Managing images and the real reason for photographyModerator: Moderators
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Please ensure that you have a meaningful location included in your profile. Please refer to the FAQ for details of what "meaningful" is. Managing images and the real reason for photographyHow the catalog functions is up to you. You could have a catalog for each shoot or just one catalog for everything and any other option in between.
Just set LR to write the changes to the XMP sidecar file is you're worried about it.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photographyMy two bobs worth now I am a LR expert after a 2 day course
I have been fiddling with Lightroom the last few weeks and after the course I did at the weekend I am now 100% Lightroom. It also uploads direct to Smugmug. It can also easily web sized files and bloody quick for doing proof sheats. The thing that really blew me away was the photo editing options and the import options.
The lens correction alone is amazing, my 20-200 f2.8 II vingettes noticibly at full zoom and like magic LR corrects it.
It also will not carry Camera & Lens data thru like RAW, thanks to Nikon & Hasselblad not wanting to release some of their IP to Adobe as their camera data is encoded. I now love the way LR works, it's very intuitive once you get your head around the basics. Cheers, Bruce
Canon Eos 5D MKII, 16-35mm f2.8L II USM, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM, EF 50mm f1.4 USM. Edit photos OK. http://bruceybaby66.smugmug.com/
Managing images and the real reason for photography
I dont understand this. Why do you need to back up the nef so many times if you edit it ? EM1 l 7.5 l 12-40 l 14 l 17 l 25 l 45 l 60 l 75 l AW1 l V3
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
I don't know how you do your backups, but mine are based on date/time of files and whether a file has been updated. I don't look at each and every file to decide to back up or not, I just let my backup program backup new and changed files. If the nef was updated, it would be backed up at the next backup. Depending on when and how often you do edits, that file may be backed up many times over its life. Further, I would want to have it backed up so I have the latest edits backed up. For me, the nef files are never changed so I only ever back them up once when they are new.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
Or, to put it another way, you will lose your edits if you don't. NX2 rewrites the original NEF file on edit, so the original file has changed. If you don't back it up again, you lose the changes. If you backup on an hourly basis - I do - then you will end up with lots of versions of the one NEF file in the backup. ATJ if you use rsynch for the backup, it has the capability of backing up only the portion of the file that has changed, so the situation is not quite as bad as 20x 30Mb files. BG It puzzles me that you are keen to preserve the edited version (print), but do not care if you throw away the original (negative) You can always do the edits again. It is a bit hard to take the photograph again. Especially if it is your daughter's first birthday party. On thinking about this, I would do the following: Use LightRoom for my files to take advantage of the DAM facilties it offers. Import my back catalogue of NEFs into LR. Write, or in my case get someone to write, a script that detected whether the file has been edited. If it has, fire up NX2, and get it to save a JPG of the final image. Import all the JPGs created into LR and stack these with the NEF (jpg on top) Keyword all of these with √EditedInNX2 as an extra indicator. Continue to use NX2 for editing if that is what you are comfortable with but export the jpg of the final edit to stack in LR. Incidentally this is effectively what happens when you edit in CS5, only it uses a TIFF and does it all automagically. Personally I would make the transition to the LR editing facilities. Greg
It's easy to be good... when there is nothing else to do
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
I don't use rsync. I should add that part of my back up process is on a monthly basis (which means I needed to do it yesterday), I back up all the images I took in the previous month to DVD - 2 sets, one on site, one off site. If I made a change to an image taken in one month in a following month, that process would be messed up. Last edited by ATJ on Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
No matter what DAM you choose, you will be locked into it to the same level as with any other DAM. As in your current process, you are locked in to NX2. I don't see the difference.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
Actually, no I don't think you are locked in to using LR as your DAM. It uses the standard metadata for finding a specific image. Be that keyword, IPTC title or Lens data. If you want to change to a different DAM, you simply use the same data. Yes edits are stored in the catalogue by default, but they can be written to an industry standard sidecar, or Adobe's open standard DNG file if you prefer. And anyway edits are not part of Digital Asset Management. You can also do a bulk export of ALL your photos at any time to any format with about three keystrokes. This will allow you to quickly and easily migrate to a different DAM in the future. Compare this to NX2 where there is no DAM whatsoever, and the edits are stored in a proprietary format that no one else can utilise. so you lose them all if you move to any kind of DAM that is worth the name. You even lose them if you decide to use a different editor in the future. It strikes me that you are fighting this battle simply because you ARE locked into a system already. To complain that you don't want to move to LR because that would lock you in to a (better) system appears to be hypocrisy, or self delusion at best. Greg
It's easy to be good... when there is nothing else to do
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
With the nef files you do not throw away the original, its still there with the edited version, my point is, if something happens and you lose the edits - whilst you can do the edits again, that would be a huge amount of work to complete even on just 1000 images. nefs are non destructive - you can at any point have the original, edited and versions all in the single file, no sidecars no catalogue. if you lost all the edits from your daughters bday party (100 images) would you revisit them and edit them exactly the same 10 years down the track?
