What is your photography workflow?

[Lals]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

For those of you who use the Leica M240s or any of the digital Ms, what is your typical workflow? As I am getting into this, I am realizing that there is more to a satisfying experience than just the equipment Would love to see what folks do and what works well.

 

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps.

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images

- Do you print anything? How do you print and how to you decide what to print

- How do you store and catalog your pictures.

- Do you upload your photos online for personal use or for sharing?

[bocaburger]

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

 

When I had an M8 and then M9 I shot DNG always, because they often needed more tweaking than I could accomplish with a JPG. The M240 I've been shooting mostly JPG, but if I see a truly awesome memorable shot with the potential to be a "real keeper" and I think it might need extensive tweaking, or I think will be a candidate for a large print, I switch to DNG

 

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

 

No, never. It's important to me when I'm shooting, but not after the fact.

 

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps.

 

Nice dinner, maybe a glass of wine, go for a walk, have a nice conversation. I edit my shots on a pass/fail basis, a fail gets deleted. I also shoot as if it was film and I was paying for every shot. Digital has not increased my shot volume at all.

 

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images

 

If you mean learn from my mistakes to improve future images, yes. If you mean doctor them in image editing software, no. I know how, it just bores me so much I can't bring myself to do it routinely.

 

- Do you print anything? How do you print and how to you decide what to print

 

I don't have much wall space left, getting prints made and framed is very expensive, so I do so very judiciously.

 

- How do you store and catalog your pictures.

 

I probably delete 95% of what I shoot, just as I tossed 95% of the slides I used to shoot. Those I keep get burned to CD's

 

- Do you upload your photos online for personal use or for sharing?

 

I have used private file sharing such as dropbox. Not interested in public sites like flicker, definitely not interested in competitions or critiques.

Edited November 22, 2014 by bocaburger

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[indergaard]

For those of you who use the Leica M240s or any of the digital Ms, what is your typical workflow? As I am getting into this, I am realizing that there is more to a satisfying experience than just the equipment Would love to see what folks do and what works well.

 

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps.

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images

- Do you print anything? How do you print and how to you decide what to print

- How do you store and catalog your pictures.

- Do you upload your photos online for personal use or for sharing?

 

1. It depends on what camera I'm using. On the M240 I tend to shoot only dng. On my A7S I tend to mostly shoot raw. On my RX100M3 I tend to shoot jpeg+raw as the last is my waiter and walk-around cam that I bring in my pocket everywhere I go.

 

2. No. That type of information isn't interesting for me.

 

3. After a days of making pictures I usually let the images rest on my camera for a few days, or, import them to Lightroom and let them rest for some days or weeks before I start looking at them. I might do culling right away to get rid of the crap.

 

4. Yes. Whatever I want or need. B&W conversion, contrast and sharpening, straightening, adding grain, removing banding... Regular post processing that is.

 

5. I don't print a lot. But I do print some. I usually print on Epson Stylus Pro 9890 or 7890 or 3880 as I have access to these. I don't print at home.

 

6. Everything is cataloged in Lightroom, with proper keyword tagging and metadata, then backed up to a local HDD every 4 hours, and also backup up online every 4 hours - all automatically.

 

7. Yes. My blog primarily, and some to Flickr and Facebook.

[Echo63]

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

Just DNG in my M240, Raw and B+W Jpeg in my X100 and Jpeg only in my 1DX

 

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

its built into the EXIF data when the image is taken - although the Aperture is typically a guess by comparing light through the lens vs light into the "third eye" above the red dot)

easily viewable in LR or PS

 

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps.

copy images to laptop, import into LR

Pic good images, reject "fails" (back of heads, missed focus, poor exposure etc) add keywords. plug laptop into time machine hard drive, then back images up to a second HDD.

 

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images

Yes - Crop, WB, then adjustments in LR, i typically go a bit further with LR than i would at work, but i don't have to worry about "newspaper ethics**" with my personal pictures

 

- Do you print anything? How do you print and how to you decide what to print

I do print occasionally, but typically my pictures are displayed online, Facebook and assorted forums, they are also loaded into my "desktops" folder on my mac, which switches them every minute

 

- How do you store and catalog your pictures.

