Backup, Import, Backup

There are so many details to think about when deciding how to store images, how to label image files, how to backup images and which images should be imported into a library program. This article discusses an overview for the method of getting images from a camera (or scanner) into a Adobe Lightroom while maintaining an appropriate level of backups. This article will not discuss the pros and cons of different media, but overview the need for using multiple medias as backups.

The title of this article is really the summary of the entire workflow. Backup, Import, and Backup again. The order is also important, but mostly because of a limitation of many digital camera interfaces today. This article was also developed based on some of the other detailed work done in importing images into Lightroom and to give a further framework in the Image Conversion Workflow.

The speed of many digital cameras is very slow when uploading images. Only a negative scanner seems slower. Be that as it may, Adobe Lightroom seems to magnify the slowdown when importing directly from a camera. Thus, the first step: Backup.

Backup

The first step in our workflow is to backup the images from the digital card. If you use a negative scanner, then the first step is to scan the image to a backup medium. In my case, the backup is a USB mirrored hard drive attached to my workstation.

I use a Leica DLux3 which is a remarkable pocket camera that takes RAW images. I use the SD card reader in my computer, insert the SD card and copy the images to my external hard drive. See the article I wrote on naming directories for digital negatives and slides to determine how you will organize the image files. This is the fastest method for copying images from a camera - no additional processing in between. Next, we import.

10/13/2008 EDIT: Also see the article that discusses Backing Up Rejects.

Import

The importing function in Adobe Lightroom is a powerful tool. With a little practice and some digging, many options are available through the import dialog. If you copied your images to a backup in the first step, then the import step should use the 'copy the files to a new location' option.

If the files are RAW then you can also check the option to convert the files to DNG. Adobe's Digital Negative format continues to undergo improvements. The two primary reasons to consider using DNG formats are a) Adobe has made the format open source and it should be around for a long time to come and b) DNG formats are smaller than RAW formats because of some lossless compression routines. For TIFF files, JPEG formats and others, the DNG format doesn't offer much, but for RAW files, DNG is worth a look.

At this point you can also choose a MetaData preset or create one on the fly. Thus, we can be importing images from a soccer game shoot and automatically set the photographer's information as well as the soccer match information in the MetaData. Presets for MetaData are like bulk copies. They instantly make an array of changes to a group of files while they are importing. This saves mutliple selections and later typing.Also, keywords can also be added at the import stage. Similar to the MetaData presets, images can have basic tags created to get started.

This is not to say that further refining will not be necessary. In fact, changes should be necessary. There should be some title and description information put in the MetaData for each image. There should also be some keywords that will apply to some images and other keywords for other informations. The point is that much of the repetitive information can be input easily for all the images. This is the whole idea of an efficient workflow.

Backup

The last section almost could have been labeled Import-Backup. The importing dialog is the perfect time to make a copy of the images for our last backup. Simply setting the end of the dialog to copy the files to a CD when finished will add some time to the process, but will provide us with a moveable copy that could even be stored off site.

The copy to CD routine in Lightroom 1.4.1 seems to copy the images to a temporary directory and then burn them to a CD. However, the temporary files are not removed from the disk directory. Yet, when you export a new set of images to burn to a CD, Lightroom removes those old files first.

Exporting to CD can be done at a later time, but backups tend to get delayed if they are not completed when the images are added to the library. Then you find yourself getting busy and wanting to review the images. Who needs another backup? Well, the first backup is on a hard drive and the working copy is on another hard drive. Hard drives are prone to eventual failure, or in my case, prone to electrical failure from lighting strikes. So, to truly protect your images, using a backup that can be separated and that is not prone to descrtuction like the others.

Conclusion

The whole point of this article is to let us sit back and evaluate our current import strategy. Using the concepts above we have several advantages. First, we make a quick copy of our images and secure the location they are stored. Then we import them using presets to save lots of typing and reviewing. Finally, we make another backup to a CD or DVD as the import is taking place.

Next, we will delve into the details and choices available in the exporting dialog. Stay tuned!! ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

How To: Create a Keyword Hierarchy in Lightroom

Keywords are an extremely beneficial aspect of Adobe Lightroom and the larger the library, the larger the keyword list will be. Managing this list and keeping it efficient to use can be a challenge. Luckily, there are ways to organize and re-organize your hierarchy of keywords.

This article will not focus on the many ideas of which keywords to use, but will rather show you exactly how to create the hierarchy and modify it within Lightroom. See the article on methods of assigning keywords to see how to assign the keywords you create to individual or grouped images.

Lightroom can store multiple levels of keywords similar to the Folder panel above it in the Library Module. To create a hierarchy of keywords that you can group and drill down, plan it out on paper first. This will make creating the base keywords much easier. You can also create your keyword list in another program and import it. We will create another post on importing keywords in the future. First, let's create some in Lightroom directly. For this example, we will create the hierarchy Nature Location -> National Forests -> Pisgah.

Creating the Base Level

Creating the base level for a hierarchy involves inputting the base keywords. Simply click on the plus sign next to the Keyword Tags panel as shown below.


