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<blockquote data-quote="Browncoat" data-source="post: 15524" data-attributes="member: 1061"><p><span style="color: red"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>File Import & Format</strong></span></span></p><p>I shoot RAW 99% of the time, and I like the idea of using a non-proprietary file format for storage. Step one is to import photos from the camera into Adobe Lightroom and convert to DNG format. My file naming structure is <em>[Date]_[Description]</em>, for example: <span style="color: #2e8b57"><em>2011-02-23_Alaska-Trip</em></span>. I use a hyphen (-) to separate words and the underscore (_) to separate categories. As a side note, it's generally not a good idea to use spaces when naming files.</p><p></p><p>I use Windows 7, and my photos are stored in this file folder structure: My Pictures > Photography > <em>[Year]</em> > <em>[Date]</em>. I use My Pictures to store many other images, so some organization was needed. All that said, using the shot-on date may not appear to hold much value for file naming structure. 10 years from now, I'm not going to remember what date I took a certain photo. Probably not even 2 years from now. However, date is a fairly unique category, considering the other options. If I were to name files according to genre..."Macro" or "Landscape" for example...search results would not be as narrow.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: red"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Metadata & Tagging</strong></span></span></p><p>This is where Lightroom really shines. In this digital age, it is vitally important to do what you can to protect your images. While you certainly can't prevent online theft, you can embed data into your images. I add a copyright into the metadata and insert <em><span style="color: #2e8b57">Photo credit: Anthony Hereld</span></em> into the caption field.</p><p></p><p>Keyword tagging is also important, and each image receives at least 3 tags. This will become more useful later on when searching for particular photos. I want to get more aggressive with tagging and start entering people's names. That way when I want to find photos of my daughter for example, it will be easy to find them all. I add 5-star ratings to my favorite photos, just another way to search to find them later.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: red"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Adjustments</strong></span></span></p><p>Since I got Lightroom, I have deleted all of my old JPEG files and reset all my DNG files back to their original straight-out-of-camera settings. Lightroom makes non-destructive adjustments whereas you may lose some quality by making the same adjustments in Photoshop. All of my initial "tweaks" are now performed in Lightroom: WB, tone, exposure, etc. I have about 100 presets in Lightroom, but these are all part of just a few "sets" that I downloaded. Bracketed images for HDR do not get any tweaks in Lightroom until they are processed in Photomatix first.</p><p></p><p>Photos are then exported to Photoshop. Here, I will convert them to JPEG for the web or TIFF for prints. Cropping, additional editing, and re-sizing are performed in Photoshop. I have a much wider array of Actions that I use regularly, though I would like to find the same effects and perform them in Lightroom.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: red"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Backup</strong></span></span></p><p>Non-DNG files (such as JPEG or TIFF) files are stored in a new folder called "Final" within the shot-date folder. I consider these finished images to either publish on the web or distribute to clients. These are the images that will be burned onto a disc for clients, usually a full-sized version and a web-sized version of each photo.</p><p></p><p>After all of this is done, I backup the Lightroom library on my hard drive. Then, I backup all files on an external 2TB hard drive.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Browncoat, post: 15524, member: 1061"] [COLOR="red"][SIZE="4"][B]File Import & Format[/B][/SIZE][/COLOR] I shoot RAW 99% of the time, and I like the idea of using a non-proprietary file format for storage. Step one is to import photos from the camera into Adobe Lightroom and convert to DNG format. My file naming structure is [I][Date]_[Description][/I], for example: [COLOR="#2e8b57"][I]2011-02-23_Alaska-Trip[/I][/COLOR]. I use a hyphen (-) to separate words and the underscore (_) to separate categories. As a side note, it's generally not a good idea to use spaces when naming files. I use Windows 7, and my photos are stored in this file folder structure: My Pictures > Photography > [I][Year][/I] > [I][Date][/I]. I use My Pictures to store many other images, so some organization was needed. All that said, using the shot-on date may not appear to hold much value for file naming structure. 10 years from now, I'm not going to remember what date I took a certain photo. Probably not even 2 years from now. However, date is a fairly unique category, considering the other options. If I were to name files according to genre..."Macro" or "Landscape" for example...search results would not be as narrow. [COLOR="red"][SIZE="4"][B]Metadata & Tagging[/B][/SIZE][/COLOR] This is where Lightroom really shines. In this digital age, it is vitally important to do what you can to protect your images. While you certainly can't prevent online theft, you can embed data into your images. I add a copyright into the metadata and insert [I][COLOR="#2e8b57"]Photo credit: Anthony Hereld[/COLOR][/I] into the caption field. Keyword tagging is also important, and each image receives at least 3 tags. This will become more useful later on when searching for particular photos. I want to get more aggressive with tagging and start entering people's names. That way when I want to find photos of my daughter for example, it will be easy to find them all. I add 5-star ratings to my favorite photos, just another way to search to find them later. [COLOR="red"][SIZE="4"][B]Adjustments[/B][/SIZE][/COLOR] Since I got Lightroom, I have deleted all of my old JPEG files and reset all my DNG files back to their original straight-out-of-camera settings. Lightroom makes non-destructive adjustments whereas you may lose some quality by making the same adjustments in Photoshop. All of my initial "tweaks" are now performed in Lightroom: WB, tone, exposure, etc. I have about 100 presets in Lightroom, but these are all part of just a few "sets" that I downloaded. Bracketed images for HDR do not get any tweaks in Lightroom until they are processed in Photomatix first. Photos are then exported to Photoshop. Here, I will convert them to JPEG for the web or TIFF for prints. Cropping, additional editing, and re-sizing are performed in Photoshop. I have a much wider array of Actions that I use regularly, though I would like to find the same effects and perform them in Lightroom. [COLOR="red"][SIZE="4"][B]Backup[/B][/SIZE][/COLOR] Non-DNG files (such as JPEG or TIFF) files are stored in a new folder called "Final" within the shot-date folder. I consider these finished images to either publish on the web or distribute to clients. These are the images that will be burned onto a disc for clients, usually a full-sized version and a web-sized version of each photo. After all of this is done, I backup the Lightroom library on my hard drive. Then, I backup all files on an external 2TB hard drive. [/QUOTE]
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