Cataloguing in LR, backed up on a pair of HDD

work pictures (shot with the 1DX) are backed up onto a pair of HDD, one kept at home, one at work, and sorted into specific job folders, labelled YYYYMMDD *my initials* *3 letter section code* description of job, names of people etc

 

- Do you upload your photos online for personal use or for sharing?

YES - here on LUF, the canon forum (POTN), Facebook, and i am just starting to use instagram.

I am also looking at Leica Fotopark

 

 

 

**cropping, WB, dodge and burn, contrast, exposure, USM and caption - if you can do it in a darkroom, its ok in PS

[Jeff S]

In my film days (35+ years), the workflow was from camera to displayed print (including matting and framing), with the darkroom in between. After transitioning fully to digital in 2009, the key difference for me now is using 'Lightroom' instead of the darkroom. The end goal and output…the print…is still the same. And, if it's a great print, of a great pic, then I still mat and frame.

 

The good news is that digital PP is more flexible and efficient than the darkroom ever was…and less clean up. And, with software like LR, cataloging and info retrieval is easy (including the data you ask about and more). The bad news is that another learning curve is involved. Post processing, and printing in particular, is not plug and play…at least not if one wants to understand the theory behind the the techniques, and cares about print nuances. But, once there, one can achieve a disciplined and efficient workflow.

 

This concept is no different in the digital world than in the darkroom days…many great photographs/prints in history were produced with minimal gear (see Edward Weston), and lots of folks with expensive equipment still produced crap. The most important thing is having a good eye…the techniques can be easily learned.

 

I suggest you go over to the Digital Post Processing section of the forum and browse/search (including searches on workflow) the myriad threads on the topic. In this world, most people don't print, content to post online. But the two are not mutually exclusive, and for those who like to print, this is an ideal time considering the advances in software, hardware and print materials…including some fabulous papers.

 

Jeff

[TomB_tx]

Another old film photographer, going back about 50 years. For decades rolled, processed, and printed my own B&W up to 16x20, but color was always slide film, mainly Kodachrome II and Ektachrome. Our emphasis was to capture the shot faithfully so it needed as little post-shot manipulation as possible - which was essential for projected slides.My work was largely reporting and documentary, so a pleasing, faithful image was more important than artistic expression. (As an engineer by nature, I've never been accused of being artistic.)

The M9 captures much the images I want, but the internal jpg rendering is inferior, so I shoot RAW and convert with Lightroom. I seldom do much tweaking on an image, so to me "Lightroom" is just "processing slides."

My other camera models do better native jpg files, so Leica is the only one I shoot RAW.

[keithlaban.co.uk]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

 

Raw only, If I need jpegs I make them. Why chose less information over more?

 

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

 

Metadata takes care of most of this except that the pesky digital Leica cameras can't record the taking aperture. Boo.

 

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps?

 

When on location I transfer the session from card to laptop but keep the images on card as insurance. When back at base I'll transfer all the images - I never delete anything - to three hard drives including one offsite. Sessions are stored in dedicated folders.

 

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images?

 

Capture is but half the process.

 

- Do you print anything? How do you print and how to you decide what to print?

 

When shooting for myself I'll print what I consider to be the best.

 

- How do you store and catalog your pictures?

 

See above.

 

- Do you upload your photos online for personal use or for sharing?

 

I upload selections to my website.

[AlanJW]

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

DNG only except when I know they are just snaps to send around by email. Why not use all of the data the camera captures?

 

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

No. Keeping notes would be a sure way to interrupt shooting. The EXIF is sufficient, even without accurate f/stop info

 

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps.

Copy what is on the card to a computer, either my desktop when home or laptop when traveling. When traveling I also copy to a Hyperdrive Colorspace so I have two backsups. Hypersapce only when not carrying a computer.

 

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images

Yes. Just like when I had a darkroom, only more. Use ACR to start. Crop. Adjust shadows/highlights as necessary. Rarely fiddle with WB unless it is way off; sometimes use Nik Viveza for specific areas. Convert to BW via Silverefex when that is the direction to take.

