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Project Workflow
Chapter 9.1
Okay. I lied ever so slightly on page 134. The project workflow
is no longer beyond the scope of The Digital Photographer’s
Notebook. It’s beyond the printed version’s scope certainly.
For-tunately, the world of digital delivery offers the opportunity
to expand Chapter 9.
There are issues inherent in how Lightroom handles deriva-tive
work from archived digital negatives. By default, choosing to edit
a file in Photoshop directly from Lightroom creates a copy of the
file as either a TIFF or PSD in the same folder as the project’s
digital negatives, effectively breaking the archive. If the hard
drive containing the digital negatives and the new files (TIFF or
PSD) fails, the digital negatives (RAW or JPEG) are archived on
DVDs as shown in Chapter 8. All of the edited TIFFs or PSDs are
gone because they were created subsequent to the bulletproof
archive.
The project workflow addresses archiving and managing the
photographs created from digital negatives. I have been using this
system from the very beginning of my digital experience that
started in the early ’90s.
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My thanks go to everyone who has asked for an expansion of
Chapter 9. Our champion of this very good idea and my editor at
Peachpit, Ted Waitt, deserves great appreciation for pushing to
make this “dot release” the reality you are read-ing now.
ShortcomingsLightroom’s supported formatsLightroom recognizes
five basic digital formats: Camera RAW, DNG, JPEG, TIFF, and PSD.
Here’s a brief summary:
Camera RAW files contain all of the data the originating
camera’s sensor is able to record. This data is saved in specific
formats depending on the camera make. Lightroom’s strength is its
ability to process RAW files from almost 190 differ-ent digital
cameras (as of this writing) into DNG or Photoshop-editable JPEG,
TIFF, or PSD files.
DNG or Digital Negative format files are an archival wrapper for
RAW files from digital cameras. Proprietary RAW files can be
converted to the DNG format directly from Lightroom. It is my
strong belief that a copy of the original RAW file be embedded into
the DNG even though it effectively doubles the size of the file.
This ensures that any improvements made by a camera manufacturer’s
RAW processor that requires data not supported in DNG is available.
An example is Canon’s dust mapping feature in its RAW processor,
Digital Photo Professional, which eliminates sensor dust from the
converted file automatically using special information stored in
the original RAW file.
JPEG is named for the Joint Photographic Experts Group and is
used to store down-sampled and compressed camera original digital
negatives. It is widely used to distribute photographs through
email, web galleries, on websites, and in Keynote or PowerPoint
presentations. JPEG files are automatically decompressed when they
are opened. The higher quality settings usually make JPEG
photo-graphs that appear as good as the original to our eyes at
100% magnification on the screen.
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�Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
PSD or Photoshop Document format is the native format for
Photoshop. Import-ing layered PSD files into Photoshop requires
that “Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility” be turned on in
Photoshop’s File Handling preferences. Light-room exports PSD files
in 8 or 16 bits.
TIFF or Tagged Image File Format is as close as there is to a
universal, cross-platform bit map image. TIFF files are recognized
by practically all page layout, photo editing, and photo painting
applications. Lightroom reads TIFF files as large as one hundred
million pixels as long as the longest dimension is less that ten
thousand pixels. Versions of Photoshop from 7.0 and earlier can
only read files that are less that two gigabytes. TIFF files
generated from Lightroom sup-port either 8 or 16 bits.
Photoshop’s formatsPhotoshop supports eight different formats in
16-bit including Lightroom- supported PSD and TIFF (Figure 9.1.1).
It has nineteen formats available in 8-bit including JPEG, PSD, and
TIFF (Figure 9.1.2).
As long as you only use the supported formats for your projects
created from the camera originals in Archived Digital Negatives,
Lightroom is all you need. On the other hand, if a project requires
transparent files for the web they have to be GIFs or PNGs.
Lightroom won’t read them, so it isn’t the best choice for
catalog-ing projects. There are solutions to this problem and they
are dealt with at the end of the chapter. For now I’ll concentrate
on what we’ve been working with all along.
Editing in Photoshop from LightroomAs I mentioned in the intro,
Lightroom creates a problem when you right-click a file and choose
Edit in Photoshop… by creating a PSD (Photoshop Document) for
editing in Photoshop in the same folder as the original RAW
file.
