How to cull my archived raw files???

[dodsonmd]

Would appreciate some advice about a vexing workflow issue.
I copy my raw files to my hard drive from the memory card and then import the entire folder into LR, copied as dng, and leave the original raw files intact for future use and reference. I then review and reject a good percentage of them within LR. Removing the dng files from the drive is easy using LR.
My question is this: is there an easy way to identify and remove the corresponding raw files, rather than having to laboriously scroll through the original folder to see which file numbers are not present in LR. If I've rejected the files through LR, there is no need to retain the original raw files.
Hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
John

 

[carson]

Just curious, why do you keep your raw files? I import into LR as dng directly from my CF cards and just forget about the raw's.

 

[Tony Jay]

If Lightroom doesn't know about your RAW files it can't help with your issue.
As far as I know there is a plugin that can identify files with the same name but different suffix ie .DNG and .CR2 (or whatever), to help with workflow, but won't help you because your RAW's are not imported into Lightroom.
John Beardsworth will know more - he may even have authored this plugin - but I won't be able to give you more information about this for some hours.

Regards

Tony Jay

 

[dodsonmd]

Just curious, why do you keep your raw files? I import into LR as dng directly from my CF cards and just forget about the raw's.

HI Carson, that's actually a rather good question. I guess it's anxiety over drive failure, electrical surges (we live in the lightning belt of Florida), I'm trying to think back to when I ever specifically went looking for an earlier raw file, and I can't recall that I ever have. I guess the idea of the dng format is to not have to worry about future compatibility, so being diligent about backing up the catalog to an external drive should probably serve the same purpose, if not actually do it better by saving my LR edits.

I do travel and work in distant places at times, so I sort and edit the files on a laptop. So following your line of thought, I could just back up the LR catalog to an external drive instead of keeping the raw files separate. The other issue is doing that then ties you completely to LR, without the option to put the files into some future program.

But programs, processes and algorithms change, and having the original data seems reassuring. I suppose for that very small percentage of truly great shots that I have I could just save those, and trash the rest. Good food for thought.
Thanks, John

 

[carson]

Hi John, actually I'm in Florida as well, Clearwater. I am rather diligent about backups and keep a couple as well as my NAS. When I'm on the road I import into lightroom as well as keep a backup on a portable hard drive. I also do keep my CF cards until I get home, but I've never had a need for them. I'm a big believer in DNG but I know that is a contentious subject.
Where are you in FL?

 

[dodsonmd]

Hi John, actually I'm in Florida as well, Clearwater. I am rather diligent about backups and keep a couple as well as my NAS. When I'm on the road I import into lightroom as well as keep a backup on a portable hard drive. I also do keep my CF cards until I get home, but I've never had a need for them. I'm a big believer in DNG but I know that is a contentious subject.
Where are you in FL?

We've lived in Belleair Beach for the past 30 years. I'm currently working for a month in Grand Canyon, AZ.
I like to take all the files off the cards and re-format them, they're just too easy to lose, and I had a couple become unreadable a few years back. I do like the idea of just keeping them in LR and backing up the catalog, maybe to two external drives while traveling, and then combining the libraries on my MacPro at home.

 

[carson]

Well you're right down the street from me. Actually I'm going down to Indian Rocks Beach for lunch tomorrow.

 

[Replytoken]

Why not cull before importing into LR? This would streamline your workflow. There are many programs that you could use to cull images before importing.

--Ken

 

[Jim Wilde]

I do like the idea of just keeping them in LR and backing up the catalog, maybe to two external drives while traveling, and then combining the libraries on my MacPro at home.

John, looking at this comment, and one in an earlier post, it's not clear to me that you understand that "backing up the catalog" does not include a backup of the image files? Raw or DNG makes no difference, Lightroom merely 'references' them from whatever their disk location is, so the catalog backup is just that....a copy of the catalog file. It's the user's responsibility to separately backup the image files.

Apologies if you do know that, but I just wanted to be sure your understand.....we've seen too many instances of users not realising that and thus losing their precious picture files when the hard drive fails, because they thought their catalog backups had included the image files.

Back to your initial workflow question: although I personally don't convert to DNG, I know that if I did I would also keep my RAW files, so I can understand the issue of not wanting to keep the originals of files that I had culled. Yes you could try culling first outside LR (though for me that would, to some degree, defeat the purpose of having LR), or you could delay the DNG conversion until after you had imported and culled the Raw files....which is what I will do when/if I decide to switch to DNG.