The following is an excerpt from the SLR Lounge Lightroom Workflow System Workshop on DVD, a system designed to increase your post production speed by 5 to 10 times. Click here to view more details.
Introduction
In previous tutorials, we created export presets for print-sized images, web-sized images, unstamped screen resolution images, and rejected images. In addition, we demonstrated how to batch export images in our “How to Batch Export Images from Lightroom 4” tutorial. Now, it is time to archive the images in our catalog. If you have not gone through those tutorials previously mentioned, it is a good idea to do so before continuing with this tutorial. In this tutorial, we will demonstrate how to verify our exported images and remove rejected images from Lightroom 4. In addition, we will go over how to how to archive the images once you have finished exporting them.
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How to Verify the Export
Before we export our images, we need to verify our exported images. In previous export preset tutorials, we set up an export location for our exported images. Open up an Explorer/Finder Window of the folder containing the exported images. In the Explorer/Finder Window, you should see folders for print-sized images, web-sized images, unstamped screen resolution images, and rejected images. In addition, there should be a folder for the original images and a folder for the Lightroom 4 catalog.
Verify Print-Sized, Web-Sized and Unstamped Screen Resolution Images
First, we are going to verify our print-sized, web-sized and unstamped screen resolution images. Make sure you are in the Grid View in Lightroom 4 (press “G”). Then, turn on the Flag Filter. Make sure no other filters are on. The Flag Filter is the first flag in the Filter. Once we have enabled the Flag Filter, only the flagged photos will appear in Lightroom. The flagged photos are the photos we will deliver.
Next, check to see how many flagged photos there are in the catalog. The numbers will be shown above the filmstrip. As you can see below, we have a total of 527 photos but only 163 photos are flagged. This means that these 163 photos should have all been exported out as print-sized, web-sized and unstamped screen resolution images.
Next, go back to the Explorer/Finder Window. Click on each folder for the print-sized, web-sized and unstamped screen resolution images to verify that there are 163 items in each folder. Make sure that there are stamps/watermarks on your web-sized images as well. Below, we are in the folder for our print-sized images. As you can see on the bottom of the Explorer/Finder Window, there are 163 photos in this folder.
Verify Rejected Images
After we have verified our print-sized images, web-sized images and unstamped screen resolution images, we need to verify our rejected images. To do so, go back into Lightroom 4 and turn off the Flag Filter by clicking on the first flag. Then, click on the last flag in the Filter to enable the Rejected Filter.
Next, check to see how many rejected photos there are in the catalog. Once again, these numbers can be found above the filmstrip. As you can see below, there are 363 rejected photos in our catalog.
Go into the Explorer/Finder Window and select the folder for rejected photos. Verify that there are also 363 photos in the folder.
Delete Rejected Photos from Catalog
After we have verified all of our images, we need to delete all of the rejected RAW photos from our catalog. (We highly recommend that you wait to delete these files until you have actually delivered your photos, and the client is happy with them!) Once the photos have been delivered, we finish the archival process by deleting the rejected RAW photos from our catalog. We keep the exported rejected images since they exported as JPEGs, to save space. The JPEG images have been reset out so they are all original, straight from the camera. If we ever need to use these rejected images, they can still be easily processed as JPEGs. Although we most likely will never need these rejected photos again, we still want to keep them as a back-up, just in case.
To delete the rejected photos from our catalog, go back into Lightroom 4 and make sure you are in the Grid View (press “G”) with the Rejected Filter still enabled. Click on one of the images in the Grid View and select all of the rejected photos in our catalog by pressing “Ctrl + A.” Then, right-click and select “Delete Photos” from the dropdown menu. Once you click on “Delete Photos,” a dialogue box will appear, asking you to confirm. Click on “Delete from Disk.” This will remove all of the rejected images in our catalog and we will now only have the 163 delivered photos in our catalog. Again, MAKE SURE you are only deleting your reject files, and not any “keepers” or other images!
When we go back into the Explorer/Finder Window and check the Originals Folder, there are only 120 items. Don’t panic, this is because the 163 photos in Lightroom 4 include a handful of virtual copies, and there are actually just 120 original RAW files.
The Archival Process
After we have verified our exported images and deleted the rejected photos from our catalog, it is time to archive. First, add “Archived” at the end of the folder name to indicate that you have archived the photos.
Then, simply drag that folder to your archival drive and you are done archiving your photos!
Conclusion & Learn More!
The beauty of this archival process is that you do not have to be in Lightroom when archiving. Using the Explorer/Finder Window, you can go into the individual folders and check your images. Then, you can pull your images for web use, print use or slideshow use and you do not have to go back into the catalog. We set up all of those export presets because we have our exported products available in the Explorer/Finder Window and we do not need to go into Lightroom to set up another export preset.
To learn more about the SLR Lounge Workflow System Workshop on DVD or to purchase it, click on this link.
To purchase the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection which includes A-Z Tutorials, the Preset System, and Workflow DVD, click here.
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