how did you change your Lightroom workflow after you started using iMatch?

[philburton]

I'm curious to learn to how other Lightroom users have changed their workflow after they started using iMatch.

I have created detailed workflow descriptions of my Lightroom workflow, to ensure consistency between processing sessions.  I use my own version of John Beardsworth's smart collection-based workflow. http://lightroomsolutions.com/articles/workflow-smart-collections/

Thank you,

Phil Burton

[mopperle]

Although I use LrC from day one (with its predecessor RawShooter), I never used it to organize my pictures.
If you move from LrC to IMatch to organize your pictures, the question is what are you missing, what did others miss and made them making the move.
How I use LrC did not change when I started with IMatch. Maybe because my ,,workflow" in LrC is focused on developing RAW files and only rarely adding metadata. IMatch is a DAM solution, LrC is mainly RAW-Developer/picture editor. Thats why I use IMatch, to not only organize pictures, but also videos and some other ,,digital assets".

[Mario]

I don't think you'll have to change your image developing/editing workflow in Lightroom at all.
Just let IMatch take over the DAM part (including metadata editing) and use Lr like any other RAW development software.

Lightroom's Smart Collections are a less powerful versions of IMatch's Data-driven Categories. You can do everything you did with Lr's collections with data-driven categories in IMatch - and much more.

Metadata you add in Lr (preferably you should use IMatch to add and edit metadata, since it produces more rich and consistent metadata) will be read by IMatch when you tell Lr to write the metadata. This step is not required when you edit metadata only in IMatch.

The Map Panel in IMatch does what the Map Module in Lr does, except that IMatch does not force you to use Google Maps.
Reverse Geocoding in IMatch does what reverse geocoding in Lr does, except that you are not forced to use Google.

Let us know if you have more specific questions.

As a side note. when Lr became subscription-only a few years back, many users recognized that other RAW Processors like C1 or DxO produce superior results compared to Lightroom for their images. If your DAM is separate, it is suddenly very easy to switch to another RAW processor when you find one.

[philburton]

I don't think you'll have to change your image developing/editing workflow in Lightroom at all.
Just let IMatch take over the DAM part (including metadata editing) and use Lr like any other RAW development software.
 (snip, snip, snip)

Let us know if you have more specific questions.

As

Mario,  Belated reply here. I hope that you can consider this reply. 

I want to be clear that I am not requesting any feature changes in this reply.  I'm just trying to describe a situation in which I can't rely on iMatch for all DAM management.  If there is a way to implement John's workflow management, which I describe below, entirely in iMatch, I would be very, very interested.  Honestly, I am an experienced Lightroom user but a total newbie for using iMatch. 

Quoting part of an earlier post in this thread:

I have created detailed workflow descriptions of my Lightroom workflow, to ensure consistency between processing sessions and do a better job of managing my entire photo library.  I use my own version of John Beardsworth's smart collection-based workflow. http://lightroomsolutions.com/articles/workflow-smart-collections/  If you are a Lightroom user, I strongly encourage you to check out John's idea, which is 100% free.  (John also sells plugins.)

John has devised a brilliant solution that uses the Lightroom catalog as a workflow management tool.  I use it quite successfully, especially in the LIBRARY and DEVELOP modules. John's approach requires that you add or subtract "process keywords" as you proceed through Lightroom, and you track the work status of any one image using Lightroom's Smart Collections to test the presence or absence of specific keywords.  To track your work progress, specific DEVELOP action or group of actions would require adding or deleting a process keyword. 

I think it would be totally impractical to constantly switch between Lightroom and iMatch every time you add or subtract a process keyword.  If I haven't explained that properly, I will be glad to expand on this explanation and provide an example.  Thus, as far as I can discern, I must still use the Lightroom DAM.  And I know that iMatch and Lightroom can't be running at the same time.

[RobiWan]

And I know that iMatch and Lightroom can't be running at the same time.

Why not? I have very often both applications running and I don't see any problems.

Only the one point can be maybe important - deactivate immediately writing Metadata (XMP files) in LR. 

[Mario]

I'm not sure if there is a question in your post.

And I know that iMatch and Lightroom can't be running at the same time.

You are mistaken. What makes you think that?
I do that all the time. My normal workflow when I use Lr.

You just need to remember: Both Lightroom and IMatch update metadata in files only when explicitly told so (in Lr this is a context menu command) and in IMatch it's the write-back command.

When you really have to edit metadata both in Lightroom and IMatch, note that the "other" application only sees metadata changes when you let the originating application write-back the metadata.
IMatch automatically detects when Lr changes a file and re-import it and reloads the metadata.
In Lr you have to explicitly tell it to re-import the metadata from the file again. Else you will only see the metadata Lr has in its catalog. This is not IMatch-related, it is just how Lr works. Lr is not designed to be cooperative.

