When Michael asked me to write a post for this event, he indicated that it would be great to include the theme “ten” – as ten is the magic number today of course.
I thought, and I thought and at first I decided that I didn’t really want to do a “my top ten best wedding photographers” type post, or a “top ten reasons why it’s great to be from Wales” type post either.
I’ll admit, I struggled until today (I’m writing this just two days before the deadline).  I was simply going through my normal editing steps for a typical wedding, and I realised that it was exactly ten steps that I follow.  So, my post today is titled The Perfect Lightroom Workflow with a subtitle of which works for Kevin Mullins, and it also has a bit of Photoshop thrown in too.

Please note that I am using Lightroom 3.2 and Photoshop CS5 all on a Windows platform.
So, here goes.

My TEN steps to the perfect Lightroom and Photoshop workflow

1. Copying from the cards: I have a hard disk that is dedicated to my working weddings.  These are weddings that are in the process of being edited, or to be edited.  Each wedding sits in its own folder simply titled by the reference I have generated previously for that client.  So, in the case of a recent wedding it is:  15072010_Millicent.  Inside of that folder, I create two other folders – one called RAW, and one called Library.  All the RAW files are copied to the RAW folder (this drive is backed up twice-daily using ROBOCOPY).  An empty Lightroom catalog is created at the same time in the LIBRARY folder.

Note that the very first thing I do in the catalog is go to the catalog preferences and set it to create XMP sidecar files automatically.

2. Importing into Lightroom: When I import the RAW files into Lightroom, I select my predefined metadata preset (Kevin Mullins Standard) in the following image.  This preset simply burns in all the copyright and ownership settings to the meta data for the files as they are imported.

In camera, I switch everything off that could affect exposure, such as Auto Lighting Optimizer etc.  When importing, I run the present “Camera Faithful” which is my preferred camera profile for Canon RAW files.  This gives me a good starting point for adjusting my images.

I do not keyword my libraries at this point.  When my editing is complete, all the high-res finished files go into a master library for the year – which is keyworded with venue, names etc.
3. Lens Correction: Once my images are imported, I select the first image in the Develop module and set the “Enable Profile Corrections” to true:

I know that all my lenses are supported by Adobe profile corrections and by setting these it will auto correct issues such as chromatic aborations and vignetting.  Once I have set this on one image, I then apply the selection to all the images in the library by using the Sync Settings method:

Once this is done, I know that my base setting for all the images is correct and I can go ahead with my adjustments.

4. Smart Collections: The next step for me is to set up my Smart Collections.  I use a number base system for allocating which of my images will get which post process treatment.  To support this methodology, I have created a range of Collection Settings.

Firstly, I create a new collection set named KDM, and then I import my settings as shown in the image:

This then imports into Lightroom like thus:

I’m now ready to edit-in my selection and create my picks.

5. Editing In: I use an edit-in method for my images whereby I simply scroll through each image and “pick” it if it has made the grade.  I don’t rate my images 1-5 etc., they are either picked (and thus go on to be edited), or not picked (and probably never seen again).

Once I have done my selection my “Picks” Smart Collection Set will tell me how many images I have that have made the cut.

6. Exposure Adjustments: I will then work through those images that are in the picks and adjust the exposure accordingly and crop where necessarily etc.  Of course, this may be different for everyone and I don’t follow any rules here, but most of my images are adjust by the tone curve, white balance and exposure sliders only.  Normally I will set each image to a High-Contrast point curve and then just work with the White Balance and exposure.

7. Post Processing Selections: Once I am happy with my exposures in Lightroom, I will then run through the images once again and give them a number, 3, 4 or 5.  This is not a rating, rather it categorises my images in my Smart Collections.

Images that are allocated a 3 will go through my Colour Photoshop Actions
Images that are allocated a 4 will got through my Black and White Photoshop Actions
Images that are allocated a 5 will potentially get my Fine Art treatment.

This process takes very little time and I can see immediately how many images are going to end up B&W etc by looking at the Smart Collections:

8. Exporting & Running Actions in one step: Now that I have allocated the images, I can export and execute my Photoshop Actions in one fell swoop.

To do this, the first thing you need to do is save your Photoshop actions as Droplets.  In order for Lightroom to see these droplets, you must save the files in a certain location:

On a PC, that location is:

C:\Users\<name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Export Actions

The Droplets are .exe files and look something like this in the folder:

In Lightroom, I simply select the Smart Collection (either Colour or Black and White), and chose File>Export>Export with Preset> and select the export preset I have created.

For example, my export preset for Film Colour Warm Edge looks like this:

Its all pretty standard, but notice the “post processing” panel right at the bottom.  In the After Export selection, I now have a list of all my droplets.  So, this export preset is set up to export my tiffs into an allocated folder, my droplet will then run on that folder and process all my images with the relevant action.  I don’t need to do anything and I normally run these over night as my actions (especially the black and whites) are quite processor hungry.
9. Re-Importing the finished images: My Photoshop actions take care of everything for me in terms of processing, sharpening, borders etc.  I don’t use Lightroom for any of those.  Once Photoshop has finished processing the images I have to re-import them back into Lightroom and this is where my import presets come into play.

For example, my B&W Import Preset (you can set, save and manage your import presets at the bottom of the import dialog), knows which folders to use and it also allocates the imported images my Black And White Meta Data Preset (in the screen shot KM -2 BW).  This preset simply gives each of the images a rating of two.

A rating of two, will automatically make the images appear in my Smart Collection for Black and White Images:

This process is done for the colour images two and then I have all my images either in the Smart Collection of 1 (Colour) or 2 (Black and White).

10. Final Steps: The final step then is to create all the relevant images via already created export presets.  I use Lightroom exclusively for my exporting and each wedding will be exported to High-Res Finals, iPod optimised images, Facebook ready images (with Lightroom generated watermark), Reprint gallery images, Blog ready images, Proof book ready images and iPad Portfolio images.
And that is my editing process.  Obviously a lot of work went into creating my Photoshop actions and that would be a completely different post but fundamentally that is how I leverage the power of Lightroom Presets & Photoshop Droplets to round trip my editing.
I can normally fully edit a wedding in a day using this method – though I will always spend some time afterwards on the fine art images in Photoshop.

It’s not necessarily the most elegant method, and it may not be the quickest, but it takes just ten steps and clicks to edit a complete body of work this way.

I hope it helps you in some way.  You can contact me using any of the methods below, and don’t forget I am doing a Master class at the SWPP Convention in January more details here.

Kevin Mullins is a documentary wedding photographer based in North Wiltshire.
Website:  http://www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk
Blog:  http://www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk/the-wedding-blog
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/GloucestershireWeddingPhotography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kevin_mullins
Photography Web Tips: http://www.photographywebtips.co.uk