Organization,photoshop cs3/cs4, and Lightroom.

Hardrock

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My question is what exactly do you do with you photos? As far as organization and editing. I realize its kind of a broad question. For example when I take a couple of hundred pictures I just save them directly to my pictures file in windows vista. Then sort through the pictures and make a best of file to determine which ones I want to edit,crop,enhance,etc. And save as a new file when done. My cs3 came with adobe bridge but I haven't taken the time to learn what it does. I also have read a little about Lightroom but it sounds like more of what I already have. So to make a long story short what is you process and what programs do you use and why? Sorry for such a long thread but thanks again TPF!
 
The key is to find a workflow that works well for you.

What I do;
I upload the RAW files into a folder, it it's proper place (sorted by type of shoot, date etc).
Then I upload import them into LR. (Actually, I do these both in one step via LR).
Then I quickly go through the images in LR and give the duds an 'x' flag. Then delete them. The obvious keepers get a white flag.
I might then go though again and flag the images that I want to continue working on.
I then take those flagged images and put them into a 'collection' in LR.
I switch to the 'Develop' module in LR and just view the images in the collection.
(the images are all still just the one RAW image file, there are no image copies at this point. That's the beauty of LR)

I do whatever edits & adjustments I can in LR. If I need something done in Photoshop, I just use 'Edit in...' to bring the image into Photoshop, then right back into LR.
If I want to take all of them into Photoshop, then I might export them as TIFF files, work on them in PS and save those TIFF files. Then I'll re-import the TIFF files and put them in the collection (replacing the originals in the collection).
This way, I can now open the collection to find the finished images. I can use LR to export them for whatever purpose I need; print files, web files, web gallery etc.
 
So is Lightroom a combination of a little PS and organizer. What is the advantage of using lightroom over just saving(in windows picture file) and editing in PS?
 
In terms of functionality, there really isn't anything that Lightroom does, that you can't do in Photoshop & Bridge.
Lightroom is a 'workflow' software that was created by taking the tools that photographers used most in Photoshop, and putting them into a streamlined package...and also making it very efficient for working with multiple images, especially a large number of images.
So LR is not a replacement for PS...although most find that they use PS a lot less once they learn how to use LR.

Below the surface, there is a big difference between Lightroom and Photoshop. Photoshop works like most other software. You open a file, work on it, then either save over the original or save a copy. If you don't want to loose the integrity of your original (or don't want to repeat certain things) you might end up with several copies of your images.
Lightroom, on the other hand, works completely differently. It's a a database based program with a non-destructive workflow. You 'import' the images, which basically tells LR where the files are, and what they look like. After that, all the edits you do in LR, are not applied to the image but are saved in a 'sidecar' file. So no matter what you do, the program always has the untouched original file to call upon.
LR makes it very easy to output a group of files in just about any way you might like. So if you need a set of JPEG files for prints, or for web, that's really easy.
 
Great information thanks for clearing that up for me!
 

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