Workflow examples

[Hartlén]

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Hi all,

 

I'm just wondering how many of you that uses EXIF for storing information about the pictures, location, subject etc. for cross reference and searching later on? Can't see any reference to it in your workflows, and it should probably be done before backing up the DNG's.

(I still haven't decided if I should go over my collection and update them...)

 

/Patrik

[Shootist]

Hi all,

 

I'm just wondering how many of you that uses EXIF for storing information about the pictures, location, subject etc. for cross reference and searching later on? Can't see any reference to it in your workflows, and it should probably be done before backing up the DNG's.

(I still haven't decided if I should go over my collection and update them...)

 

/Patrik

 

The only time I use the EXIF data for any sorting, searching or what have you is for lenses.

Never saw the need to input location data into the EXIF as if I'm in one lacation taking a lot of shot they all go into a subfolder named for that lacation, event or artist (band/solo performer). That subfolder is under the year folder I create for each year and then at the end of the year those images go into a main folder for that lacation, event or artist that is not year dependent. If I then need to search within those folders by date, year or otherwise, that data is already in the EXIF.

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[Printmaker]

My personal workflow is more or less the same as most. I shoot, copy to computer and hard drive, and then make a backup DVD of the raw files. I look the files over in Adobe Bridge, open them in Photoshop CS4's raw convertor, adjust to taste and then make fine adjustments in PS4. The photo is then named, proofed and, if I'm happy with the result, filed in a second hard drive. Because I'm working on two different computers (one for processing and another for printing) this version of the file is saved in 3 places. When my proofing file reaches 4 gigs or a series or job is complete, that file gets archived onto a DVD.

 

I've created a downloadable PDF that explains how to copy and print a perfect reproduction of a painting. Since this is my daily commercial workflow, I think posting this link is appropriate.

 

How to Print the Perfect Giclée: Kauai's Printmaker

 

Enjoy,

 

Tom

[specpro]

Just posted a color management / workflow diagram on my blog: Color Management - Adventures in Photography

 

Let me know what you guys think!

[falkk]

my workflow is also evolving - my experience shows, that workflow is not a stable thing... after some years playing extensively with OSX i end up doing a bit un-efficient work, but it works quite well. i am currently struggeling with two softwares working togehter - Iphoto for archiving, viewing and browisng, and Lightroom 3 Beta for editing dng and raw. it's unefficient, i know, creates redundant files and uses a lot of harddisk-space, but that's really not expensive:

 

1. shooting only dng

2. using card reader to transfer the files into IPhoto (mac-os). i use IPhoto for archiving and browsing. it contains some 35 000 images - all original, so mostly dng and raw. i do not bother to sort them, i just like, that i have them on a timeline: old images somewhere in the bottom, new files more towards the top. and than i am using albums and keywords - keeps things simple for me.

3. create special albums to export original files (dng-raw)

4. import into Lightroom

5. using Lightroom for all the editing and exporting.

6. do it like bill carson said: get a beverage!

 

i did try aperture and lightroom. i found aperture has good integration with mac-os, but i find lightroom more interesting software... so i am using this in-efficient worklflow, until something better comes along, or until adobe and apple agree on a tighter integration of the softwares...

[jackart]

From the start of 2010 I use only LR 2.6 to store and organize my photos. Keywords and metadata are given to photos right after the import. Photos (mainly RAW) are kept on the disk as LR puts then during LR import process. Editing is done in most cases in LR 2.6 only, no PS used any more due to new Adjustment Brush tool and gradient tool in LR. Whole process keeps originals intact, all corrections, crops etc are non-destructible Incremental backup is done to home server by SyncToy 2.0.

 

Jaak

[Manicouagan1]

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My workflow is designed to capture, process (crop, set contrast and color, reduce noise etc), archive and facilitate distribution of my images. My images are of three types 1) Volleyball and basketball games over 500 images an evening with a Canon 1D Mark IIn, 2) Travel and Landscape (Leica M9 or Canon 5D Mark II) where I typically take 50 to 200 images a day, or 3) family events where I take just a few images at a time. I settled on Apple’s Aperture as the tool of choice when the software first came out. By the time Lightroom was a commercial product, I had enough time invested in learning Aperture that I never even considered changing.

 

The first steps in my workflow process occurs before taking any images. I decide on a “Project” structure and a set of keywords to apply to the images. Projects are the top-level aggregation of images in Aperture. An Aperture Project is a virtual folder with the raw image, a preview, as well as camera, keyword and image correction data files. For sports the keywords are generally a hierarchy of team and player, and then some special categories such as “portrait.” I use the date and time of the image and the download session to separate one game or match from another. For travel the keywords are generally geographic. The family pictures generally don’t require any particular keywords, the data and time is generally sufficient to identify the event.