 

- Do you print anything? How do you print and how to you decide what to print

I print lots of images but have no more room for framing. I am old fashioned and think a print is the end result, not some computer image.

 

- How do you store and catalog your pictures.

I am not a Lightroom user. I file in folders arranged by subject and date and use Bridge for organization and metatagging. I can find anything I want to fairly easily. The folder structure is replicated on a second computer in a different location using Chronosync and an external drive for transfer. That way I have two identical sets of files and workspaces in the two locations, and the external drive as a failsafe backup.

 

- Do you upload your photos online for personal use or for sharing?

I upload selections to Zenfolio, for safekeeping and for showing. I occasionally use Flickr to send around family snaps.

 

Workflow is a personal thing. You will have to decide what works best for you. When someone says something is "better" consider it an opinion only.

[NZDavid]

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

 

Sometimes only JPEG. Reason: Faster processing if I have lots to do. They are absolutely fine most of the time. For special pics when I want the ultimate quality and flexibility I shoot DNG.

 

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

 

Embedded in EXIF data but I have to remember to input non-coded lenses. Only of academic interest to work out which lens I use most often (35 and 24) or to compare results; otherwise data doesn't really matter. It's the results that count.

 

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps.

 

Immediately upload SD card to Mac and label (see below). Select pics I might want to publish for project. Discard rejects.

 

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images

 

Crop and resize in Graphic Converter for publication. If necessary, adjust white balance, exposure, add fill flash in Lightroom.

 

- Do you print anything? How do you print and how to you decide what to print

 

Rarely. Would upload file to flash drive and take to Pro Lab.

 

- How do you store and catalog your pictures.

 

By date and subject, e.g. 1413-Germany, April 2014, plus I also write details in my notebook. Files still waiting in my Photos to Sort folder on desktop, then get stored in My Passport for Mac 1TB hard drive with backups for past year also saved on desktop, and resized pics for specific projects saved in another folder.

 

- Do you upload your photos online for personal use or for sharing?

 

No.

[StephanHP]

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

Just DNG; I post-process each of the pictures which remain after a pre-selection

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

These data are available in LR. Sometimes I look at them but not systematically. I remember the lens, I only have 4

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps.

I copy them from the memory card to my computer, go through them in Irfanview, delete all the pictures which are technically poor or boreing, import them into LR and then work on them

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images

Yes, a lot of them are not straight, usually they hang to the left I crop most of them, adjust exposure, contrast, a pinch of more or less clarity, maybe white balance, and finally convert them into B&W

- Do you print anything? How do you print and how to you decide what to print

I am a fan of photo books. Maybe a relict from my dark room era. Pictures only on the hard disk are lost pictures and will be forgotten soon. I love sitting somewhere and leaf through a photo book.

- How do you store and catalog your pictures.

2 disks talking in Raid 1 to each other. Main ordering principle is the date when the picture was taken, because this is what I remeber even after years, and I use often very long path and picture names

- Do you upload your photos online for personal use or for sharing?

Dropbox for myself and sharing.

NB: I am an amateur, love software which a have a lot of for B&W or special effects I like, and because being an amateur I have all the time in the world.

[efreed2754]

Hi. Rather than respond to each point here are a few thoughts.

 

1) Never delete images in camera. Upload to MacAir when traveling for backup. Once home upload to LR. All images are stored on two remote hard drives, none on my PC. Need in two places cuz things inadvertently happen.

 

2) improve by removing worst first although some prefer to select just the best and work with those. Since many of my pics are at concert halls or auditoriums fix white balance, then exposure and colors. LR usually makes too bright so fool with exposure, whites, shade etc. may adjust for colors but rarely as most M images very good. Occasionally use so e presets to sharpen if needed or do Black and White. Also clean up sensor spots and then crop.

 

3) Occasionally print on Epson 3880. Does a remarkable job although tend to print using Photo Shop.

 

4) Store by subject then year. Each file is like what was mentioned above by some using _ between nos. Then include subject and end with number of images. For example, 2014_11_24_ConcertTrudy_25. This means date of shoot Nov 24, 2014, Trudy concert with 25 images. My PC automatically puts each event in date order within the topic. Then copy to second hard drive.

