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Author Topic: LR4. File handling completely baffling.  (Read 7213 times)

stamper

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #20 on: December 17, 2012, 04:36:21 am »

Quote Old Roy

 I just want LR to handle the RAW file processing, not organise my files.

Unquote.

If that is your only goal then download Faststone Image Viewer 4.6 - a free download - and use it to browse your images. If you see an image you would like to process then you can set the program to import the entire folder of images but the one you want will be the only one ticked. This is assuming you have already a catalogue in place. Import the ticked image and it will be added to the catalogue and you can process it and save it.

AFairley

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #21 on: December 17, 2012, 09:44:07 am »

Not really much to add to the excellent information given by both John and Paul.
Roy this advice is spot on.

Tony Jay

I will just emphasize that LR is set up so that all photo file management, from cradle to grave is done within lightroom (which includes creating new folders and moving files to a different location).  I understand where Roy is coming from being a longtime "manage files using Windows Explorer" guy, and I pooh-poohed and fought the file management aspect of LR for a long time.  But once you drink the koolaid and do everything within LR (and understand its logic), it is very smooth indeed.  It actually is a lot easier than working in the OS file system once you have mastered the learning curve.  But get a good tutorial, trying to figure out stuff yourself can be a real headache -- as you have discovered.
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Ken Bennett

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #22 on: December 17, 2012, 10:33:36 am »

So, OldRoy, I use Lightroom 4 at work in the same way you want to use it -- that is, as a raw processor only, not as a database. Here's what I do:

I have a carefully constructed file system, with raw files from individual assignments placed in folders. These folders are then opened in Photo Mechanic so I can do the basic editing and metadata - renaming, full captions, and keywords. PM is the fastest browser out there, and its ability to create extensive presets for metadata, as well as the Structured Keywords panel, help greatly speed up my workflow. Once I have added the metadata, I use PM to select the images I want to process.

Then I use Lightroom as my external editor. Simply selecting the photos I want to process in PM, and choosing the Edit command, opens Lightroom to the Import dialog, where I Import the photos into Lightroom. Then I do whatever raw edits need to be made, and then Export the final images as TIFF or JPEG files.

The original folder of raw files is then moved to my server. This of course breaks the connection to Lightroom, but as I am not using the archiving capabilities, this does not bother me. (Yes, I am doing it "wrong." So what.)

So why use Lightroom when I can get the same raw processing capabilities in Camera Raw? Simple - Lightroom offers far more in the way of presets for raw processing and Exporting than CR does. So it's another way to speed up my workflow. When I'm shooting 700+ assignments a year, and processing out 10K+ files for our office, anything I can do to speed up the post production is most welcome.

At home, I use the full capabilities of Lightroom for my personal and freelance work. But I have far fewer images, and they are all on one computer (no server, no laptop), which makes it easier.

Hope this helps.
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Phil Indeblanc

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #23 on: December 17, 2012, 10:52:41 am »

I often open up a current catalog, or during import, and not all the folders open up. I have to force it to "look further".
I have to click some arrows/open some folders on the bottom for the rest to populate. After a couple folders I click open it prompts to add the remaining folders.

Is that what you are talking about?
If so, yes, I think that is a flaw.
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john beardsworth

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #24 on: December 17, 2012, 01:04:03 pm »

At home, I use the full capabilities of Lightroom for my personal and freelance work. But I have far fewer images, and they are all on one computer (no server, no laptop), which makes it easier.
LR works fine with large numbers of pictures - I work with someone with around 450000 in his catalogue.

John
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Ken Bennett

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #25 on: December 17, 2012, 01:14:05 pm »

LR works fine with large numbers of pictures - I work with someone with around 450000 in his catalogue.

True. But it gets more complicated when one has multiple computers and a server full of images (which is not easily accessed from off campus.) So I handle my work archive outside of Lightroom.
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john beardsworth

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #26 on: December 17, 2012, 01:18:59 pm »

I'd say it gets more complicated if you don't manage such things in Lightroom.
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Tony Jay

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #27 on: December 17, 2012, 03:31:45 pm »

I'd say it gets more complicated if you don't manage such things in Lightroom.

I have to agree.

Tony Jay
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JRSmit

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #28 on: December 17, 2012, 04:18:17 pm »

Thanks for everyone's help!

I've been using LR for a good few months so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with it however I still tend to maintain file and directory structure at the OS level and I've never really liked any of the third party utilities that come with almost everything - like PS/Bridge and CNX2/ViewNX for just two examples. I hate being forced to change just to fall into line with an application's concept of how I ought to be doing things. Old fart time. I still do backups using Robocopy scripts.

However there's at least one bug as described above. If you have to remove directories and quit the application completely to be able to import and "synchronise", even if only sometimes, that's a bug. Also I have some difficulty understanding why, assuming you've allocated a root directory to LR, you then have to keep reminding it to "synchronise" in order to include whatever you've just put in it. As for dupes, of course they aren't a good idea in principle, however I sometimes  deliberately create duplicate files for reasons that make absolute sense to me, and not just in backups.

One last thing on the import/synchronise function (I'll omit the quotes: point made, pointlessly or not!) I've noticed that whenever I do it LR always seem to report hundreds more files than I'm currently adding.

The fact that LR4 doesn't display the entire RAW file is a real nuisance too. At least the Olympus software does this automatically - I'd forgotten what aspect ratio I'd set, nominally. Apparently there's a beta plugin called "recover edges", however it only works with DNG. The last thing I need is another file format to deal with.

Roy

roy,

i have been using LR several years now, and i also give training classes. The file/folder problems you describe, and as fas as i understand, i have never experienced other than when trainees try to reimport the same files over and over again, sometimes in different folders. Perhaps it is a good idea to stand back a bit and spend a bit of time on what LR actually does when importing. It is not just file manager like Explorer .
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Ken Bennett

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #29 on: December 17, 2012, 06:29:49 pm »

I'd say it gets more complicated if you don't manage such things in Lightroom.

Nah. I have a pretty good system. Been doing this a long time. Lightroom is a very nice app -- as noted above, I use its archiving system at home -- but it's not the only way to skin this cat.
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schrodingerscat

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #30 on: December 18, 2012, 12:27:26 am »

After using Photoshop, and Bridge, from the PS7 days, it took a bit of head beating to wrap it around how LR works. But as the man said, ya gotta adapt.

I then picked up LL's tutorial "Where the #@* are my pictures", adopted Seth's techniques, and it's gotten much easier. Searching is done directly through LR once you understand how it works with filenames and key words.

Not sure what the ORF thing is. Had a friend demonstrate ORFs from his E3 with Silky Pics, and RAWS did contain a bit of image more around the edges than were visible with LR. Had to access a function called 'hidden pixels' or some such. He wanted to know if LR could also do this.
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john beardsworth

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Re: LR4. File handling completely baffling.
« Reply #31 on: December 18, 2012, 01:32:19 am »

Nah. I have a pretty good system. Been doing this a long time. Lightroom is a very nice app -- as noted above, I use its archiving system at home -- but it's not the only way to skin this cat.
No one said it's the only way, but it's perfectly suitable for the kind of situation you described. Of course, some folk just have bigger brains.
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