A Better Lightroom Workflow

I recently stumbled across a better and quicker workflow in Adobe Lightroom, at least for me. First a little background and some context. I typically shoot events and weddings with two cameras. One camera (Nikon d700) will usually have a 24-70 lens. The other camera (Nikon d800) will trade off with a 70-200 and a 14-24 lens. After an event I will transfer all the images to an event specific folder on my primary hard drive. I will then use a batch renaming program that will give filenames specific to that event, plus put the images in the order that they were taken (important to have both camera's clocks calibrated). I would then import the images into Lightroom.

Let me stop here and acknowledge that there are ways to import directly into Lightroom and do the file renaming while in Lightroom, but I prefer to do it the way I described above. I am not sure there is any real difference in the time it takes to do it either way, so I have stuck with the process that makes most sense to me.

At this point I go through and do "quick" edits on all the images in Lightroom. In the past I would work on each image in the order that they were taken. I found though that what was slowing me down was bouncing around between images taken with different cameras and lenses. So I started to experiment with filtering the images in Library mode to separate the images based on what lens (and camera) was used. This grouped just the photos taken with let's say the 14-24 lens. When it came to  applying the previous edits to the next photo, I was in a flow with just those images taken with the 14-24, providing more consistently between photos and less time editing.

With my previous workflow, bouncing back and forth between the 24-70 and the 70-200 images disrupted that consistency. In the same scene of a photo shoot, edits I made on an image using the 24-70 were different than ones using the 70-200, especially if I used a radial or graduated filter. I found myself searching backwards for a previous image taken with that lens that I could apply to the image currently before me. By filtering the library of images to just work on those taken with a specific lens, I was able to noticeably reduce my workflow time, and with less headaches.

Of course this workflow only applies if you are using more than one lens when photographing an event.

Another Take On Climate Change

I just got back from a few days at Bethany Beach, De. It was great, particularly the weather. One evening I stood at the crest of one of the dune walkways, providing a nice panoramic view of the beach and the boardwalk. There was a pleasant gentle breeze, no humidity, a slight coldness to the air. It was perfect. In that moment I thought to myself that of all the things I could be worried or concerned about, the very last on my list is global warming, or climate change, or whatever they want to call it now.

Here I was in what is arguably the epicenter of climate change hysteria: a small coastal town. Al Gore would want to shout out to the oblivious "hey, don't you know that in 100 years this town will be under 10 feet of water if we don't do something now!" Actually just 10 years ago the surf did come up to the boardwalk at certain times of the year. So the town took action by building a large dune and then building up the beach with replenished sand. Today, as you can see by the attached photo, the beach is as wide and protected as it has ever been. Man adapted, and man will continue to adapt. Sure, money was spent and the beach will need additional replenishing over the years; but all of this pales in comparison to the billions of dollars some in government want us to spend on programs, studies, actions, etc that carry no guarantee of doing anything beneficial.

Indian River Inlet Bridge: A Few Takes On One Photo