DPP? ACR? Lightroom?

At the moment I use bridge to import the pictures from my camera into a folder on my desktop (I shoot RAW only), I import them into Lightroom 5 (open Lightroom, import all pics in recently created folder), go through and 'reject' poor ones. Remove rejected photos.

Then I take each photo in turn, crop if needed, sharpen and use noise reduction, move levels around/curves/presets. After each photo has been edited I select them all and put them in a folder named 'edited' within the previously created folder.

Is there a more effective way to do this? I see people dicsussing ACR and DPP, what are they using these for? Just applying sharpening and noise reduction and then export to Lightroom/CSx? Or to do everything I am doing?

Any tips would be gratefully received, thanks in advance.

ACR is the Raw developer in Photoshop CSS. It is virtually identical to the Develop module in Lightroom. A somewhat emasculated "light" version is in Photoshop Elements. DPP is the converter supplied by Canon. It has pluses and minuses; on one hand it is easy for beginners and faster because it requires less user input. On the other hand, because it needs less input it provides less scope for creativity. It has a much smaller tool set than LR and because of this a larger percentage of images will need further editing in a second application .

P.S. I personally would not use DPP because it does not utilize the full DR of the Raw capture, an important aspect of my photography. For other types of photography this might not be a hindrance.

sancho1983 wrote in post #16282495
...Is there a more effective way to do this?

Sorry to laugh but I have a vision of you hunched over a steam powered computer with spinning wheels, levers, ramps and other bizarre attachments. I am pretty sure Heath Robinson could devise a workflow which would be less needlessly complex.

I would....
1. Stop using Bridge & Lightroom. LR can do everything you need.

2. Stop creating three folders and moving images from folder to folder when just one folder will suffice.

Watch at least the first four of these videos on how to import and organise images in LR http://tv.adobe.com …be-photoshop-lightroom-5/

They are RAW development software, similar to Lightroom. ACR has the same RAW development features that Lightroom has and ships as part of Photoshop. DPP is Canon's RAW development software. They each have their own unique features but all have basically similar functionality.

Can I chime in here please - I too have been using DPP almost idependently for raw workflow before doing further tweaks in other PP sites like FastStone, I now have LR3 and I use to adjust not only recent files just converted from raw via DPP to Jpeg, but also all my older Jpegs that have been worked and re worked several times, I have noticed a file converted to tiff in DPP cant be opened in LR as It doesnt find it and says its missing, so to follow on from above - does using DPP alongside LR make no sense?, even if just for conversion to Jpeg with sharpening/noise etc, then doing the rest in LR.
Or can I pack my DPP away now and just use mt LR3 for everything?


P.

Well, first off, to the OP, I use Lightroom to Import from my card/reader, I see no reason to resort to Bridge for that. If you aren't familiar enough with the Lightroom Import module to do what you do quickly and painlessly, well, speak up!

Pagman wrote in post #16283082
Can I chime in here please - I too have been using DPP almost idependently for raw workflow before doing further tweaks in other PP sites like FastStone, I now have LR3 and I use to adjust not only recent files just converted from raw via DPP to Jpeg, but also all my older Jpegs that have been worked and re worked several times, I have noticed a file converted to tiff in DPP cant be opened in LR as It doesnt find it and says its missing, so to follow on from above - does using DPP alongside LR make no sense?, even if just for conversion to Jpeg with sharpening/noise etc, then doing the rest in LR.
Or can I pack my DPP away now and just use mt LR3 for everything?P.

Now something that people need to understand:

Different Raw processors will be incompatible with each other in regards to, well, the Raw processing! Now if you have compatible versions of Camera Raw in your photoshop (that's the "ACR" the op was asking about) and your version of Lightroom, well, they actually can share/play together because they both use the same Raw processing "engine". But DPP is a different beast altogether! If you work on a Raw image in DPP, the work you do won't show up in Lightroom (or Camera Raw). So, in practice, choose one Raw processor, do your "development" in it, then if you want or need to bring the image into, say, Lightroom from DPP you will need to do a convert/save and bring it into Lightroom as a tiff.

To the OP, "DPP" stands for the Canon Raw software Digital Photo Professional. It can be a cool app to get started with, but if you do have Lightroom then I'd suggest sticking with that!

Pagman wrote in post #16283082
Can I chime in here ....does using DPP alongside LR make no sense?, even if just for conversion to Jpeg with sharpening/noise etc, then doing the rest in LR.
Or can I pack my DPP away now and just use mt LR3 for everything?


P.