 

When taking the images, I try to keep in mind the limits on what experience has shown I can do with an image in subsequent processing. For example I determine whether exposure needs to be biased or not. I also determine if the image contains a white or grey area to use to set color balance or whether I need to take an image of a grey card. On the back of my grey card I have a table of hyperfocal distances calculated for a 13 micrometer circle of confusion my preferred value for the M9 or Canon 5D Mark II.

 

My workflow for the M9 images at the end of a day is:

1) Download image (all are uncompressed dng) to working folder on my laptop

2) Use Adobe DNG converter to compress files and make calculated aperture visible) and store in a second working folder.

3) Load the lossless compressed dng files to predefined Project in Aperture.

4) Apply a standard set of corrections to the images. These corrections expand the luminance gamut to span the entire histogram, tone down highlights and bring up shadows. The set of corrections evolves as Aperture gets upgraded and as I learn more about the interaction of all the steps in the process.

5) Quickly scan the images for any technical issues to be resolved before next days shooting including if the M9 sensor needs to be dusted off.

6) Back up the Aperture project on a separate portable hard drive and delete the temporary files used as input and output of Adobe DNG converter. Note that at this point I have three copies of every image, one on the SD card, one on the hard drive of my computer in Aperture and a third in a separate hard drive.

 

The process for the Canon cameras is the same except for those unique to the DNG conversion and compression. Even for the sports, I am not working with a near-term deadline so I do not need finished product yet.

 

At a later time I go through the images one-by-one to crop, correct color, apply keywords and rank each image. After each major image processing session I resave the Aperture Project on the portable hard drive. When it comes time to reuse the SD card with the original image, I back up the Aperture Project on my long term back up drive on a desktop. This way I preserve the three copies of each image.

 

Distribution of images is almost always is as either prints or jpg files. I use Aperture for preparing both.

[algrove]

Anyone have updated workflow suggestions for LR3 and PS5 with an M9?

[tobey bilek]

Sorry Algrove. PS5 and bridge does it all for me.

 

I use the Picture file in my iMac os to store all the photos in date order. Then there is an event named, Florida vacation, Xmas party etc. The date is always first and exactly the same format. yyyy/mo/dy There are subfolders for original files, ps files, finals, with sub sub folders for further separation. Not complicated because I make a master 2011-13-00 with all the required folders. Then file duplicate. and I get a copy 1. When time to download a new project, I go to pictures and retitle copy 1 and make a new dup for next time.

 

Bridge or LR, if you wish to import to LR, can find the folder and you can process the images. I take advantage of presets to speed things, Some for Nikon, some for Leica

 

 

I download from bridge using file>get photos from camera. This function is nice because all the new files are on top. Image capture and nikon transfer also work. Bridge and Transfer are nice because I can specify a back up location on second drive and both are loaded at the same time.

 

Now open the raws in ACR and apply the preset for say M9. The preset will have the sharpening curve, exposure defaults, WB, clarity,saturation, and camera standard rather than ADobe Standard all backed in. Then Select all, synchronize and all the photos get all the settings applied. Then you can open individuals and fine tune each as required.

How much work you do here is what separated the men from the boys.

 

The same can be done from Bridge, file> ??> use previous conversion and this avoids opening all in ACR.

 

 

Presets and a premade folder set make all this very easy. And I do not have an application like LR or Aperture "own" all the files.

[downstairs]

I look at the raw shots on the sd card in Preview.

Then, I write down the good numbers (triplets for tone-mapping, and singles).

 

Using Raw Photo Processor, tweak and save each single as a 'Lab' colour space tif.

Using Photoshop, retouch blemishes, accentuate somewhat the mid-tones and correct gamma with curves, size for printing and save as psd.

 

Triplets go straight into Photomatix as raw files for for conversion and tone-mapping.

Then, using photoshop, as with singles except for the mid-tones which were built up in Photomatix.

This may be a strange way to go, but I use a lot of white tones and shadows and I need a handle on tonal range.

[algrove]

Ok so now I am trying out Silver Efex Pro-2 with M9 images. Assuming you have an image that works in B&W, what do you do if you use SEP as far as the order of work?

[Guest tanks]

I recently started using SEP as well.

 

Workflow is the same as always, Photo Mechanic -> ACR -> PS. Once the image is in PS I bring up SEP plug-in if I decide to use it.

[250swb]

Ok so now I am trying out Silver Efex Pro-2 with M9 images. Assuming you have an image that works in B&W, what do you do if you use SEP as far as the order of work?

 

SEP fits into Photoshp just like any of its native tools. So I go from Adobe Bridge>ACR>16bit colour TIFF>Photoshop as the starting point. Here you can do any initial cropping, dodging and burning, spotting etc. Then I would open SEP to convert to B&W and may use just one or many more of the tools available as needed. Perhaps I see something that could better be done in PS (like dodging and burning), so come out of SEP to do that. I might then go back again to finish the picture, perhaps add some subtle edge burning or a slight vignette to hold the eye in the frame, perhaps add a warmer tone to the image if it is a portrait or summer landscape. Then back to PS, flatten the layers created by SEP, size and sharpen as necessary (keeping your 'master' image untouched by sharpening and sizing), possibly convert a copy to JPEG, done.