This will bring you to the Create Keyword Tag dialog box. Input one of your base keywords as shown in the image. Be sure to de-select the checkbox that allows you to include the selected images as attached to this keyword. If you are creating a base keyword, you will probably not have any images directly attached to that keyword. More on the results of the hierarchy later in this post.


You see we entered Nature Locations as the base keyword. After creating this base keyword, it is time to create our first sub keyword.

Creating Second and Subsequent Levels

We ultimately want our hierarchy to look like the image below. The base keyword is Nature Location and then we have sub-folders that show National Forests and then Pisgah.


To add a second or lower level keyword to the hierarchy, right click on the keyword to insert under. Then click on the menu item that says Create Keyword Tag inside xxxx. The same create keyword tag dialog will be shown. Enter the sub keyword and create it. It will be located underneath the base keyword. Continue in this manner to create the hierarchy you need.

Bottom Level Keywords

Notice that the Pisgah keyword in the image above has a bright gray triangle to the left of the keyword. This indicates that additional keywords are underneath Pisgah. I have further defined locations within Pisgah Forest as my bottom level keywords. These bottom level keywords have a grayed-out triangle next to them indicating no further keywords underneath them. These bottom level keywords will be the ones assigned to images.

Assigning Keywords

Now that we have a hierarchy of keywords that might be many levels deep in some cases, what keywords need assigned to an image? The answer is: Always the bottom level keyword!

Using our example, if you assign the keyword Pisgah to an image, then you can search for and find the image using all three keywords in the hierarchy: Nature Location, National Forests, Pisgah. (NOTE: I realize that I told you I had bottom level keywords under Pisgah, but for this example, we are using Pisgah as the bottom level keyword).

The keyword list is also useful. If you click on the Nature Location keyword, all images assigned to bottom level words under that hierarchy are selected. If you click on the National Forests keyword, only images that are assigned to bottom level keywords under National Forests are selected, and so-on.

Using bottom level keywords is important to a) keep your workflow as time efficient as possible - assigning one keyword instead of three in this example, and b) keep your meta database as trim as possible - for disk space, backup and speed considerations. Imagine having Nature Location assigned to 1,000 images that don't need it assigned in order to find the image!

Moving Keywords Around in the Hierarchy

Moving keywords around in the hierarchy is simple. Drag the keyword on top of the new word you wish to move it under. For example, if you have a base keyword as flowers and later want to move it under another keyword called plants, then drag the flowers keyword with the mouse until plants is highlighted. Letting go of the mouse will move the keyword. The assignment of the images to the flower keyword doesn't change, only the location in the hierarchy of the keyword itself. It really is that easy!

Now for the harder part. You can drag a sub-keyword and make it a base keyword by dragging your mouse all the way to the left of the list, outside the arrows. It will turn into a little sliver instead of highlighting a word. The keyword will be put at that level in the hierarchy. It works, but takes a little more dexterity.

Conclusion

Creating a hierarchy in Lightroom is easy to do and very important to efficiently organize and find your images. See the article on methods of assigning keywords to see how easy it is to drag and drop keywords for assignment or inputting them through forms and the keywording panel.
... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Creating a Custom Contact Sheet in Lightroom

Creating a custom contact sheet like this one is easy to do in Adobe Lightroom. This type of contact sheet is especially important when using our film scanning workflows. We use this contact sheet to easily see what negatives are stored in specific binders allowing easy location of the originals. Here we will show you the steps to create your own contact sheet.

Where to Start

Begin by selecting some images. We use images by selecting a specific file folder where we store our images by either roll of film or roll of slides. See my article on Digital Management of Negatives and Slides.

After selecting some images, move to the print module. There select the lightroom template you wish to start with. We chose the 4x5 Contact Sheet. From there it is all customization.

Customizing the Contact Sheet

First we will set a title for our work. We need to allow room for a title to show, so we set the top margin in the layout tab to 0.75 inches. You can use any size that fits your needs. Then we set an identity plate that includes, most importantly, the file folder for the images. Remember from our workflow that the folder name is the identification for the series of images. In this case, the folder name is 2008-D-1. You can also use a description for the photo shoot if you like.

To change the identity plate, first select the checkbox for the identity plate under the overlays tab. Then click on the little down arrow at the bottom of the plate sample and select the Edit menu. Select the text identity plate option if necessary and type the description. Simply press the ok button without saving the identity plate, because it will change each time.

Next, select the Override Color checkbox and select a black color for the title. Be sure that the Render behind image and Render on every image checkboxes are turned off. Now you will see the identity plate in the middle of your contact sheet. Using the mouse, drag it to the top of the page. By setting your top margin, you should have ample space to show the title.

We also need to add a page number in case there are more images than will fit on a single page. Select the Page Numbers check box under the Page Options after the indentity plate. You should see the number one in the bottom right corner.

The only customization remaining is the text to show under each image. Check the Photo Info box and select the drop down Edit menu item. Here we will add the standard information we would like to see next to each image on the contact sheet.

