And here we are … the last part of our series on Folders and Filenames. It’s been quite a journey!
We’ll put the last piece of our workflow in place by discussing how to handle derivative files.
At the end of this post, we’ll offer a download of our structure for stress testing and commentary from all of you out in the field.
For reference, we have broken all sections down to stand alone or as a complete system:
Whether you adopt all four parts into your workflow, or just pick portions that you can make your own, they key is to keep this system simple to implement and even easier to collaborate with should you choose to make this a common system for supporting multiple workflows.
For future reference, you can bookmark the +FOLDERS AND FILENAMES – A PRELUDE post for a nice clean table of contents for all 4 posts in the series.
{note: for complete details on any features described herein please download the Lightroom 2.0 manual or use the Lightroom 2.0 Adobe Live Docs Repository – we love them both! And remember, all tool, panel and module references are always in BOLD for easy reference as you map our workflow to Lightroom}
Handling derivative files
Let’s refresh our memory on derivative files and the dev folder:
dev – includes derivative files (JPG, PSD, etc.) created from content originated in the archive folder
Now let’s look at a fully populated dev folder so we can see just how easily it is to expand our archive folder model to encompass these files.
{figure 11}
Notice jpg_20081001_prada_fall_campaign in the jpg folder? We achieve the creation of this folder and the storing of files within it much the same way we we handled the creation and storing of our source DNG images. In the following example we’re going to use the Export dialog to create derivative files from our source images. We’ll export JPEG’s in this example but we could have just as well exported PSD’s or TIFF’s.
If you export as PSD or TIFF regularly, have a look at one issue you will encounter with Lightroom which we still can’t believe Adobe hasn’t remedied.
Let’s look at how we use the Export dialog to automate most of our exporting and file/folder management work. With a quick Command + Shift + E we can open the Export dialog:
{figure 12}
Just like the Import dialog {see figure 8 in Part 3}, we like to keep things simple and reusable in the Export dialog, and Lightroom makes this easy since it remembers our settings.
- Export to: set this to Specified Folder
- Folder: choose our dev folder for JPEG derivative files, in this case: /dev/2008/jpg/
- Put in subfolder: we’ll store our JPEG derivative files within the dev folder as seen in {figure 11}, new subfolders will be created as you export additional projects to JPEG – we’ll change this location as dictated by our file type (PSD, TIFF, etc.)
- File Naming: accept the default setting for this option, and let our original filename remain as is – this is crucial to making the cross-referencing of derivatives back to original RAW easy and consistent.
- All other options in this dialog we’ll leave as is in this example.
Once our export is complete we have a nice clean set of JPEG’s:
{figure 13}
What if we want TIFF’s and PSD’s of this job as well? No problem! We just go back to our Export dialog, change the File Settings to TIFF and PSD respectively, and knock those out:
{figure 14}
In less than 10 clicks, and the time it takes for Lightroom to create them, we’ve processed hundreds, if not thousands of derivative files for delivery in multiple formats as needed. We’ve also leaned on Lighroom’s ability to remember parameters in our Export dialog to really make our life easy – serious AUTOMATION!
We’ve only just begun …
Well dear reader, it’s been a heck of a ride! We’ve exposed a lot of concepts and practices that make up the core of our system. Now it’s time for your voice to be heard.
Tuck our RSS Feed into your favorite reader for IMMEDIATE updates, or, if email is more your style, signup to receive the x=blog directly in your inbox.
|Brandon Oelling
x=photography+consulting – technology. leadership. commitment.
Check out some related posts!
- Bringing it Home – The Lightroom Import Module – Part 1 of 2
- Print and Onscreen – Color Spaces and ICC Profiles – Part 1 of 2
- Build ‘n Ship – Lightroom Export Presets
- Film to Digital – Scanning Essentials 101 – Part 2 of 2
- Presets and Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) – A match made in Heaven.
