Workflow examples

[Pointcolville]

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1) Remove M8 (purchased yesterday) from box, charge battery; shoot DNG + JPG.

2) Review images in Adobe Bridge. Admire accurate colors and beautiful skin tones in.JPGs. Frown at overly saturated reds and unnatural skin tones in .DNG.

3) Try unsuccessfully to match JPGs by processing DNG files in ACR

4) Open box, pull out Capture One disk, install in computer.

5) Breath sigh of relief as DNGs come to life.

 

That's as far as I've gotten. My workflow for Canon RAW is out the window, but so far I'm enjoying C1.

 

Has anyone upgraded to C1 Pro and found it worthwhile?

[ajthornbury]

Work flow:-

I use Windows XP.

 

1. Remove card from camera.

2. Create folder using Windows Explorer.

3. Using Card reader transfer images ( jpeg) from camera to newly created folder.

4. Using PaintShop Pro 9, browse folder and delete unwanted images.

5. Make back up copy on external hard drive.

6. Replace card in camera and delete images ready for next shoot.

7. Work on images if required at leisure and print as required using Epson printer and

materials.

8. Mount any specials ready for exhib.

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[Woody Campbell]

Firstly and most importantly in my view is to get a dvd of the DNG files burnt before you even consider messing ,processing, converting or anything thereafter, it is so important to get the origionals burnt i cant believe nobody so far does that, i never throw away any images I have shot until i have this first copy, having recently gone through all my work from the past 10 years in order to formulate a website those images you might have binned now do creep out and bite you sometimes, for the price of a dvd you can and i recommend keep everything you shoot.

I buy hard drives in pairs - one for primary use and one for backup. I dedicate a hard drive and backup to each year

 

1. Create a new session in C1 for the job/subject/month.

2. Mount the card from the camera and drag the files (always all raws) to the "captures" folder for the session.

3. Copy the folder for the session onto the backup drive.

4. Remove the card and format it in the camera.

5. In C1 identify clear non-keepers and move to trash.

6. Page through images in C1. Default profile=JFI Ilford Delta 400 (all of my work is B&W); default sharpening=soft look; default noise=all the way left. Process as 16 bit tiffs. If I have a high volume project do cropping in C1 and additionally process as jpegs.

7. Edit and process.

8. Open the session's processed folder in Bridge.

9. Drag any images that need to be stitched to PTGui. Save stiched16-bit tiffs to a folder in the session folder called "stitches". I do a lot of these.

10. Open tiffs (stiched as well as conversions that didn't need stitching) in PS from Bridge. Edit and save as psds in a folder titled "grays". In the process print selected images as a sanity check.

11. Delete intermediate files in the stitching process - they take up enormous space and can be reproduced at will. Move contents of session tash to mac trash.

 

Pour drink as I review prints.

[DaveSee]

1. Take along camera, whether intending to make an image or simply make the rounds of chore, work or a walk... consider too an alternate lens/FL and carry that along too.

2. If having used the camera, remove SD card and dump the DNG files to computer. Replace SD card in camera, lest I forget!

3. Run script to pull embedded TIFF from DNG files to create an "index.jpg" image. Run script to process DNGs to JPEGs using ICC profiles and sized for 5x7in prints(if "quick prints" are needed).

4. Review JPEGs and discard both JPEG and DNG of poorest captures. Those deemed most worthy, load DNG files into LightZone for a little play, with attention to what seemed "needed" to improve the image... then discard edits and quit LightZone.

5. Monitor disk space and archive DNGs to DVD when reaching 4GB.

6. Goto Step 1, after checking battery level

 

rgds,

Dave

[Overgaard]

Best practice photographing kids

 

I did some photos Sunday of kids of which you can see some here:

http://www.leica-camera-user.com/people/23391-photographing-kids.html

 

I donøt know if this thread is only supposed to be hardware flow. Anyway, I'll get back with some of those as well later.

 

 

1) Find spots with good light (that goes for all photography as rule no 1)

 

2) Tie up the hands of the parents (*)

 

3) Let the kids do whatever they want; don’t ask them to pose, don’t ask them to smile, don’t ask them to do this and that (or they will very soon find someone else than you to play with). Kids are not stupid so they know you are photographing them, so you don’t even have to tell them that fact (which their parents probably told them anyways).

 

4) The kids will soon start paying attention to the camera and get into character as rather cool models.

 

5) Sometimes they will forget what they are doing and just look out the window or sit and be very much them self.

 

6) Never ever tell somebody to wait for the camera, “sit still right there [till my camera is ready]” or stuff like that.

 

7) Sometimes it’s good to show them a single picture (if digital) to get them back into the project.

 

8) When they think it is all over; take photos for real (**)

 

9) Get the parents to be in the pictures as well but make sure they know they are being photographed as well (else they think they are just in the picture to manage the kids and will look very worried or at least not be photogenic).

 

10) If you are smart you have a pack of wet cloths to clean their face and nose from time to time whenever … well, you will see when to use them.