agreed, incrementally backing up a catalogue is more efficient than backing up modified nef files.
I am not locked into the CNX DAM, i am locked into the nikon NEF raw file format, just as any other nikon user is.
nefs do that already. I can use win7 search to find iptc tags etc. LR3 would give the advantage of all the neat stuff like lens/focal statistics etc.
how is the catalogue or DNG any different to a propriety nef format? Why is that windows explorer (for example) can display my edited nefs (with the codec installed obviously) but LR cant - put aside any editing issues of LR could merely display my edited nefs I would be happy.
just because LR is the bees knees for you does not mean it is for me, that does not mean i am self delusion. I am not locked in, as mentioned in this thread there are 101 ways I can get my images into lightroom or any other DAM its whether that is gonna suit me and the amount of time I have. The only thing i see myself as being locked into is the nikon nef format, which as a concept and file format I do not mind, as mentioned I really really like the idea of a single file for one photo, not sidecar, no catalogue. gerry's photography journey
No amount of processing will fix bad composition - trust me i have tried.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
Based on your statements in this thread, you are locked into NX2 for your edits. NX2 is the ONLY tool that will let you get at the edits you have done with NX2 and make changes. Yes, ViewNX will let you display them, but you can't change the edits. Yes, Windows Explorer will let you display the JPEG representation of the edits (see below) but you can't edit without NX2.
The windows codec is merely displaying the JPEG embedded in the .nef file and little else. For it to be able to actually display the raw contents, convert it and the edits to something the same as what the Nikon apps do would require Nikon to make the propriety information available - which they won't. Lightroom could display the JPEG data instead of the converted raw data but very few users would want that. As I have already mentioned, you could easily display your final version by creating JPEGs using NX2 and importing them into LR.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
*sigh* I do not want to use another program for editing, I like and am capable with CNX2 - referring to the OP its about management of files, NOT editing the files. I am not locked into the CNX2 DAM, because it is non existent/useless.
sure about that? whilst i agree there are no other programs that allow you to edit the nef the way CNX2 does. However using the codec installed and MS windows gallery I can view the nef files at full resolution, resize and email a jpeg from the program. No does not allow editing, but thats not surprising, it does allow you to add the usual descriptive tags etc. I don't think it is displaying just a embedded jpeg - if it is, its a mighty fine looking jpeg. gerry's photography journey
No amount of processing will fix bad composition - trust me i have tried.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
YES!
Managing images and the real reason for photographySwitch to Canon. It would solve all these problems. Lol!
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
* double sigh! * You have completely and utterly missed the point. You go on and on about LR locking you in but you aren't prepared to admit that you are locked into CX2 for editing. You know what? I was going to go to a lot of trouble to explain things but I realised it is just a waste of my time (and everyone else). It is clear from your comments that you aren't interested.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
please explain to me then how I can open the nef in windows photo gallery and save a full res jpeg? is the the full res jpeg embbed? gerry's photography journey
No amount of processing will fix bad composition - trust me i have tried.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
Andrew, the whole thread is about image management, NOT editing. I know by editing nefs I am locked into EDITING with CNX2, there is nothing to admit. Just because I do not agree with you does not mean:
Since this is apparently a waste of your time and apparently everyone elses - lets do the mature thing and leave it there. gerry's photography journey
No amount of processing will fix bad composition - trust me i have tried.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photographyAs this thread has been going on for some time now, and is beginning to get a little acrimonious, I thought I would go back to the original post & refresh my memory of what was asked in the first place
You havin' a dig at me man???