This should bring up a dialog box similar to the one below. We will enter the filename and other information for each image. Note that you can choose whatever information you like, but you should choose the filename first if you will use the contact sheet as part of your archiving and storage workflow. This will help identify frame numbers and filenames later on.
By selecting information that you wish to show and pressing the insert button, the lightroom codes are input to the top and a sample filename is shown. Notice we use the Filename first and then any exposure information linked to the image. If the image is digital, then the exposure information exists. If you are scanning slides or negatives, this information probably doesn't exist and the filename is sufficient. Notice how we have added labels such as 'exposure' in the template area to describe the information added.

Be sure to press the drop down at the top of the dialog and select the 'Save current settings as New Preset' item. Then name it something meaningful like '4x5 contact sheet info'. Press Done and see what your preview looks like. It should be similar to the one presented at the top here.

Saving the Preset

Almost finished! Let's save what we have so far by adding a template. Press the Add button on the bottom of the left panel and enter a name similar to the one shown here. After you are finished, you can tweak the settings, right-click on the template name and select the 'Update with Current Settings' menu item.

Conclusion

Working with digital images from RAW sources or from negatives and slides still necessitates the printing of contact sheets. Set your up like this and easily add it to your work flow. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Importing - Information to Apply

Part of the Importing Dialog Box in Lightroom is the Information to Apply section.

This section houses the presets that can be applied for Developing, Metadata, Keywords and Initial Previews.

Developing Presets on Import

In Progress.

Metadata Presets on Import

The metadata contains copyright information and other locational information that can easily be setup to post to each image on import. See a description of how to apply this metadata during import.

Keywords Assigned on Import

In Progress.

Initial Previews Assigned on Import

Previews are the pictures viewed in the Library mode. Specifically, the Group mode shows thumbnails of each image and a larger image is seen in the Loupe mode. These images have to be generated for the first time. You can choose how much to generate upon import, although the larger the images generated, the longer the import. I am generally to impatient to see everything, so I choose minimal and then the larger images are rendered as I veiw them. The speed of your computer and how quickly you want to be working will determine your taste for this setting.

Conclusion

There are many significant ways that the developers of Lightroom tried to make the image workflow efficient. Using various presets when importing the images goes a long way towards making the tedious work of imaage management more bareable. Use these presets and spend the time creating them up front. It will payoff in the long run. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Importing Images Into Lightroom

After scanning our images, importing the images into lightroom is the next step in our Image Conversion Workflow. Fortunately, Lightroom has a powerful and easy to use interface to accomplish our import.

By pressing the Import button at the bottom of the Library view or by using the File, Import Photos from Disk menu item, we choose a source for our images and access the dialog to the left. Note that you can bypass these menu items by dragging a folder or files from Windows Explorer directly onto the Lightroom Library. The import dialog box will open with those files already selected.

There are a plethora of options in this dialog box and all of the options are customizable. The power of this import workflow from Adobe is that after setting up some basics, importing becomes easy instead of a dreaded task.

We will cover these options over several articles as they are grouped in the dialog box. These are the File Location, File Naming and Information to Apply.

After importing our images, we will move on to applying metadata and keywords so that we can get the most efficiency out of our powerful new tool.

UPDATE: This article discusses the general concept of the import dialog box for Lightroom. We discuss a more detailed approach to importing of images, the backup process and any conversions desired in a new article: Backup, Import, Backup. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Backing Up Your Lightroom Catalog

When you open Adobe Lightroom, you should see the dialog below before the main window opens. The purpose of this well placed dialog is to ask if you want to backup your catalog.



Do not skip this dialog box! Your catalog is the lifeblood of Lightroom. All of your thumbnails and metadata is stored here. Hopefully, you have also allowed Lightroom to write the Metadata to your images, but this might not always be practical and some Photoshop files do not allow the writing of metadata. Note that this is typically due to leaving off the choice in Photoshop to maximize compatability when saving an image.

In this case, choose a location for your backup. This should be on a separate hard drive than the original catalog and preferably one that is not in your computer. This will allow you to disconnect and move the backup if your computer becomes corrupt. Lightroom saves your file location selection so that you do not have to choose it each time.

As others have stated on the web, it would be nice if Adobe would allow you to ask this question as you Exit Lightroom as well. Typically, this is just after all your new changes have been made and the point where you are most vulnerable to losing data.

One workaround would be to start Lightroom immediately after exiting to allow another backup to be made. You can then exit Lightroom a second time. This is inefficient, but then safety of your data is important.

NOTE: While I have not attempted this, my gut feel is that you could create a batch file in Windows (I don't know the equivalent in Apple OS) to start lightroom twice, once immediately after the first session. This might allow a single icon and single click to start the program twice, saving the catalog after a working session. I leave the work to others to post the results here. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Export to CD or DVD for Backup

This is part of my Image Conversion Workflow.

Backup is a dreaded word because it doesn't seem to do anything except take time. However, backup is a most important word because without, your image is like carrying tissue paper beneath an umbrella in the rain - it will most likely get destroyed at some point.

Lucky for us, Adobe Lightroom has an excellent backup system built in. The export tab allows us to take pictures from our library and perform a variety of transformations. The export tab also allows us at the end to burn the results to CD or DVD.

Selecing Images to Backup

To begin the process, first select the images you wish to burn. The easiest way to do this is by selecting the folder containing the images you just imported. In the case of scanning slides or negatives, this should only be one folder. In the case of a digital camera, it may be several folders containing recent dates and times.

