Photography

Out of context: Reply #88

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• mg331

  I'm back to obsessively thinking about changes to my managing photos / editing workflow and considering using Lightroom Sync to start managing photos almost entirely. I know some of you guys enjoy thinking through this sort of thing, so here's what I currently do:

  - Upload new photos to Google Drive, where I'm incredibly organized with monthly folders, subfolders for purpose (ex: street, portraits, etc) and within that folders for Good/Bad, Edited. Drive allows me to upload photos from anywhere so I don't have to wait until I'm at home to add something I need to use immediately.
  - For the past couple months I've then been adding new photo sets to Lightroom (typically SOOC jpg images with my Fuji cameras, with RAW images saved in a separate folder on my computer just in case I need to use a RAW image) by importing from Google Drive. I then review them, flag for deletion, assign ratings for photos worth editing or using, and when I delete flagged photos they of course are deleted from Drive. As I've edited any photos, I export those out to the Edited folder in Drive, so anywhere I can access drive, I can access those edited photos.

  Pros: Keeps my managing / editing in one place with tools that I'm most efficient with in LR. Drive does not have any editing capabilities like Google Photos does (more in that in a second), so any photos I want to use from Drive that have not been managed yet in LR need to be edited in an app on my phone.
  Cons: Editing anything outside of LR takes it out of that flow, and results in doubles of something and extra time to manage the unedited photo in LR that was edited somewhere else.

  I mentioned Google Photos above. Yesterday I was looking at the app again and thinking about starting to put my street photos in Photos, so I can always access a common editing tool on any device. It's not as extensive as LR, but there's useful enough tools for exposure, etc. So, thought about doing that for a while.

  Now that I'm shooting almost entirely on Fuji cameras, I'm almost always using the film simulations when I'm taking photos, and taking JPG images. In that case I really end up adjusting aspects of the photo if needed: exposure, highlights, shadows, cropping, etc. That way I'm not deviating too much from the essence of the photo. That's very different than taking RAW images as I have for years, and picking through my customized VSCO Film presets in LR and choosing a look for a raw photo. I still have years worth of travel photos that are RAW taken with Nikon cameras that I'll continue editing and publishing; that will always keep me busy.

  So... started looking at Lightroom Sync this morning and I think it might be the solution I'm looking for. It will allow me to centralize managing photos, and making edits, in LR, with basic tools available in the mobile app and on desktop. It incorporates the same flagging / rating process I use in LR already, still allows deletion of photos that I assume will result in them being deleted from Drive if that's where they are stored. I can't access custom presets in LR desktop on the mobile version, but that's probably perfectly fine as long as I'm sticking to simple edits of SOOC jpg images. I still need to think through what to do with photos once edited and published (probably still put them in the Drive folder organization like I mentioned above, so I can easily access them to post to websites, flick, IG, etc. I don't think that process will really change for me.

  Any thoughts to share on this from your own workflow challenges? Hope this wasn't boring, but I know some of you likely have complex processes as well.

  mg33 1Permalink

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  • interesting mg! Do you keep your files by shooting or sort them out by categories? Like keep all the pic from March 16th in the same folderBennn
  • or sorting them "street pics" in the street pics folder, portraits in the portraits folder etc ?Bennn
  • Also, do you keep ALL the pictures you take, even the bad ones, or you delete a lot of bad stuff? I keep everything, i must stop doing this...Bennn
  • Maybe i'd only keep all the pictures from a trip, i can't delete pics from iceland, y'know :P even if they're badBennn
  • I organize them a few ways using keywords. Need to start using Collections if I'm going to use LR sync.mg33
  • I usually use keywords like "[month] [year] [purpose]" Ex: March 2017 Street Photos.mg33
  • For a while I was organizing based on the camera used, such as a top-level keyword category for X70, then sub-keywords formg33
  • the purpose of the photos (street, portraits, an event, etc).mg33
  • Now I realize I can simply use the filters to sort by camera used, and I started reorganizing keywords without camera used.mg33
  • I'll take a screen shot tonight. It might make you go crazy how organized it is. LOLmg33
  • Also - I do delete "bad" photos. Duplicates, etc. I think somewhere in this thread I described my evaluation process and how to sort out good/bad.mg33
  • But it's basically: Import Photos > Review and flag photos to delete / single star for photos that look good > delete flagged photos >mg33
  • ... look over single star photos, if a definite winner, change to 5 stars > edit 1 or 5 star photos > change color ID to green to signify it has been edited >mg33
  • ... when done, review green photos, pick out 15-20 favorites and change to purple > Review purple photos and select 10-12 favorites, make more edits if needed >mg33
  • ... Change the color to blue for those final favorites (blue means good-to-go > publish to a folder and use as needed online.mg33
  • And yes I am sort of insane. ;)mg33
  • i'm using a similar system with the color labels. It sure is a lot of manipulations all this!Bennn
  • You can also save selections, which I've found invaluable. For example, if you want a group of "beach photos" you can pull them from different folders, etc.formed

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