- Digital Asset Management – The X-Equals Way – Part 3 of 4
- Digital Asset Management – The X-Equals Way – Part 2 of 4
- Digital Asset Management – The X-Equals Way – Part 1 of 4
- Digital Asset Management – The X-Equals Way – A Prelude
- Virtual Copies … making the commitment
January 9th, 2009 at 4:57 am }
Hi Brandon, I happily just joined de rss-feed ranks. Not doubting your authority on this subject (mine is zero), I kind of dig it but on the other hand I run into a few problems: 1. right now I have a few different cats: stock and clients e.g. I already find it annoying to switch catalogs..is it really mandatory to have a new cat for every client/new shoot? 2. I travel a lot but in the same region for different publishers i.o.w. the same cities are spread over different clients…any better approach in file-naming? 3. in relation with 1. when looking for a file you can only search in one catalog at the time, if i have a new cat for every job, it´ll take me forever to open and search every catalog (lets say over time and i really forgot in what year i shot something).
I think your blog is great! and it got me thinking about my workflow so forgive my bluntness with the above
Cheers
Vincent
January 9th, 2009 at 4:58 am }
ooops another thing, what do i do with the old stuff? any quick way to make the whole archive the same? old and new
January 9th, 2009 at 9:46 am } Twitter: @xequals
#1:
It’s not mandatory to have a catalog per client/shoot. I find for many photographers this works well, although if you want one large catalog this system affords for that as well.
See Figure 6 here: http://x-equals.com/blog/?p=977
In your case you might just have 2 catalogs such as:
/archive/cat/2009/cat_2009_stock
.. and …
/archive/cat/2009/cat_2009_clients
#2:
If you want to explain how you break down those jobs by filename now I could make some suggestions based on those details.
#3:
This is where metadata and keywords come into heavy play for us and our clients. We just search our RAW files for specific keywords. This would be the one time I would ever suggest using Adobe Bridge but it IS an easy tool to use. We just point it at a drive and search.
There are other search tools out there … but Bridge is what we see used most often.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:51 am } Twitter: @xequals
Without knowing your current system, it’s hard to say if a migration would be quick or not.
If you can just use the new system for any new work moving forward, and go back to your old system as needed, you’ll naturally phase out the need to use data or access your old system over time – thus saving you the time and pain of a migration.
I’ve seen some system that are so horrible that we just leave them as is. We’ll just create a folder named something like:
old_production_archive_files
Make that the root of the old system, and move to the new system without migrating.
Food for thought …
January 9th, 2009 at 10:44 am }
Tnx Brandon, Indeed food for thought, my day went into another direction
. My system is like this for #2 and the migration question: in my main catalog I have a few main folders:e.g. weddings; clients; private; personal work; web/bog. The most important one is the clients folder which contains different folders for each client and under each client the folders with the specific jobs. so some clients have 5 folders under them and others only 1. Example: I shot this travel guide for one client and every city and region has its own folder in that client folder. Now another client asks me to do a job in a city (a city as in the former clients folder) now this client has its own folder and underneath is that new folder with that city. City is now spread with different photos over different folders. You are still with me? haha. My stock catalog has basically the same set up and also have geographic locations that are the same as the ones above. On one hand I like to have my clients and their jobs together and on the other hand the locations. The year I don´t find so important, but maybe I see this wrong. One of the few setbacks in LR is to work with all those different catalogs imho. And most important I love to stay in LR while searching, but the more i think about it the less possible it seems. About the migration; stock is still in use and eventually almost all my travelstuff becomes stock. pffff would there be a solution or am I asking too much of you and in general?
Thnx again and hope you can give me your opinion
Vincent
January 10th, 2009 at 2:41 am }
OK Brandon, I think I worked my way out of a few things:
I made new Cat on internal HD called clients2009; on ext HD are the pics.
In LR I made 2 folders: 1.archive_dng ->client->folder w/dng’s
2.processed->client->jpg/psd/tiff. THe naming I use as you suggested in the blog.
Does the above makes sense?
Cheers Vincent
January 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am } Twitter: @xequals
The goal is to keep a shallow folder structure (no more than 5 levels), and to separate source images (in your case DNG) from derivative files (jpg/psd/tiff) – you’re on track.