After selecting the folder, click on an image shown in the library group screen. If only one large image is shown, your are in the loupe view. Press G to go to the Group View (see the importance of learning lightroom shortcuts). Then press Ctrl-A or the menu item Edit, Select All. This will select the entire folder(s) for exporting to burn.

Exporting to CD Burner

Press the menu item File, Export to retrieve the following dialog:
Here is where the fun begins. First, set a location for a temporary burn. I created a subdirectory in my negatives directory called _DVDBurn. Then select the file naming convention. I use the template Filename which uses the exact same name on disk with no modification. This is important to use for a backup so that you can find the exact image you need later on. While the choices are wide and varied to manipulate the filename, this is best done when importing files and not while backing up.

The next choice is also important - file settings. You can choose JPEG or TIFF and it is tempting to do so, especially if that is the file type you are trying to backup. However, for our true backup purposes, choose Original to be sure you make a copy of the existing file without making the filesize larger than it has to be. You will notice then that the image settings are all greyed out. This is because we are using the original file type with no modification. Note that I make different choices when backing up RAW files from digital cameras.

The meta data settings are next. Make sure Write Keywords as Lightroom Hierarchy is checked for maximum compatibility.

Finally, the last setting is post-processing. Here we choose Burn the exported images to a disk. This is what actually makes the backup for us. Note that at the bottom of the dialog box, the number of images to export is shown. This is a good check to be sure it doesn't say one image, but about the number you expected.

Saving the Backup Settings

Since we have these settings the way we want them, save them so we can reuse them without having to check everything again. Press the Add button on the left and type in some meaningful name, like DVD Backup Original Images. You will see it added to the choices on the left. By clicking on it, you can apply those settings instantly. The presets function in Lightroom is available everywhere and highly useful.

Processing the Files

To continue, insert a CD or DVD in your disk burner and press the Exporting button. The upper left hand corner of the Lightroom window will show your progress. After the images are processed, a dialog box shows asking which burner to use. Note that if no writeable disk is inserted in a CD drive, then the Burn button is unavailable. Insert a blank CD or DVD and wait for the system to recognize it. Then the Burn button will be available. Also note that if your screen saver turns on in Windows, the dialog box might appear empty with no information or buttons on it after restoring the screen. By moving the mouse around the windows, the buttons and choices appear again. It must have to do with windows repainting the dialog box and that is a programming and operating system issue. I don't know if this happens in the mac operating system or not.

Naming the CD or DVD

After selecting the burner to use, you get another dialog box asking for the name of the first disk to use. Type any name you want using dashes between words. Also, only use a lone number '1' at the end. Lightroom will automatically increment this number for each disk. However, if you use 'Disk1' at the end, Lightroom doesn't know to increment the number and adds a dash and number to the end for the next disk - 'Disk1-2'. The solution is to use the format 'Disk-1' in which case Lightroom will increment the next disk to 'Disk-2'. I use the year and month of the images followed by a dash and number one. For example, images from February 22, 2008 would be 2008-02-22-1.

Writing the Disk

Lightroom will then process your images, write them to disk and, most importantly, verify the disk. While you can do other work in Lightroom while this process is going on, I find even with a dual 3.0mhz pentium and 4gb of memory that Lightroom is sluggish. I also don't want any trouble with my backup, so I just let the computer run it's course.

Finishing the Burn

Lightroom ejects the cd drawer when finished, so it's easy to look and see when the export is finished. Simply put another disk in, wait a moment to let the computer recognize it, and press the Continue button to burn the second and subsequent disks.

Always make backups of your images as soon as you import them. You will eventually lose something. About six years ago I had a network drive go bad with about 10 years of images on it. Some were not backed up and I permanently lost them. They were of my two boys and I'll never get them back. Learn from my mistake.

Technical Note

While I do not see it documented, it appears that Lightroom does empty the burn directory before starting each burn. Thus, while you have some leftover files between burns, they don't just keep stacking up losing your free disk space. I just leave the temporary files there and don't worry about it. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Developing Pictures in Lightroom - Cropping

The second step I like to perform after making a virtual copy is a crop. If I know I will only print this picture in a certain format size, I will crop to that size. Most of the time I crop to a 1:1 aspect. This means that I trim off the edges.

Note that cropping is only necessary if an image is scanned from a slide or film. Digital images have no rough edges. However, cropping a scanned image also has the advantage of making the image more comparable to the digital images. After cropping, all the library images will look the same.

Another added benefit of cropping is that the image is ready to make a slideshow or html page. Even if further development is desired, the image can be used in a slideshow to proof. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Developing Pictures in Lightroom - Virutal Copies

The first step I like to perform is based on a feature not found in photoshop - make a virtual copy. A virtual copy provides a good starting point to correct and modify an image and still have a copy of the original to view.

To make a virtual copy, just right click on a photo and choose virual copy. Notice that the copy has the bottom left hand corner turned up to indicate it is a copy. Also note that Lightroom automatically stacks the pictures.

