Need help getting started with CS3 and organizing photos

ShebaJo

Somebody help me :huh please :dunno

I need advice on how to best manage and integrate photos... lots & lots of photos.

I started using PhotoShop Elements when I got into digital photography in 2004. Since I bought LightRoom in February 2007, I have used it as primary tool to upload and edit all photos. I just purchased CS3, it should be here Monday, Sept. 24th. I am getting very nervous!

I have a few hundred thousands pre LightRoom images, most are PSE-5, some 2, 3, or 4. I wasn't quite sure how to integrate them into LR, decided to get CS3 before I did. Most photos are on an external hard drive.

What is the best way to integrate the pics into LightRoom and CS3?

I am thinking that I should transfer pics on my computer to the external hard-drive, reformat the computer since I normally do it yearly as general maintenance.

Then? Install LightRoom and PSE-5, get all pics into LightRoom? Or wait till CS3 comes and do LR & CS3?


PS... if you think I am confused now... wait till I get CS3. PhotoShop scares the chit outta me!

THANKS :bow

arodney

Let LR do all the hard work of organizing, that's what it does best.

When you want to edit in Photoshop, use the Edit in External Editor option, then LR will keep track of copies that may need to be rendered for this work and store them in the database. If you export out of LR, that doesn't happen (although you can import later if you wish).

Dogdots

I'm getting my CS3 next week and I'm not really scared--yeah right . I don't have Elements 5, but have Elements 4. I also don't have Lightroom. I'm hoping I can download my pictures into 4 and then open them in CS3 to edit. I will find out. Gotta ask....Do I really need Lightroom if I have Elements 4?

arodney

Lightroom isn't anything like Elements or Photoshop (Photoshop and Elements are far closer in functionality). LR is a database, Raw processor and has modules for print, web and slide show. LR complaints Photoshop, its really intended as the first step in image processing and organizing as well.

ShebaJo

Dogdots wrote:

I'm getting my CS3 next week and I'm not really scared--yeah right . I don't have Elements 5, but have Elements 4. I also don't have Lightroom. I'm hoping I can download my pictures into 4 and then open them in CS3 to edit. I will find out. Gotta ask....Do I really need Lightroom if I have Elements 4?

I don't know if you need it... but, I really like LightRoom. From uploading pics to basic editing to how pics are cataloged, it seems easier than PSE. Had Adobe not offered the special Elements upgrade to CS3 offer, I probably would have just kept using LR and PSE-5. But...I am not very into post processing, so I am probably not the one to answer this.

I have known for quite some time that there were things that I wanted to do with PhotoShop... but I was chicken, esp. at full price. It is good to meet another person taking the big plunge at the same time. :flush

ShebaJo

Thanks for your info Andrew.

So... you would not bring all pics into CS3 or LR? Just leave them as they are, then if/when I want to do something with them... then bring them into the CS3 and LR? I don't know why, but I was thinking that I needed to bring all pics into both programs.

It seems that I should try and catalog all pics, tag them in LightRoom? Right? That might take forever... so just bring them in as I go through them?

This probably seems dumb... but I have so many images, probably 90% not cataloged, just in folders from Elements. The volume is daunting to me, I should have been better at organizing, but I didn't think much about it till I got LightRoom.

Also... when Elements is installed, it searches for pics on hd, and asks if it should bring them into catalog. Will CS3 do that? Should the answer be yes or no?

THANKS again

arodney

ShebaJo wrote:

So... you would not bring all pics into CS3 or LR? Just leave them as they are, then if/when I want to do something with them... then bring them into the CS3 and LR? I don't know why, but I was thinking that I needed to bring all pics into both programs.

Bring into Photoshop? You would of course open the documents in PS if you needed to edit them using that toolset. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. You 'bring' images into LR to build a database to find them and of course edit them using the LR tools set, which I'll add is really intended for Raw processing.

I place all my Raw images in various folders with specific names. I then import that into LR which catalogs all the images. If I want to process Raw files to other applications like Photoshop, then yes, you export them or use the Open in External Editor option. The Raw data is rendered and that copy is available for use in Photoshop. Photoshop directly cannot handle Raw data (you'd use Camera Raw for that, or in this case, LR).