Here’s a closer look at what Lightroom does when it’s asked to
edit a file in Photoshop. You’ll use your own digital negatives for
all of the projects in this chapter so there are no downloads. By
the time you finish these exercises you’ll
Figure 9.1.1
Figure 9.1.2
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� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
have a project workflow ready to handle all of the derivative
files you create from your archived digital negatives. Warning:
Choose only a folder you have processed all the way through using
the Bulletproof Archiving System shown in Chapter 9 in The Digital
Photographer’s Notebook. If the following steps aren’t per-formed
exactly as written, a digital negative can be deleted. Should this
happen, the missing file can be restored from the verified DVD of
the archived digital negatives.
Step oneOpen Lightroom and select the Archived Digital Negatives
catalog. Press Command (PC: Control) + Option (PC: Alt) + 1 to
enter the Library mod-ule. Tap the G key to set the view to Grid
mode. Show the Folders pane and choose the project whose photograph
you will edit in Photoshop. Again, only use a folder that has been
backed up to a verified DVD.
Step twoClick the thumbnail of the photograph to be edited to
select it. In the exam-ple shown here, I have chosen the editor’s
pick of model Ashley Smith for the cover of Atlanta Sports and
Fitness magazine. Right-click the thumbnail
to open the contextual menu, then pick Edit in Adobe Photoshop
CS3… (Figure 9.1.3). The Edit Photo dialog opens with only one
choice available in the first section, Edit a Copy with Lightroom
Adjustments. The other two choices relate to JPEG or TIFF files
that have been imported into the Lightroom catalog. The second
sec-tion presents the workflow options, showing the choice of file
format (TIFF or PSD), color space (ProPhoto RGB [Lightroom’s native
color space], Adobe RGB [1998], or sRGB), the bit depth (8-bits or
16-bits) and the resolution. The “Stack with original”
Figure 9.1.3
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�Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
checkbox places the newly created copy in a stack with the
original in Lightroom. It’s checked by default. Leave it checked
for this exercise. Click Edit (Figure 9.1.4).
Lightroom’s identity plate is replaced with the task bar telling
you that the file is being prepared for editing (Figure 9.1.5).
When the file is ready, the task bar is replaced by the identity
plate. Lightroom hands off to Photoshop with the photograph open
and ready for edit-ing. Switch back to Lightroom and the Library
module’s Grid view. The file open in Photoshop appears in the grid
next to the original. It’s highlighted and has a “1 of 2” badge in
the upper-left corner of the thumbnail. The badge indicates that
it’s part of a stack. Notice that the name of the new file ends in
.psd and the file to its right is the original RAW digital negative
ending in .cr2 (Figure 9.1.6).
Step threeClick on the “1 of 2” badge to collapse the stack. The
Photoshop-editable file now shows a badge reading 2 and the file to
its right is the next digital negative in the sequence. Where is
the original? It’s stacked with the editable PSD file. Open the
stack by clicking the badge or the double vertical lines on the
right-hand edge of the thumbnail (Figure 9.1.7). Stacks save space
on smaller monitors.
Figure 9.1.4
Figure 9.1.5
Figure 9.1.6 Figure 9.1.7
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� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
Broken archive
Here is the beginning of a potentially huge problem. The folder
is no longer the same as it was when it went through the
bulletproof archiving process. It has an extra file that is not on
either the studio or the offsite backup DVDs. The guideline for
bulletproof archives is to have the files in three discrete
locations. At this point the PSD file exists in only one. When (not
if) the hard drive storing the archived digital negatives
malfunctions, it can be rebuilt from the backup DVDs minus the
files Lightroom creates for editing in Photoshop. As more and more
files are created for editing within the Archived Digital Negatives
folder, backing them up becomes a nightmare. This is the “finding a
needle in a hay-stack” problem on serious steroids. Imagine having
to re-burn, duplicate, and verify a folder of archived digital
negatives every time you worked on a photo-graph in Photoshop.
Simply put…backups would never happen.
As it was before…
Before setting up the project workflow hard drive, let’s put the
folder whose archive was broken in the previous section back as it
was.
Step onePull your studio copy of the archived DVD and put it in
your computer. Next, take a look at the actual folder of camera
originals in your Archived Digital Negatives folder on Hard Drive
01 using either the Mac’s Finder or Win-dows Explorer. (On my
system, Hard Drive 01 is named “01 1.4 tb RAID.” It’s a
1.4-terabyte RAID 5 and, yes, I keep my iTunes library on it as
well. Before you ask, it’s backed up too.) The file Lightroom
created is nestled between the RAW file 2424-0124.CR2 and its
metadata file 2424-0124.xmp (Figure 9.1.8). Compare this folder to
the one on the archived DVD. Only
Figure 9.1.8
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�Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
the original RAW file and its XMP sidecar show (Figure 9.1.9).