I use LightRoom 3 for all my current photos. I occasionally publish to Flickr, and even more rarely print them. I am currently looking at printer options as I have deemed my current printer less than adequate. Sometimes I set up slide shows on CD/DVD to mail to friends and relatives. I have basically draw a line in the sand under my old photos as it is just too difficult to find a particular photo that I half remember. My old photos include thousands of slides stored out in the shed, Prints - ditto, and electronic photos that I have failed to label adequately.
(Electronic media)I store them on several external drives. Again this is proving more than slightly inadequate, and I am moving to a NAS storage system that I hope will be a. big enough and b. robust enough to serve my needs into the future. In the past I have used a directory structure to track the photos. This has proved inadequate as I move photos around, and where do I put the photo of Pam that was taken at Muriel's Wedding? I am moving to keywording and LR3 to address this issue more successfully. But it does rely on doing the keywording in the first place. (Solid media) In a rack in the back shed - this is an insulated shipping container - water, air, light and vermin proof. Stored by date order. But jumbled by frequent moves. The boxes are labelled, but still...
I wish.
I can't actually remember when I last looked at all the photos, other than the electronic copies that flash up on my screen saver. I tend to only look at the more recent ones. This is partly because I can't find the older ones. As stated before, I am now using Lightroom to track my photos. It is proving by far the best solution for my needs that I have discovered so far, but it also relies on my due diligence too, so will probably fail in time. Among other things, it can track by date, camera, lens, keyword, location - Geotag or IPTC, and rating. It is not the best editor out there, but that was not your question. It is usually good enough for my purposes though, and can be extended at need. Photos appear to be imported into a catalogue, but that is not really true. Photos are simply stored on disk where you tell LR to do so. The catalogue is simply a container of pointers that tell LR where the photo is. It also contains a copy of the metadata for the photo, and a list of any edits you may have applied from within LR. There is an optional second catalogue that contains thumbnails of the images as processed so that LR does not need to go back to the original all the time. The "thumbnails" can be as large as full size, or can be smaller based on your needs. This means you can take your photos with you on a trip while leaving the originals safely at home. It will also generate slide shows for me when I need them, and manage my Flickr photos as well. In summary, if you want a way of tracking ALL your photos and being able to find a particular one years down the track, then LightRoom is the best answer I have found. This addresses the question in your original post. If you want the best editor out there, and you have found that CNX2 rocks your boat, and you don't really care about finding photos in your back catalogue, then by all means continue to use it, but this does NOT address your original question. Greg
It's easy to be good... when there is nothing else to do
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
Yes, the full res JPEG is embedded. On my D300 the sensor is 4288x2848. The embedded JPEG is 4288x2848. I can do the same thing on my Mac using Preview app and I haven't installed any codecs. There are also numerous programs out there that will extract this JPEG from the .NEF file. Even Exiftool will do this. If you don't believe me, download a copy of Exiftool and use the -jpgfromraw flag on one of your .nef files and look at the resulting .jpg.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
NEF is proprietary. While the basic image itself has been made available to all, there are secrets in there. No one but Nikon can use them. This is Nikon playing a marketing game, not assisting you in your search for a better solution for your photos. Further, you run a real risk into the future that Nikon will stop supporting NEF for the Dxxx camera. There is precedent for this. Both Kodak and Canon have dropped support for some of their proprietary formats. Nikon has a much better track record for old tech support, but the G series lenses are an indicator that this may not continue. There is also the F3 AF system that sank without a trace. DNG, while developed by Adobe, is open standard. Everything within it is available to all. LR Catalogue is NOT a photo format. It is a way of storing information ABOUT a photo, but not the photo itself.
