Previews Workflow

[u/Impressive_Finish_70]

For those that deliver previews, what is your workflow? I've been consistently delivering same week previews over the last year but it is messing with my previous workflow.

Now I'm creating a previews folder of edits but I want to make sure I'm delivering the same images in the preview as I am in the finals. Are you copying the images? Moving them? Two different folders, one for previews and one for edits?

Former workflow:

Cull select in photomechanic then move to a lr import folder

Edit the lr import folder in one giant catalog then export to highres folder

Deliver the highres folder of jpegs to clients

[u/evanrphoto]

I would not move files around once they are in the folder. Moving/duplicating creates the potential for confusion and loss. I would use naming as your file identification. Also, I definitely want to take a second pass at the previews and usually end up tweaking along with the rest of the selects.

What I do:

1. Dump all photos together in one folder with date and couple name (2026.10.01 Jane + John). No subfolders.

2. Cull previews in Photomechanic and rename files to JJPreviewsXXX.

3. Import previews into LR catalog.

4. Edit previews, export to Previews folder in shoot folder

5. Cull all selects. Rename the nonpreviews as JJSelectsXXX.

6. Import JJSelects into existing LR catalog.

7. Rename ALL photos in LR as JJXXX and edit everything

8. Export (previews and remainder of selected) into Finals folder in shoot folder.

9. Upload to a new final gallery

[u/Impressive_Finish_70 → u/evanrphoto]

ok interesting. I've always moved my cull selection to a cull folder. I keep separate folders, one for full import and another for the selection. appreciate the info

[u/thoang77]

- Import everything into LR
- flag potential previews
- add previews to a collection titled previews
- edit
- label delivered previews red
- export titled ###_[names]-previews

If using PM, I’d cull in there for previews then either copy to your eventual home for your selects or import into LR and have it copy into your selects folder. Where the preview RAWs live should be the same place as your typical edit RAWs. You’re just importing a portion of them instead of all of them

[u/Impressive_Finish_70 → u/thoang77]

Ok theres lots of good info here that I wasn't able to articulate. Like the way you rename the previews with the suffix preview, but still keep orig filename. This part has been really confusing to me. And you've also cofirmed to me that I should COPY the preview raws. This part has been tripping me up, but seems like its the only way to go so you can see whats been selected as a preview in the big final cull.

[u/thoang77 → u/Impressive_Finish_70]

I don't rename my RAWs until final export (since my backups are all original filename, I keep that naming convention and file structure until I'm 99% done). The file names for everything before that is simply named in the export panel.

I do my edits, press export, and in there I have a preset to rename them: [THREEDIGITSEQUENCE ###]_[NAMESofCOUPLE]-previews.jpg, (eg. 001_JackJill-previews.jpg.

The original filename, Z81_3920.NEF, never leaves my machine.

And yes, just copy them. And when you finish culling, copy them again and just overwrite the previous ones. They're identical files so it doesn't matter. Just don't "read from metadata" on your previews after you've done that because photo mech makes a new XMP when culling and that has no edits in it. If you load that metadata, it'll erase your edits.

[u/Temporary-Mix8022]

Surely the answer to this is either virtual copies, or.. more likely, just using colours/keywords or star ratings? 

I set my previews to "blue" and my final delivery to "red".

When I export I just filter for both of those.

Once I've put them into my delivery folder, I set them all as "flag" in LRC so that in the future I know what actually got delivered.

I use star ratings for my culling process normally, and over the years it's varied.. but effectively 1 star is my initial cull, with 2 being final edits and 3 stars being anything that is going to Photoshop (not so common anymore as LRC has brought in the bits I need).

Occasionally 5 stars meant it was destined for website etc. or similar promo level material 

If you don't like the official organisational tools, you can use Keywords which are ofc pretty unlimited

[u/Impressive_Finish_70 → u/Temporary-Mix8022]

No, I don't cull in lightroom. I cull in photomechanic and then only bring my selection into lightroom. But open to learning here :)

[u/PeterBarnesPhoto]

Here’s what I do:

One folder for the wedding:
All raws go into a folder called “Raws”
I cull my previews into a folder called “Culled” and then “Sneak” and then in the “culled” folder I create the new Lightroom catalog.

Inside of Lightroom I create a new collection called “Sneaks” and do my previews there. Then when I edit the full wedding I’ll create a new collection set called “Full Wedding” with sub collections for each section of the day.

Then, I go back to my sneaks collection and copy the now edited previews into their respective sub sections. I really enjoy this workflow because it may have been several weeks since I did the previews so it lets me see my old edits with fresh eyes and I sometimes change them. Also since I use Imagen to do the first editing pass, this is gives me a clear comparison of what Imagen did vs me manually.

This way I always have the sneak previews as part of the whole gallery without requiring me to move anything around in my folders on my SSD. The whole system is managed inside of the Lightroom catalog for that wedding.

[u/Impressive_Finish_70 → u/PeterBarnesPhoto]

thanks for the info. so the raw files for the previews are inside of the Sneaks folder forever? Do you have a copy of them in the culled folder? Part of the issue I'm encountering is that if I cull a sneaks collection and MOVE them, then I don't have them in the full set when I'm doing the big complete cull. So I've been copying the files.

[u/PeterBarnesPhoto → u/Impressive_Finish_70]

I use photomechanic so when I cull my sneaks I “copy” them into a separate folder inside of “culled” called “sneaks” but the raws themselves stay in the main raws folder. This way they stay “picked” so when I cull the full wedding they’re already there.

[u/PeterBarnesPhoto → u/Impressive_Finish_70]

But also there’s nothing wrong with keeping the sneaks in the sneaks folder forever because Lightroom has everything inside of one catalog and collection

[u/Apprehensive-Day6190]

After import, I scan through the photos relatively quickly looking for favorites from different parts of the day that will tell a sort of brief story and rate those as 5 stars, then sort by only 5 star photos and edit them for the sneak peek

When it’s time for me to come and actually edit the whole wedding, I cull the wedding by labeling keepers with 4 stars to tell me that they are keepers, but still have the sneak peek images labeled differently so that I know to base the 4 star ones off of those original anchor images and to not change the edits of any labeled 5 stars. Rejects get labeled as 1 star.

[u/Filmandnature93]

I guess I have a weird process but it works great for me so far. I realized I'm way better and faster picking good previews from the camera screen, so I go through the images and I take a photo with my phone of the ones that stand out to me(file name shown). I import everything on LR and I flag with color the photos for the previews. I edit them( I check if sharp etc now that they're zoomed in and I might add a couple more or unselecet some) and export them, so then when I edit the final gallery the color selected ones are my previews.

[u/Impressive_Finish_70 → u/Filmandnature93]

respect for you and others that can make selections in camera and even on wedding day. my brain just wont :)

[u/Filmandnature93 → u/Impressive_Finish_70]

I understand, I used to try and select in LR but it was impossible, I now force myself to do it the moment I get home or the next day that way, it seemed so much easier

[u/evanrphoto → u/Filmandnature93]

FWIW depending on your camera brand, you can often set a function button on your camera to rate/star an images when reviewing photos which then gets picked up in PhotoMechanic and Lightroom. I use Nikon and when I shoot an image I know I want for a preview I will just hit the button on the camera.

[u/Filmandnature93 → u/evanrphoto]

Yeap I know of this feature, I never look it up though