Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2017/01/05

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Subject: [Leica] IMG: My Struggle to Learn to Use Lightroom
From: photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2017 07:45:29 +0100
References: <445ab695-06af-a506-77f6-13e6ee0f20c6@lighttube.net> <CAF8hL-EP6HBPZ_2UQ61Uvkd4Y6_zzNz2s+UAThFC7JghRrPMdg@mail.gmail.com> <7dfd4f5a-6a0c-d319-e514-3bc8ebb5cd6e@lighttube.net>

Hi Jim,

I am coming late to this thread, but FWIW, here is my workflow. Before 
getting into it, let me say that I like simplicity and hate using more than 
one piece of software. This is why I like LR so much. It is the only piece 
of photo editing software I need. No Photoshop, no specialized RAW 
converters, no special panorama tools etc.?everything I need is in LR. I use 
the standalone version, not the subscription. Also, I only ever shoot RAW.

So, with that, here is what happens to an image from the moment I press the 
shutter till you see it in one of my posts. I will use one of my recent 
Milano images as an example.

1) Take picture. Always RAW.

2) Copy the RAW file to the appropriate folder on an external hard drive 
used only for storage of RAW files. The folder structure on this drive is: 
CAMERA-YEAR. So in this case, the top folder is Leica (since I had the M8 
with me in Milano) and the subfolder is 2016. But of course you can organize 
your RAW files any way you like, as long as you know where you put them so 
that you can tell LR where they are in the next step.

3) Import the RAW file into LR. The LR image folder is on a separate 
external hard drive and is simply organized by year. So in this example, LR 
imports the image to a subfolder of LR Pictures called, simply, 2016.

4) Make my adjustments to the image using the tools available in LR.

5) Move the image to the appropriate gallery within LR. This concept of 
galleries is incredibly useful, and has nothing to do with the folder 
structure on the hard drive. Think of it as a way of organizing the images 
around themes or events or however you wish to define the categories. In my 
case, I have a gallery called ?Alicante life? where most of my images end up 
since I live here and so most of my images are made here. But in the example 
I am using, I put the image in a gallery I created for this purpose called 
?Milano 2016?, which is in turn a sub-gallery of a gallery set called 
?Italy?. I have such gallery sets for countries that I visit frequently, 
i.e. Denmark, the US, the UK, Italy, Germany, France.

The other very useful thing about galleries is that you can assign an image 
to more than one gallery?you are not making additional copies by doing that, 
there is always just one physical file, but you are simply letting LR know 
that a particular image belongs to several categories. For example, I have a 
gallery called ?Cycling? where I keep the images I take while out cycling 
(doh!). So, if I take any picture during my ride this morning, they will 
belong to both the ?Alicante life? and ?Cycling? galleries. When I cycled in 
Mallorca in February 2016 or in Denmark in April 2016, the resulting images 
similarly ended up in the ?Cycling? gallery and in the respective 
geographically defined galleries.

6) Export the image for web publication. In the case of my Milano image, the 
folder to which I export the image is a subfolder of the ?Galleries for 
Frozenlight? folder called ?MIlano 2016?. I similarly have folders and 
subfolders for my weekly blog images, my Greatpix galleries etc. All of this 
irrelevant as far as LR is concerned. As Ken said, it is like printing, a 
one-way activity. Once exported, LR has nothing to do with that JPG file.

7) Upload the JPG file to the appropriate web gallery and post the link to 
the LUG and Oly lists.

Of course, there are backups of the RAW files and the LR files, but that is 
not our subject here.

Hope that helps/inspires.

Nathan


Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws 
<http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ 
<http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator 
<http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
YNWA













> On 06 Jan 2017, at 06:35, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net> wrote:
> 
> Thanks, Richard.  That is the direction I'm heading.  I just need to get 
> comfortable with it.
> 
> Jim Nichols
> Tullahoma, TN USA
> 
> On 1/5/2017 11:29 PM, Richard Man wrote:
>> Jim, for posting from LR, I either export/FTP directory to my server, or 
>> if
>> you are using something like ht eLUIG gallery, first export the image with
>> the correct settings (e.g. maybe 900 pixels across, sRGB color space etc.)
>> to a folder on the disk. For example, I use g:\PhotoExports. I set up
>> "template" so it's just a couple clicks to do it each time. Once you have
>> the exported file on disk, then just upload to your favorite site per 
>> usual.
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 10:22 AM, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> OK, all of you gals and guys are using Lightroom, and it can convert Fuji
>>> X-T2 RAF files, so I need to adapt.  I downloaded the 7-day free trial, 
>>> and
>>> on my second day, I managed to convert an X-E1 RAF file and post a jpeg
>>> image.
>>> 
>>> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/January+Selfie.jpg.html
>>> 
>>> But, I did a lot of chasing my tail in trying to place images in the
>>> Library, and post from there.  That didn't seem to work, so I took a
>>> devious route to place a "real" image in my normal folder, and posted 
>>> from
>>> there.
>>> 
>>> Has any one got a link to a Lightroom tutorial for Dummies?
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Jim Nichols
>>> Tullahoma, TN USA
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



Replies: Reply from jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols) ([Leica] IMG: My Struggle to Learn to Use Lightroom)
Reply from steve.barbour at gmail.com (Steve Barbour) ([Leica] IMG: My Struggle to Learn to Use Lightroom)
In reply to: Message from jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols) ([Leica] IMG: My Struggle to Learn to Use Lightroom)
Message from richard at richardmanphoto.com (Richard Man) ([Leica] IMG: My Struggle to Learn to Use Lightroom)
Message from jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols) ([Leica] IMG: My Struggle to Learn to Use Lightroom)