Then why do you keep banging on that LR is no good as it doesn't support your editing system. Yes in the ideal, non corporate world it would, but the fault here is Nikon's not Adobe's You have been offered several workarounds. Why not try them. Or write to Nikon and ask them to add an even better DAM than LR to CNX3, and make you their Alpha tester so you get it early. Greg
It's easy to be good... when there is nothing else to do
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photographyi still dont understand andrew. i have 2 backup locations runnign 2 different programs. genie timeline and WD backup premium. both back up "on the fly" so as im doing whatever im doing it backs up. then if i come back and edit that nef file next week it backs up the modified nef file again over itself, it doesn't duplicate it. so how is that backing up 20 nef files ? then if i modify it again in a years time, again, it backs up to the one nef file. cos its a raw file i can strip it back to raw of all the adjustments anytime i want to without any loss to the original RAW. i hope im not mistaken here...
i think this whole thing of being safe from harm and having untouched files and the rest of that stuff is a bit of a beat up to be honest. we are getting a little paranoid here. this is just about preference. i personally hated LR, i recently gave it another try and i just dont like it. that doesn't mean NX2 is better, all it means is that i prefer it personally. for me its quick, easy and it doesn't fail to do anything i want. LR may and probably is the better program but i could care less cos i dont like it. EM1 l 7.5 l 12-40 l 14 l 17 l 25 l 45 l 60 l 75 l AW1 l V3
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
It depends on how you set up your backup strategy. In my case, I have hourly backups which backup to a new location, so If I edit a NEF once an hour over two days I will end up with 24 copies of the NEF file in my backup folder. This allows me to recover from OOPS! moments. These backups are thrown away after a week as a rolling system to I am not overwhelmed by data. I also run a weekly backup that is kept indefinitely.
Fair enough, but keep in mind they are designed for different uses. LR is primarily a photo managing system. It has some editing capability, but it is limited. Adobe sell another program if you mainly want editing. That is a much more powerful editor. You may have heard of it. It is called Photoshop NX2 is primarily an editing tool. As such, it should be compared with Photoshop rather than Lightroom. While not as powerful, it does have capabilities that PS does not.
Agreed. That doesn't mean I want to lose any of my photos. But I am known as a hoarder. Greg
It's easy to be good... when there is nothing else to do
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
than makes sense and explains why i can view, export and change iptc stuff thru windows explorer or photo gallery.
Greg, I appreciate your comments and the time taken to write them.
Last edited by biggerry on Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
gerry's photography journey
No amount of processing will fix bad composition - trust me i have tried.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
It depends on your backup system - one method is the Mirrored scenario which replicates folder A to folder B - the other is an Incremental system which keeps all the incremental versions up to a certain specified time period usually The advantage of the second and disadvantage of the first is that you get multiple timed snapshots of the folder/files so you can go back to any point in time and get that version (for files which change over time - take a word document for example where you might add and remove stuff over time - you might not want to get back the most recent copy but one from three weeks ago that had that genius paragraph in it that you removed and just can't remember). This leads to another pitfall with the mirrored scenario that a file gets corrupted or just plain not what you want (and you don't notice straight away) and the backup just writes this "unwanted" version as the backup and you've now lost the "good" version (because all the copies are now of the bad file) - with incremental you can hopefully go back past the bad copies and get a good. I use the builtin Time Machine on Mac and it basically does the second - the Time Machine backup has multiple versions of files which have changed over time up till the backup drive starts getting full and it starts throwing away older versions. Obviously the downside of an incremental backup system is: - backup takes much more space - especially with large files which change often - backup software has to be smart enough to find and only backup changed files - here Mac's journaled filesystem helps because a record of changed files is constantly kept by the OS so when time machine goes to do it's thing it doesn't have to traverse the entire filesystem and work out what to back up - in worst case scenario of a recovery of the whole filesystem can take longer because you have to restore the full backup and then all the intervening incrementals - this isn't a problem with Time Machine because of the way it works with a hard linked filesystem but for many "normal" enterprise tape backup systems it is a time consuming issue D600, D7000, Nikon/Sigma/Tamron Lenses, Nikon Flashes, Sirui/Manfrotto/Benro Sticks
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Re: Managing images and the real reason for photographythanks for trying to explain guys, i appreciate it. but i must be just plain dense when it comes to this stuff cos i'm completely lost. it actually pisses me off a bit that i'm lost cos i thought i knew what i was doing, obviously not. my NAS is working perfectly, my secondary WD is working perfectly but i dont want to be living in a fools paradise either. i'm sorry i ever walked into this damn thread. lol
EM1 l 7.5 l 12-40 l 14 l 17 l 25 l 45 l 60 l 75 l AW1 l V3
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photographyAnd if you backup to DVD-R, you can't update the files already written so you'd have to back them up again.