 

Steve

[adriling]

Hi,

 

just posted my personal workflow here:

 

my workflow at adri.de

 

Simply its:

Camera -> iPad (sorting and tagging) -> Lightroom (editing) -> Publishing (Wordpress, blurb)

 

Any comments welcome,

adrian

[Deedleberry]

Okay, so since I'm new to the forum this seems like a nice place for one of my first posts, nice and simple with little opinion to begin with.

 

My workflow has changed quite a few times but it's settled recently since I started shooting colour street stuff.

 

With shooting 35mm colour, I'll get it developed at Boots because there is clearly no expense spared! Check through the 6x4 prints to see if any frames jump out at me, put them to one side for scanning reference. Scan individual frames of selected photos. Place scanned photos into folder labelled the same as the 6x4 prints for reference. Upload images into Aperture for editing before exporting them to post on the blog.

 

Most of the editing I do in Aperture is just colours and straightening if need be, not much at all really. It seems quite a short workflow but scanning can take a while. I'm also assuming because it's predominantly digital it's okay to put in this thread.

[Echo63]

I have two workflows - one for Leica M240 DNG and the other is for work canon 1DX Jpegs

 

Starting with the M

 

Copy photos from card to folder "M240 1" once i hit 9999 images i will start a new folder at M240 2

Import pics to lightroom

Add keywords to images, possible keywords are - perth, fremantle, home, sunset, cityscape, street, landscape and a bunch of others

It enables me to select images easily.

 

I then go to the full screen view, and cycle through the images, good ones to work on get a "P" to tag as good, terrible ones (OOF, poorly framed etc) get an "X" for reject (and are deleted)

I then filter out the good picks, and work on them, starting with crop and WB, and working through the list of options.

Stuff to be exported is tagged with a red label (so i can find it again easily) and exported

Backup folder and catalog on external drives

 

The work workflow i much easier

 

Using bridge - tag good files using stars

Open good files in PS

Crop, WB, levels, caption

Resize to 4000px on the long side

Save and send via FTP

 

Files are stored in folder for each job

Folders are named YYYY MM DD (my name) (section code) job name, subjects name or description of job

After 3 months the unstarred files are deleted, and the good "selects" with stars are archived on two drives - one kept at work and the other kept at home

 

The backups are separated for a reason - if the house burns down, theres a copy at the office, if the office dissapears, i have my home copy - if something takes out both, i have bigger issues to deal with than missing pictures

[Steve Ash]

I miss the print or book in your workflow. Despite your effort it is most likely that your heirs will simply dump your hard discs with all your files unseen.

 

Regards,

Steve

 

I have two workflows - one for Leica M240 DNG and the other is for work canon 1DX Jpegs

 

 

 

Starting with the M

 

 

 

Copy photos from card to folder "M240 1" once i hit 9999 images i will start a new folder at M240 2

 

Import pics to lightroom

 

Add keywords to images, possible keywords are - perth, fremantle, home, sunset, cityscape, street, landscape and a bunch of others

 

It enables me to select images easily.

 

 

 

I then go to the full screen view, and cycle through the images, good ones to work on get a "P" to tag as good, terrible ones (OOF, poorly framed etc) get an "X" for reject (and are deleted)

 

I then filter out the good picks, and work on them, starting with crop and WB, and working through the list of options.

 

Stuff to be exported is tagged with a red label (so i can find it again easily) and exported

 

Backup folder and catalog on external drives

 

 

 

The work workflow i much easier

 

 

 

Using bridge - tag good files using stars

 

Open good files in PS

 

Crop, WB, levels, caption

 

Resize to 4000px on the long side

 

Save and send via FTP

 

 

 

Files are stored in folder for each job

 

Folders are named YYYY MM DD (my name) (section code) job name, subjects name or description of job

 

After 3 months the unstarred files are deleted, and the good "selects" with stars are archived on two drives - one kept at work and the other kept at home

 

 

 

The backups are separated for a reason - if the house burns down, theres a copy at the office, if the office dissapears, i have my home copy - if something takes out both, i have bigger issues to deal with than missing pictures

[Echo63]

I miss the print or book in your workflow. Despite your effort it is most likely that your heirs will simply dump your hard discs with all your files unseen.

 

Regards,

Steve

 

The "work" workflow puts images into the work system, which are printed, and i have a collection of pages of my pics

 

I am just starting to look at printing some of my personal images and hanging them on the wall, there is two recent ones up at the moment, but i will be aquiring a good printer in the near future

[Steve Ash]

For myself I wish I could find a way to efficiently select the keepers to get the confidence to erase the rest.

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[250swb]

You even think about erasing images!

 

I keep all mine, the failures are as important to learn from as the successes. But I didn't cut up my 35mm film into individual frames of keepers and failures either, the failures are there on every contact sheet to haunt me forever.

 

Steve