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Batch post processing in Lightroom

J

jtvang125

Diamond Member
Do you guys usually just use a single default profile to apply to all photos while importing? What is your workflow like?

I usually find that many pictures need their own unique settings to look their best. But first you gotta sift through them all to delete the bad ones. That's a chore in itself when you have 1000+ photos from a vacation. Then go back and start making the changes. Not fun at all. Which sometimes causes me to put it off for a week or so before touching them.
 
I accidentally set single default profile once by mistake...everything was being imported as black & white.. ugh.
 
I import all without any profile.

Leave the computer and come back 30 minutes later when LR is done with whatever B.S. it does after import.

Then I scan thru photos, deleting ones that I know "have no chance."
When I thumb to one I like, I'll scan forward a few to see what I have that is similar and verify the best of the set - then I'll work on the best.

After working on the best, I continue scanning.
 
I like to use the Copy/Paste Settings options in Lightroom. If you have 10 photos of a fence followed by 15 photos of a single tree, you can edit a single fence photo and copy/paste the settings across the fence photos then do the same for the tree photos. You might want some individual tweaks after that but the copy/pasting gets you 80% there.
 
CuriousMike said:
I import all without any profile.

Leave the computer and come back 30 minutes later when LR is done with whatever B.S. it does after import.

Then I scan thru photos, deleting ones that I know "have no chance."
When I thumb to one I like, I'll scan forward a few to see what I have that is similar and verify the best of the set - then I'll work on the best.

After working on the best, I continue scanning.
Click to expand...

That's a lot of work. If you don't enjoy pp it can become a major chore. I'm finding myself more and more just copying the jpg over wifi to my phone. If there are pictures people want or ones I really like then I'll go back and do some pp.
 
Syborg1211 said:
I like to use the Copy/Paste Settings options in Lightroom. If you have 10 photos of a fence followed by 15 photos of a single tree, you can edit a single fence photo and copy/paste the settings across the fence photos then do the same for the tree photos. You might want some individual tweaks after that but the copy/pasting gets you 80% there.
Click to expand...

Hmm never knew that. I'll give it a try.
 
jtvang125 said:
That's a lot of work. If you don't enjoy pp it can become a major chore. I'm finding myself more and more just copying the jpg over wifi to my phone. If there are pictures people want or ones I really like then I'll go back and do some pp.
Click to expand...

It's not a lot of work to me.
I enjoy the PP process.
When I find a photo I like, I'll spend the individual time to tweak it to my liking - I can't see how a single profile can work for a batch of files.
 
I apply no presets/profiles to import but if I shot professionally and had to import hundreds of photos at once, I likely would.
 
CuriousMike said:
I import all without any profile.

Leave the computer and come back 30 minutes later when LR is done with whatever B.S. it does after import.

Then I scan thru photos, deleting ones that I know "have no chance."
When I thumb to one I like, I'll scan forward a few to see what I have that is similar and verify the best of the set - then I'll work on the best.

After working on the best, I continue scanning.
Click to expand...

When you import your photos into Lightroom, do you have the "Create Smart Previews" option checked? That slows the process down and is unnecessary if you aren't storing your raw files on detached / removable media.
 
I import with no preset. The first thing I do after that is select all of the images I just imported, turn on the Auto Sync function and change the color profile from Adobe Standard to whatever camera profile I want (with my Nikon, the color difference between Adobe Standard and Nikon Standard could be shocking in some circumstances). Then press Ctrl+D to deselect all of the images.

Next I go through the imported files and flag the ones I think I want to process and reject ones I definitely know I won't ever keep (blurry/soft, uninteresting image, etc). Then I change the library filter to Flagged and work on those, removing the flag from any I decide on second pass aren't interesting enough to post process.

From there I should have my selects that I can then jump to the develop tab and start processing. I'll rate some for use in some Smart Collections and discard some that I decide I don't like after some initial processing. Once I'm done processing my selects, I export them in one batch.
 
tdawg said:
When you import your photos into Lightroom, do you have the "Create Smart Previews" option checked? That slows the process down and is unnecessary if you aren't storing your raw files on detached / removable media.
Click to expand...

Holy crap - is that right? I've fiddled with the smart-preview stuff as part of optimizing LR.
I didn't know that they were only useful for detached media. I'm going to have to try this!
 
I use Aperture, not Lightroom, but the process seems similar. I usually go through first and find sensor dust, apply those fixes and then copy them across all the photos from the import. (All of this is doing the copy/paste thing, which is applicable to selections of multiple photos in Aperture.... fix up one photo, copy from it, then paste onto multiple photos)

Next I will group photos together and do some changes to a representative photo from each group. If there are a bunch of indoor photos then chances are they will need similar color correction / etc. Or if I'm outside, but some photos are in shade while others are in sunlight, etc. I make the needed adjustments to one photo and then paste it to all the others in the same group. I will still need to go through and tweak individual images, but since they are already in the ballpark then a lot of them won't need any tweaking. And Aperture keeps the adjustments separate from the image itself, so it's easy to cancel all adjustments and go back to the original image if necessary.
 
CuriousMike said:
I import all without any profile.

Leave the computer and come back 30 minutes later when LR is done with whatever B.S. it does after import.

Then I scan thru photos, deleting ones that I know "have no chance."
When I thumb to one I like, I'll scan forward a few to see what I have that is similar and verify the best of the set - then I'll work on the best.

After working on the best, I continue scanning.
Click to expand...

you really should look into photo mechanic for culling. Loads RAW waaay faster than LR.
 
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