Further, the DVD part of my backup process relies on the .nef files never changing. I backup all the images taken in the last month and don't back those files up to DVD again.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photographyGerry,
I just came across this tool which supposedly manages the disconnect between Capture NX2 and Lightroom. I haven't tried it myself as I have walked away from NX2, but you may find it of interest. http://www.robcole.com/Rob/ProductsAndServices/NxTooeyLrPlugin/ Greg
It's easy to be good... when there is nothing else to do
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
In the interim I have been using/previewing Photo Mechanic which has the ability to view edited nefs (albeit the embedded jpeg) and apply tags and ratings. It also is really, really fast for previewing images (much quicker than windows) and allows a one click to edit the file with then drops me into CNX2. At this point this fills a nice hole for me, however I have also done a few photo sessions exclusively in LR3 which as a program is heaps better than Photo Mechanic (on the surface anyway). At the end of the day all other factors aside, if I can view the edited nefs (even just the embedded jpeg) in LR3 and apply tags and ratings that would suit me fine as a device to catalogue and preview images. That plugin you have referenced looks promising, i will have a crack at it in the coming days. Cheers for the heads up. gerry's photography journey
No amount of processing will fix bad composition - trust me i have tried.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photographyHi Gerry,
Just wondering where you are in this journey? Have you embraced/rejected LR? Have you found a better alternative? Or gone back to ViewNX/CNX? Greg
It's easy to be good... when there is nothing else to do
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
niether, i have used it for a number of sessions and found it quite good, which is no surprise, i know how good it is as a management and publishing tool. The ability to review images across the catalogue against any set of variables, ie lens, rating tag etc is invaluable.
I never left them. I also have never used viewNX.
I have trialled a number of options, including phase ones captureone, fastpicture viewer and photomechanic these are all quite good programs and I particularly found photomechanic quite good to use since it utilised CNX as an editor and displayed the embedded jpeg, it also allowed me to add tags and ratings, however there are some issues with teh ratings between cnx2 and this program. I have had numerous issues with CNX2 recently which I suspect are mostly related to hardare requirements, so for me taking on board a DAM application (which i currently do not have exluding windows explorer + tags + ratings) will wait until i upgrade my hardware. There is a fairly vocal number of people across various forums that have similiar problems to me relating to LR3 and how to deal with previous edited nefs. One pretty straighforward solution which would probably make alot of people happy is to simply have a LR3 option to display the embedded jpeg rather than the raw image for the library side of things. As it is LR3 does display this as an interim whilst the program loads the raw file, ie I briefly see my edited nef file pop up before its replaced by the original raw view, So i guess the functionality is there - I am sure its probably not as straightforward as a check box option from the LR3 developers POV of view but.. I did try the LR3 plugin previously mentioned but did not have any luck with getting it to work, if anyone else has used it sucessfully let me know. gerry's photography journey
No amount of processing will fix bad composition - trust me i have tried.
Re: Managing images and the real reason for photography
Suggest that here: http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop ... as/popular and get the other people that want it to support it (if it hasn't already been suggested, I didn't check). This is close: http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop ... ed_preview Add your vote and or comment.
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