Hi girls, I know some of you are using Lightroom, whether it be for a long time or not. I am taking Kim Klassen courses to get started with the organizing, cataloging, importing etc. 1. At a certain point, she is talking about importing and copying as a DNG format. She says there is a lot of discussion about that and we need to decide ourselves if we make use of the DNG format or not. I googled it, but it hasn't made me anymore sure about what I should do. Can you tell me if you do that or not and why? Thanks! 2. Do you use smart previews? It seems that way, you can work on your photos, even though they are not on your laptop but on your EHD and it's not connected. EDITED WITH A SURPLUS QUESTION (since there are no answers yet, I thought I could - sorry for the typo in the title )
My phone shoots in DNG so I import as DNG. I haven't thought much about it. This is probably more of an issue for dSLR users so I'm not sure I can help. I do use Smart Previews. My pics are on an external drive and I like being able to do some basic editing even if it's not connected. The only reason I can think of not to use them is if you are super low on space on the internal drive.
I do use DNG when I remember to import that way. The DNG files take up way less space and they are cross-platform, meaning that a lot of online photo sites will allow you to load DNGs for backup. I'm not overly consistent about which way I import but I have noticed absolutely zero difference in processing a DNG versus a proprietary NEF file.
Oh, I edit on an iMac and import directly to my machine (I move older/processed folders to an EHD) so don't worry about smart previews. It's a good concept though.
Thank you ladies!!! I'm working through the rest of the classes (my head is about to explode, so I will stop a bit). So I guess DNG is not really bad for you girls. Lorry, can I add an extra question about the smart previews? Can you apply all the modifications you want? And how is it saved? Does it overwrite the originalor makes a new one? For the sake of being clear: I have not learned anything about processing in LR, I'm just beginning with the library.
Smart Previews are not as high-resolution as the actual photo so you can't do any thing that requires zooming in a lot, but otherwise, you can do whatever you want. Most adjustments like white balance, exposure, etc. you don't need to zoom in for, and any tagging and other organizing you want to do you can do. Smart Previews are a separate file from the original photo. Absolutely NOTHING you do in Lightroom overwrites the original photo so you will never lose that. If you want to work with the edited photo, you need to export it from Lightroom. I always right-click the photo(s) I want to scrap and choose "open as smart object in Photoshop" from within Lightroom.
And is the quality then good enough in your scrap page to be able to use it in the photoalbum then? I always have big size 30x30 printed.
I scrap with full-size, not smart previews. The previews are meant to be good enough to do edits, not to replace the need for full-size photos in the end. I'm not even sure it allows exporting from a smart preview.
I prefer DNG - because it is cross platform but ALSO because you can save your lightroom edits and metadata into the dng file. If you use NEF ro CR2 raw formats, lightroom has to save the edits to a separarate file (a xmp sidecar file). When I've finished editing a folder of images I select them all and ask LR to write the metadata to file (photo menu in develop module). It's a great backup.
I took Kim's class too and really didn't understand the distinction either, so thanks for all the explanations! I know what you mean about feeling like your head will explode! So far I really like LR for photo editing but am still scratching my head over a lot of the import process. I bought the extension on her class so I am going to take it again and see if I can absorb more now that I have been working in the program a while.
When I bring photos into LR (I am usually dragging them in from iPhoto) I click on import and I can see they are in the library, but I don't seem to be directing them where they land in the catalog. So I may import a 2014 photo but it randomly lands in the folder for 2013. I have tried opening the 2014 folder under the catalog on the left before dragging but they still land in 2013. I haven't even tried tackling the meta data! TIA if you know what I am doing wrong!
You need to specify the destination on the right side of the import page. The left side tells you where the photos are coming from and the right side tells you where they are going to.
Thanks Molly. I think Kim said that about the import in her class I just need to refresh my memory on that part. I do wish Apple and Adobe played more nicely together!
I actually have been having a fair amount of trouble with PSE on my MacBook Pro. I even upgraded to a SSD and doubled the memory, and PSE still just shuts off every now and then. I wish it were only iPhoto. So far I have not had any conflict with LR, but I will maybe consider not dragging from iPhoto into LR after reading this thread! Thanks.
