nicklewis.net

Lightroom: Workflow - keep it simple

Its funny how wonderful new software that makes our workflow process so much easier seems to tempt us to over-complicate it!

I have now been using Lightroom for a month since its launch and I am still very pleased with the product and at first I was trying to work out whether I should follow a specific routine, whether I should use colours, flags and ratings on every photo? I did at first but then realised that there is no need to be so silly!

I have now settled down to a routine that involves:

• Dump the photos onto the PC - I like the way LR starts up when I put my card in the reader. I also try and apply some common keywords at this stage and a standard IPTC template that contains simply my copyright text.
• Whisk through the photos using a combination of the grid and loupe views, rating images. 5 for really good ones, 4 for not sures and the rest are not rated at all.
• Filter out all images that are rated less than 5, to view the cream of the crop.
• Filter out “similars” by using the “survey” or “X and Y” views, giving images that I want to drop out a rating of zero so that they vanish from the displayed images.
• Selection process done!
• Caption and keyword all images
• Check images over for dust etc and any other editing needs
• Export them at desired size and in the relevant format

Thats it, fairly straight forward and fast. I would like to say that I really do believe in getting it right in the camera to start with as this saves a lot of time at this stage. I am always pleased when my images need little editing done and only need keywording (which is a tedious task!).

There is really no need to make it any more complicated than this!