[Leica] IMG: My Struggle to Learn to Use Lightroom

Fri Jan 6 16:13:14 PST 2017

IN LR, there is an area to put a form of data base file structure... called Keywords.  It is used for quickly finding an image by certain user defined words in conjunction with the LR file SW.

If you listen to Adobe, ALL your files go into one actual file ( folder , or whatever you like to call it, a computer file.)  Then you use the Keywords to actually categorize your images and be able to select one at will.   Think of Tina and 900,000 images... how to find the 1 that was taken on Jan 26, 2014 of the Kids playing in the back yard.... the one that shows #2 Grandson with a yellow shirt on....  You NEED a database that is capable and easy to use.  Keywords does that for you.  But to be effective, you MUST be consistent and always use them.

Your previously used Keywords are listed, so you do not have to remember what you used... but after a few hundred, finding the ONE that you want can be a Debbie Downer.

Keywords are also setup to be hierarchal.   You can ( and probably should) use that feature.... example... Trips > Europe>  Belgium> Brussels  Nest one inside the other to make it easy....

For instance, and using your current actual file structure: these are keywords you might use......
Year, Date, Camera, Lens, Subject.....  Now the camera is also in the EXIF file structure, so that is a bit of redundancy... but certainly not a big deal.  So is the year and date and lens.... 
IF your EXIF data actually includes it.... ( why would it not?   If you use a Nikon lens on a Leica M9 body, there will be none of the data except date and camera.  The lens info is not recorded,  Scans also do not include it.... as if your scanner would know what lens was used to take an image.....)

Now actual file structure....  Does it make ANY difference if you use the massive file and sort using the keywords or the sub file approach like Year?  No.  None. Although I am sure there is probably some advantage if you use some esoteric command, but I do not use them.  
So you could continue to use your present file structure, without problems.  Or not.

In addition, LR allows you to open more than one file structure at the same time.... so you can look at the images in the 2004 file and the 2014 file at the same time....   Again,, any reason to put ALL the images in one giant file stricture?  Not that I can see.....

Some use by Year, or maybe by occasion ( Uncle Mickey's 101th Birthday), or maybe by Camera ( Leica, Canon, Nikon).....  Does it matter?  No.

Use one that you like, and be religious about using it.

LR is pretty easy to figure out... it works like Photographers think.  It is not (usually) obtuse, there are books to help you, and, If you wish, you can buy (what is now called ) a perpetual license.... instead of $10 a month for the rest of your life.......

Frank Filippone
Red735i at verizon.net

-----Original Message-----
From: LUG [mailto:lug-bounces+red735i=verizon.net at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Jim Nichols
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2017 8:40 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: My Struggle to Learn to Use Lightroom

Nathan,

Thank you very much for sharing your file structure with me.  It would appear that you gave a lot of thought to this, and it gives me a good pattern to follow.

I have been shooting RAW+jpeg, and using the jpegs as a quick way to discard the losers and pick the winners.  It looks as if LR can do that job from the RAW images, so I think I will also shoot RAW only.

I am now going to spend some time developing a LR file system. My RAW image files are on a dedicated external drive using a Year/Date/Camera/Lens/Subject format that I have used for years. I will probably put my completed images back into that same folder, because my volume of images is quite low compared to some of you more prolific producers.

Thanks again, and I will get busy on a file structure.

