Help streamline my workflow with PS, Lightroom, i2e...

DJ-S1

I will be taking lots of baseball shots soon, and I need a faster workflow. I have PS, Lightroom, and I2E (or Image Editor).

I like the import, keywording and cataloging in Lightroom a lot. Also cropping and straightening, but not so much the other "develop" tools.

I like I2E for 90% of my bulk automagic editing needs - it works very well.

I like to use PS for the special images, and the ones that I2E can't handle very well.

I tried a recent shoot by importing into LR with keywords and auto backup copies. Then I ran them through I2E and posted them to Smugmug. That's when I realized that I2E doesn't use the Lightroom files - keywords are not carried over - this workflow isn't flowing.

Any ideas on how to marry LR and I2E properly?

DJ-S1

Seems I missed the "edit in other application" setting. It had only been showing Photoshop previously. I'll give this a try -

DJ-S1

Hmph, it only seems to do 1 at a time, and it "stacks" the modified version with the original. It also creates a copy of the file for I2E to work on. This isn't really what I wanted. Anyone have any ideas?

jfriend

DJ-S1 wrote:

Hmph, it only seems to do 1 at a time, and it "stacks" the modified version with the original. It also creates a copy of the file for I2E to work on. This isn't really what I wanted. Anyone have any ideas?

If you want to make any changes in Lightroom before you pass the file to I2E (crops, brightness, etc...) then Lightroom will have to make a copy of the file before it passes it to I2E. This is because a file with the Lightroom changes applied to it doesn't exist. Lightroom just has the original and a recipe of changes that are dynamically applied to the original when displayed inside of Lightroom. But I2E doesn't know how to understand any of those changes so Lightroom has to commit those changes to a new file and pass that new file to I2E. Otherwise, you'll just be getting the original passed to I2E and your Lightroom edits will be ignored which is probably not what you want either. This will be true, by the way, of any external editing product that isn't from Adobe (at least for awhile).

I don't know about the stacking issue.

DJ-S1

Thanks John - I'm actually not making any changes in LR, just importing. THe import is very nice with auto backup and simple keywording, metadata, etc so I really like using it.

Maybe there's no real way to do what I want - I can either import into LR and edit a copy with I2E, or I can edit with I2E first and then import a non-original file into LR.

I want a little of both!

pat.kane

I want it all as well. It would be ideal if I2E read the XMP files that contain the crop, rotation, adjustments, IPTC, etc. I provided this feedback to CS during the trial period. It seems like it would be an obvious next step for their product.

jfriend

pat.kane wrote:

I want it all as well. It would be ideal if I2E read the XMP files that contain the crop, rotation, adjustments, IPTC, etc. I provided this feedback to CS during the trial period. It seems like it would be an obvious next step for their product.

A few of the adjustments (like crop or rotation) and things like metadata would be easy for external programs to support if the data was documented and available. Other things like slider settings for colored luminance, sharpness values, distortion settings, etc... are not so easy because an external program needs to know not only the setting value, but also the exact algorithm for how to render that setting. With all the new controls in Lightroom and ACR4, there's a lot more stuff to know orfigure out in order to do what you are suggesting. It's doable, but I can sympathize with why it's not easy for I2E to do.

pat.kane

jfriend wrote:

A few of the adjustments (like crop or rotation) and things like metadata would be easy...

That sure seems like a good place to start given that I2E is at its best fixing the rest of the stuff on its own (i.e., image adjustments).

I'm sure over time more and more apps will be able to read the XMP data and put it to good use. The above seems like a great tie in for a product like I2E.