If you can get the transfer speeds necessary from your local drive to the ext HD so that Lighgtroom performance doesn’t suffer as the catalog grows you’ll be happy with the performance as well.
Thanks for sharing, it’s a nice clean system you are setting up, let me know how it works out.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:48 pm }
Ive gone through and created a hybrid of your arrangement. When you produce the derivative files are they then referenced into your catalog?
What do you do when say you have two derivative files that produce one derivative file. EG I have tried a technique over the weekend taking an exposure for the highlights and one exposure exactly the same for the shadows. So I exported my two DNG files to JPG then in PS combined the two. How do you tackle this?
January 15th, 2009 at 5:51 pm }
I mean those two images end up being the final product, which is what you want to see when scanning through your images. If that makes sense.
January 17th, 2009 at 3:52 pm } Twitter: @xequals
Derivative files are, and can be, exposed in your folder tree in Lightroom as needed.
Whether you export DNG’s into separate JPEG’s or combine them into a single PSD you would just expose the necessary folders in Lightroom’s folder view. Set those folders you want to ’sync’ and you’ll be able to access and edit all your work as needed in Lightroom.
Individual images aggregated into a single PSD will require you to go to Photoshop to edit/view.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:03 pm } Twitter: @mattdonders
Brandon you were extremely helpful in helping me do this. I decided not to do a full migration, but just start a whole new file structure that basically mimicked yours except with a few changes.
My biggest confusion was what to do with my daily photos that I shot everyday and that weren’t for a specific client or for a specific event. I ended up making a folder cat_2009_daily to house all of those photos AND make another folder level under that by YYYYMMDD to make sure I kept myself organized. This new file structure is extremely organized and I feel like I am not lost at all when I go looking for photos.
Thanks again for all your help and these amazing articles. I feel like I would be able to help someone now if they ever felt confused with their photo structure/folder hierarchy.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:08 pm } Twitter: @xequals
Thanks Matt,
I can’t think of a better endorsement of this system!
It’s all about setting up a practical, scalable system that shapes and molds to your specific needs.
I’m glad we hit the mark for you!
April 18th, 2009 at 1:29 am } Twitter: @alanbremner
Hi Brandon
First of all, great blog..thanks for taking the time to share all this great info.
Anyway, I’ve been streamlining my workflow for a few months and am very interested in yours. I don’t seem to be to far off it to be honest. I have a client folder/date folder the a few folders for dng, tiff, jpg etc.
The one sticking point I have is I like the ability to open PSD files directly from lightroom and have them import and stack with the original DNG. Obviously when you do this the PSD gets created in the dng folder which defeats the point of trying to keep derivative files separate.
Do you know if there is there any way around this apart from exporting psd’s and having them auto import into the catalog?
Thanks
Alan
April 18th, 2009 at 10:45 am } Twitter: @xequals
I’ve explored my frustrations regarding creation and placement of PSD’s in Lightroom here:
http://x-equals.com/blog/?p=61
Now you can organize them to be side-by-side with your DNG’s in Lightoom, buy you can’t stack them if they are in separate locations which brings me to yet another point of frustration.
How this helps … if not, drop me a line and we can discuss this in more detail:
http://x-equals.com/blog/?page_id=1677
Lastly, I checked out your portfolio and it’s amazing! Nice work!
March 20th, 2010 at 10:13 pm }
Great work Brandon! Really love what you’ve done and for sharing such a powerful workflow!
I noticed that you’ve sorted your year and filetype for archive and dev in reverse layers (i.e. archive/dng/2009/.. VS dev/2009/jpg/..). Just wanted to know if there is any particular benefit or ease of use that you find in this particular arrangement.
Cheers!
Jon
March 21st, 2010 at 6:32 am } Twitter: @xequals
Jonathan,
This is personal preference on our part. If you want to switch it up by all means!
Our approach:
1. We only work with 2 filetypes in Archive (DNG/CAT) so a primary sort by filetype is all we concern ourselves with and we breakdown by date as needed
2. With derivative files, we export and manage multiple filenames but with varying dates/projects and we are much more data-centric than filetype-centric in this regard.