Don't forget that virtual copies take little to no storage space because they are merely pointers to the original image. Lightroom's advantage to many programs is that it stores the steps necessary to produce the image, not the actual chanegs to the image. Multiple copies take up kilobytes rather than megabytes or gigabytes. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Digital Workflow Summary

Having a workflow is paramount to organization and efficient management of your images. I have developed a workflow for my film, slide and digital images. While the workflow is a continual work in progress, I will continue to update the steps listed here and the links attached.

10/24/2008 NOTE: With Lightroom 2 I have begun using Smart Collections to assist in the Digital Workflow. See the Smart Collection Workflow here.

1. Image Conversion Workflow - The first step is getting the image into the library. Scanning, saving to disk, backing up, organizing and indexing negatives or slide sets are all part of this workflow.
2. Image Rating and Selection Workflow - After importing images into a library, this workflow begins the selection process of which images should be discarded and which should be kept. Then the remaining images must be rated to further distinguish their value to you.
3. Pre-Correction Image Workflow - After careful ratings, the best images should be prepared before the correction stage. This workflow applies necessary crops and any touchup required.
4. Correction Image Workflow - This workflow determines which corrections should be evaluated for an image and the order to apply them. This workflow concentrates on Adobe Lightroom with external steps in Photoshop or other third party software.
5. Printing Workflow - This workflow to get an image permanently displayed, this workflow deals with readying an image to print and saving profiles for reuse.
6. SlideShow Workflow - This workflow involves creating a slideshow in Lightroom for display. This workflow is Lightroom specific.
7. Web Workflow - This workflow involves creating a web page to publish or distribute on CD. Similar to the Slideshow Workflow, this workflow is Lightroom specific.
8. Library & Catalog Management - This workflow is about maintenance. This workflow involves moving files to permanent storage or on separate hard disk media and maintaining the image and keyword data in the Library.
9. Lightroom Preferences - This workflow involves setting Lightroom to take maximum advantage of the various preferences and maintaining backups of preferences, settings, presets and custom galleries.
10. Backing Up Lightroom - This workflow discusses how to backup your Lightroom Settings making sure the time spent creating efficiencies and perfecting presets for your workflow is safe from the catastrophe that will someday happen.

Workflows can be generated for web and portfolio work, however if the images are well prepared, the majority of the workflow is selecting images and templates. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Digital Management of Negatives & Slides

This is part of my Image Conversion Workflow.

Every photographer has a method for storing images on a hard drive. I have taken methods from various sources including Mastering Landscape Photography by Alain Briot and The Adoboe Photoshop Lightroom Book by Martin Evening. Based on these sources and my experience, I offer the following formula you are free to use or modify.

Rule Number One: The directory structure is independent of any image organization other than finding a negative or a slide after scanning it.

First let's discuss film and slide image management. These image mediums need scanned whereas digital cameras create digital images to download and immediately use. Negatives and slides are created from a single roll of film. Before computers these were stored in protective sleeves or poly-propylene pages in a binder, but they were always stored by roll. You would have a hard time finding a photographer that would cut up his negatives and sort the frames by the type of picture.

Digital management of negatives and slides should be no different. Do not worry about selecting some frames on a negative and putting those scans in one directory while placing images of other frames in another. What if a frame has two different categories? Say an image has a waterfall with mountains in the background. Would this be filed under mountains or under waterfalls? This is what the Lightroom Library is for.

Instead, store the negatives and slides by rolls. I use the following structure: Year - F,S or D - Sequential Number. The year is first to help sorting in windows and allows me to catalog rolls of film by the year taken. Second, the letter 'F', 'S' or 'D' clues me in to what type of film images are in the directory: Film, Slides or Digital. Finally, I assign a number. Other than being an index, the number is meaningless. It is simply the next number in line. For example, the second roll of film I scan in 2008 will be called: 2008-F-2. Also, the second roll of slides I scan in 2008 will be called 2008-S-2. Note that I start with '1' for each type of film and move forward. This is because each of the three film types are physically stored in separate places. This will be discussed in a future article.

Thus, Rule Number Two: Use a directory structure of [Year] followed by the film type [F, S or D] followed by a sequential index number.

It is important not to stop with the directory organization. Follow up by marking the assigned number on the negative storage sheet or the slide boxes and slide frames. Write the full ID number on the storage sleeve. To continue our example above, label your negative sleeve with the shoot date, location, any other info you want to house and use an index number of 2008-F-2. For the slides, not only mark the storage container, but mark each slide with an index of 2008-S-2-# where '#' represents the scanned image number. This might be the same as the slide number or it might be different. I try to match slide numbers and frame number with the image id, but sometimes that is physically impossible. I also try to use the 'a' next to the frame number for negatives that are split between numbers.

Finally, Rule Number Three: label your film sheets and slides with the assigned directory name. Additionally, assign the image number with the directory name on each individual slide. This is the only assured way to locate the physical film when referencing a digitally scanned image.

Remember that once you have the image in Lightroom you can assign as many keywords as you like and these keywords are what you will use to find an image in the computer. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Using Colors for Marking Images in Lightroom

There are three ways to mark images in Lightroom. Each method serves a different purpose and each method should be used in succession.

