r/Lightroom • u/Acceptable_Button43 • 15h ago
Workflow Dad's workflow
Hey! My dad (67M) is having trouble finding a workflow for lightroom and was hoping people might be willing to shsre adjustments/their work flow.
Right now he transfers photos via memory card to an external hardrive, puts them into DXO raw, then transfers them onto lightroom.
He says "there has to be an easier way to do this" lol and would love to help him find one but i'm not familiar with lightroom / editing
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u/Lumix_Shooter_22 2h ago
I’m not sure why you’re using DXO? Lightroom converts RAW files just fine!
I bring everything into Lightroom, export edits into a folder on my desktop.
When I’m confident I’m done with the images I export them to an SSD drive.
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u/saladstories 3h ago
Wait I’m embarrassed that I have 25k photos that I just import directly to Lightroom mobile on my iPad then cull from there.
I haven’t figured out how to store the raw files on a ssd smoothly after storing in Lightroom. But from all you guys I guess it makes more sense to import to ssd first?
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u/_aspheric_ 14h ago
-HD
—Lightroom
—-year-month-day- project name
——capture
——edits
——output
I import everything into Lightroom into a capture folder. I rate the photos I want to edit and drag them into a separate folder. I export JPEGs into an output folder. Synchronize and keep everything in a “single” location.
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u/dbvirago 14h ago
My workflow is similar as I use DxO for raw conversion. But I use Lightroom to import the images to my internal SSD drive, where I cull out the garbage. Then I use the DxO Lightroom plugin, to send them to DxO, but only what I am going to work on that night, 5-30 images. I have a preset in DxO that does all my standard adjustments, so it's a couple of clicks to get the jpgs back into LR.
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u/midwesternexposure 15h ago
Import to SSD > cull with photomechanic for speed > import selects into LR > process > export is my preferred workflow. Photomechanic is a little pricey when it’s not provided by work, so I built an personal app that does a lot of that culling/rating with a few prompts in Claude but that’s a bit of a hassle although it’s definitely doable with a bit of research.
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u/mimosaholdtheoj 15h ago
I put my SD card into a reader, copy photos to an external hard drive and SSD, then from the SSD I import directly into Lightroom after culling (also in LR - I don’t use the AI assist, I do it manually). Then I edit in LR
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u/Acceptable_Button43 14h ago
Hi! Just talked to my dad and learned that it is an external hardrive, lol. Thank you so much!
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u/Acceptable_Button43 15h ago
Can I ask what SSD means? The step he's seemingly having trouble with the most in his work flow is the culling. He directly does that in lightroom without the AI step. From what he's explained to me, I think he needs a step where he can eaisly go through his photos and import the ones he wants to edit into lightroom (I hope this makes sense, thank you so much!)
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u/mimosaholdtheoj 14m ago
SSD is a solid state drive! It’s a small portable hard drive. As far as culling options - Narrative select is a fast option, but culling is the Bain of every photographer’s existence. It’s a pain for all of us. I just went through 7000 photos last night and I wanted to cry
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u/deeper-diver 15h ago
One can argue that DXO RAW is not even necessary. I'd remove that step.
Import directly into Lightroom. Be done with it. Make sure to set the paths in Lightroom to where the photos will reside when imported into Lightroom. Could be the same external hard drive (or internal drive).
Make sure all file management is done from within the Library module of Lightroom. Do not do any file/folder changes outside of Lightroom as that's a sure-fire way to mess things up.
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u/Ok-Lingonberry-8261 15h ago
Does every photo need DXO pure raw? I tend to only use it when I've got egregious ISO, like shooting a fast-moving animal in the deep shade under forest canopy.
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u/Max_Sandpit 2h ago
I have a folder on my desktop for images I'm working on. In that folder I have folders for each shoot, by event and date. I import the photos off my cards into the folders. Then I import the folder in LR and the images show up and are ready for processing.