Digital BW, The Print

I used to deal with these issues but now Lightroom addresses many of 
them with speed and efficiency. It takes lots of time to process RAW 
files. My PC hates Bridge.  But Lightroom is both Bridge and RAW 
converter and is very fast and never alters the original file 
treating it as if it were a film negative.  
If you want to work in depth on a file, you click and you are in PS.  
When you are done you click and you are back in Lightroom with a 
edited copy in PSD or other format.  You can do many photographic 
corrections to files in Lightroom and process a zillion files at 
once.  If a file shows good exposure etc you can print right from 
Lightroom and never even open PS.  The printing concepts are 
identical to what we have been using in PS and the RAW converter is 
identical.  So now we have the best of both worlds: shoot RAW, 
customize exposures, make prints, slideshows, web galleries, etc, but 
when you want to do the PS stuff like layers, filters, etc, use links 
to go into and out of PS.  The printing "layout" functions even have 
a few features similar to RIPs for mass printing. I used it to print 
60 greeting cards and I saved lots of time. It will only get better. 
It uses presets so as you work and save settings, you can reuse 
them.  Plus it provides some fun presets and users are sharing and 
selling presets. The work flow is 1-lightroom to import organize and 
archive, 2-minor adjustments in Lightroom and major ones in PS if 
needed 3-lightroom for printing, slideshows and web galleries 
INSTANTLY. It automates many things that used to take hours. Lastly, 
I saw it on sale (50%)at B&H (I think)as a rebate if you buy certain 
hardware.