 

5) Post images to Zenfolio which has been wonderful and not open to the world. Can apply password to each file and invite others to see. Also use Hightail to send many images although usually JPEGs.

[Lals]

Thanks all for your thoughtful feedback. Looks like DNG and getting used to Lightroom is the way to go. I appreciate the need for external hard drive backups.

 

Regarding lightroom, it looks like Adobe now only sells a cloud version? What if you just want it installed so that you could do this when you are offline, say a beach in mexico. Is this their new sales model?

[LocalHero1953]

You don't need to be online permanently to use Adobe CC - I think it allows you to be offline for up to a month without a "call home" (I'm not sure of the process).

 

I switched, with much misgiving, from standalone LR, with occasional use of Photoshop Elements, to the Adobe photographer's subscription which (depending on your viewpoint, I know) is cheap. The problem with PSE is that the moment you do anything more than very basic editing you lose the 16bit colour of LR, and drop to 8bit which, for many applications, can cause problems (e.g. colour banding). Now I have the full PS, I find that the extra tools, adjustment layers, masking/selection tools etc a real benefit for that shot that you really want to make the most of. My workflow remains, however, basic PP and cataloging in LR then exporting to PS when necessary, then drop it back into LR. If you export to PS as a Smart Object, you retain the non-destructive editing when you re-enter LR, which I value.

 

Edit: I should say I've seen one forum nearly self-destruct over the issues of subscriptions, CC, Adobe vs others, LR vs PS etc, so I should add: YMMV :-)

 

Edit 2: non-subscription LR is still available, and also comes free with a new Leica

Edited December 4, 2014 by LocalHero1953

[Jeff S]

Regarding lightroom, it looks like Adobe now only sells a cloud version?

 

No, Adobe still provides LR as a stand-alone option; Photoshop, however, is only through the cloud.

 

Jeff

[Dougg]

I have a few differences than mentioned by others...

 

- Do you shoot DNG and JPG or or just one? why?

DNG for capturing more data, JPEG as well when traveling to more easily check results on the road. I can view the jpegs on my Mac laptop with Preview or GraphicConverter.

 

- Do you do any record keeping of what lens you are shooting or ISO or f/stop etc? How do you track this and why?

EXIF of course, plus after the day’s shooting I create a FileMaker database record for the session that includes subject & location notes, equipment used, etc. Record name is of the pattern YYMMDD and a code indication for digital, color neg, transparency, or B&W. As to why, I may wish to look back to see how I've used certain lenses, when a particular problem showed up, if I was using a particular filter, how much I've used a certain film or camera, etc. Info is useful.

 

- What do you do after a day/ session of shooting? What are your typical post processing steps.

Make notes on the computer about subject & location, while reviewing the “take” on the camera’s screen. Copy files from card into a new folder on the computer, named consistent with the record. With “A Better Finder Rename” software I rename all the files to match the FileMaker record, in the pattern YYMMDD-NNN.DNG in sequence with NNN starting at OO1. Now the uniquely named pics can be related to the info in the computer database. Also, if the lens used is inaccurately recorded in EXIF, I use ExifChanger to correct the session’s files. CornerFix may be necessary in some instances too. Ensure there’s a backup of the files. Now or sometime later, perhaps after returning from a journey, I “import” each session (which I consider like a roll of film) into Lightroom. The SD card goes back in the camera to be formatted but first I reset the file numbering to start again at 1.

 

- Do you do anything to "improve" your images

Yes, as others have noted, many adjustments in LR to bring out the best in the image. As with a film darkroom, here’s half the fun!

 

- How do you store and catalog your pictures.

I catalog info in the FileMaker database, and add nothing in Lightroom... which I use for processing but not cataloging. My folders of DNG files are all named consistently with the session and file naming, grouped in a folder of like folders. The output from LR is full-scale TIFFs as a basis for further uses. Some may go out for printing, many are scaled, sharpened, and converted to JPEG in GraphicConverter for sharing online. I can always go back to the TIFFs for a different scale or file type or compression. The scaled JPEGs go all together in a single folder for easy access.

 

Doug

Edited December 5, 2014 by Dougg