Using colors is the third method of three highly selective systems available in Lightroom to mark pictures for later selection. Using colors is best used as the last step in the image marking workflow. While flags determine if the image is worth saving, stars determine how good the image really is. Colors determine the status of the image before being released.

Colors can be used for any custom marking. I prefer to use color labels to let me know the edit status of the image and if it is ready to print or use in a slide show.

I left the descriptions very similar to the standard ones provided by Adobe to provide an easy transition. This will help explain the fact that the colors are not presented in the order of the workflow.

Some of the colors should be intuitive. Red means stop. Green means go. Thus, Red stands for a pending delete and Green stands for Good to Use, Corrected. I also use Purple for Good to Print and Yellow and Blue for touchups. Yellow means caution, needs Tonal Corrections. Typically the Blue layer in a color photo is where the noise is which needs removed to sharpen the image. Thus, the Blue color is used to indicate Retouching & Sharpening are Needed.

Why use a pending delete color when we have a rejected flag available for use? As you see in the referenced article, I use rejected for images that are clearly poor or accidental exposures. These I delete quickly. I also indicated that I pick images that look reasonable for further looks. This leaves some images that are not picked and some that may remain at a single star while others climb the rating ladder.

As I keep reviewing photos, I may have some severe duplication and want to slim down the image library. Since I've already backed all the images up, I may mark them to delete later and continue working. Every now and then I may review the images to delete and remove them from the library. The key is this: I am slow to remove images permanently from the library, so I want to review them for awhile to be sure.

This is why I use the Red color for deletion. Now, your next question might be why use Green as good and Purple as good to print. These two steps are mutually exclusive in my opinion.

Green indicates a picture has been fixed, retouched, sharpened, toned and generally set the way I invisioned the finished print. This means the image is ready for a slide show or to put on the web. However, printing is another story. Typically, you need additional fine tuned sharpening prior to printing. You may even need to adjust the tones slightly depending on the paper type being printed to. In Photoshop I even have separate layer groups for each type of paper I use. I can turn the layer on or off depending on what paper I am printing to. This allows me to set the tonal qualities different for the contrast range of each paper.

A Purple image in my workflow can either be a virtual copy specially setup for printing or a green image that I have tested and prints well the way it is. Think of purple as being backwards compatible. A purple image can also be used for slide shows and web pages. The image can also be used for printing.

Finally, I break out the retouching and sharpening because I may want to perform these functions, along with any noise removal, outside of Lightroom. Photoshop does a great job using layers for spot touchups. I also like Neat Image's Noise Removal Program which can be customized with a profile for your scanner or camera. Thus, I mark these images to know they may need work outside of Lightroom. Typically the tonal work can be done within Lightroom so I allow a separate color.

Conclusion

This concludes the three methods used to mark images in Lightroom. Each method is a step in the workflow process. Each step allows you to further define and refine your images. The extra marking ability provides a complete database that can easily be searched no matter how large it becomes. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Using Pick Flags in Lightroom

There are three ways to mark images in Lightroom. Each method serves a different purpose and each method should be used in succession.

Using the pick flags is the first method of three highly selective systems available in Lightroom to mark pictures for later selection. Using pick flags is also the best first step in your workflow. The image below shows the three flags available to mark each image.
The flags represent, from left to right, Picked, Not Picked and Rejected. Thus, the flags should be used in the initial selection to determine the status of the image. We discuss each flag use below.

Rejected

Rejected flags are discussed first because they are the easiest to assign in the first pass of reviewing a set of images. Any image that is clearly out of focus, black because of a malfunction or lens cap or even an unexpected floor or ceiling shot should be marked as rejected. These are images you never have a prayer of using. These images in all likelihood will be deleted, although you will see we can treat rejected images in a variety of ways. To mark an image as rejected, press the 'X' key on your keyboard. The 'X' key is used because it is similar to the 'X' marking out the image on the flag.

Picked

After marking the rejects, the second pass of your image set should be looking for potential keepers. There are really two solid ways to approach using the pick flag.

If the image set is of a specific event, you may want to use the pick flag to sit down with your customer and choose images for later printing. Assuming you have already marked the rejects, you could filter the image set for only picked and not picked flags. Then using the picks your customer makes, you can create a web site, a cd presentation and prints. Finished.

Since my image sets are normally of a specific area or subject, I am looking to include them for sale in one of my portfolios. I use the pick flag to determine which images have potential to move up in the start rankings and eventually become part of a portfolio. At this stage, I am very loose with picks. Any image I do not pick is because I really do not find it interesting at all. In addition, if I have several shots of the same subject in the same position, I will compare them and pick a few for review. I do not normally limit my pick to only one image in a group at this point. There will be time later to refine the selection. We will discuss workflow in another article.

To select an image as picked, press the 'P' key on the keyboard.

Not Picked

By default, each image starts out with no flag, or not picked. When I am finished, my not picked images are ones that I am not ready to delete, but that I am not ready to include for further selection either. If you accidentally mark and image as rejected or picked and need to remove the flag, use the 'U' key on the keyboard to remove all flags.

Conclusion

Flags are an important part of the selection process. Start with flags when reviewing a set of images. Divide the images into a) certain rejects and b) possible good images. Leave the rest of the images not picked. You can always filter on the not picked images and change the flags later.

