RAW workflow question

[Helen B]

Either way, when I open the raw in CS6, I click option + open and then open that way. What this does is leaves my image as a smart image (so I can go back and adjust the raw at any time, and still pull the image into the work environment. I always work as non-destructively as possible, too.

Good luck!

The original raw file is always left as a raw file, no matter how it is opened into PS from ACR. The difference between option-click (or alt-click in Windows), which is 'Open Copy' and the normal 'Open Image' is that Open Copy does not alter the raw file settings, while Open Image does. Either way, those settings remain fully editable when you subsequently open the raw file - nothing is lost. Both methods have the same result once within PS. Open Object (shift-click for both Mac and Windows) is different - it opens the raw file as a smart raw object within PS.

 

[KmH]

You can go through and process images on an individual level much faster in LR than you can PS. LR also automatically organizes your files, and applies any dating, numerical reference, or name you give them during import or export.

PS Camera Raw and Lightroom's Develop Module use the same edit rendering engine, sliders, and panels - Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Consequently, using a good Bridge/ACR workflow instead of Lightroom it is possible to process images on an individual level just about as fast with Photoshop CS.
Note: There are 3 Process Versions of ACR. http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WS2bacbdf8d487e58240e1c02a1341ed8e630-8000.html.

Lightroom does not automatically organize your files. The user still has to tell Lightroom what files go in which Lightroom virtual catalog, collection. or folder. The only files Lightroom knows about are the files the user tells Lightroom about by uploading/importing them using Lightroom's Library Module. Actually none of your files are in Lightroom. Lightroom just keeps track of where your files are in your computer's memory. If you move a file Lightroom knows about using an application other than Lightroom, like your computer system file mangement capability, Lightroom will no longer know where that file is.

Lightroom is based on 2 software engines - it's image catalog database management engine, and it's Raw image data file rendering engine.

PS Bridge and a lot of other file management applications "applies any dating, numerical reference, or name you give them during import or export". Both Bridge and Lightroom allow adding keywords, rating images, completing IPTC data fields, etc, and both have templates allowing a lot of that to be done using templates during image ingestion.

The difference is that Bridge is a browser and Lightroom is a database manager. Because Lightroom is a database manager, IF the user has used good digital asset management practices while building a catalog, collection, folder, Lightroom can search the database of images more efficiently than a file management (browser) application can.

I often recommend these books be kept at hand for reference:
The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)
Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

 

[Trigger]

I just got back from 10 days in Cuba, and am ready to get my head back into this and start on my 1400 images.

I'm wondering about one thing: After I tweak the Raw file in CS6's ACR, why would I then save it as a TIF or PSD instead of just going straight to saving it as a new & separate JPG for further cropping & clean-up?

In other words, if I wanted to do 1, 2, 3 or 4 different treatments to one particular image (such as one B&W; one with Vignette; one Tonemap; etc), wouldn't it be more efficient to just start with the full-size (but much smaller) JPG and "save as" a separate JPG after each treatment? I'm wondering why I would want to have the rather massive PSD file. For 1400 images, that a lot of disk space, especially if they're converted for "smart filters".

 

[KmH]

I'm wondering about one thing: After I tweak the Raw file in CS6's ACR, why would I then save it as a TIF or PSD instead of just going straight to saving it as a new & separate JPG for further cropping & clean-up?

Coming out of ACR you use a file type that has a 16-bit depth rather than the 8-bit depth JPEG is limited to.
Photo Editing Tutorials

You can do the different treatments in ACR by using the Snapshots feature.
Camera Raw Snapshots | Peachpit