You can configure both IMatch and Lr to write-back changed metadata immediately - (in IMatch: Edit > Preferences > Background Processing) but that's bad for performance and may impact your workflow. See the Lr help for details.

Most users leave it to their DAM and edit metadata only in IMatch. IMatch produces metadata that is as good or even better as Lightroom. And it produces much better metadata than other DAM products.

Editing metadata only in IMatch solves all these problems.
Else you have to live with how Lr works and tell Lr to write metadata to the file to make it available in IMatch. Else the data only sits in the Lr catalog, where it is inaccessible for other applications.

[sinus]

Well, such ideas and workflows exist in a lot of DAMs. And they are sometimes equal or different, like you have changed some things for your personal workflow.
Such and a lot other ideas/workflows you can realise very good also, of course with IMatch.
Some ideas are in the workflow-thread, long ago I had also a thread there

https://www.photools.com/community/index.php/topic,10752.0.html

But workflows are very different for users, from very simple ones to very complicated.
And workflows usually changes over some time a bit, because the user sees simpler or better enhancements (like John did).

[Mario]

The "Smart Collections" in the blog post can be done in IMatch easily using categories.

IMatch automatically keeps track of which images have e.g. no headline or rating and more in the IMatch Workflow Categories.
You can let IMatch assign new and updated files to a category (Edit > Preferences > Indexing).
If you color-code these categories, you automatically have visual clues about the state of an image.

If you need stages in your workflow (new, reviewed, edited, delivered, archived and whatnot) you can do that via a corresponding category hierarchy.

For example:

Workflow
| New
| Reviewed
| ...
| Archived

Give each category a color code so you can always tell in the File Window in which state an image is in. Very simple.

But there is more: IMatch categories have very neat feature called Assignment Action. When enabled, assigning a file to a category (e.g. Reviewed) un-assigns the file from all sibling categories, e.g. from "New".

This makes it very easy to implement a staged workflow.

1.  When an image comes into the database, it automatically gets assigned to Workflow|New.
2.  When you have reviewed it, you assign the file to "Workflow|Reviewed" (e.g. via a Favorite). This automatically un-assigns the file from "Workflow|New". The color shown in the category color bar changes accordingly.
3. When you have edited the image you assign it to "Workflow|Edited". It is automatically removed from "Workflow|Reviewed".
Rinse and repeat.

Name the stage categories in any way you want and create as many stages as you need.
You can then always see how many files are in which stage and files show a visual indicator of their stage.

Such a workflow / staging concept is easy to implement in IMatch, when you need it.

[RobiWan]

You can automate a lot of things very well with Imatch. Nevertheless, using one program is always easier than using two.

[philburton]

And I know that iMatch and Lightroom can't be running at the same time.

Why not? I have very often both applications running and I don't see any problems.

Only the one point can be maybe important - deactivate immediately writing Metadata (XMP files) in LR.

Maybe I should have said, only one program at a time can save XMPs.  If Lightroom is being used, and is saving XMPs, then I guess that iMatch should be "just watching."

[Mees Dekker]

This may seem a very silly question, but nevertheless. Why develop RAW files in LrC and not in Adobe Camera RAW?

I import all my latest pictures into IMatch, rename them, do some culling, add geo information and categories (I don't use keywords) and only after that I start developing the selected files.

a. How can one open a picture directly in LrC, so without having to import it first into the LrC catalogue?
b. If import to LrC is necessary/obligatory; why not open it in PS? PS had the same RAW editor (Adobe Camera Raw) as LrC. It saves the hassle of importing into LrC and as far as I know, PS is included in the Adobe subscription for LrC without any extra fee.

[Mario]

Maybe I should have said, only one program at a time can save XMPs.  If Lightroom is being used, and is saving XMPs, then I guess that iMatch should be "just watching."

IMatch always watches the file system.
When Lr saves changes to XMP files, IMatch notices that and automatically re-imports the XMP to update the database.
IMatch does not write XMP data without the user performing a write-back. Or the user switching IMatch to immediately writing back files (not recommended) and then modifying metadata for files.
Lr does only detect changed files and marks them. The user has to import modified metadata manually.

@Mees

a) Is not possible. Lr does not work that way. Everything works "through" Lr's catalog.

b) ACR indeed has evolved a lot over time, providing many features to process and improve RAW files during import, before editing them in Ps (or other software). What Lr brings onto the plate are advanced masking / editing and presets to produce certain "looks" quickly.
As many people have learned when Lr became subscription only and they moved to other RAW processors , software like DxO or C1 offers superior RAW processing, AI-based optimization and whatnot too. Often even better than Lightroom.

[loweskid]

I import all my latest pictures into IMatch, rename them, do some culling, add geo information and categories (I don't use keywords) and only after that I start developing the selected files.

Exactly my workflow + ACR and Photoshop.

The only time I use Lightroom is for producing timelapses with the brilliant LRTimelapse plug-in.