Now the folder on Hard Drive 01 is not the same as the archived
DVD. This is, to put it bluntly, not good.
Step twoNow that you’ve experienced the problem firsthand, let’s
put things back to right on Hard Drive 01. Here’s the safest way.
Delete the PSD file using either the Finder or Windows
Explorer.
Step threeSwitch back to Lightroom. The stacked thumbnail now
displays a question mark badge. This says, “Lightroom doesn’t see
the file in its expected location.” Of course it doesn’t because it
was deleted in the last step. Choose the PSD file, right-click (or,
on the Mac, Control-click if you are still using a single button
mouse) and choose Delete Photo…. A dialog box opens asking if you
want to delete the master photo from the disk or just remove it
from Lightroom. In this case, there is only the option to remove it
from the catalog. It has already been deleted from the disk in Step
Two. Click Remove (Figure 9.1.10). The stack badge disappears, as
does the orphaned PSD file.
Exceptions
Interestingly, all of the rest of the choices in the Edit In
menu, including RAW digital nega-tives opened as Smart Objects for
editing in Photoshop (Figure 9.1.11), do not create a copy of the
new file in the original folder. Light-room expects you to choose
Save As… from Photoshop’s File menu, then choose a place to save
them.
Merge to Panorama in Photoshop…, Merge to HDR in Photoshop…, and
the Open as Layers in Photoshop… functions also do not create
copies in the folder of camera originals.
Figure 9.1.9
Figure 9.1.10
Figure 9.1.11
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� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
As an editorial aside, it is my belief that the Edit in
Photoshop functionality would work best if it is handled the same
way as the others, without making a copy inside the already
archived folder of camera originals. It is my hope that the
Lightroom development team will make this choice a preference at
some point rather than a forced preset.
The Project Workflow SetupMaybe you wondered why I recommend a
second large external hard drive in the Structure section of
Chapter 8 (page 102), in Figure 8.3, for the temporary back-ups of
newly imported digital negatives. It most likely seemed a waste to
use a whole hard drive to back up a few folders of photos that
would be deleted as soon as the bulletproof archive was run. Here’s
the rest of the plan….
In the previous section, it became clear that photographs to be
edited have to be stored somewhere other than in the Archived
Digital Negatives folder. While it’s possible to use the same hard
drive for the Project Workflow, it makes sense to separate the two.
As you will see, the photographs chosen for additional work in
Photoshop start as exported RAW files. Placing them on Hard Drive
02 is yet another backup of your best digital negatives.
Hard Drive 02 structureIn my workflow, my hard drives are
1.4-terabyte RAIDs formatted to level 5. RAID 5 drives have four
individual hard drives storing the equivalent of the total of three
of the drives. The RAIDs have four 500-gigabyte drives. And as we
all know, the manufacturers round up just a bit. By spreading the
data of three drives (1.4 terabytes total) throughout four drives
(almost 2 terabytes), when one drive fails the other three can
rebuild it. I keep a spare drive handy for the time when that
happens.
My naming structure is a bit different. Instead of calling the
drive holding the Archived Digital Negatives and RAW Files 2B
Archived folder Hard Drive 01, it is
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�Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
named 01 1.4 tb RAID. My projects are stored on 02 1.4 tb RAID.
The 01 and 02 prefixes are the same as your Hard Drive 01 and Hard
Drive 02, content-wise.
Since this dot release of Chapter 9 is advanced, I want to show
exactly how I do the project workflow in my studio for real jobs
and personal work as well. The steps are consistent with the Hard
Drive 01 and Hard Drive 02 nomenclature. The screenshots show my
actual setup on the two RAIDs, 01 1.4 tb RAID and 02 1.4 tb
RAID.
Folder setup
Step oneMake two new folders at the root of Hard Drive 02. Name
one of them Archived Projects and the other Projects 2B Archived
(Figure 9.1.12). (If you think you see some similarity here, it’s
only your imagination…kidding.)
