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Author Topic: Tracking Prints Possible?  (Read 3579 times)

ajz

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Tracking Prints Possible?
« on: June 30, 2017, 04:37:21 pm »

Is there a way in LR to track when prints or modifications thereto were made? Many times I will go back to a print or make a copy of the original RAW shot, make a copy, edit, perhaps export to NIK, etc; then print. At times I end up with multiple prints, (copies, Tiff's) of the same image. I would like to track these prints by "date printed". Any solutions would be most appreciated.

thanks bunches,

aj
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2017, 05:02:46 pm »

In the Develop Module, left side panel: History. See screen grab. Tells you exactly when the photo was sent to print.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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ajz

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2017, 05:15:24 pm »

Must be the wine or lack of it!!! Looked all over LR and totally missed it.  Thank you very much. At 76 must also blame old age!

alan z
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2017, 05:29:08 pm »

Sorry Alan, no cigar - I'm 75 - but not to worry - your brain cells are probably all there; it's so easy to miss stuff like this with our applications; sometimes the design is too cute/discrete by half. :-)
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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rdonson

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2017, 09:20:21 pm »

Alan, don't feel bad.  If you'd used the "Search" feature under Lr "Help" you'd never find it either.  Only wizened gurus like Mark know this "feature". 
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Ron

Mark D Segal

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2017, 11:03:27 pm »

Alan, don't feel bad.  If you'd used the "Search" feature under Lr "Help" you'd never find it either.  Only wizened gurus like Mark know this "feature".

Thanks Ron, but "wizened guru" I don't know.......I spend too many hours a day in this application so stuff gets noticed, but there's always more; why Martin Evening can write some ~950 pages between two books on Lightroom - so between reading Martin and playing around with this and that one begins to appreciate how deep it is, without ever knowing for sure what percentage of it one has really mastered in every detail. So yes, Alan, like the rest of us, keep thinking of the ways you want the program to work for you and never feel intimidated about what you may not know yet - you're in good company. We all keep learning new little details as we work along with it. 
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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rdonson

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2017, 10:57:14 am »

Well said, Mark!
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Ron

ajz

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2017, 04:00:37 pm »

Thanks for the positive thoughts Mark.
I knew the print info was around having seen it "somewhere". I usually keep the left pane closed unless checking modifications to the image -and missed the "print" info located there. Even plowed through Martins Book!

 It would be nice if in the Library View Options - Loupe View we could have a "dated printed" to show on each image.

Thank you all,

aj
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bns

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2017, 04:33:20 pm »

I often create a snapshot before printing with date, size and paper in its name. Same if I export to web or somewhere else. Makes a reliable tracer.

Boudewijn Swanenburg

Hoggy

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #9 on: July 02, 2017, 04:31:08 am »

Yep, I too was going to suggest a snapshot.
Also, if doing exports, there is a plugin by JF that will automatically make a snapshot upon export.  I think all his publishing plugins have such an option as well..  I know his Facebook one does.

I looked to see if he had one for printing, but didn't see one during the quick look.  That might likely be due to the LR API not allowing access to the printing module..  Otherwise I'm sure he would have one already. :) 
« Last Edit: July 02, 2017, 04:36:05 am by Hoggy »
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john beardsworth

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2017, 05:14:53 am »

I looked to see if he had one for printing, but didn't see one during the quick look.  That might likely be due to the LR API not allowing access to the printing module..

Correct.

Of course, we should be able to access data in the history panel just like we can use the Library Filter and smart collections to help manage our work. Adobe has been asked many times, but it's never been a priority for them and the only recent progress has been that you can now find images with snapshots (even that was half baked as you can't search for snapshot names).
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pflower

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #11 on: July 02, 2017, 05:22:14 am »

I have the same problem as the OP.  My biggest complaint about LR is that it is not possible to filter or search for photos that have been printed. I hadn't thought about making a snapshot.  But I still don't quite see how a snapshot makes a reliable tracer.  Can you search or filter on the name of the snapshot?  If so how?

