I don't use photoshop that much, but last night when finishing up about 20 photos for a friend's baby bday party, I decided to photoshop all of them with 2 actions just for fun.

This is what I did and would like feedback on how to improve the process, and some question:

1.  Exported selected photos to photoshop (Q: Is it better to export as JPEG or PNG? If JPEG, what quality do you use?  I did 95% jpeg for some and PNG for some.  PNG files are bigger and thus slower, so I don't know if it's worth it.)

2. I recorded a new action combining two actions.  (Q: There's no other way to batch process with more than one action, correct?  I also set each action to different opacity levels.)

3. Batch process in photoshop, save the processed photos in a separate folder with altered filenames. I chose not to do a droplet because I don't use photoshop that much and I probably won't use the same set of actions for future photos.

4. Q: Do you then import the processed photos back to Lightroom?  I didn't because all my photos in the lightroom are from my "unprocessed photos" folder.  I wasn't sure if it's too complicated to have some photos from a different folder, and I wasn't sure what to do with duplicate photos even though they have slightly different filenames.

I hope someone can answer your ?'s cause I have no clue!  I am still pretty new to PS & have enough understanding to get by for now, but I am no help to you :/  I hope to take a training class someday.

LOL, I didn't even know you could batch process in PS!!  How do you do that?!  If I want to run an action or something, I have been opening the pics 1 at a time in PS, this would save me a lot of time!

I'm not home right now, but I think batch process is under File or Edit.  I always just type in the command in Help and it'll point you where it is.  The options are confusing so I googled Batch Process Actions Photoshop and tons of tutorials popped up.  I think the best is from adobeTV.  It's such a time saver!  Most professional photographers do Droplets, you can check that out as well.  But I think droplets are only good for professionals.

adobeTV has tons of great tutorials, and they're credible because they are, well, adobe!

1. Export as JPG if your final file will be JPG. Changing file types can cause shifts in the image appearance after running an action. If you create an action for PNGs, use it on those (for example) but I can't think of a single reason to use PNGs for common photos to be printed.

2.You can create an action that combines two actions - sometimes - it depends on the two actions.  I've actually done that but it worked with the two actions I combined. If an action requires you to do a flattening step, it doesn't work sometimes.

3. Didn't see a question here...

4.This one totally confuses me.  I do most of my processing in LR now and never import them back into LR after tweaking them in PS? so, not sure what the question is or why you would need to import them into LR again?

I actually don't use droplets but I'm just not seeing a need to now. I only use PS for my watermark now as a batch action since switching to LR.

Thanks, doolittle, that's very helpful! 

1. I thought PNG could be better since PNG saves the most information, so I thought it's analogous to processing a raw photo is better than processing a jpeg photo?  Does adding one more file type in the step run the risk of color shifting?  I'm just curious. In practice, I'll just use JPEG.  I can't tell the difference in my photos that were processed using PNG or JPEG, but JPEG saves more time.

4. I guess if you process photos mostly for clients, there's no need to import them back to LR.  For personal use though, I'd like a centralized "gallery" that contains all of my final photos.  Normally if I only process in LR, I don't import the JPEGs back because they look the same to my eyes.  But photos processed by PS look so different from the original, I want to keep them.  Does that make sense?

Let me rephrase Q4 and ask everyone here, what do you do with all of your final JPEGs (for personal use, not for clients), whether they are processed in PS or LR or other software?  Do you use an online media as storage, or do you use iPhoto or similar program on PC to store them? Do you also use LR to store final JPEG?  Or do you just leave them in folders on your hard drive?

Since I don't use LR as simply a viewer, there is no need for me to re-import images (jpgs) into LR.

4. My final JPGs are stored on hard external HD's like all my work. I still organize and date it the same way since it's easier for me to find things by date than just what it is or what it's of.

Right now, my online storage is through my business, Pictage.com, since they have unlimited storage capabilities and it's super fast to upload. Most online storage companies are not set up to deal with image files so it takes too long to upload.