Step twoOpen the Projects 2B Archived folder. Like its
counterpart in the digital negative workflow, this folder is a
holding tank for works in progress. Make a new folder naming it
with the project number followed by a dash, then a brief
description finishing with the words “Working Files.” My folder is
named 2438-ASF Monique Dwyer Working Files (Figure 9.1.13). That
was easy. Wait, there’s more….
Figure 9.1.12
Figure 9.1.13
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10 The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
The power of the project numberThere was a time not so long ago
when most shoots fit very nicely on a CD if one were shooting JPEGs
and on a DVD for RAW files. Today? Well not so much. The advent of
high megapixel RAW captures (12+ MB) and very high megapixel RAW
captures (over 20 MB) often require several DVDs to hold all of the
digital negatives. That means Lightroom will have digital negatives
from the same proj-ect spanning two or more folders. Editing for
the very best photographs from a shoot can be quite a pain when it
spans several folders. Once the DVDs are burned, the temptation is
very high to dump everything back into a single folder for rating,
keywording, and adding detailed metadata. Don’t even think about
doing it. (Computers can read minds. That’s how they make our
digital lives mis-erable. True story.) There is a simple way and a
very simple way to get an entire shoot into one location without
moving a single file.
Lightroom 1.x
The simple solution for Lightroom 1.x is to make a collection.
Here’s how:
Step oneOpen your LR Archived Digital Negatives catalog in
Lightroom. Choose the Library module by tapping the G key for the
Grid mode, then click the first folder of digital negatives in the
Folders pane to highlight it. Hold down the Command (PC: Control)
key and click on each of the rest of the folders for the
project.
Step twoPress Command (PC: Control) + A to select all of the
thumbnails. Next, press Command (PC: Control) + N to create a new
collection. This feature is found in the Library menu. Click the
“Include selected photos” box, then click Create. The new
collection appears in the Collections pane. A collection with all
of the digital negatives can be used anytime for work that requires
all of the files.
The very simple solution is Step One above. Lightroom will
display thumbnails of all selected files in the Grid. Ratings,
metadata, and keywords can be applied by selecting the thumbnails
and applying the data. The downside is that the
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11Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
folders have to be selected each time you want to work with the
photographs as a whole shoot. Collections eliminate having to
select the folders each time.
Lightroom 2.x
Here’s where the project numbers really shine as a time saver.
Lightroom 2 has a new type of collection—the Smart collection. It’s
faster, easier, and you don’t even have to have the folders
displayed.
Step oneClick the + symbol to the right of the Collections pane.
Choose Create Smart Collection…. Fill in a name for the new smart
collection. I always include the project number and the dash. The
example shows the collection named 2438-Monique Dwyer (Figure
9.1.14). The power of the project number is in the two drop-downs
and the text box. Set the first drop-down to Filename, the second
to “starts with,” then put the project number with the dash in the
entry window. Click Create. Done. The Smart collection has all 204
digital negatives in it ready to rate (Figure 9.1.15).
Figure 9.1.14
Figure 9.1.15
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1� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
Exporting digital negatives
Step oneIn Lightroom, navigate to the folder of camera originals
in the LR Archived Digital Negatives catalog containing the RAW
files you want to work on in Photoshop. If the files are already
rated, click the Attribute button at the top of the Grid. The
filter bar opens. Click the number of stars that indicate your hero
images. In my case, three stars are chosen. Only photographs with
three stars and above appear. Click the greater-than-or-equal-to
symbol ( > ) to open the method menu. Choose Rating is equal to.
The symbol changes to an equal sign ( = ) (Figure 9.1.16).
Figure 9.1.16
Step twoPress Command (PC: Control) + A to select all of the
thumbnails.
Step threeClick the Export… button at the bottom of the
left-side panel. The shortcut is Command (PC: Control) + Shift + E.
Setup the Export dialog by choos-ing Specific folder from the
Export To drop-down menu. Click Choose and navigate to the project
folder created in the Projects 2B Archived folder in
Step Two of “Folder Setup” above. Click the checkbox next to Put
in Subfolder and enter the project number, the dash, and the word
“RAW.” This will create a subfolder in the working files folder for
the RAW files.
The RAW files already have names so the File Naming pane’s
Template menu is set to File-name. The Example field displays the
name of the selected file with the lowest number. The File Settings
pane’s Format is Original. Since these are RAW files being
exported, the Image Sizing and Output Sharpening panes are left
closed. Click Export (Figure 9.1.17).