After setting flags, move on to rating the images using the star rating system. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Star Ratings in Lightroom

There are three ways to mark images in Lightroom. Each method serves a different purpose and each method should be used in succession.

Star Ratings is the second method of three highly selective systems available in Lightroom to mark pictures for later selection. We will refer to Star Ratings simply as Ratings going forward.

Ratings in Lightroom range from zero stars through five stars and assigning a rating to an image is incredibly easy. The picture to the left shows zero stars. The dots indicate additional spaces available for assigning a higher rating.

Before we discuss how to assign the rating in Lightroom, we will discuss how to determine what rating to use. Think of your entire library of images as a giant pile of lottery tickets. Only one ticket is the ultimate winner and only a handful of tickets have smaller prizes. Most of the tickets win nothing.

Most of our images in the library should be good, but probably not great. Only a very few images are so outstanding that they deserve a five-star rating. Many images, therefore, should be rated zero stars to one star. If this is the result of our ratings, then finding great to superb images in our library is easy - filtering for four and five stars should not yield too many images to review.

Assigning Ratings Using Lightroom

That being said, how do we assign image ratings in lightroom. Two methods exist for assigning an image rating. First, the mouse can be used. Click on the number of stars below the image to assign that rating. Using the dots displayed for a selected image, the first dot to the left is a one-star rating. Clicking there assigns that rating and a star appears under the image. The second dot from the left is a two-star rating. Clicking there will adjust an image either up or down to that rating. As soon as the mouse clicks on the star place, the rating is changed. Saving the image is not necessary. Note that there is no way to assign a zero star rating to an image using the mouse.

The keyboard is also an easy way to assign images. Pressing the numbers zero through five on the keyboard will assign that number of stars to the image rating. Try selecting an image and pressing the four key on the keyboard. A brief notice appears and then fades indicating the rating is changed to four stars. Pressing the zero key will revert the image back to a zero star rating.

Note also that these commands apply to a group of selected images. All images in the group will be changed to a given rating. This is a good way to assign zero or one-star ratings.

Deteriming the Rating to Use

All images are imported with a zero star rating. I use a single star rating as a first pass for images that have potential. This can include duplicates.

I use a two-star rating to determine those images that I want to consider for further usage. It will probably still include some images that appear to be duplicates, but only if the subject matter is good and the technical aspects are good.

From there on out, only great images get higher ratings. I use a three star rating for images that have both excellent aesthetic qualities and technical qualities. These are later candidates for four and five star ratings.

Four star ratings include only those images that have perfect aesthetics, but maybe not perfect technical properties. This doesn't mean out of focus, this might mean that tones or lighting isn't exactly what I would have liked.

Five star ratings are incredibly difficult to obtain. I use a five star rating for the best I have ever taken. These images must be perfect aesthetically and technically.

From a portfolio perspective, certainly four and five-star images can be used. Using a three-star image is a matter of personal preference. We will have a later discussion on portfolio selection.

Selecting Four and Five Star Images

We are often our own worst enemy when it comes to selecting four and five star images. We love our own photography and have a hard time assigning a lesser rating to images. My only advice comes in two principals.

First, do not use any rating above a two-star rating without time passing from adding the image to your library. Print the image out and view it awhile first. Then determine if it has a three-star rating. Do not jump from two stars to four or five.

Second, let others help you select four and five star ratings. Move ratings up from three stars only if other people like the image. You can review the technical portion and some images use the rule of thirds well, but you can only really rely on the general public. Your family can help, but they too tend to be partial to your work.

Using a harsh criteria for rating images will ensure that when you need a truly great image, you will select one.

Filtering on Ratings

Filtering images using the ratings assigned is relatively simple. See the image below:


At the bottom of the library screen is a section labeled filters. Clicking on the number of stars will filter all images with that rating and above. Thus, in the image above, all images fitting the keyword or folder selections on screen will be filtered to three star ratings and above.

Conclusion

Ratings of images are important. However, just like praise, do not hand out high ratings too often or the ability of finding the best images will not exist. Be consistent, but be selective as well. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Marking Pictures in Lightroom

The term Marking Pictures refers to the different methods of distinguishing pictures from each other. Traditional methods exist such as filename and title, but these methods only help to make an image unique among the other stored images. Metadata can also be used to provide location, country and source data to provide additional grouping. We talked about keyword assignment to considerably narrow down the focus of selected images.

However, none of these methods describe the QUALITY of the image. Sure, we can use keywords to describe quality such as 'favorite', 'nice', 'needs work', but this will only muddle up our keyword list and is difficult at best to remember. Three other methods of marking pictures are available in Lightroom: Flags, Star Ratings and Colors. We discuss each one individually and then put them together for a library workflow. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Assigning Keywords Methods in Lightroom (1.3)

This is part of my Image Conversion Workflow.

Assigning good keywords in Adobe Lightroom is probably the single most important task to accomplish. Even after only cataloging 300 images, I would be lost trying to locate images without being able to use keywords.

