Hi,
I just started using PM "in ernest", and this is how I do it:
- use PM to copy the files from card to hard disk, into a temporary folder
- tagging in PM: depending on the purpose of the shoot, I either
a) tag anything I want to keep: e.g. if I'm supposed to do a slideshow right afterwards
b) tag anything I want to discard: if I shot "for keeps" and not just "for the day"
- select "show tagged only":
if a), then use them (e.g. slideshow or export for a quick web gallery)
if b), then delete all
* Up until here it does not matter if I did the editing at home or on my laptop "on the road". My Lightroom catalog can only be accessed from home. That's where the "temporary" storage of PM comes in handy.
Now I either have a clean folder (without throw-aways, case b) or I'm done already (case a).
- for case b), I import the remaining folder into Lightroom using "copy to catalog". Here I fill in metadata, you might want to select "copy as DNG". (I do metadata and classify in Lightroom only because I don't want to maintain two different sets of characteristics and tag words.)
My Lightroom catalog-imagesource (not the catalog itself) is on a network drive, so the "copy" instead of "add" makes sense.
- Finally, I delete the temporary folder on the local hard disk. (It may be my laptop with very limited internal storage, so keeping the temps there is not an option.)
With this flow, I can do everything:
- work at home or on the road
- use PM to do a fast first-select (not possible in Lightroom, especially on the laptop)
- use Lightroom as long-time-storage, individual editing (including hand-off to plugins or Photoshop if needed) and cataloging
- before importing into Lightroom, I can let loose some batch-processing (like DxO Optics Pro) on the folder. If I did that from Lightroom, I would end up with two versions of the file in my catalog. This way, I can decide if I want to import the processed folder, the original folder or both. Of course, this depends heavily on the type of the shoot.
Long road for an image file to travel. But in practice, it's surprisingly quick.
Regards
