Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process

Chapter 3. LIBRARY

Organizing your photos in Library

After importing photos into the catalog it's time to edit the shoot. The goal is to go from the many images captured during a session to only the few, best photographs—those chosen to continue through the processing pipeline. The photo editing process is iterative: we review photos in multiple passes of editing until they are distilled down to the final selects.

SIMPLE EDITING WORKFLOW

During each round of editing, decide whether each image stays or goes. "Maybes" stay, at least for the current round. Try to look at the photographs as if someone else made them. Be your own toughest critic—you have too many good shots to waste time on bad ones! Move through your editing quickly, without over-analyzing. But also learn from your failures by going back to study them later. Is the shot successful or not? Does it have less-than-obvious potential that can be brought out in processing? Clearly define your reasons for giving each photo a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Use the fundamentals of photography to make your choices: interesting subject or theme, strong composition, good exposure, etc.

Evaluate similar photographs heuristically (ranked in ascending order) to determine the best—and ignore the rest. Don't fret over your decisions. You can always come back later to confirm your initial choices—and you always have the prerogative to change your mind. For each pass, the editing steps are:

1. Review: evaluate the photographs on their strengths and ...