Figure 9.1.17
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1�Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
Hand off to Bridge
The work in Lightroom is complete. The next functions happen in
Bridge.
Step oneClick the Folders tab in Bridge. Navigate to Hard Drive
02 > Projects 2B Archived > 2438-Monique Dwyer Working Files
(you’ll use the folder named for your project). Spin down the
flippy triangle next to the right of the folder to show the folder
2438-RAW. Click this folder to show the RAW files in Bridge (Figure
9.1.18).
Step twoPress Command (PC: Control) + A, then Command (PC:
Control) + R to open the RAW files in Adobe Camera Raw hosted in
Bridge. Make any additional adjustments in Camera Raw that didn’t
get done in the Develop module.
Figure 9.1.18
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1� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
Usually, though, the RAW files are ready for final edits in
Photoshop. I always go back and apply the highest rating to the
shots that have the X-Rite Gray Scale Balance card so there is a
reference for tweaks.
Step threeThe photographs from this shoot have two different
purposes. The exercise pictures will be reproduced about two by
three inches at 300 pixels per inch for an article. The other shot
is for the cover. I want 8-bit TIFF files for the article and a PSD
file with the original RAW file in it for the cover. I’ll click the
blue workflow options link at the bottom of the Camera Raw window
to open the dialog box. The color space the magazine uses is Adobe
RGB (1998). I’ve chosen 8-bits and a smaller size than my camera
captures. The resolu-tion is set to 300. After clicking OK (Figure
9.1.19), I click the first of the workout photos then Shift-click
the last one to select the series.
Figure 9.1.19
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1�Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
Step fourI click the Save Images… button in the lower-left
corner. For the Destination, I choose Save in New Location then
click Select Folder and set the destination to the working files
folder inside Projects 2B Archived. Normally, my working files with
layers are Photoshop PSDs. These workout photos need so little work
that I’ll convert them directly to the TIFF format I choose that as
the format and click Save (Figure 9.1.20). Camera Raw is still open
so it’s on to the cover image.
Step fiveI once again click the workflow options. Now I want the
Smart Object workflow where a copy of the RAW file is the bottom
layer in Photoshop. I check the box next to Open in Photo-shop as
Smart Objects. The color space stays where it is. Bit depth moves
back to my standard 16-bit. I use the native size of the camera and
leave the resolu-tion at 300 ppi and click OK. Finally, I click
Open Object to move into Photo-shop (Figure 9.1.21).
The file opens in Photoshop, showing the color space in the
lower left-hand corner of the document window. The header displays
the filename, viewing magnification, filename of the original RAW
image, the color mode, and bit depth (Figure 9.1.22).
Figure 9.1.20
Figure 9.1.21
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1� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
Step SixThis is the retouching part. I begin by pressing Command
(PC: Control) + A to select the entire image, then Command (PC:
Control) + J to make a layer of pixels from the RAW file sitting at
the bottom of the layer stack as a Smart Object. After editing in
Photoshop, my layer stack shows the work done for the cover. This
gets saved as a PSD file with all the layers intact in the very
likely case that the client wants a change or two. The Smart Object
completes the PSD (Figure 9.1.23). In case I need the original RAW
file, I don’t have to go looking for it. (Even though it’s in the
folder 2438-RAW, this keeps me from even having to look there, not
to mention opening it up in Bridge, making modifications, opening
the file in Photoshop, then dragging the layer into the PSD.
Workflow is about saving time now, isn’t it?)
Figure 9.1.22
Figure 9.1.23
Layer of pixels for editing
Smart Object (RAW file)
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1�Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
Step SevenOnce I’ve finalized the edits, I choose Flatten Image
from the flyout menu in the Layers palette. Next, I go to
Photoshop’s menu bar and choose Mode > 8-bits/Channel. Finally,
I hold down Command (PC: Control) + Shift + S for Save as… and
choose TIFF as the format. Finally, if the client wants a JPEG
proof, I press Command (PC: Control) + Option (PC: Alt) + I to open
the Image Size window, check resample image and change the
resolution to 72 pixels per inch, click OK, then save the result as
a JPEG. Now there are three files in the 2438-Monique Dwyer Working
Files folder: a PSD that has all of the layers including the Smart
Object holding the original RAW file, a TIFF for delivery to the
client, and a JPEG for emailing as well as the TIFF files for the
client. The deliverable TIFFs get placed into a folder that I
archive as well, just in case there is ever a question about what
actually went to the client (Figure 9.1.24).
