Real World Workflow

So I ran into a bit of a challenge on the last job syncing LR tags/adjustments. In the spirit of constant improvement, I figured I’d post it to the forum and see what tips I can glean for the future. (AKA: “There has to be a better way.”) Here’s the basic rundown:

Shoot to Laptop “A”. Backup to external. Photog takes external to edit at night on Laptop “B” (his). I told him to just double-click the .lrcat file on the external – so that all adjustments were logged on the external’s LR catalog. Instead he opened LR and imported the images. So all his edits were in his catalog. (He didn’t want to carry Laptop A with him – just to explain why we didn’t use the obvious/easiest solution!)

The best I could do: I went back to Laptop B, opened his catalog and saved the metadata to xmp sidecars on the external. Then I hooked it up to Laptop A, dragged the XMP’s over manually (shot folder by shot folder), and re-imported the shot folders into Laptop A’s correct LR catalog. But this seemed rather inefficient: having to go into the Finder, select XMP files folder-by-folder, overwrite the old XMP’s on Laptop A, then open the correct catalog and RE-import those folders. For all the little “tricks” in LR, it seems it should be easier. I did notice that just “Synchronize Folder” did NOT pick-up the tags, despite the new XMP’s; I had to remove the folder and re-import.

I figure there’s a good chance someone who’s more savvy with LR (I use it on less than 5% of my jobs) has a better way to solve this situation.

A second, related challenge: Suggestions on how best to sync LR tags/adjustments (meta) over the internet? The same shooter wanted to edit the last day and send me the tags (so we didn’t have to meet up). Since he’d all-but-certainly use his own catalog again, his .lrdata file wouldn’t help me (even if I did have him FTP the entire thing). And I couldn’t count on him being computer-savvy enough to reliably save his meta, copy the XMP’s to a folder to ZIP and send. Even if he could, it just seems wildly too much work. So: over the internet, potentially with 2 different catalogs…best way to sync metadata?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

~Gully

Ahh, Winter. As the leaves fall and the days get shorter the challenge of daylight shooting increases accordingly. Longer exposures and trickier color balances are the norm as the sun rakes it’s lower angle through the sky. I recently had some challenging files to work through and happened across a few new tools in C1v5’s detail tab that I wanted to mention.

For the grumps in the group, the big news is we now have a floating/dockable focus window back, akin to the beloved 3.0 version, and while I’ve grown pretty comfortable with the Navigator tool while zoomed to 100% (in many ways this is a much faster way of working), the focus window is still a welcome addition and sure to warm the hearts of all you 3.7.9 curmudgeons.

The Sharpening tool now has quite a few presets that are good to check out and find your level of comfort with. I personally think the defaults are a little too crunchy, and generally go for something slightly softer on Phase backs. Canons I pull back even more. While many catalog and magazines may say not to sharpen files, I do feel that a little pre-sharpening is a good thing and God knows if I didn’t sharpen for certain clients, we would end up with mush on print. Capture, processing, pre-press; things have changed ever so slightly(!) since digital took the stage.

Onward to Noise Reduction. Here the Luminance and Color sliders do ok, (I’m always looking for a better noise solution that doesn’t resort to smearing the file to eliminate the noise) but the big news is the new “Long Exposure” slider that works surprisingly well, and it’s much better utilizing all three of these tools, I’m much happier with this than I ever was in v379. I think I’ll be using this one a lot more this time of year.

Next is the Clarity, smarity tool: Good for some situations, but really, flag the lens during capture and eliminate flare as it happens. If you get too heavy with this tool you’ll end up with a crunchy contrasty mess. Localized adjustment would be a great thing to have here.

The Moire tool is ok, good even, but I do hope that Phase will integrate LC’s advanced moire tools which were some of the best I’d ever used.

Finally, the Spot Removal tool is cool. Helps clean up those little annoying specks without a trip to PS, but still needs to be taken further with presets and different brush softness and shapes to be truly effective, but I like where this is going. For all of you bitching and moaning, you’ve got to admit that this tool, along with the Focus Mask tool were things we didn’t see coming, and it does show that Phase is working on improving this app, even if it’s not always in the direction we’d like.

So there you have it. The Details tab really does have some nuggets in there that can take a problematic file and make it better. That makes me and my client look better, and that is really what I want out of a raw converter.

It’s amazing to watch seasons, the raking light across the buildings, the color slowly draining away to that grey palette of winter. I find it oddly, weirdly comforting too, a way to ruminate on the passing year’s high’s and low’s I guess. A way to contemplate the future as well.
Much of that future in MFDB land is murky, but on the software side this 5.0 release does have some good stuff worth looking into. I hope you get a chance to check it out soon.