My Lightroom Workflow

by Steve Eshom

As with everything I do, I always seem to keep refining my work flow as I learn new things or become dissatisfied with existing processes. My Lightroom work flow is no different. For now though I’ve settled on the following process that takes me from import to final product.

I. Import - I use Adobe Photoshop Elements Organizer as my primary media browser so when I import I import my images into it.

1. On initial import assign an Event (synonym for a shoot)
2. Assign location, engine numbers, people’s names, and captions to my images as time permits

II. Editing (Lightroom 1.1 Library)

1. Import selected images into LR
2. Assign image to a Collection of the same name as the Organizer Event
3. Use Library features (ratings, quick collections, slide shows) to find best images

III. Editing (Lightroom 1.1 Develop) - (every photo is different, so steps below are for the most part used every time)

1. Capture Sharpen
2. Set White Balance (either through dropper or Temp/Tint sliders)
3. Set Blacks
4. Set Clarity
5. Crop/Straigten(varies)
6. Clone/Heal(varies)
7. Set Tone Curve (varies)
8. Set HSL (varies)
9. Set Vibrance (varies)
10. Set Noise Reduction (varies)

IV. Export (Lightroom 1.1 Library) - (I’ve created presets for all my normal output formats)

1. Export will convert from ProPhoto RGB color space to RGB
2. In the export dialog chose the output size
3. In the export dialog chose to open in Elements

V. Edit in Elements

1. Apply edits as necessary. Generally this is limited to adding a standard copyright notice.
2. Final sharpen
3. Save

Simple….

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 10:13 pm and is filed under photo technique. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.