Another couple Q's about what to do with RAW files

So, I am not opposed to shooting/editing RAW files. It's just that this is a hobby for me. Most of the time I go out and shoot 100 or so shots of my family or whatever. Then I may toss 50 or so leaving me with 50 that I'll keep around, 10 of which I'll process because they are what I would consider "keepers" or maybe even print worthy. My question is this...What the heck do people like myself do with all those "non print worthy" RAW files that you don't want to throw out? Do you just take them into LR (or whatever converter you use) convert them to jpeg so that you can at least look at them from time to time?

My other thought was to shoot RAW/Jpeg, toss all the RAW files that I don't intend to edit and keep the Jpegs just for browsing. Then edit the RAW files that I might print. Then I noticed that LR must only recognize the RAW file. Is that correct? It only gives me an option to import the RAW file. It isn't until I delete the RAW that I have the option to import the jpeg. I'm still trying to figure out my workflow and can't help but think that I am cheating myself by not at least having the RAW around for a chance at getting the most out of an image. Thanks for any suggestions or comments.

I just import that RAW files into lightroom delete what needs deleting, process what I want to and leave the rest of the raw files in my catalog untouched. I don't export them to jpeg.

You never know what you are going to want later on. Why not save the RAW files instead of the jpegs?

dalto wrote in post #12406365
You never know what you are going to want later on. Why not save the RAW files instead of the jpegs?

Well, how do you share/browse on your HD/email/flickr photos that are in RAW format? These might not be shots I care to process very much. Do I just convert them and send them on their way?

So, here is another question...I keep all files on an external HD. If I import them all to LR and keep them in there (whether in a catalog or just the folder they went into), process what I want, export it and leave the rest in there, those left in LR aren't eating up HD space are they?

idsurfer if you are using LR3 check out the "Publish Services" option.
You can set up accounts to upload any of your photos, ie; Flickr, Facebook, email, etc...etc....

I keep Raw images only.
If there is something I want to look at, a lot, I print it and hang it on the wall.

Don J

DoninIA wrote in post #12406460
If there is something I want to look at, a lot, I print it and hang it on the wall.

Don J

Me to! Thanks...I think I have answered some of my own ?'s over the last hour. It's just that I have yet to really determine the most efficient organization/workflow deal that is going to work for me. Thanks for your input.

idsurfer wrote in post #12406399
Well, how do you share/browse on your HD/email/flickr photos that are in RAW format? These might not be shots I care to process very much. Do I just convert them and send them on their way?

As DoninIA pointed out there are a lot of publish options in lightroom that will take care of this for you. However, my feeling is that anything I export out of lightroom is disposable. So if I wasn't using the built-in lightroom publish stuff and wanted to export some photos to attach to this post I would export them upload them and then delete the exports. (In practice I have an exports folder and I just delete it occasionally, I don't actually delete the jpeg's right away.

idsurfer wrote in post #12406399
So, here is another question...I keep all files on an external HD. If I import them all to LR and keep them in there (whether in a catalog or just the folder they went into), process what I want, export it and leave the rest in there, those left in LR aren't eating up HD space are they?

So, I am not sure I entirely follow your question but basically here is how it works. Your raw files have to exist on a disk somewhere. It doesn't really make any difference from an archival perspective if it is internal or external.

If you are asking how much space does lightroom use in addition to the raw file itself for being in the catalog the answer is not much. It keeps preview images but you can set it to delete the 1-1 previews automatically if you like. It has a database that stores your history which also takes minimal space on per photo basis.

dalto wrote in post #12406533
So, I am not sure I entirely follow your question but basically here is how it works. Your raw files have to exist on a disk somewhere. It doesn't really make any difference from an archival perspective if it is internal or external.

If you are asking how much space does lightroom use in addition to the raw file itself for being in the catalog the answer is not much. It keeps preview images but you can set it to delete the 1-1 previews automatically if you like. It has a database that stores your history which also takes minimal space on per photo basis.

This is what I have come to understand...The original RAW will stay on my external and when I import to LR the only thing in there is a preview and some data associated with it taking up minimal space...correct? If this is the case it is safe to import 1000's of files to LR and not be concerned about HD space on my laptop.

Depends. On the previews being stored.

I have 20k+ images in LR3. With quite a few of them with 1:1 previews.
The Catalog.lrcat file is a bit over 700Mb. The Catalog Previews.lrdata is 23 Gb

the Catalog.lrcat file is the one that gets backupped each time you exit LR. So clean out those backups on a regular basis.

René Damkot wrote in post #12407702
Depends. On the previews being stored.

I have 20k+ images in LR3. With quite a few of them with 1:1 previews.
The Catalog.lrcat file is a bit over 700Mb. The Catalog Previews.lrdata is 23 Gb

the Catalog.lrcat file is the one that gets backupped each time you exit LR. So clean out those backups on a regular basis.

You lost me there...how can I determine the size of each of those files? Furthermore, what is the difference between them?

Catalog.lrcat is the actual catalog: Stores information for LR: Where are the raw files, what's edited, what collections are they in, etc.

Catalog Previews.lrdata is the file containing all preview images. Size will vary (quite a bit) depending on what size previews are used.

I just looked in the finder to see the filesize:

IMAGE LINK: https://skitch.com/ren​edamkot/r9m5c/lr3-catalog