Month: August 2019

Today’s Question: Is there a reason why your copyright does not include the year? I have been changing this import preset to change it every year.

Tim’s Quick Answer: I exclude the year from the copyright information I add to metadata simply for expediency. This way I can use the same metadata preset without needing to update each year.

More Detail: Traditionally a copyright notice includes the year of first publication. However, including that information is not necessary. In fact, it is not required to include a copyright notice in metadata, nor to actually file your images for copyright protection with the US Copyright Office.

Ultimately, the point of copyright protection is to be able to assert a claim against someone who infringes on your copyright. It can certainly be helpful to file your images with the US Copyright Office, so your claim is officially documented. And anything you can do to help document the date of first publication can also be helpful. In other words, if you need to file an infringement claim, you’ll want to be able to document that the photo in question is yours, and was captured before the infringer published the image that violates your copyright.

So, it can certainly be a good idea to include the year in the copyright notice for your photos. But that is only a metadata value, and doesn’t necessarily relate to the actual date of first publication, and doesn’t actually represent the first publication. I don’t spend much time worrying about copyright infringement, but I’m also confident that if there was infringement I would be able to document the capture date, publication date, and other details of my photos.

Today’s Question: Do you personally use any software for “quick” photo review or culling before bringing into Lightroom, such as FastRawViewer or Adobe Bridge?

Tim’s Quick Answer: No, I don’t perform an initial review of my images before importing into Lightroom Classic. I prefer to initiate my Lightroom-based workflow as soon as possible. I also feel that the “extra” step of this initial review would actually slow down my overall workflow.

More Detail: Many photographers prefer to use specialized browsing software for their initial review of photos, often using that process to delete outtakes before bringing the remaining images into their normal workflow. A variety of software tools (such as FastRawViewer, which you can find at https://timgrey.me/fastraw) render raw captures very quickly, generally faster than the same previews could be generated within Lightroom Classic.

I certainly understand the motivation for using software such as FasRawViewer before importing images into Lightroom. However, my preferences is to initiate my Lightroom-based workflow immediately, rather than culling images with other software first.

To begin with, I’m eager to get my photos downloaded and backed up, which is part of my workflow for importing photos into my Lightroom catalog. I generate Standard previews as part of this import process, and after that process is complete I find the browsing experience within Lightroom to be perfectly acceptable.

I also feel that the extra step of reviewing images before initiating my normal workflow would add some time to my overall workflow. I also worry that a workflow that is slightly more cumbersome might lead to errors where photos are reviewed with software such as FastRawViewer, but then never imported into Lightroom.

Admittedly, most of this comes down to personal preference. I prefer to get into Lightroom right away to start my organizational workflow. Many other photographers prefer to perform their initial review before importing into Lightroom. If you think the latter might work for you, FastRawViewer is certainly a good software option for this purpose. You can learn more about this software here:

https://timgrey.me/fastraw