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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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Project Workflow · 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

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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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  • � The Digital Photographer’s Notebook

    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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