The DAM Book, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9. Lightroom Workflow

Now that we’ve generally outlined the workflow for works in progress, let’s take a look at a concrete example accomplishing those tasks. In this chapter we will see how to pull the levers in a sample workflow that uses Lightroom 2.2. Remember that this is just one example of how you might use Lightroom for your working files workflow—there are many variations, and some will be more appropriate than others for particular photographers.

We’ll start by going over some relevant Lightroom basics, and then see how we can use Lightroom’s tools to support the workflow discussed in the previous chapter.

• Lightroom Basics

• Setting Up Lightroom

• Sample Lightroom Workflow

Lightroom Basics

Lightroom is cataloging PIEware, an application that lets you nondestructively adjust your images and catalog them all in one environment. The rendering engine Lightroom is built on is Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), the same parametric image editor that comes with Photoshop. In Lightroom, the ACR engine is paired with a catalog and output controls for slideshows, prints, and web galleries. Keeping cataloging, image adjustment, and output controls in one program (Figure 9-1) can make things much simpler, even if Lightroom doesn’t perform each function as well as dedicated programs would.

Note

This chapter (and indeed this book) is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to the controls in Lightroom ...