Figure 9.1.24
Project archivesAs with the RAW Files 2B Archived folder in the
bulletproof digital negative archiving process, the Projects 2B
Archived folder holds works in progress. As soon as a project is
complete, it is moved to a folder that will become a project
archive DVD.
Archive project folders to DVD
Step oneIn the Projects 2B Archived folder, create a new folder.
If you are new to the process, name it “0001.” Move the folder
containing the completed project into 0001. In my example, I am
loading up discs numbered 00835 through 00839.
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1� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
Step twoKeep adding folders of projects to 0001 until it reaches
4 gigabytes or so in size, more or less. Don’t go over 4.3 gigs or
the folder won’t fit on a DVD.
Step threeBurn 0001 to a DVD named 0001. Label it the same way.
My labels show five leading zeros instead of the four I’m now
recommending. That’s because I started this system when compact
discs (CDs) were the only permanent storage media, holding not
quite 700 megabytes. In order not to run out of numbers I started
with five places instead of four. As Blu Ray DVDs holding 50
gigabytes become available, the four-place numbering for discs
makes even more sense. That said, I am already committed to the
five-place system. That’s one disc shy of one hundred thousand. I’d
love to be so busy that I could fill that many project discs. No
wait…if that were the case I wouldn’t have any time to myself.
Never mind. I’m content with knowing I won’t run out of disc
numbers no matter how long I live.
I print two labels using a template I created in InDesign.
Notice that the top label is the studio copy and the bottom is the
offsite disc. Both labels carry the year the disc was created
(Figure 9.1.25). I put the studio disc label on this disc.
Step fourUse the DVD duplicator to make a copy of 0001. Use the
offsite label for this disc. The offsite DVD is always the copy. It
is the one that gets verified.
Figure 9.1.25
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1�Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
Figure 9.1.26
Figure 9.1.27
Archiving project folders to dvds
My projects are archived as I complete the work on them. I want
to share the project archiving pro-cess for several jobs I have
just completed. A look at 02 1.4 tb RAID (my Hard Drive 02) shows
empty folders numbered 00835-00840 with my logo on them (Figure
�.1.��).
Next, I determine the size of each folder. There are two ways to
do this on the Mac and one in Windows. In Windows, right-click on a
folder and choose Properties… to see its size. On the Mac,
right-click and choose Get Info (Figure �.1.��) or click the
list view, then choose View > View Options and click the
Calculate Sizes checkbox. Each folder’s size is displayed next to
it (Figure �.1.��).
Now I pick a set of folders that, when added together, will come
as close as possible to being 4.3 GB in size. The order of folder
or their job numbers doesn’t matter. Lightroom eloquently handles
sorting that all out, as you’ll see.
Figure 9.1.28
(continues)
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�0 The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
The DVDs to be burned have my logo replacing the folder icon.
These folders are opened in list view so you can see their size and
the contents of each one (Figure �.1.��).
Notice that the folder for DVD 00839 only has 2.32 GB in it. If
there isn’t a pending project or the weekend is beginning, I’ll
finalize that folder by burning it to DVD and verifying it. That
way, the offsite DVDs of these projects can go with me when I
leave.
Figure 9.1.29
Verification using Lightroom
By now the process is looking almost identical to the
bulletproof archiving pro-cess for camera originals in Chapter 9.
The concept is exactly the same: Always have three copies of the
work: one on a hard drive, and two verified DVDs with one of them
stored offsite. Lightroom will work to proof archived project discs
as long as you only work with the files it can read.
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�1Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
Step oneLaunch Lightroom, then choose File > New Catalog.
Name it “LR Archived Projects,” then save it in the Pictures folder
on the Mac or My Pictures in Windows.
Step twoOn the Mac, click the Apple logo in the upper-left
corner of the menu bar, then choose Identity Plate Setup… (Windows:
Edit > Identity Plate Setup…). Click Enable Identity Plate.
Next, enter the text “Archived Projects” in the left window. Choose
your favorite font from the drop-down menu and pick the size of the
font. If you don’t see a preset size that works, highlight the font
entry window and enter the point size you want. Alternatively,
high-light it, then tap the up or down arrow key until your
identity plate reflects your, well…identity. The font and point
size can also be set for Lightroom’s modules listed to the right
(Figure 9.1.30).
