[Canada_Rockies]

My work flow is like this:

The camera is set to PEF only, except when I am out of town and don't have this laptop with me. In that case, I set the camera to PEF + JPEG ***. If I had **** I would use it, but I have a K10D. I can then let my daughter or whoever have the JPEG shots, and do the post processing when I get home.

If it's just party shots or other images that I really don't care about having vignetting and lens distortions corrected, I skip the DxO steps 6 through 13.

1. Card Reader in Computer USB port using SanDisk Card Reader.
2. Cancel all those automatic import windows I cannot figure out how to turn off. Lightroom 1.3, Elements 6.0, etc.
3. Copy all files from the card to a directory on the hard drive. I use [My Pictures] / [From Camera]
4. Remove card reader and replace card in camera.
5. If I want to do another card as well, repeat from 1.
6. Open DxO. I pour a cuppa while waiting for it to load all its goodies.
7. [Select] all the images in the [From Camera] folder
8. [Prepare] Quick walk through to red light all the ones I don't want to process. Of course, I don't do very many of these, my focus and exposure and composition are always perfect, and I never take a picture of my foot.
9. Second walk through to see if any images need perspective or horizon corrections, and do that while I'm in there. Lightroom will do horizons, but it won't do perspective (keystone) corrections that I know of.
10. Click [Process] - I have a default output that puts the output in a folder called [DxO LR Exports]. I export DNG files.
11. Take wife out to dinner, cutting down the "Aren't they done yet?"
12. On return to home, check progress.
    1. "498 images processed, 273 queued" - have a shot of Pinch (Dimple to you folks from the UK) and go to bed.
    2. "753 images processed, 18 queued" - have a shot of Pinch while checking out PentaxForums.com
13. Next morning take a few aspirin and open Lightroom 2.3 to import the images.
14. Import the images in batches with appropriate keywords applied to each batch. Please note - this saves a whole bunch of time compared to applying the keywords after import. A whole bunch of time. Really, a lot of time. It even helps the hangover because I don't have to do it one image at a time.
15. As each batch is imported, have a shot of Pinch. Lightroom doesn't do warp speed either, particularly when you have standard previews to create.
16. If the screen is blurry and I cannot find the keyboard within two minutes, do something else
17. When the screen is clear and I can find the keyboard, fix white balance and gross exposure problems in Lightroom. I prefer to do it here rather than in DxO, although I could do this in DxO just as well.
18. Now I'm ready to rate the images. I usually wait until the Pinch has worn off before I do this in case the blur is not in the image.
    1. Flag as Pick
    2. No Flag
    3. Flag as Rejected
19. [Ctrl][Backspace] removes the rejecteds (or hides the evidence)
20. Filer to flagged only and rate 1 - 5.
21. At the same time, if these are pictures of visits we made during a trip, assign a colour to Aunt May and a different one for Jack and yet another for Aggie.
22. Crop any images that need it.
23. Now I am ready for Claire to do her review. She's slowly getting used to the idea that I don't want to sit her down and show her all my goofups.
24. Export the various family email pictures one colour at a time.

That's it. Ready for the next trip, as soon as I head for the store to get some replacement Pinch.

All kidding aside, this work flow really makes life a lot easier. In short hand

1. put the images on the hard drive
2. DxO them.
3. Lightroom them
4. PT Lens if needed to tweak things at this point
5. Photomatix if wanted (HDR or simply Highlight/Shadow 2 image)
6. The Panorama Factory if wanted to make a Panorama.

I split the functions between the programs because each of them does things better than the other. The computer time is really not that high. I can do two 4 Gb cards (4-500 images) in a couple of hours on the computer and have final product. The elapsed time is longer, but I can do other important things while the computer is working. Sometimes it's beer instead of Pinch.