A quick Lightroom workflow to import photos

Some photography topics for a change. A couple of people have recently asked me how I manage my picture workflow in Adobe Lightroom 1.4 when I want to get my pictures from the camera and import them into Lightroom. Here's how a quick run-down on my workflow.

Firstly, I plug my memory card into my computer (my Canon has a Compact Flash card, currently I'm using a set of Sandisk Extreme III 8 GB cards), and the use a custom .NET application (written in C#, works in 64-bit Windows versions as well) to transfer the newest images to my hard disk into an "incoming" folder. Then, I take a backup copy of the images, after which I move the images into their correct location. In my case, this is the Windows Pictures folder (using Windows Server 2008 currently) under which I organize folders by year, month and date.

The next step is to import the images into Lightroom. With the Lightroom window open, I drag and drop a set of photos from Windows Explorer into the Lightroom window. Most often, I drag a single folder's worth of pictures at a time, as this is the easiest way. Then, I specify common keywords in the Import dialog, and can remove obvious mistake images (very blurry, etc.) at this point. Then, I let Lightroom import the images.

Next, I go to the Loupe view (press E on keyboard to get there), and star t looking the images one by one. The filmstrip at the bottom is easy to navigate with the left and right arrow keys. When I find an image I want to keep in the library, I press P for pick. By the way, by pressing "p", i.e. the small letter, the selection stays in the current image, but pressing "P" (Shift+P) will also move to the next image. So, I end up pressing repeatedly "p, right, right, p, right, p" and so on. You get the idea.

Occasionally, I might also select to ignore blurry, unsharp, etc. images at this point with the X key (Rejected flag). Once I've gone through all the images I've imported, I have some images marked as Picks, some without any mark (those I didn't want to keep), and some outright rejected. Clear and simple so far.

Now, I want to get rid of all the images that don't have a pick mark. To do so, I now choose the Library/Refine Photos command (Alt+L, R), in which case Lightroom will display the Refine dialog box (unless you have disabled it). This command will go through all the photos in the current view (i.e. those photos I just imported in the Previous Import library), and mark all photos without a flag or the rejected flag as rejected. At the same time, all Pick flagged images will have their flags removed.

When refining the selection, Lightroom will also set a filter to display only the rejected photos. Next, I choose the Photo/Delete Rejected Photos command (Alt+P, J or Ctrl+Backspace). Then, I select to simply remove the pictures from the library with the Remove button, and not from the disk. Actually, I never delete photos from my disk, just in case. You never know when you might need an older photos, even though it might be too dark, blurry, or so on.

That's it. In my opinion, a quite effective workflow, and also fast to use especially via the keyboard. I'm happy to use Lightroom, and might even consider upgrading to the 2.0 version. This by fully acknowledging that I previously admitted that I wouldn't purchase any more Adobe products. But let Shadowland be the exception.