Keeping Track of Image Editing Details?

[KenKovak]

I work mainly in LR 5.6 as my base organizing tool and for most of my post processing. There are times, however, when I would add additional processing using NIK or Topaz software.

My question is how do folks keep track of what they have done to the resultant .tif file that gets saved back into LR? I keep the tif and the raw file stacked together, but that doesn't tell me what I did in Color Efex, for example.

I could do all this external editing in Photoshop and save the layers with a separate layer for the "other" software, in the resulting tif but even that doesn't tell me what I did; e.g what effect or pre-set I may have used.

I could do this with keywords in LR but that seems clunky.

Just wondering if anyone has come up with a goood method or if I am missing something simple?

Thanks
Ken

[john beardsworth]

There's nothing really simple that you're missing.

However, I don't know about Topaz but all the Nik filters can be launched from PS smart objects. Instead of getting a flattened TIF back, you get a TIF with your Nik work as a smart filter (a type of layer) so you can fine tune whatever you have done. You start from LR, Edit With Photoshop,  right click the image layer and convert it to a smart object, then launch the Nik plugin. Afterwards, the layer has the Nik settings and you can just double click it to relaunch the Nik plugin and change whatever you want.

[PhotoEcosse]

Doing what John suggests has an additional advantage.

If, like me, you have a tendency to slightly over-cook the adjustments in ColorEfexPro or whatever, you can make them a little more subtle by reducing the opacity of the layer before taking the image back into LR.

[john beardsworth]

Yes, and other advantages too. You can mask the layer, or copy the Nik effect to another picture in PS (by Ctrl/Cmd dragging the smart filter from one image's layer palette and dropping it in the other picture).

[Hans Kruse]

+1

[KenKovak]

Thanks, Guys.

I had never used Smart Objects so I did some reading tonight. Found several items that show using the Nik plugins as Smart Objects but they all seemed to stack them together in one a Smart Object layer.  You can turn the effect off an on this way as well as revisit your settings. But it seems the only way to adjust the opacity was for the whole layer and thus all the effects at once.

So I played around a bit and forced each effect onto a separate layer, then each effect could have its opacity individually adjusted as well as going back an revisit settings. I assume this is what you all had in mind above.

If there are other better ways please let me know or point me to a description, please.

Thanks
Ken.

[rebadurchee]

By forcing each Nik effect into a separate layer you now lose the ability to edit the Nik effects in that iteration (layer); you can only adjust the opacity of the whole layer.  That's the not-so-good side of this process. 

If I want to keep the ability to re-edit the Nik effect I have to keep the smart object model.  Otherwise I have to launch a second layer of Nik to modify the effects of the first layer, and I don't get to see the 'history' of that first layer.

Also, using the smart object method means that the Nik effects can only apply to the whole image, you can't brush them onto part of the image.

It's all trade-offs.  I'm working with the smart object method because it comes closest to what I really want.

[KenKovak]

By forcing each Nik effect into a separate layer you now lose the ability to edit the Nik effects in that iteration (layer); you can only adjust the opacity of the whole layer.  That's the not-so-good side of this process. 

Rebadurchee,  I "thought" I could go back and re-edit the NIK effects when they were each on a separate "Smart Layer".  Did I misinterpret what I was seeing?

Ken

[rebadurchee]

Ken, I my comment may have gone farther than my knowledge.  I interpreted your comment that you had put each Nik effect into a separate layer.  My experience is that if they are on a separate layer, equal to the other layers, you can't edit the Nik effect.  Evidently what I see when I use the image as a smart object and put the Nik effects on top is what you call a smart layer.  I think it was my misinterpretation of what you said.  My Photoshop chops are not as advanced as I would like.

[howardm]

dont forget you can attach text 'notes' to images in PS and also there is BigNote (by John Beardsworth) for LR.