All my work is organized into folders within folders with the last folder being the date and subject (so for our recent trip to Orlando, it's folder will be 20111127_Orlando). Inside is a raw folder, a jpg folder and the LR catalog (I store each job's catalog in it's work folder). On my HD, I have one folder for Personal. This year is the first year I'm using HD's only (switching from using DVD's in the past which is much more expensive and time consuming).

When I start actually processing personal work (I've put off so much the last few years) this winter, I will dedicate storage HD's to that only. External, caseless HD's are so cheap now that there is no reason to rely on online storage - just buy three of each (master and two BU's). I happen to have online storage because of work but I don't think it's necessary for consumer images. Just a few 1TB's and you're set.

Yeah I concur online storage is not the solution for photos. I did that for a few months, but I was pretty much uploading 24/7 even after the initial upload which probably took a week. Now I realize how foolish it is considering how cheap HDs are. I have 2 right now, one master and one BU which I leave in my office in case there's fire at home or something.

I sort raw photos by date, but I don't know why it never occurred to me to also sort jpegs by date. Well, I do by year, but sub folders are by subject. I guess it doesn't make sense for me to sort by date because most of my pics are daily baby shots, and I process them maybe once a month, so I group them by when I process. I also have a Facebook folder containing fb worthy photos at web resolution. The rest of the photos are print resolution because I actually print photos, on PAPER!

A gallery managed by iPhoto or smugmug/Flickr is nice because you can easily group and search photos however way you want. It also makes sharing and printing easy. Come to think of it, since I started using multiple LR catalogs, I don't think it makes sense to use LR for gallery purposes anymore. I'm pretty sure I have to go the iPhoto or smugmug route, or both.

Thanks for letting me bounce ideas off you, doolittle. It helps even though i probably already had the answer without realizing it. I am really curious how other non-pro enthusiasts handle their workflow. I know what my hubby does-- nothing! All of his images sit in the hard drive unprocessed, what a shame.

Most non-pros are terribly unorganized with their photos unless they are OCD by nature (and I mean that in a nice way - at times I wish I was more OCD/organized).

As another tip, I also date my FILES. This is another "pro" thing that would immensely help non-pros in their file organization. When I batch my jpegs, they are named with the date in the file (if it's a multi-date thing like a vacation, it's always the date that we started the trip or event).  My personal files for our Orlando trip are "20111127_Orlando_0001.jpg"

This way it's easy to sort them in chronological order.

Holiday events will be : "20111225_Christmas_0001.jpg"

This is a carry over from how I label client files because typically I only shoot one event/client a day (rare for me to do two in a day but they would have the same date, just different proper name in the file names):

"20111022_Allen_Elliott_0254.jpg" is the start of the wedding images I'm working on right now. 254 because their engagement session ended with 253. Notice the four digit number, too. This is because computers read the "0"s as place holders and won't put 1254 in front of 0253.

Yes I date my file names, but I never thought of adding the theme too.  That's a great idea! I like to keep the original file name in the final filename too, since there were a few times I wanted to look up the RAW file and re-edit.  So I'll probably do 20111127_theme_originalfile.jpg.  Now I use 20111127_originalfile.jpg.

Once you start processing more personal photos and finding more organizing tips that's different (or the same) as your client files, please do share!

Well, you will have to be careful on how long the file name gets - some programs/uploads don't allow more than 20 characters.

Since I store my "events" in one folder for each event, I have the following folders within:

Event folder (20111127_Orlando):

raws

jpgs

LRcat

I don't ever use the original file name in the final jpg name due to the 20 character limit and the fact that I store them together in the master folder. I don't have too hard a time finding the original file if needed as I don't keep very many look-a-likes.

Keeping a theme name that's simple one-worded is also a search tool for locating something (or somethings - like all "Christmas") if you don't remember the date. We do go to Orlando a lot so having both the date and the theme name or destination helps when searching.