Lightroom questions

[Anthony]

Couple of questions about Lightroom:

1/ I can not download directly from the camera as Lightroom says no photos found. Possible fix formatting the card outside the camera ( Canon 500d ) - this will be a pain to do everytime I need to format the card.

2/ Tags/keywords do not seem to be recognised by Windows Vista - not written to dng image during import; pressumably just written to the database.
If at a later date I move away from lightroom none of my images will have any keywords/tags/location/ratings/edits as this information is only held in the database?

3/ My workflow now will have to be:
Download to PC using Canon Eos Utility.
Delete rubbish photos
Add keywords location etc. in Microsoft pro photo tools - these are kept when importing into Lightroom unless overwritten.
Import into Lightroom as a .dng
Edit etc.
Save a tiff file of the edited photo?

I am starting to wonder if I am doing the correct thing using Lightroom for cataloging as I could be tied to it forever!

4/ Still unsure about dng format as Adobe are still changing it.

Any insights or opinions would be interesting.

It is good cataloging software but for the reasons above I have never used database software for photo indexing before or am I missing something?

[K1W1]

As none of the (very few these days) forum regulars can be bothered trying to assist I will give it a go.

Couple of questions about Lightroom:

1/ I can not download directly from the camera as Lightroom says no photos found. Possible fix formatting the card outside the camera ( Canon 500d ) - this will be a pain to do everytime I need to format the card.

Try using a card reader rather than direct connection to the camera. Many people (including me just to state my position on this) feel that that is a better way to transfer photos anyway.
I assume that the version of LR you use (you did not specify) supports the Canon 500D.

2/ Tags/keywords do not seem to be recognised by Windows Vista - not written to dng image during import; pressumably just written to the database.
If at a later date I move away from lightroom none of my images will have any keywords/tags/location/ratings/edits as this information is only held in the database?

Tags within LR stay within LR. You cannot search the LR database using other programs just like many other databases.

3/ My workflow now will have to be:
Download to PC using Canon Eos Utility.
Delete rubbish photos
Add keywords location etc. in Microsoft pro photo tools - these are kept when importing into Lightroom unless overwritten.
Import into Lightroom as a .dng
Edit etc.
Save a tiff file of the edited photo?

If you are exporting your images as TIFFs then the tags you create in LR will be written into the Metadata for the TIFF images unless you are not exporting Metadata

I am starting to wonder if I am doing the correct thing using Lightroom for cataloging as I could be tied to it forever!

Your choice.

4/ Still unsure about dng format as Adobe are still changing it.

Why are you using DNG in the first place? LR will import the RAW files directly from your camera so there is no need to have the DNG step. This takes me back to my first answer. Does the version of LR that you are using actually support your camera?

[Honest Gaza]

Couple of questions about Lightroom:



3/ My workflow now will have to be:
Download to PC using Canon Eos Utility.
Delete rubbish photos
Add keywords location etc. in Microsoft pro photo tools - these are kept when importing into Lightroom unless overwritten.
Import into Lightroom as a .dng
Edit etc.
Save a tiff file of the edited photo?

I am starting to wonder if I am doing the correct thing using Lightroom for cataloging as I could be tied to it forever!

4/ Still unsure about dng format as Adobe are still changing it.

Any insights or opinions would be interesting.

It is good cataloging software but for the reasons above I have never used database software for photo indexing before or am I missing something?

Out of interest, did your camera come with DPP (Canon Software that comes with EOS Utility) ?

I always use Canon EOS Utility to download directly from camera and then DPP's Quick Check Tool to weed out the bad ones.

[Anthony]

I have Lightroom 4

The camera model shows up in top left of screen when connecting so I assumed it was supported.
The photos are seen via card reader on the PC after I cleared all the dust out of the slot!
After formatting the card in the PC it now works OK using the camera and USB cable.

All tutorials I have found about Lightroom so far recomend saving the RAW files as a dng as they load quicker and are slightly smaller. Although currently neither of these reasons are that important to me.
So neither of you save to dng?

Current procedure ( I do have DPP ):
Download from camera with Eos utility
Delete bad photos using Windows photo explorer
Add keywords, location etc. using Microsoft pro photo tools
Edit with Gimp
Save as a png or jpg - this is a problem that if I ever need to re-edit I need to start again. Although I am a person who enjoys taking the photo and never do much with it after then. Basicaly like Henri Cartier-Bresson in your quote K1W1.

One of my bigest concerns is that if in a few years I decide not to use Lightroom none of my
photos will have any tags. If I tag them first using pro photo tools these tags are found by
Lightroom.
Also these tags are viewable by other software not just Windows as they are saved either in a sidecar file or in the RAW image itself. Basicaly a bit of XML code within the image data.

I am probably answering my own questions but as I say it is good to see other peoples opinions.

[AlexMonro]

It's usually not a good idea to format a memory card with anything other than the camera it's going to be used with. Small inconsistencies in the format used can lead to file corruption and loss of images.

[Anthony]

Lightroom is not happy with my Wacom tablet and my search indexing seems to have gone wrong.
I have been fighting my PC for hours and hopefuly have Lightroom sorted but not the processors usage.
This is strange as I did not have the problem with the beta version and tablet for nearly a week while setting up lightroom and testing the beta.

I downloaded and installed updated drivers for the Wacom tablet which made it worse. I uninstalled the tablet and reinstalled and all seems to be OK now. I can not understand why there was not a problem before though.
The tablet is not currently connected or being used as my daughter has it on her laptop.

Still not sure about the indexing problem as everytime I think its sorted it goes wrong again!

[K1W1]

LR 4 is problematic with external drivers and plug ins. Download the LR4.1 beta and install that.