It seems that I should try and catalog all pics, tag them in LightRoom? Right? That might take forever... so just bring them in as I go through them?

Ideally yes.

This probably seems dumb... but I have so many images, probably 90% not cataloged, just in folders from Elements. The volume is daunting to me, I should have been better at organizing, but I didn't think much about it till I got LightRoom.

Don't use Elements, don't know how it catalogs images. But LR will do this such that you have on application to track all the files, render the Raws, build web galleries and print directly from LR (which is worth the price of admission alone).

Also... when Elements is installed, it searches for pics on hd, and asks if it should bring them into catalog. Will CS3 do that? Should the answer be yes or no?

No. Photoshop doesn't track or catalog images. Its really a one file at a time way of working with images.

Here's my suggestion to get a really good idea of what LR can do for very little money and learn a lot about it at the same time. Go to the Luminous Landscape web site (www.luminouslandscape.com). Drop $25 on the LR video (5 hours) with Jeff Schewe and Michael Reichmann (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=20).

jfriend

But wait, CS3 has some organizing capabilities in Bridge

ShebaJo wrote:

Also... when Elements is installed, it searches for pics on hd, and asks if it should bring them into catalog. Will CS3 do that? Should the answer be yes or no?

CS3 includes a program called Adobe Bridge that it uses for helping you manage your image files. Bridge is not a pure catalog program like Elements and Lightroom are and does not put all your images in one big database.

But, Bridge does have some nice capabilities and I prefer using it for organizing instead of a catalog program that you have to "import" images into. Bridge's model is that it works on a directory of images at a time. It creates an index/cache of each directory that you ask it to view and then gives you some really nice organizational features within that directory. Since I tend to organize my photos on disk into a directory per shoot and I tend to work on a shoot at a time, Bridge works out pretty well for me. Because it doesn't have to "import" my photos, I'm free to reorganize them on disk at any time in any program and Bridge never gets confused like Lightroom or Elements will if you don't reorganize them on disk in those actual programs.

In Bridge, for example, I can be looking at a shoot (a directory) and ask to see only the images with three stars or higher rating. That's one click in Bridge to narrow a directory view to that. Similarly, I could narrow the view to only a small set of keywords. If your photo management needs are largely one directory at a time, Bridge CS3 can work pretty well.

On the other hand, at the extra mgmt step of importing photos into their catalog and being careful not to move them around after that, both Elements and Lightroom can do much more powerful organizing of your images because they are not constrained by any directory or filesystem limitations. They just have all your images and their metadata properties in one giant database. So, you could look at all three star images from some arbitrary time period in Lightroom. While, I could accomplish the same task in Bridge with a hiearchical search and a sort order on the results, it would be both more steps and slower in Bridge.

So, it depends a lot on your needs and desires. I just wanted to point out that CS3 is not completely devoid of organizing capabilities, it's just mostly limited to one directory (or one directory hierarchy) of photos at a time.

ShebaJo

Thanks guys!
Andrew & John...

Your info helps a lot. More than just helping me understand a bit more, it helped me realize that I may be worrying more than I need to...
THANKS

Since I had only used Elements, upon install it auto searches for images, says images have been found, do I want to them in the catalog... I figured CS3 would do that also. HA!

I shoot probably 99% RAW, mostly landscapes, nature. I had just used dates as folder names, then started doing some with area/mountain names. I have a long way to go on photo organizing skills.

I read that all edits in CS3 are automatically updated in LR... so maybe they will do much of what I am not sure of.

Andrew.. thanks for the links to luminous landscapes. I have the free LR download. It would be worthwhile to get the full version. Your info on working between LR & CS3 will be very helpful.

John... After you spoke of Bridge, I re-checked out Bridge via a link on my receipt for CS3. Your info helped me understand it, and it's possibilities. WOW, I like it. There are many features that will be very useful. BTW... when I first checked out the link to Bridge, I thought "what the $%!^" I thought I was buying CS3. I then realized it was part of CS3, but didn't get how useful it could be.


It is fantastic that newbies have old pros like you two that take the time to explain what seems very basic to you. It is very appreciated.

I am not quite as intimidated of CS3 as I was... that may change when FedX hands the box to me.

Thanks again to John and Andrew