My import workflow

I use Lightroom Classic for most things with an occasional use of Photoshop and Radiant for particular purposes. Mostly I work on my Mac desktop, although I also use Lightroom for iPad on occasions.

Initially I import my images from the SD card directly into Lightroom in the desktop folder organised by year and month. This is setup to import the images into my main image folder on the desktop, with a second copy automatically sent to an external drive (also organised by year and month) - as both the desktop and the external drive are backed up to Time Machine, on a second external drive, I effectively have three copies of the images. I then work on the images in the main image folder, so even if I delete an image from that folder when culling new images a copy will still remain on the external drive. For files from the Leica Q2 I automatically apply the David Farkas Laica Q series preset which I feel gives a better starting point than a “pure” Leica RAW file. For all files I automatically add the Keyword “To be completed”. I then have a Smart Collection that holds all images with that Keyword so I can easily find those images I need to finalise. Obviously I remove that Keyword when I have finished the image.

I should explain that within Lightroom Classic I have a number of “Collections” in an hierarchy organised by subject, place, person, subject, etc.

So on import the files are automatically held in the year and month structure, but the current import will also show in “Previous Import” under the Catalogue heading.

I then go through all the images and delete those I obviously will not be keeping (remember a copy will remain on the external drive). I then “link” the files I am likely to keep to the appropriate Collections so that they sync with Lightroom on the iPad.

I then edit the files - deleting any that I missed, or later decide, I do not want. My editing workflow will be the subject of a later post.

Generally this has served me well, although there is an annoyance around how Collections sync to the iPad. For example on the desktop I have a Collection hierarchy structure as follows: Places - UK - Sussex - Eastbourne. If I add another town under Sussex it syncs to the iPad but as an entirely new top level Collection rather than under Places - UK - Sussex, and has to be manually moved.

I should perhaps also mention that I use both Keywords and Colour labels at a later stage to further refine the details of the image. As an example there could be an image of Eastbourne pier which would be organised under Eastbourne. I might also have an image of a pier in another location. I would add the Keyword “Pier” to both so as to enable me to search for all images of piers regardless of the location. I use a Colour label to show where I might have “published” the image - Flickr, Stock Agencies, etc.