Posted by Darryl Svoboda on December 23, 2010 at 9:42 PM
I just switched over from Nikon Capture NX2 to Photoshop Elements 9 & LR 3 and my question is what format should I save my pic's in.I always shoot in Raw.When I used Nikon CaptureNX2 I saved my Raw photo's on one hard drive & I kept a second hard drive that I kept a copy in jpec. With all the options in Elements 9 I'm not sure which one to use.
Posted by Ed Cordes on December 23, 2010 at 9:48 PM
I save all my images in the original RAW format. If I process an image for print I save it as TIFF and if i process it for the web I save as Jpeg. However, I NEVER overwrite the original RAW file. So sometimes I have a RAW, Tiff and Jpeg all of the same image. Nice thing about Light Room is that they are all kept track of and in the catalogue to search for whenever.
Posted by David Rogers on December 23, 2010 at 10:36 PM
Shoot raw 90% of the time. Convert all raw files to DNG when importing to Lightroom. If I edit in Photoshop I convert and safe as tiff files.
Posted by David E Lester on December 24, 2010 at 8:17 AM
We all do it differently, for me I have the following;
1. Original raw file
2. Copy of original to work off of.
3. Save as a Tiff, without changing size.
4. Then I use the tiff to crop, resize or whatever then save as a Jpeg, keeping the tiff original.
Yea it takes alot more disk space, but that is cheap theses days.
Dave
Posted by Jim Bullard on December 24, 2010 at 9:11 AM
I convert all RAW files to DNG upon import. So far I've found no reason for keeping the original RAW format as well. Anything I process in Photoshop after initial Lightroom adjustment is saved in either TIFF or JPG (maximum quality), occasionally both. Everything is backed up on at least two hard drives.
Posted by Garry Revesz on December 24, 2010 at 11:33 AM
Since I decided last year to focus on building a photography business, the first thing I had to do was re-build an infrastructure to manage the 10's of thousands of images I have collected over the years, that will also handle exponential growth. Aside from hardware requirements, a large part of the process is really thinking through my workflow, DAM (digital asset management), organization, file naming, etc. It's a huge undertaking, but it has to be done; and I'm glad to say that after 8 months I'm almost finished and very happy with the result.
Like David said, this process is different for everybody but there are certain basics that apply to everybody. I will assume that everyone on this forum is more serious about their photography than the average consumer and shoots only in RAW. Like Jim, I also convert all my RAW files to DNG on import (to LR3). DNG's are a little smaller, it's a universal format, and the XMP data is embedded which makes the DNG a nice little package with all the image and colour data of the original. Believe me, after 100,000+ images it will make a difference. Of course, that's backed up, but because LR is a non-invasive app (all edits are in the Catalogue file), there is no danger in messing up your original DNG file. After that, all the derivatives you create will be determined by your photo business requirements, workflow, etc.
From all of my research and reading there is one basic concept I learned that has made a huge difference and helped me structure my system so it really works well and will grow easily. Think of storage and organization as separate functions. Storage is your folder structure, where you physically put files and how you can easily backup and archive those files. Organization, on the other hand, is all handled by metadata, where you can slice n' dice, find, group and sort images every which way you may need at any time from any year, shoot, or whatever. I can find ANY image now in seconds.
As a small example; my folder structure is by year and kept very simple: 2010 Original DNG, 2010 Original JPEG, 2010 Derivative File, and 2010 Delivery Files. That's it. Very easy to backup, archive and restore if necessary. Those same files however, are full of EXIF, IPTC, keywords, Titles, Captions, copyrights. etc. information wherever I need it to find it and stay organized.
Sorry for the long dissertation, but you caught me at the end of a year long process of introspection and long weeks and months of painful computer work (instead of shooting on nice days) before I figured out what I needed to be productive.
I hope that helps
Posted by Darryl Svoboda on December 25, 2010 at 11:25 PM
Thanks for all the help. My main decision was weather to keep my files as Raw or to convert my files to DNG when I Upload to LR. You all have helped alot.
Discussion
6 replies1. Original raw file
2. Copy of original to work off of.
3. Save as a Tiff, without changing size.
4. Then I use the tiff to crop, resize or whatever then save as a Jpeg, keeping the tiff original.
Yea it takes alot more disk space, but that is cheap theses days.
Dave
Like David said, this process is different for everybody but there are certain basics that apply to everybody. I will assume that everyone on this forum is more serious about their photography than the average consumer and shoots only in RAW. Like Jim, I also convert all my RAW files to DNG on import (to LR3). DNG's are a little smaller, it's a universal format, and the XMP data is embedded which makes the DNG a nice little package with all the image and colour data of the original. Believe me, after 100,000+ images it will make a difference. Of course, that's backed up, but because LR is a non-invasive app (all edits are in the Catalogue file), there is no danger in messing up your original DNG file. After that, all the derivatives you create will be determined by your photo business requirements, workflow, etc.
From all of my research and reading there is one basic concept I learned that has made a huge difference and helped me structure my system so it really works well and will grow easily. Think of storage and organization as separate functions. Storage is your folder structure, where you physically put files and how you can easily backup and archive those files. Organization, on the other hand, is all handled by metadata, where you can slice n' dice, find, group and sort images every which way you may need at any time from any year, shoot, or whatever. I can find ANY image now in seconds.
As a small example; my folder structure is by year and kept very simple: 2010 Original DNG, 2010 Original JPEG, 2010 Derivative File, and 2010 Delivery Files. That's it. Very easy to backup, archive and restore if necessary. Those same files however, are full of EXIF, IPTC, keywords, Titles, Captions, copyrights. etc. information wherever I need it to find it and stay organized.
Sorry for the long dissertation, but you caught me at the end of a year long process of introspection and long weeks and months of painful computer work (instead of shooting on nice days) before I figured out what I needed to be productive.
I hope that helps