 

11) If you shoot digital, shoot series of photos and generally behave like your camera is a machinegun and you get a medal for shooting 1000+ frames a day (I’ll get back to that point another day as it also goes for other types of photography. But on the shooting I have linked to, I did 1 roll of slide film and 707 digital photos. Of those I selected 66 as good pictures to keep for the family – which is usually how it is; that 10% is worth using)

 

 

 

(*) TIE UP THE PARENTS

 

Parents mostly have a very strong intention to get their kids photographed and have visions about their kids sitting on a chair (how often did you succeed in getting a kid to sit still on a chair even if there was no camera present?) or being a certain way.

 

Very often when focusing on doing a portrait of a kids face you will see a mothers hands in the picture, adjusting the hat, the hair and generally ‘taking care’ – it is simply amazing how often parents interfere with kids freedom of choice by picking up things for them, cleaning their mouth, fixing their hair, picking them up from a chair, etc (while usually at the same time asking the kid to do so but never leaving time for the kid to do it itself). However, on pictures you suddenly notice how often those HANDS are in the picture and how disturbing they are for the picture where they do clearly not belong.

 

In real life you don’t tie up the parents’ hands, but you tell them relaxed “It’s fine, just let him do what he wants – it looks very good” and look as if you are very satisfied and have never seen so well educated and relaxed kids.

 

(**) SHOOT WHEN IT’S OVER

Some of my best shots of kids I have taken during breaks or before or after the shooting. It does not get more real life than that and usually everybody is very relaxed. Also, shooting while walking or driving from one location to another is great.

And if the kid walks off the 'set' let them walk. They will come back, perhaps asking their parents for an ice og something – those are natural situations so you just start shooting again. They often come back into character and pay attention to the camera then.

[wparsonsgisnet]

thorsten, VERY nicely done, both the words and the pix.

[wparsonsgisnet]

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... Drag any images that need to be stitched to PTGui. Save stiched16-bit tiffs to a folder in the session folder called "stitches". I do a lot of these. QUOTE]

 

Woody, when you stitch, how do you rework the combined images that PS joins where you don't want it to?

 

If you would describe how your make PS stitch at a particular place it would be very helpful.

 

tnx.

[hdrmd]

Workflow: Cardreader to Photo Mechanic with copy to external hard drive if desired. Edit in Photo Mechanic (PM). Select desired photos by clicking on the lower right sided checkbox. Under Edit in PM: select tagged. Under File in PM: copy- to where ever desired. Usually to a newly created folder labelled Selects. Work each photo as needed in CS3. When finished with the images in CS3, store in Aperture, or iView. Make final DVD copy if the images are to be archived. Cardreader-PM-CS3-Aperture,or iView, Simple. Workflow is not nearly as difficult as becoming expert in CS3; a topic for another time. DR

[smokysun]

keep changing cameras and lenses and shooting different events, rehearsals, etc. in different ways so i don't get bored. (this is called the style of having no style).

 

save everything to disk first. then copy out a folder of saves.

 

now i've got lightroom and am enjoying it so much i'm starting to shoot a lot more raw and take fewer shots.

 

white balance always the issue for me. correct that first. then color cast. then contrast and sharpening.

 

never seem to get a new set of shots the same as the one before. experimenting and playing seems to be the most important thing.

 

post them at wayne pease's Photo Galleries at pbase.com print if for lobby shots. put on a disk to give to the subjects. sock them away and go to the next.

 

sometimes i like to do a lot of post-processing changing colors, backgrounds, transforming the photos into non-photos, etc.

 

for me shooting is just the beginning.

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[pierovitch]

download raw files. Archive raw files to cd or dvd. after that anything goes and can be done with the confidence that if you change your workflow because you find a better way. It can now be done to any of your archived files in retrospect.

[smg_doug]

I like to keep a process:

 

1. Simple

2. Consistent

3. Generic.

 

1. Simple? Well, it is once you've done it 100 times I guess.

 

2. Consistent I do this same processing for each image, though for some non Leica images, I do have a few more options available for final tweaking if I really want to modify element lighting more.

 

3. Generic As long as Adobe introduces a RAW processor for a camera, my post processing remains unchanged from camera to camera. I think for speed of processing, this is necessary.

 

"The Process"

 

I shoot RAW always, whether shooting Leica or Nikon, and I shoot both. I load all photos from a card (SD or Compact Flash) to Google's Free software download, "Picasa". then I doubleclick an image to make larger in Picasa to view, once I find a desired image, I right click RAW file and say open with CSIII or CSII as desired. (Usually CSIII)

 

Once Adobe's DN RAW processor comes up, I examine exposure, then brightness, typically increase color saturation, and vibrance to from 10 to a mid-teen level, I may increase overall image contrast and black settings somewhat to add emphasis to image.