I will address the organization of keywords in a later article. Today, I will address the different ways to assign keywords to an image. These methods are as follows:

Dragging images to the keyword

Dragging keywords to the image

Typing and editing the images's keyword list

Assigning keywords at import

Dragging Images to a Keyword

Dragging photos to keywords or vice-versa is an easy method to use for assigning keywords. You can choose to assign a single image or multiple images to a keyword. To assign multiple images the same keyword use the or keys (PC) to select some images. Then, starting with the mouse cursor in the middle of the image, drag one of the images and drop it over the keyword you wish to assign. Note that the keyword list is on the left in the library view. The same is true if you want to only assign one image to a keyword. See the picture to the left showing a keyword highlighted to assign to an image.

Dragging Keywords to Images

The other method is to select one or more images, the same as in the previous paragraph. Then, click on a keyword and hold the mouse button down. Drag the keyword to the center of one of the images in the selection and let go. The mouse cursor should have a plus sign beside it like the picture to the left. If more than one image is selected, all the images receive the keyword assignment.

Typing Keywords in the Keywording List

The third method of assigning keywords is to type them directly into the keywording dialog box. You can add existing keywords or by typing a new word can create a new keyword on the fly. If you have keywords that are nested or have a hierarchy, which I highly recommend, then typing them in is a little different.

Assume that you have a keyword called 'Deer' that is a member of the 'Animal' keyword group which is a member of the 'Nature' keyword group. The hierarchy is as follows: Nature -> Animals -> Deer. To type in this keyword, use the reverse hierarchy, as follows: Deer > Animals > Nature. This will allow the assignment of the layered keyword.

Notice the keywording dialog box can also contain asterisks (*). This occurs if more than one image is selected and some of them contain different keywords. For example if you have a waterfall image selected and a image of some deer and the waterfall image contains the keyword 'Waterfall' while the deer image does not, then you will see the 'Waterfall' keyword followed by an asterisk '*' as follows: 'Waterfall*'.

If you delete the asterisk, then the keyword is added to ALL pictures in the selection. This can be helpful if you have a group of pictures that should have the same keywords, but not all share the same keywords. Assign the keywords by removing the asterisks in the keywording box. Again, simply removing the asterisk from any keyword in the keywording box will assign that keyword to all images currently selected. The remaining keywords will stay as they are.

Importing Images with Keywords Assigned

Finally, importing images also presents an opportunity to add keywords. While keywording templates are beyond the scope of this article, templates offer an easy way to assign information used on a repetative basis to images as they are imported. Below you see the 'Import from Devices' dialog box. Notice the section at the bottom of the dialog.

It has a blank allowing you to input keywords. All images being imported will be assigned these keywords. Once again, if the keyword does not exist, Lightroom will add it to the keyword library for you.

Conclusion

These are the methods for adding keywords to your images in Adobe Lightroom. Keywords are exactly that: key to finding your images. Even as a hobbyist, you will gain a large number of images and searching through them takes far more time than searching a database of keywords. Your savings will be directly related to the amount of forethought you put into designing your keyword structure.

I will write some additional articles on keywords including the following: keyword templates, creating keyword hierarchies and the importance of multiple keywords for each image. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Lightroom (1.3) vs. Bridge (CS3) - Photo Management

Adobe Lightroom library manager is the manager that should have been included with Adobe Photoshop! Adobe Bridge is a glorified file explorer and does it's job well. However, anyone using either Photoshop at its $649 basic price tag or Lightroom at its far less $299 price tab will need disk storage (prices from adobe on 1/28/2007). Put simply, media files take up storage space. Both photographers and graphic designers need storage space.

Why then do we need the library manager from Lightroom rather than Bridge? The library manager keeps a database of image information and small and mid-sized thumbnails of the acutal image. This library format means the image does NOT have to be on the local hard drive to be viewed and analyzed.

Sure, you need access to the image to process it for output or even to print it. However, you can view your entire library of images, search for the images you want to consider using and then pull the image from a DVD, CD or another hard drive depending on where it has the final resting place.

As the image below shows, Lightroom Library will even export a selection of images and burn them to a CD or DVD burner for backup. What you cannot see below is that it will even ask for multiple disks until the entire set of images is saved.



There is another advantage to Lightroom Library over Bridge. Most professionals have a larger computer with more memory and better processors and larger disk drives in their office. Then a good laptop is used in the field. This setup is the same as mine and Lightroom Library allows me to export my images to a catalog where I can further sort and grade my photos away from the office. Then I can bring them back to my workhorse desktop and import the changes. The image here shows my 30 gigabyte library exported with thumbnail images at only 277 megabytes. This screen shot is of my laptop where I am working on all the images away from my office.

I can even add new photos to this copy of my library while I'm out in the field. I can import digital photos, adjust them, catogorize them and even put them in a portfolio ready to use. When I update my catalog in the office, these new photos are added along with the other changes. None of these unique abilities are available in Adobe Bridge.

There are some great features about both Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. I prefer to use them both depending on what I need to accomplish. However, I do all that I can in Lightroom first. It was truly made for photographers.

A great book to get started in Lightroom and also detailed enough to develop your own workflow is titled, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book by Martin Evening. This is a fantastic resource and I refer back to it frequently. Martin filled this book with step by step examples and changes in photos that you can see. I highly recommend it. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.