Figure 9.1.30
Step threeFinally, click the drop-down menu to the right of the
Enable check box, choose Save as… and name the plate Archived
Projects.
DVD verification
The process is exactly the same as it is for archived digital
negatives on page 116 of Chapter 9.
Okay. I know the book is at home by your nightstand, dog-eared
from multiple readings, and you are reading this on your computer
at work desperately strug-gling to get your project workflow going.
No sweat. Here are the steps….
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�� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
Step onePut the offsite DVD to be verified into the computer
running Lightroom 2.
Step twoPress Command (PC: Control) + Shift + I to open the
Import Photos or Light-room Catalog dialog box. Navigate to the
DVD, then click Choose.
Step threeThe Import Photos dialog opens. Set it up this way:
for File Han-dling, select “Add photos to catalog without moving”;
uncheck “Don’t re-import suspected duplicates” because there might
be copies of files of the same name as you revisit projects already
archived; set None for both the Develop Settings and Metadata, and
leave Keywords blank. Finally—and this is critical for verifying
DVDs using Lightroom—choose to render 1:1 previews for the Initial
Previews
setting. This setting forces Lightroom to open each file or, at
the very least read, the composite layer in PSD files with layers.
Click Import (Figure 9.1.31). Lightroom 2 will quickly populate the
Library’s Grid view. Rendering the full-sized previews takes time.
A progress bar replaces the identity plate. It shows a thumbnail of
the image being verified, as well as its name and which one it is
of the total being checked (Figure 9.1.32).
At the end of the import, Lightroom will list any files it can’t
read. To be really safe, open the DVD in Bridge and use Tools >
Photoshop > Image Processor to make a set of JPEGs of those
files.
Step fourMove the verified DVD folders from Projects 2B Archived
to the folder Archived Projects on Hard Drive 02. Store one of the
actual DVDs where you work and take the other one to your safe
offsite location.
Figure 9.1.31
Figure 9.1.32
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��Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
Finding projects
You have undoubtedly already noticed that a project can span
several DVDs. So how does one find that one photograph in a project
using Lightroom 2, you ask? And at the same time, you plead for it
to be simple. I am happy to report that your wish is granted with a
wonderful addition to Lightroom 2 called Smart Collections.
Step onePick a project number. For this example I’ll use 2447.
Display the left-side panel in the Library module. Click the + sign
to the left of the Collections pane, then choose Create Smart
Collection… (Figure 9.1.33).
Step twoName the Smart Collection. I always include the project
num-ber. So this one gets named 2447-Jez Most Eligibles 2008 (Jez
is my short name for Jezebel maga-zine). Leave the Match menu at
its default of “all.” Set Filename in the first menu and choose
“contains” for the second. In the text field, enter the project
number and the dash. If you are working with a low project
number—0010, for example—and you leave out the dash, Lightroom will
show every photograph for project ten, alright, and the tenth photo
from every shoot in the library as well. Not so useful, so always
use the dash. Click Create (Fig-ure 9.1.34).
Step threeThe Smart Collection now displays all of the
photographs that have the chosen project number. This example
displays 80 images, including all the RAW files (and the ones with
the X-Rite ColorChecker Grayscale Balance cards that I used for
fine-tuning exposure and color), the working PSD files, and the
flattened TIFF files I sent to the magazine.
Figure 9.1.33
Figure 9.1.34
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�� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
Step fourLet’s say that the editor calls and wants me to change
the color of the dress in the photo-graph of Corinna. That means I
want to see only the PSD files. In my workflow, PSD files are where
I save the layers. Right-click the Smart Collection and choose Edit
Smart Col-lection…. Click the + to the right of the File-name line
(Figure 9.1.35). A new criteria line appears. Set File Type in the
first menu and “is” in the second. Choose Photoshop Docu-ment (PSD)
for the third. Click Save. Now I see the sixteen working files
(Figure 9.1.36).
Figure 9.1.35
Figure 9.1.36
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��Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
Step fiveLocating the DVD holding an image is easy, really easy.
