What to do in Lightroom when shooting both RAW and JPEG?

Question

I have recently started:

• Shooting both RAW & JPEG
• Using Lightroom 4

Currently when I import my photos into Lightroom I am using the (default) option to ignore duplicates, this means that only the RAW files are imported and thus the JPEGs are not linked so if for example i decide to delete some photos the JPEGs would still be left behind.

Is there a way to link the RAW & JPEG so I don't have the issue and also don't have to see duplicate photos in the library?

If not would you recommend importing just the JPEGs (and only adding a RAW if needed) or just the RAWs?

Answer 1

I'd go with just the RAW files. If you are shooting RAW you probably don't want the auto-adjusted JPEGs anyway. I used to import(& shoot) both but found that I needed the JPEGs in like 1% of cases. On the whole it's just easier to export to JPEG files when I actually need them.

Answer 2

Short answer : The linking your refer to is the default way for Lightroom to handle RAW+JPG.

I shoot Raw+JPG because I like being able to browse my pictures on slow external hard drives quickly (as opposed to rendering RAW pics once Lightroom is launched). In Lightroom, I've never had problems : when I import pictures, it takes both and doesn't duplicate them. It's really smart about it, and that's the default way for it to handle them (no specific configuration whatsoever).

One day, I might go only RAW like @unimatrixzxero . But RAW files are proprietary files (at least the ones that come out of my Nikon), and I'm always worried that they might be a problem in the future. (Yes, I know, I should convert everything to DNG, but that's just a pain.)