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA

On 1/6/2017 12:45 AM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> I am coming late to this thread, but FWIW, here is my workflow. Before getting into it, let me say that I like simplicity and hate using more than one piece of software. This is why I like LR so much. It is the only piece of photo editing software I need. No Photoshop, no specialized RAW converters, no special panorama tools etc.—everything I need is in LR. I use the standalone version, not the subscription. Also, I only ever shoot RAW.
>
> So, with that, here is what happens to an image from the moment I press the shutter till you see it in one of my posts. I will use one of my recent Milano images as an example.
>
> 1) Take picture. Always RAW.
>
> 2) Copy the RAW file to the appropriate folder on an external hard drive used only for storage of RAW files. The folder structure on this drive is: CAMERA-YEAR. So in this case, the top folder is Leica (since I had the M8 with me in Milano) and the subfolder is 2016. But of course you can organize your RAW files any way you like, as long as you know where you put them so that you can tell LR where they are in the next step.
>
> 3) Import the RAW file into LR. The LR image folder is on a separate external hard drive and is simply organized by year. So in this example, LR imports the image to a subfolder of LR Pictures called, simply, 2016.
>
> 4) Make my adjustments to the image using the tools available in LR.
>
> 5) Move the image to the appropriate gallery within LR. This concept of galleries is incredibly useful, and has nothing to do with the folder structure on the hard drive. Think of it as a way of organizing the images around themes or events or however you wish to define the categories. In my case, I have a gallery called “Alicante life” where most of my images end up since I live here and so most of my images are made here. But in the example I am using, I put the image in a gallery I created for this purpose called “Milano 2016”, which is in turn a sub-gallery of a gallery set called “Italy”. I have such gallery sets for countries that I visit frequently, i.e. Denmark, the US, the UK, Italy, Germany, France.
>
> The other very useful thing about galleries is that you can assign an image to more than one gallery—you are not making additional copies by doing that, there is always just one physical file, but you are simply letting LR know that a particular image belongs to several categories. For example, I have a gallery called “Cycling” where I keep the images I take while out cycling (doh!). So, if I take any picture during my ride this morning, they will belong to both the “Alicante life” and “Cycling” galleries. When I cycled in Mallorca in February 2016 or in Denmark in April 2016, the resulting images similarly ended up in the “Cycling” gallery and in the respective geographically defined galleries.
>
> 6) Export the image for web publication. In the case of my Milano image, the folder to which I export the image is a subfolder of the “Galleries for Frozenlight” folder called “MIlano 2016”. I similarly have folders and subfolders for my weekly blog images, my Greatpix galleries etc. All of this irrelevant as far as LR is concerned. As Ken said, it is like printing, a one-way activity. Once exported, LR has nothing to do with that JPG file.
>
> 7) Upload the JPG file to the appropriate web gallery and post the link to the LUG and Oly lists.
>
> Of course, there are backups of the RAW files and the LR files, but that is not our subject here.
>
> Hope that helps/inspires.
>
> Nathan
>
>
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
> http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/> http:// 
> <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws 
> <http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: 
> http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ 
> <http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
> Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator 
> <http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
> YNWA
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> On 06 Jan 2017, at 06:35, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks, Richard.  That is the direction I'm heading.  I just need to get comfortable with it.
>>
>> Jim Nichols
>> Tullahoma, TN USA
>>
>> On 1/5/2017 11:29 PM, Richard Man wrote:
>>> Jim, for posting from LR, I either export/FTP directory to my 
>>> server, or if you are using something like ht eLUIG gallery, first 
>>> export the image with the correct settings (e.g. maybe 900 pixels 
>>> across, sRGB color space etc.) to a folder on the disk. For example, 
>>> I use g:\PhotoExports. I set up "template" so it's just a couple 
>>> clicks to do it each time. Once you have the exported file on disk, then just upload to your favorite site per usual.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 10:22 AM, Jim Nichols 
>>> <jhnichols at lighttube.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> OK, all of you gals and guys are using Lightroom, and it can 
>>>> convert Fuji
>>>> X-T2 RAF files, so I need to adapt.  I downloaded the 7-day free 
>>>> trial, and on my second day, I managed to convert an X-E1 RAF file 
>>>> and post a jpeg image.
>>>>
>>>> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/January+Selfie.jpg.htm
>>>> l
>>>>
>>>> But, I did a lot of chasing my tail in trying to place images in 
>>>> the Library, and post from there.  That didn't seem to work, so I 
>>>> took a devious route to place a "real" image in my normal folder, 
>>>> and posted from there.
>>>>
>>>> Has any one got a link to a Lightroom tutorial for Dummies?
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Jim Nichols
>>>> Tullahoma, TN USA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Leica Users Group.
>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more 
>>>> information
>>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>

_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information