# Best way to process old JPG files?



## n.v. (Sep 12, 2014)

After decades of haphazard (yet sometimes pleasing) photography, I’ve decided to learn how to more fully harness the capabilities of my camera (Canon 70D currently) and maximize what I do with my images.

I have a clear idea about moving forward. I’ll be shooting RAW files almost entirely and will adopt a workflow based on the one laid out by Gavin Gough in _The Photographer’s Workflow_. I also plan to study his companion volume, _Photographer’s Post-Production_, in an effort to achieve the best final results.

But that is going forward.

Looking back, I have thousands of existing film and digital images. Because of the need to scan the film images, I’ll leave aside that daunting project for the moment. But I’d very much like to begin including my digital images – which are all JPGs before 2014 – in my Lightroom catalog.

Is there is a consensus about the best way to handle JPG files in LR?

For example, while I’ll be using the X-Rite Color Checker Passport and session-specific camera profiles with my RAW images, I’m not sure about processing the JPG files. The oldest of them, taken with a Nikon Coolpix 950 in 2000, were shot in the sRGB colorspace and the EXIF value for white balance is blank. The latest, taken with a Canon EOS Rebel XT, show an uncalibrated colorspace and were shot with auto white balance. As I said, my photography was haphazard.

I would still like to develop those JPG images in LR in the best way possible. I still have most of the cameras, but I’m uncertain whether creating profiles (for the ones that still work) would be useful since specific profiles seem to apply chiefly to RAW processing. If creating profiles WOULD be useful, are there any noteworthy tricks for doing that successfully?

I have the same sort of questions about lens correction (for example, my two Nikon Coolpix cameras had integrated lenses).

Basically, I’m looking for guidance on taking what I’ve got – old and not-so-old JPG images captured primarily with an auto exposure setting – and processing those files in the best way possible.

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

Ned


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## clee01l (Sep 12, 2014)

Welcome to the forum.  Other than import, title, caption and extensively keyword the JPEGs, I would not do anything wrt develop processing.  Later, when you find a need and reach back for _some_ of these images, you might consider making develop adjustments to the selected images.  Those that hold special merit might be designated with a keyword to be reserved for occasional reprocessing when new technology is available.  Anytime I embark on reprocessing, I return to the unprocessed/least processed original and begin fresh with a virtual copy. Saving derivatives of derivatives of original JPEGs results in unrecoverable loss of image data. So, always keep the JPEG that is closest to the lossy JPEG that came out of the camera if the lossy JPEG that came from the camera is no longer available.


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## n.v. (Sep 12, 2014)

Cletus, thanks so much for responding. To be clear, I will always keep the original JPG files without alteration. But in terms of eventually printing some of them (I've never spent a lot of time or money trying to achieve great prints) or simply displaying the favorites as an on-screen catalog, I'd like to know the best approach toward making effective changes.

A crude example: with my limited knowledge I would always duplicate a JPG that I wanted to either share online or print and would then edit it in Photoshop. Sometimes I would crop and manually adjust various properties... other times I would simply use something as basic as "Auto Levels". In most cases, even that basic processing would improve the result (to my eye, anyway).

I'd like to get those JPGs looking as good as possible - _while always hanging on to an unaltered copy of the original_ - and I'd like to know about the best way to do it in LR. If it happens to dovetail with Gavin Gough's development workflow (which focuses on RAW processing), great... but that's certainly not required.

Thanks again for taking the time and I'd love to hear more of your thoughts and/or those of others.

Ned


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## Replytoken (Sep 12, 2014)

Ned,

An easy approach would be to create virtual copies and try adjusting them.  This way you could have multiple attempts when working on a file.  As far as jpeg vs raw, the files are going to be less "flexible" during processing as the camera settings have been "baked in", but you can still work on them as much as they will allow.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## clee01l (Sep 12, 2014)

As long as you have an unaltered copy of the original in the catalog, you don't really need to do more than I suggested earlier.  When you want to print one of these or send one to an online social website like Flickr or Facebook you do not need to create a new physical file. You can create a virtual copy and apply develop adjustments to that in LR.  Making a LR Virtual copy is like making a file copy except that no extra file is created. In LR to print you use the Print module. This will merge the original image data with any (or no) LR adjustments into a derivative which is printed no derivative file is created.  An Export creates a derivative image file consisting of the original data and any LR adjustments merged into a new JPEG file.  If you are using a third party print service, you would need to sens them a derivative file. If you use one of the LR publish Services (or many 3rd party plugins) to load images to a website, the same export is created as a temporary file, uploaded to the web server and once on the web site, the local temporary is deleted.

The Lightroom Smart Collections mentioned by Gavin Gough are similar to our own John Beardsworth's Workflow Smart Collections that many of us here have adapted and adopted.


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## n.v. (Sep 12, 2014)

Ken and Cletus, I understand the concept of the virtual copy and would certainly use that approach. What I'm wondering, however, is more along the lines of what to do with the virtual copy once established. I'm still at the very front edge of all this, so it may become readily apparent once I dig into the development workflow for my RAW files... I would expect that there are some basics of photo adjustment that will translate to working with any photo, even my JPGs. 

I suppose I'm trying to determine if there is a baseline step that I shouldn't overlook - creating profiles for the cameras/lighting conditions that were used to capture the existing JPGs, for example. Or tweaking the colorspace in which I do the editing on the virtual copy (if that is even possible - again, front edge of the learning curve here). Or some sort of tried and true lighting/contrast adjustment that works especially well for auto-exposed JPGs.

Perhaps the answer is that there just isn't a common baseline step, other than working on a virtual copy and keeping the original JPG intact. If so, that's one less thing to worry about! I imagine that as I gain some experience processing my RAW files, I'll feel a lot more confident across the board. Sure hope so.

Cletus, thanks for the link to the John Beardsworth Workflow Smart Collections. I'll give those a look this weekend.

Ned


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## clee01l (Sep 12, 2014)

JPEGs are already processed This was done to the RAW data using the tiny little processing engine in the camera.  In the camera things like White Balance was fixed, pixels were sharpened and noise was reduced.  These are the same things that you would do initially in LR to a RAW file.  So in that regard, no further processing is necessary for the JPEG.  Everything has already been "baked in".   While you can still recrop in LR, there is little other post processing that you can do in LR develop module other than to nudge a bit the adjustments already made in the camera. 
Gavin Gough sells as a part of the package 65 Lightroom  Development Presets.  These are his idea of what a photo should look like You can find many many other develop presets available from others for free or for a fee.  It is my experience that one size does not fit all.  Develop presets for Canon don't work on Nikon and vice versa.  When I had a Pentax, I found it needed lots of develop tweaking to bring out the best in the Photo.  When I got a Nikon D800, I was able to create my own develop preset that I applied on import.  This and a crop took care of 90% of my D800 post processing requirements. With the D800E, I found that nothing beyond the basic default adjustments  needed to be applied to the D800E.  Now with my new D810, I'm finding that I need to work harder in Develop to get the tone and noise levels just right.  So, IMO there is no way that Gavin Gough or anyone else can come up with a universal set of develop presets for me to "pick one' for my camera that was not even announced when he wrote the book and wasn't even supported by Adobe until LR 5.6. And even LR 5.6 shipped with flawed D810 camera profiles.


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