Simply right-click the image thumbnail in the Grid view, then
choose Show Folder in Library. Lightroom highlights the folder
inside the verified DVD in the Folders pane. The photograph of
Corinna Allen, a reporter for Atlanta’s CBS affili-ate, is in the
folder 2447-Jez Most Eligibles 2008, burned on DVD 00837 (Figure
9.1.37). Since the original folders live on 02 1.4 tb RAID (your
Hard Drive 02) in the Archived Projects folder, all that’s left is
to open the folder in Bridge, choose Corinna’s photograph (number
03-2447-1094.psd), and open it in Photoshop to color her dress a
deeper blue. The prefix 03- was added to the images to set the
order in which the photographs would appear so that the art
director could lay them out in the pages of the magazine. As you
can see, Lightroom’s Smart Collections are smart enough to ignore
that prefix when sorting. Since it isn’t germane to the rest of the
discussion, it won’t be mentioned again.
I know what you are thinking: “Kevin, when you save the modified
photo-graph of Corinna, you’ll break the archive because it will be
different from the one burned to DVD 00837.” And you’re right…if
the newly colored dress photograph was saved back to the Archived
Projects folder. Thing is, just like on the Archived Digital
Negatives folder on 01 1.4 tb RAID (your Hard Drive 01), the rule
is never, ever save anything to a folder with the word Archived in
it. The project workflow requires that a new folder be created in
the Projects 2B Archived folder. In this example, I would name it
2447-Jez Corinna Working Files. When the work is complete, I would
have a new 2447-1094.psd, a new 2447-1094.tif for delivery to the
editor, and more than likely an approval version that was emailed
named 2447-1094.jpg. Once that happens, the folder is moved to the
next DVD in order (00840). When the folder gets close to 4.3 GB, it
is burned to DVD, copied, and the copy is veri-fied in Lightroom.
Once verification is complete, a quick visit to the Smart
Collection shows the additional PSD file of Corinna. Highlighting
the new photograph of Corinna, right-clicking, then choosing Show
Folder in Library reveals that it is on DVD 00840 while the first
version remains on DVD 00837 (Figure 9.1.38).
Figure 9.1.37
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�� The Digital Photographer’s Notebook
The project workflow allows multiple iterations of a photograph
to evolve. Smart Collections automatically update as versions of an
image are archived. Lightroom does a great job of cataloging every
version, no matter how far apart they might be on DVDs or in
time.
Unsupported filesOkay. You are a heavy Photoshop user and never
met a format in the Save as dia-log that you haven’t used. (How did
you get the Dicom files of your lawyer’s brain scan anyway? And
what mischief are you planning for it with the Clone Stamp tool?)
Lightroom isn’t going to directly fill the bill for your myriad
file types.
Cataloging workarounds
While never elegant, workarounds exist because they solve issues
not addressed in a workflow or software. If you use Photoshop file
formats that aren’t sup-ported in Lightroom, the easiest workaround
is to create a JPEG of the file and include it as a placeholder in
the folder. Name the file exactly the same as the original, then
add the three-letter “extension” before the real .jpg extension.
For example, Dicom files use the extension .dcm. So a Dicom image
name would look like this: 0010-0020-dcm.jpg. The first four digits
are the project number, fol-lowed by a dash, then the image number,
another dash, then the .jpg extension.
Figure 9.1.38
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��Chapter 9.1 Project Workflow
An archived DVD containing both files imported into Lightroom
would recog-nize, catalog, and verify the file 0010-0020-dcm.jpg.
Lightroom would report the Dicom file 0010-0020.dcm as not
supported.
Verifying files not read by Lightroom
In order to verify the discs, they must either be imported into
cataloging soft-ware that can read them or you can use Bridge to
build a set of JPEGs from the DVD using the Image Processor (Tools
> Photoshop > Image Processor…).
At this writing, there just aren’t other software solutions that
can read all of the formats. Check that the cataloging software you
are considering will read the files you work with.
Please shareThe project workflow in this dot release of The
Digital Photographer’s Notebook, Chapter 9, is an overview of the
most often encountered situations. The project workflow has been
evolving for the last decade and a half and it seems reason-ably
complete to me and for my purposes. That said, it may not work as
well for you. So here’s the deal. I would love to hear your
observations, comments, and, most of all, questions about workflows
you use, how this one fits in your processes, and what you feel is
missing in this chapter. Email it to me ([email protected]) and
please use “DPN Chapter 9.1” in the subject line so it won’t go
into the junk mail folder. Most likely I won’t be able to answer
every email. I will read them and work to address recurring issues
in the framework of the project workflow in future articles and
books. Thanks; for myself and others, your sharing will help. From
time to time, I will address workflow topics on my blog at
kevinames.com. Until then, keep shooting!
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