No sense at all. LR, even LR3, can do far more than DPP and Faststone and another dozen like it together and can do it far better because it is doing it in 16 bit linear wide gamut rather than 8 bit screwed up narrow gamut jpgs. I would advise upgrading to LR4 for its much better DR in landscapes.

Unless you are making a mistake, there is no reason why LR wouldn't import tiffs. Hundreds do it everyday, outputting a tiff for editing in PS or a plugin and then returning it to LR.

Pagman wrote in post #16283082
.....I have noticed a file converted to tiff in DPP cant be opened in LR as It doesnt find it and says its missing,

LR won't automatically know anything about work done/files created in DPP. However, after you have saved a TIFF file, you can go to the Folders window in Library view, right click on the folder and select Synchronize Folder. It will then search the folder for new files and they will appear.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #16282967
Sorry to laugh but I have a vision of you hunched over a steam powered computer with spinning wheels, levers, ramps and other bizarre attachments. I am pretty sure Heath Robinson could devise a workflow which would be less needlessly complex.

I would....
1. Stop using Bridge & Lightroom. LR can do everything you need.

2. Stop creating three folders and moving images from folder to folder when just one folder will suffice.

Watch at least the first four of these videos on how to import and organise images in LR http://tv.adobe.com …be-photoshop-lightroom-5/


They are RAW development software, similar to Lightroom. ACR has the same RAW development features that Lightroom has and ships as part of Photoshop. DPP is Canon's RAW development software. They each have their own unique features but all have basically similar functionality.

Thanks. Only two folders though; whatever the trip/event/day was and then "edited" within it. Although I'm not sure why I keep the unedited versions of the edited ones

I'll watch those videos and ignore dpp and acr.

I wouldn't ignore DPP and ACR. Just be aware they do essentially the same job. DPP comes free with a Canon camera and has the ability to show exactly where the selected focus point on a photo was - can be useful in diagnosing focus issues. As for ACR is is basically the same RAW developer as Lightroom and some people prefer the interface.

Why have I not seen these videos before?!?!? Just watching the first one and have learnt about 5 things...

I'm going to play around with adding a bit of sharpening and contrast curve on import. I suppose every picture is different, but it will be a good starting place though.

sancho1983 wrote in post #16284023
Thanks. Only two folders though; whatever the trip/event/day was and then "edited" within it. Although I'm not sure why I keep the unedited versions of the edited ones

I'll watch those videos and ignore dpp and acr.

Yeah keep watching those videos.

Something you are not "getting":

When you shoot Raw the Raw is kept as the "undeveloped" file, the "original". When Lightroom "works on" a Raw file it keeps the development settings in "metadata", either in the working catalog or if you tell it to in a separate "sidecar" file.

You won't have (or need) an "edited" file copy until you need one to "work with", either for output to share, for print, or for editing in an external editor (Lightroom has a function to "automate" editing in Photoshop or an external editor and creates a non-Raw copy to do that).

So, the Raw "workflow" differs from other file types in that it preserves the original and keeps the editing info separately. Lightroom has a very "nifty" way of preserving "Virtual Copies" of edits done, you can have several "versions" of the image in your library but only one "source file"!

I keep all of my pictures on a server. So I've got in the habit of putting them on my desktop, put into lightroom to edit, put back onto desktop and then I manually drag it into my pictures folder with my server.

Those videos are a revelation though, just things like pressing tab in the library module to hide the side panels. And the compare options. I literally just use loupe view and press x to reject. Not sure I'll use all of the other features yet but at least I know that they are there!

sancho1983 wrote in post #16285150
So I've got in the habit of putting them on my desktop, put into lightroom to edit, put back onto desktop and then I manually drag it into my pictures folder with my server.

This would be the needlessly complex bit of your workflow. There is no need to move the files into LR or back t the desktop afterwards.

If you want them on the desktop open Lightroom and use the Import dialogue to copy the files from you SD/CF card onto the desktop - It will make a new folder for them on the desktop as part of the process. Then you just edit them without having to move them (or copy them back to the desktop afterwards). When finished you can then move that folder to your server.

A lot of good info on here thus far. Thanks, guys.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #16285772
This would be the needlessly complex bit of your workflow. There is no need to move the files into LR or back t the desktop afterwards.

If you want them on the desktop open Lightroom and use the Import dialogue to copy the files from you SD/CF card onto the desktop - It will make a new folder for them on the desktop as part of the process. Then you just edit them without having to move them (or copy them back to the desktop afterwards). When finished you can then move that folder to your server.

Thanks. Planning on taking some shots tomorrow so can put it into practice. If I want them as jpegs then I export them right?