My workaround is hugely cumbersome.  I make sure each shoot has a generic keyword (e.g. "Paris") then when I print I add a new keyword - e.g. "Printed A4", Printed A3 etc.  That way I can filter into a smart collection all Paris photos that haven't been printed.  It's not an ideal solution since errors can creep in and also if there are a number of very similar shots only 1 gets picked up that way and you can suddenly find yourself looking at several versions of an image which say that they haven't been printed whereas the preferred version has been.

Still if anyone has a better and more reliable solution then I would be very interested in hearing about it.



I often create a snapshot before printing with date, size and paper in its name. Same if I export to web or somewhere else. Makes a reliable tracer.

Boudewijn Swanenburg
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john beardsworth

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #12 on: July 02, 2017, 06:59:44 am »

As I said, you can't search for snapshot names. What you can do is go to the Library Filter where you can change a column to Snapshot Status, or create a smart collection based on the criterion Has Snapshots. I am not sure that is any better than you already do.

It is a shame because unlike its competitors LR has always recorded this information in History and in collection settings (internally).
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #13 on: July 02, 2017, 08:13:32 am »

Actually, I have a very simple way of keeping track of what I've printed in LR - and in fact the processing status in general of all my photos:
(1) Each photo shoot is stored as a Collection. If it is a multi-day shoot, each day is individually stored within a Collection Set. These collections reflect the organization of my folder structure in Finder (the computer itself).
(2), I give a one-star rating to all the keepers I intend to process.
(3), I use LR's colour tags to immediately see the progress of individual photos within the collection. No colour means I've done nothing to the photo. Yellow means I've processed/edited the photo. Green means I've printed it. This way I can go into any Collection, in the Library panel select the grid view for all the 1-star photos and see what I've processed, what I've printed and what remains to be worked on using the LR preview image and the surrounding colour tag.
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Jeffrey Saldinger

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #14 on: July 02, 2017, 11:36:37 am »

To reply directly to the OP, there was a time I made a keyword for each file printed giving the date it was printed (e.g. "ptd170702") but I came to find it cumbersome to continue to do that.

In my current workflow, every time I “finish” work on a file (i.e., print it and store the print in a box as well as possibly add it to my website), I add keywords to the file to help me retrieve it.

I use kw=“done?” (the “?” because we can always go back and change something!);
I use kw=”boxed”;
I use a keyword to show the paper size of the print, and another keyword to show the image size on that paper;
I use a keyword to show which box among the many I have contains the print in question;
I use a keyword to show that the image is on my website.

Of course, the files have whatever other keywords were appropriate to them.

I print from both Lightroom and Photoshop.  When I make a snapshot in Lr corresponding to the date of the print, the snapshot begins with yymmdd.  When I print in Ps, I make a layer comp (again beginning with yymmdd) so I have a record of the version of the file that was printed.

There’s more to it than this (e.g., my use of smart collections and collections as well as stars and other keywords to show files “in process”) but I hope what I’ve described above helps.
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Chris Kern

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Re: Tracking Prints Possible?
« Reply #15 on: July 02, 2017, 02:10:52 pm »

. . . I use LR's colour tags to immediately see the progress of individual photos within the collection. No colour means I've done nothing to the photo. Yellow means I've processed/edited the photo. Green means I've printed it. This way I can go into any Collection, in the Library panel select the grid view for all the 1-star photos and see what I've processed, what I've printed and what remains to be worked on using the LR preview image and the surrounding colour tag.

I use a variant of this technique.  I always create soft-proof virtual copies, color-code them for quick identification, and save the proof copies indefinitely.  (It's not like they take up any appreciable space; they're just database entries.)  In addition to my manual color-coding, LR by default automagically creates a copy name that includes the printer, paper type, and rendering intent.  The history list for the proof copy shows me what processing parameters I needed to adjust, which gives me a starting point for what modifications to consider if I subsequently decide to print that image on another type of paper.  A smart collection keeps track of all the images I've printed.
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