Workflow Question

[mlphoto]

I routinely take a variety of similar photos of a subject. I usually like one or two the best and develop them in different ways, but want to keep the others as well. I was using the Adobe Photoshop Elements organizer, but need a better cataloging tool. In that program I was able to group my versions (keeping track of my different edits) and also make stacks of similar photos so the catalog didn't become cluttered with multiple similar shots, but they were available for me to review if I decided to. I see that Photo Supreme does keep track of versions, but what would be the best way to achieve something similar to the stacking I did in Elements? I was thinking of marking the ones I'd normally keep on top for album display, then browse the catalog using this view. I'm worried that it would be easy to miss photos doing this and a bit difficult to find the alternate versions if I want to browse them. I'd really appreciate suggestions on this. Versions and stacks are probably two of my most used organizational tools (after keywords), but very few software tools offer it. The Elements organizer is way too slow and the Lightroom interface isn't really built for easy photo browsing.

One other question. I am also having a bit of trouble with the versioning. I've only been trying the software for a short time, so I'm fairly sure I'm missing something obvious. I tried to add other photos to a version group by dragging and dropping, but the GUI indicated that this was not allowed and I couldn't do it. I thought that manual versioning was achieved this way? What am I missing? Thanks for the help.

[lippe]

If you are "developing" your raw images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, you have the option to create "Virtual Copies". This is the best way to keep track of the multiple images you develop from a same image. When creating a Virtual copy, Lightroom will keep track of those images, you can search for them etc. There is no substitution for this in your other software and this method needs the least effort from you.

As "Virtual Copies" are stored in the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom catalog only, they are not available in Photo Supreme or Adobe Photoshop Elements organizer. I don't think, this is a problem as you need Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to do the raw edits anyway.

Once you export those raw images (with and without virtual copies) to an other format like PSD / JPG / TIF / DNG, then you are able to import those images in Photo Supreme or Adobe Photoshop Elements organizer.
The trick is to use a good naming scheme for the exported images that you can use the version detection in Photo Supreme.
(http://manualsu.idimager.com/version_detection.html).

In Photo Supreme, you have the option to use recipe's on those images or use an external editor (Adobe Photoshop Elements) to do further editing. Then use the Save As to create a new image. This allows you to create a new name for the image based on the name + copy N
This new image has imported again (Verify folder) and also the version detection has to run again to get the new image as version. The thumbs will have those black tabs at the side (* , 1, 2, ...)
This takes more effort as in the Adobe Photoshop Elements (organizer) where a created copy has the option to automatically be included in the catalog. (Photo Supreme is missing an important future: a mechanism to automatically create a versioned copy and open this in the external editor!)

Now you can use the bookmark and Color Label in Photo Supreme to mark the images that are finished. (Don't use labels for this as they are intended for the complete version stack) Then do further cataloging like labels/keywords, meta data, etc.

You should consider whether all these extra steps necessary to work with both software packages offer sufficient benefits.

Remarks:
I would advise to manual version images as this takes to much effort.
There is currently no benefit to use the version place holders in Photo Supreme.
The cataloging should been done in one application: Import from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to Photo Supreme. Don't synchronize data in both ways. Keep in mind that you can loose the edits in Lightroom when re-importing an raw image.

Lippe,

[mlphoto]

Thank you for some very useful information. I'll certainly keep this in mind as I refine my workflow. Thanks again.
Jon

[blinkit0]

Lippe,
Are you using LR asart of your workflow? If so do you mind sharing it?

Juan

[lippe]

Juan,

I bought Lightroom primarily for use as a raw converter and to simplify my workflow. It had to replace the old Minolta Dimage Image Viewer Utility and the Cannon Digital Photo Professional software.
I tested Lightroom version 1 and 2 but was not satisfied with the color reproduction. In the end, my workflow so clumsy that I had to do something! Finally, I ended up at Lightroom version 3.6. Some test convinced me that the default profiles were useful. But especially the speed gains by using the presets was decisive. So i started to use it as primary raw converter.

I already used FastPictureViewer Pro for first culling and transfer the images from CF/SD to hard drive. Nothing can beat against this speed: when i am finished with culling, the transfer is ready at the same time!
A possible weakness in this step: when copying, errors may occur . I do not know if FastPictureViewer Pro is doing some control here. I think it's all done purely on operating system level.

From there i used IDimager 5 to transfer the images to an external drive. Also mirroring to the Windows Home server is done in IDimager 5. Then all metadata including the GEO information is entered.

Now in the transition to Photo Supreme. I have to adjust to the new situation and I'm pretty slow in doing that!
Since Lightroom version 4 has this map module I have found it useful to enter the metadata and also doing the rating. So i have to import all those changes in Photo Supreme, the Google of the DAM.
Now Photo Supreme serves as archive database for raw and other images. It is also my offline photo browser.
Lippe,