Software for raw and jpeg workflow

MikeA · #8 11-20-2006, 04:13 AM

Hi Heather,

I can see that sorting by filename is not in the list of options, but I'm not understanding why it's important. As far as I can tell, the files are imported in filename order, and there is a sort option for either import time or capture time. Is the problem something to do with the structure of your filenames, or am I missing something?

Regards,

Mike

Walter_Rowe · #9 11-20-2006, 10:57 AM

Are you saying Lightroom lacks custom sorting after import? That seems like a basic feature every product should support. Too bad. While you may consider Bridge slow, it is very powerful when used in conjunction with Adobe Camera Raw. Bridge lets you sort on lots of things, including filename or capture date. And you can apply the same raw settings to any number of images at once by selecting all of them in ACR. You can also do it from Bridge after selecting them. For example, if you have a sequence of images that all appear to need the same settings, open the first one in ACR and make your adjustments and click "Done". Then highlight the remaining images in Bridge, open the pop-up menu, and select "Previous Conversion". That will apply the most recent conversion parameters to all of the images you selected in Bridge. You can also save different custom settings in ACR, select images in Bridge, and apply the custom settings to the selected images from the Bridge pop-up menu.

DougAxford · #10 11-20-2006, 11:54 AM

Ken & Mike,

We have always sorted by filename only - tried other ways and keep going back. I thought it was because I'm a PC guy and used only one side of my brain.

Any program should allow you to sort the way you want. I'm sure yours will be added some day.

Why sort that way? There is no other way I can better distinguish the exact image from 50,000 using only 5 digits. Longer filenames get truncated on the backprinter after I use the rest of the line for studio identification. Also, there is simply no chance for mis-numbering files.

Sorry I can't help Heather and sorry to butt in on a mac question

Doug

ozarksphotos · #11 11-20-2006, 10:27 PM

Aperture has a powerful sort capability, masters can be deleted. v1.5.1 works great for me. Click here to see some tutorials. Hope they have a topic that interests you, and you can download a full feature trial for 30 days.

HeatherHahn · #12 11-20-2006, 10:30 PM

Thanks for all your help so far. I don't at all want to sound like I'm shooting down your suggestions, and I apologize if it has appeared that way. I'm just being honest about what will and what won't work for me, so I can try to find a program I can stick with for a while.

Here's the issue I'm currently facing. I have images from a recent wedding from three different cameras, two of which did not record the correct date/time (it came up as March 1903 for some reasoon... I have since correctly re-set the camera's date/time!). All 3 cameras were photographing simultaneous events, so in order to get the photographs in order I had to either sort manually (near impossible for a 1500 image event) or find some way to change the date.

I ended up buying a $40 program (a better finder series... for Mac) that allows you to change the creation date of your files. Once I did this for the images in groups of 20-80 images per group (depending on what event they were of) I renamed all the images with the creation date as part of the filename. Then, if I sorted the images by filename, they were in order.

Although this sounds roundabout, it was the simplest way I could figure out to fix my issue. It was still very time consuming and frustrating. I have several other weddings on my computer with the same problem (before I fixed the date on my camera) so I will have to do it again unless I find a better way.

Thanks!

MikeA · #13 11-20-2006, 11:39 PM

Got it. I can see where you are coming from now, having 3 cameras certainly complicates the equation.

So you would have had to get the filenames from all 3 cameras into some sort of compatible filename format so that images from each part of the wedding turn up together when they are all viewed in the same window?

I haven't had to do this, but it seems like a lot of work to do it that way.

I'd probably use the finder to identify groups of shots and drop them into separate folders, forgetting about the filenames altogether. I don't know your setup, but you might have [Church] [Formal] [Relatives] [Reception] [Departure] for instance. Drop the photos from each camera into the corresponding folder. When that's done, I'd then import each folder into a LR 'shoot', making sure that 'Segment by Folder' is selected.

If I have described that correctly, you could then sort by import order when viewing the whole shoot, and the photos should be reasonably in order. If you clicked on 'Church' within the shoot in LR, you would see all the photos from the three cameras taken at the Church. Within each subfolder, things could still be a bit jumbled, but you'd be dealing with a smaller number of images in there, shouldn't be too bad.

You can also correct the time in the metadata panel in LR, so if something was horribly out of order, you could fix it. The killer feature for this in LR is that you can select a bunch of images and change all their times in one operation. And it does affect the 'Capture time' sort order...

As you have identified, fixing the camera date/time, and perhaps synchronising them before each job, would eliminate all of this, as you could just sort by capture time and ignore the different filenames from the cameras.

Hope this helps

Mike.

ChrisPerry · #14 11-20-2006, 11:54 PM

If you shoot Canon try their DPP program (free). At their photoworks site is a tutorial - it does all your asking. I can get thru 1000 images in 2 hours, and that includes cropping (wedding images, so more WB work than some others). It will convert to JPG (or tiff, etc) in the background and you can keep working. It is fast as it doesn't open teh RAW image as a thumbnail, but the embedded JPG. It also some some noise reduction (optional) if you want.

Capture One will so what you want as well from what I've seen.

Pro Photo Store

Visit the B&H Pro Photo Store for the best Gear Prices and regular specials!

Brilliant Color for any Digital SLR
White Balance Cap
The Pros Agree on ColorRight
What People Are Saying