I was under the impression that Expression Media and Lightroom play nicely together.  Are you saying that people who use Expression Media don't use LR?

With respect to LR3, I did not realize that they added video support (I don't remember seeing that in the first beta I downloaded).  I will check it out, but there is still the question of cost, I already own LR2, Expression Media, and Adobe Production Premium CS5, so if I could make those work I wouldn't want to buy LR3 as well.

Joe

I'd like to use EM2 alongside LR2.

I would like to use EM2 to

(1) ingest both RAW/Jpg and movie (avi) files.
(2) Rename the files as in LR2.
(3) Some metada created at the ingestion stage.  Would this be storted in the file or, as with LR2, a catalogue.
(4) I will do nondestructive editing in LR2 and some editing in Photoshop.
(5) I will edit movies in Adobe Premiere Pro.
(6) I would like the files copied from the camera to be unchanged from the version on the memory card.

Is EM2 useful for this?

Joe

Bill,

Where did you see the offer for EM2 for $49?

I was also wondering if there was a way to evaluate EM2 before buying.  Is it useful for someone (me) who does not do keywords?

Joe

dkperez,

What ist the trick to enabling NCQ?  It seems that it either my hard drive or mother board or both do not support AHCI, and I can't figure out which is the culprit.

Joe

John,

Thanks for the reply.  The import/export could be very handy.  I need to figure out happens if I import when I already have a structure in the works.

One other question on my mind:  is it ok/typical to have keywords that are longer than one word?

Joe

Given the choice, which is the better format to use for archiving, DVD-R or DVD+R?

Joe

Thank you Peter.  That's a great website, and it behaves on my Blackberry too (Opera browser)!

Joe

When I assume a keyword from the hierarchy to a picture, only that keyword gets assigned and not the ones up the chain.  Is that by design?  I would have thought that all of the keywords up the chain would get assigned.  For example, in the example above <vehicle-Mazda-3> if you asign "3" how would know that's a vehicle and a Mazda?

Anoher question: how do you add new words and build the hierarchy without actually assigning the words to a picture?

Joe

Actually, I think I found a way for Syncback SE to verify two previously copied directories.  Choose the slowest method of comparison and Syncback will use a hash to compare.  Nice!

Joe

I am playing around with LR 3, and I honestly don't see a strong motivation to upgrade, unless Adobe pulls a sneaky punch and stops supporting new cameras in LR2.

One obvious area they could have improved is the import window; but it seems all they did there was window dressing.  There is still no way to verify RAW files, import videos or avoid inconsistent folder structures as between the primary location and the back up.

I would like to "export" subsets of the catalogue for different people to work on, and then "import" the changes back into the master catalogue.  Is this possible?

As a separate matter, I would like to combine two catalogues that relate to different photos into one single possible.  Is this possible?

That's a lot of helpful information.  It seems that Lightroom keyword hierarchy is what I need (despite potential incompatability with other programs).

I've quickly set up a structure that I will test on the last few shoots.  One category that has stumped me is Indoor/Outdoor.  I think it would be helpful to find all outdoor shots, but that's a category that can apply to any other category.  (My main categories are People, Pets, Landscape, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage, Permorming Arts, Activities (eg. fishing), Holidays, Events, Special Effects (e.g. macro, motion, night, long exposure), Portraits (to make it easy to find shot where people posed) and Vehicles).

Should I create two new categories, Indoor and Outdoor?

With respect to something like Special Effects--Long Exposures, while it is possible to surmise that from the camera metadata, it seems helpful to have a keyword for it too.  Does that sound reasonable.

Now one big question I have are searches.  I assume there must be a way to set up searches using common queries like AND, OR, NOT.  Am I correct in that assumption?

Joe

Thanks, that was very helpful.  With respect to your Mazda 3 example, is there no way to use 2-word keywords properly?

Is there an advantage to using the fields rather than keywords?

I could use some serious help with keywords.  I can't decide on a basic strategy.  I have a lot of family and friend photos.  Do I indication the location and the occasion in the keywords?  The names of all of the people in the picture?  Whether it was a group shot or a solo portrait?  Whether it was night or day?  What I was trying to accomplish?  Whether or not it was a good shot?  All of the above?

Joe