 

I then click to open in CSIII. Here I do all sharpening, typically one pass for high quality images, and may do a despecle pass as required, unless it's an image I want to maintain soft overtones, in which case no sharpening may occur. For really poor images or images that are to sharp, I may use deeper sharpen or unsharpen tool as necessary.

 

Next do any sensor blob cleanup in sky or other areas where it can show if applicable, or perhaps cleanup a solar anomoly, ,as I had to do in the sunsphere photo in architecture. Typically, I use the clone stamp for this as long as I have a section of close like image.

 

Then I set colorspace to Adobe S-RGB, convert from 16 to 8 bit, and save as max JPG for web upload to Smugmug.

[Jim Whitham]

Can someone pleae help. Having discovered that Aperture won't work with mt M8 files, and not being a techno- type i bought Raw Developer, which is very good, but which isn't an archiving system. Is is worth getting Lightroom? I'm about to update to CS3, and I assume there are no problems with Leica files and Bridge, but a) is Lightroom goinf to work directly with M8 files and does it provide an uncomplicated workflow?

Jim Whitham

[holgerf]

Can someone pleae help. Having discovered that Aperture won't work with mt M8 files, and not being a techno- type i bought Raw Developer, which is very good, but which isn't an archiving system. Is is worth getting Lightroom? I'm about to update to CS3, and I assume there are no problems with Leica files and Bridge, but a) is Lightroom goinf to work directly with M8 files and does it provide an uncomplicated workflow?

Jim Whitham

 

Aperture does work with M8 files (DNG) if you have the latest version of OS x installed, must be 10.4.10.

 

Best

Holger

[Jim Whitham]

Thanks

 

Has something changed? At first the files wouldn't open so I usd Raw Developer, but I've just tried one and it opened.

Regards, Jim

[ptomsu]

Simply take LR, then you have all you need for a perfect workflow!

[bobtodrick]

-take film out of camera

-mix chemistry, process film then hang to dry

-make contacts

-take negs I want to print plus bottle of Jack Daniels down to the darkroom

-make prints

[holgerf]

Thanks

 

Has something changed? At first the files wouldn't open so I usd Raw Developer, but I've just tried one and it opened.

Regards, Jim

 

Jim,

 

don’t understand your question. What do you mean by "at first"?

 

 

Holger

[MartinL]

I shoot only RAW and on two different systems. I do no in-camera processing. My work (unfortunately) requires dSLR and some pretty big, weighty lenses. I got my M8 about the same time I upgraded from CS to CS3, which has made the workflow much more pleasant.

 

I download via Bridge with pretty simple filing requirements, Date, "Custom" (event) name, and sequential numbering. I like to take at least several days with the photos before doing any processing. Occasionally, I can't do this for my work photos, but usually I can. This time allows me to make several passes through the photos, each time dumping a few more. Sometimes, if other people are available, I'll ask for their impressions.

 

I admire the stamina of those who will (or must) spend an entire night doing this work, but initial editing, IMO, is the most important step; visual overload and premature (or just plain poor) judgments are responsible for lots of lost pictures, and for many poor shots seeing the light of day.

 

After selection/editing, I do a relatively fast WB, exposure correction, and maybe more before going to PS. There, I often do some curve adjust, resize, sharpen. I typically do not crop now. At this stage, I resize to 72 (maybe 96) and (typically) a 10" high and 6+" portrait and 13+" landscape. This, sets up my second stage of decision-making. The sized pics are shared with family or colleagues via email or website. From these, I decide on promising candidates for more processing attention, posting, and/or printing.

 

Once decided on these latter, I return to the DNG file and do more careful work----start to finish.

[jjmtaylor]

Greetings, first post...

 

Have been working with DMR for a while and now M8, being creature of habit couldn't break away from CS and Bridge.

 

Transfer files to hard drive and back up immediately.

 

Open folder in Bridge and wait till it has done its initial processing.

 

Select files and assign keywords through Bridge. Now they are on a searchable database.

 

Select files and give them a rating and delete rejects, save rated files as "Collection", leaves files in original location.

 

Open RAW files through Bridge, which opens CR dialogue box.( Interestingly, JPEGs can be opened in ACR too)

 

Do a quick colour grade to set a look. If necessary do spot removal, which is recorded and can be transferred to all files shot with same dust pattern......This is useful if you are changing lenses often and it can be "turned off" later if you don't agree with the algorithms.

 

Close CR.

 

Copy and paste relevant colour settings to relevant files using Bridge.

 

Open individual files in CR, tweak until satisfied, open as 300 dpi PSD in CS3. If desired, using Place command, open a CR file as a second layer, with different settings, allowing you to erase through to desired look, kind of quick HDR. Find this very useful with the M8, a lot of pictures are shot in dynamic conditions where exposures can be marginal or extreme. Use history record to remind yourself what you did.

 

Work away, making sure it's all printable.

 

In a new folder, save PSD and a smaller quick loading JPG (the PSD files get quite big).

 

Eat, sleep, drink, start again.

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[jeffascough]

My workflow