My Lightroom Workflow- file management ideas

When I started posting Adobe Photoshop Lightroom tutorials a few weeks ago I started with the adjustment brush. It occurred to me that the adjust brush is a weird place to START a series about Lightroom, so I decided to go back to the beginning and talk about my workflow. For me, the most important part of “workflow” is the FLOW. The more images you deal with the more important it is to develop a system to keep track of them easily. It’s much easier to think creatively about your work when you’re not trying to find lost images and worrying over files and hard drives. This is about what works for me, and maybe it will give you some ideas for your own workflow.

I started thinking seriously about “workflow” after reading The Digital Photographer’s Notebook by Kevin Ames. Kevin deals with TONS of images and has great ideas about how to keep track of them. Just when I thought I had a system worked out, I switched from an iMac to a Macbook Pro for most of my editing and added two small external hard drives. I didn’t realize how much that would end up changing my routine, or how much happier I would be after the change. This is how I go about importing images, and where I keep them all…

My system involves two hard drives and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I happen to use two external drives, but you could just as easily use your computer’s hard drive and one external drive. I have three directories on my main “photo” drive- “photos”, “catalogs” and “main Catalog”. When I import a shoot, I begin by creating a new Lightroom catalog. Hold the ‘option/alt’ key when opening Lightroom, then select “New Catalog”. I save the new catalog in the “catalogs” directory on the “photo” drive, and give it a serial number and a descriptive name. I like using a serial number because it keeps your files in chronological order, and I find it easier to use a 4-digit SN than a 6 or 8-digit numerical date. I use the ‘Import’ dialog within Lightroom. I create a file inside the “photos” directory with the same serial number and name as the catalog I created. All of the photos get converted to DNG and copied into this folder. I add my copyright info as a metadata template, and add any keywords that apply to all of the photos. I select ‘standard’ for the initial previews and import the photos. I do most of my sorting and adjustments in this catalog. When I’m mostly finished editing the photos in a new catalog, I open the “main catalog” on my “photo” drive and select “import from catalog” to add the new photos to my master catalog. I import the photos without moving them, because they’re already in my “photos” folder. This gives me an easy way to access all of my photos, and I can open the individual catalogs if I want to work on a shoot separately. I use a lot of collections and smart collections, and with a main catalog I can make collections using photos from more than one shoot.

I use an app called Carbon Copy Cloner to backup the “catalogs”, “photos” and “main catalog” folders to another external drive immediately after importing new photos, and three times a week. By keeping the catalogs and photos on external drives I can easily use virtually any computer that has Lightroom 2 installed. I can download photos each day when I’m traveling, then when I want to print my photos I simply plug my “photo” drive into my desktop computer that drives my printer. Nothing needs to be copied or exported because I’m using the same drive and catalog with both computers.

I will talk about how I sort my images next week, including how I use collections and smart collections. Have a great week!