vivid and you can correct the rendering easily.
5. While saving the RAW file the cam will save a low res jpeg into the RAW file, what you see when you first open the file in LR is this low res jpeg. This jpeg has the same corrections applied like when you shoot jpeg. Hence, the dramatic change after a second. Once you see what Nikon or Canon think you should see then you see a neutral rendering by Adobe.

Let me know if you have further questions.

 

[Octarine]

Am new to lightroom and slightly confused as to how my workflow should be...
Is it advisable to start a new Catalog for every photo shoot / wedding, or should we just consolidate everything into one huge Catalog and then work on the folders seperately?
Can the seasoned users please enlighten me on the appropriate workflow?

Have a look at the tutorials here: http://www.photoshopcafe.com/
Basically, LR2 is already structured into a workflow. You start with Library (importing and organizing your pictures), you follow in Development module (all image adjustments, cropping, etc) and then you decide how to export the pictures either for Print, Web or Slideshow. Export to file goes directly out of the Development module.
I got this video from Colin Smith and also the book about LR2 (Lightroom Adventure by Mikkel Aaland, O'REILLY), really helps a lot to understand the idea behind each module.

 

[slaam]

how does LR2 compare to LR for the users out there?
is there a compelling reason to upgrade?

 

[Ah_K]

Woah... thanks alot for all the tips on the workflow guys...
it is much appreciated.

The online tutorials are cool...
imho, the guide books and dvds on sale are really overpriced...
that's why i am turning to alternative solutions

Thanks to the advice, after a bit of practice i am getting used to the workflow...

 

[m3lv1nh0]

Try this for LR2.0

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles

 

[ray_stinger]

The single most compelling reason to upgrade from earlier version of LR is the support for dual monitor. Simply the feature that I've been yearning for since I started using LR.