can't get my head around Lightroom's workflow

Billie May

Hi,
I am trying to get my head around LR(3). I found useful tips & tricks for importing, developing and exporting but I still don't fully get the whole thing.

LR doesn't touch the actual file and only when you export it the changes are saved. But what do you do if you wish to have a few versions of 1 photo let's say a colour version and a bw version. Do you use snapshots at the point where you like a certain photo or do you work with virtual copies? And how do you structure the folders? I's probably thinking to complicated but I feel it's better to find out now the best way to keep track of changes and keep a nice and clear structure.
Thanks!

nilhg

If you want multiple versions of one shot then make multiple virtual copies, any other way will eventually drive you mad.

As far as Lightroom is concerned the folder structure you use doesn't matter as long as you don't change it outside of Lightroom but for your own sake you'd be best to figure out a folder structure that suits you and stick with it, you can create an import preset in Lightroom to use it. Personally I import all my files into a yyyy/mm/dd folder structure and use keywords and metadata to find shots as needed

kelly1

I use a folder for each year and under that folders for each date in the format yyyy-mm-dd.

Billie May

so after you've imported your photo's will you 'star' or 'pick' the photo's you wish to develop, do you create a new folder for them and create virtual copies from them then before you start editing?

nilhg

Billie May wrote: »

so after you've imported your photo's will you 'star' or 'pick' the photo's you wish to develop, do you create a new folder for them and create virtual copies from them then before you start editing?

Usually I'll run through them and do the P-U-X thing with them, then delete all the X's, when I start developing the P's I just work on them as is, in situ, there's no need to move them or create virtual copies because Lightroom never changes the originals, just stores details of the edits in its database.

KevHos

Lightroom is generally used to provide simple edits with some advanced options and a simple and excellent way to organize those photos, when ever I do anything that involves major change to the source photo I usually export to PS cs5 and do the touch-ups then import back into lightroom into a sister folder specifically for edited photos