minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I shoot that many on just about every trip, so I feel your pain. While traveling, I download the RAWs every night to a portable drive and place photos in one folder named by the trip and in subfolders by date. When I get home I copy the trip folder to the external drive I use as my Lightroom Master drive. I import the whole folder into LR in its existing location with any pertinent keywords, and into the master catalog. I only have one catalog, it's huge but works well. I use similar strategies to those described previously to sort and cull. I keyword in batches for location as I do this, but don't get specific. Then I do more detailed keywording as I develop the RAW's . I don't do anything with DNG. The key thing is patience. It's OK if it takes a while to work through them all, just do it a bit at a time.

i am studying on the new smart previews in LR5, and hope to try it out on my next trip, hopefully, Yellowstone in September.

Daisy61 Loc: New Hampshire

Thanks!

MtnMan Loc: ID

Those are great lenses for most of what you'll do. The 300mm is a bit short for a lot of wildlife so if that is a main objective you might consider renting or buying a Sigma 150-500.

Be sure to get a good quality polarizer. I believe you'll find that the same size polarizer fits both of those lenses.

Also you'll want a tripod and remote release. The 10-24 is a fabulous lens but at least mine doesn't have VR. Since you want high f-stop (f16 or higher) and low ISO for your landscapes your shutter speeds will be low.

Also if you expect to do waterfalls you might want one or more neutral density filters so you can slow the shutter speed to 1/13 s or slower.

The bear I posted above was with the Sigma. Here's another couple of critters.

A shot with the 10-24

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

You might consider a macro lens.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

When I download them I make sure that LR renders the thumbnails 1:1 so I can quickly see them full screen or at 100% view when culling through them. I usually have a cup of coffee while LR is doing this.

When I cull through them I made sure I learned keyboard shortcuts to make it go faster. P=Keeper X=Reject 1-5=Star rating left and right arrow keys to move through images to compare similar shots, to delete the rejects when done culling Ctrl-backspace then left arrow to select delete from hard drive. After culling I keyword tag them. If I plan to prin some I create a collection for print and then Develop them. I create another collection and call it slideshow so I can run a show for those that might be interested. I drag some to the Facebook social media feature for exporting to let some friends and family see.

Most vacation landscape type of images don't need much post processing so LR Develop Module is about all I need. Only those that I'd hang on the wall would go to Photoshop CS for post processing.

After all this has been completed then the whole bunch of images get dragged to the external hard drive for archiving. Then I do a backup of that drive on another drive in case the external drive fails. Some day I will make another backup to store in the safe in case of fire or theft.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

You need something to do all winter, right...right? :)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm curious about how you managed and stored all those images while you were away.

As for the "workflow," that is a major topic in digital photography. If you Google the term, you will find articles and videos.

Dave Chinn

A 40 day trip? Since we are so close to each other, could maybe the next time save room for a stow away? I would love a trip like that. I haven't been to the Rockies since 1975. One thing that I do with a large amount of photos is I run them through Nikon NX2 under run as batch and save as tiff. Just a thought.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I utilize Gavin Gough's workflow make it simple here is a link to a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI_fo9Ba3gs

Baysitter11 Loc: Cincinnati

Is that Hidden Lake at Glacier NP?

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

While there is lots of input for you here, I strongly recommend you read Kelby's book and follow his methods. LR was designed and created by and for professional photographers to keep the workflow to a minimum. Using it properly will do just that and save you hours upon hours of going back and re-inventing the wheel.

I have read many procedures here but unfortunately all have time consuming drawbacks (whether the poster realizes it or not) and LR does have the ability to do all these extra steps they talk about doing. Maybe, they just haven't figured out how to set LR to do those tasks for them.

I would recommend, as you are new to LR, to create a new catalog for this trip only just so you have quick access to the photos. Don't worry about doing it totally right as this will be a temporary "learning" catalog.

Do keep your originals elsewhere so when the day comes you can re-import and do it properly. There is a lot to understand about using LR to your advantage so don't feel the need to rush things. Once you hit that point and do a re-import properly, you will be amazed at the time savings and the quick access you will have to almost any photo in the catalog.

Hope this helps.

Baysitter11 Loc: Cincinnati

Thanks, Jeep Daddy. This sounds great. Everyone has given sound and practical advise. This sounds like how I would like to proceed. The slide show, do you change the size or resolution for the slides? I too need to pit together some for family presentation. Don't want them to take forever for each ok fire to load.

Baysitter11 Loc: Cincinnati

I took my laptop. Made a file just for this vacation and kept it separate from the camera in case of stolen. Made it home ok and now will load on my desktop through LR and a copy goes to external HD. But this work flow at home does boggle my mind. DVD for family, pictures for web site, prints to show.

Baysitter11 Loc: Cincinnati

Heading to Glacier next June. Get ready. 😊

SwedeUSA

How does this help him with HIS question?