I've been experimenting with a similar schema recently using a Lightroom based workflow, piping my output into Apple's Pages layout application and thence into PDF format. I know you use InDesign for this, but frankly I'm not convinced it can do a better job, and it is more expensive than I care to pay for the uses I would put it to. I'm having good success with the concept so far, but a couple of questions have come up that I hoped you might respond to.
- In exporting finished work from Lightroom for your InDesign workflow, how do you size the output for specific layout target sizings?
- Again in the export, do you pick TIFF .. 8 bit or 16 bit, or JPEG, and sRGB or Adobe RGB profile?
- The resulting PDF you create out of InDesign ... how well does it scale for a range of print sizings? Or do you make a PDF file specific for each of your print products?
- Have you considered Lightroom's Print module and its capability to save printing templates coupled with image collections vs the InDesign printing workflow? Obviously, this would not have all the bells and whistles for page layout that InDesign or Pages might, but for simple layout and annotation purposes it might prove effective for a lot of work.
Thanks for your thoughts!
—Godfrey DiGiorgi
My workflow relies heavily on a simple strategy that is Lightroom-centric in its basic concept:
Masters
- The master image is a full resolution file at the native camera pixel dimensions or scan dimensions
- These master images are, of course, all ProPhoto color space, the native color space for Lightroom
- I always scan negatives as 16-bit, typically at 1,200 dpi. Archive prints are scanned 16-bit, 100% size, at 600 dpi.
- Images from the camera are whatever the RAW output is, typically 8-bit, but could be 12-bit if the camera uses it. (Do any cameras output 16-bit files? Not that I'm aware of.)
- Camera RAW files are converted to a DNG file when I import them into Lightroom. The original camera RAW format file (SR2, RAF, ORF, RW2, etc.) are archived on an external drive should I ever need them.
- I'll do as much finishing "darkroom" work in Lightroom as possible so as to take advantage of its non-destructive editing. Often, I can finish an image entirely using only Lightroom adjustments.
- If I need to open a DNG file in Photoshop for some reason (see below), these are usually 16-bit PSD images, but I sometimes cheat and use 8-bit if I know I won't need the extra data (e.g., for smoothing out gradients or for lots of post-processing).
- The most common use of Photoshop for me is when I need to do more controlled noise reduction than I can achieve in Lightroom (version 2). In Photoshop, I use Noiseware Pro.
- I'll move an image into Photoshop if it needs: heavy spotting, noise reduction with Noiseware Pro, layers or sophisticated masking, extensive cloning, stitching, or other pixel remapping. I'll still keep the DNG and its Lightroom adjustments, but the PSD file becomes the new master for output from Lightroom as needed for specific projects.
- So, my Lightroom masters are either DNG files (digital capture) or PSD files (scans or Photoshopped DNG offspring).
Finished images/projects
- I export new images out of Lightroom from these masters for specific needs.
- Each export is sized (pixel dimensions) with the required resolution (ppi) for that need.
- I do not try to make a single image that can be scaled as needed in a variety of projects. I tend to think of each project independently and prefer to make images for each project that fit its particular needs.
- I'll almost always output images from Lightroom as 8-bit, Adobe RGB (1998). For printing, I output as PSD at 300 dpi, sized for placement into InDesign at 100%. I don't use TIF files (see this post and its comments). For PDFs, I output JPGs at 200 dpi, again for placement in the InDesign file at 100%. In either of these cases, if I later decide to use a smaller image, I just resize down in InDesign and let the PDF export do the secondary JPEG resize and compression. If I later decide to make a larger image in my layout, I return to Lightroom and re-export a new image. I never upsize or upres in InDesign or in exporting from InDesign.
- For large web images, I use JPEGs output at 96 dpi, sized to a specific pixel dimension as needed in the HTML layout. Again, I export into the Adobe RGB color space. I've never used sRGB in spite of the fact that this is the recommended color space for web images, but I suppose there might be some reason I should. Since most of my work is (toned) b/w, I've never felt there was much advantage to such hair-splitting in the color space selection.
- For small web images, thumbnails, other graphics, I use PNG because the file sizes are smaller in small images.
I looked at Lightroom's print module, but for my use there is no advantage and quite a number of disadvantages. Layout is such a crucial part of my workflow that I can't think of a single reason I would give up the control available in InDesign.
There is one other factor that comes into play in my workflow. I almost never print my own images. My assistant, Crystal, does all my printing for me and then simply brings me the printed images to approve or reject, go back into Lightroom or Photoshop to tweak, or to simply accept and sign. We've found it's much easier for her to print from a finished PDF file. All our printer-ready PDFs reside in folders on our server that contains only printer-ready test files or printing-approved final PDFs.
And, odd as it sounds, on the rare occasion when I do some printing myself, I find the "finished PDF" a better workflow for me, too. The PDF encapsulates everything I did to finish a print at the time I created it. If I need to make a print six months (or six years) later, I don't have to remember how to do it, or what settings I used, or whether or not the Lightroom template has been modified, etc. The PDF is a great way to avoid all such reliance on trying to repeat what I did back then.
Also, my work evolves over time. Today I might make different decisions about how a print needs to be made than I did six months ago. Maybe I'm seeing things differently. Maybe my creative vision for the image has changed. Maybe I'm now using a different paper or a different printer. As the "editions" of an image change over time, each PDF of the printer-ready layout encapsulates the evolution of the image, creating in essence a history of that image. Since the PDF is a self-contained file, it leaves me free to make adjustments to the image in Lightroom/Photoshop without losing any history over the years. I could, I suppose, rely on the InDesign files, but linked images are subject to broken links and lost files, InDesign version updates have been known to change text layouts subtly, and if my computer no longer has some specialty font or if a font version has been updated, the layouts in InDesign might require attention to bring them back into printable form. All of this is avoided by simply producing and preserving the PDF as the master archive for each print or project.
One other thing occurs to me that might add to this discussion. I'll often need an illustration of a print layout — say for a web page sample, for use in a Premiere Pro video project, or to include in an email. Rather than send a JPEG of the photo only created from Lightroom, I can export a JPEG right out of InDesign of the full layout. Multipage InDesign documents will create a separate JPEG image for each page — handy! (BTW, exporting out of InDesign as a JPEG can be done at any resolution and on occasion I've done 300dpi JPG exports and then just printed the JPG from any old program. Crude, but it works.)
Lastly, what if I need to send an email of a printer layout to someone and I don't have the original InDesign layout? Believe it or not, you can take a high resolution PDF that was created for printing and export it from Acrobat Pro (not Reader) as a low resolution PDF. Alternatively, you can export from a PDF to a JPG, PNG, or TIF image of the PDF at any resolution you want. I can also size the printer-ready PDF on my screen to whatever size I need and then just do a screen capture and paste the screen image into an email. Lots of ways to get from a PDF to what you need from a PDF. Any of these ways will preserve the layout with all its text and graphics. PDFs are incredibly flexible and useful in so many ways that they've become the core of my creative output.
In short, the three-step workflow is:
- Lightroom/Photoshop (images)
- InDesign (design and layout)
- PDF (printing, repurposing, and archiving)
It's a workflow that fills every need I have at every level — allows unlimited image control and creativity including non-destructive preservation of my image originals, provides flexibility in repurposing at every step along the way, enables easy archive paths, facilitates staff sharing and workflow simplicity, and allows me to concentrate my energies on the creative process rather than the technical hoop jumping. Not a bad payoff for graduating from the initial learning curve.