Describe your workflow.

SlinkyMike

SlinkyMike

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I have a bunch of photography related apps but I seldom use them in the same way twice.

Generally I am in a hurry and I end up just opening in iPhoto do a bit of clickety-drag-drag-click then stuff it onto a flash drive for printing.

I am certain that a proper workflow would yield better results so whats yours?

I have iPhoto; Aperture 2; PS.

EDIT: crap... why do I have the feeling I have posted this Q before?
 
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I'm constantly refining mine but currently . . .

Out in the field: as soon as I've pulled the memory card from the camera and even though I'm shooting onto two cards simultaneously I back it up - these days straight into my netbook.

When I get back home or to the studio: I import the photos directly from the card into aperture then its the usual colour correction - usually in batches - cropping etc.

I try to do as much as possible in Aperture without converting it to a tif/psd file and avoid the plugins and PS unless I really need to push some pixels or reduce noise . . . and then only as the penultimate step (with sharpening being the final one).

Only once the library has been vaulted or the hdd backed up will I recycle the cards.
 
Nice.

I thought of getting a second card but then I spotted the iPod camera adapter doodad.

Now my old 30gig iPod video is essentially an 'on the road repository' for multifarious snaps.

...it really worked a treat on my honeymoon as computers were vetoed by government.

From your description it sounds like you use Aperture almost exclusively and other apps by the by... I find that I need to do a lot of post processing to get my pics looking how I'd like them to look, I wonder if this is a shortcoming in the quality of my work behind the camera?
 
Mine goes like this:

From the shoot, I download all the pics from the card into a folder on HDD relevant to the shoot usually prefixed with the date of the shoot.

These are then imported into LR. I don't apply any tags (I haven't really used tags properly)

The next step is then doing a first pass through the shoot and flagging images that are definates (Yes and No). The Nos get flagged for deletion and the Yesses will get flagged with a colour or as a pick. At the end of this pass all the No get deleted forever.

A few passes might follow going thru the unmarked images and either assigning them a colour or rating - these are to roughly isolate good images from not so good images. During this cropping and color correction will take place. If its an important shoot (which I do very little of) I create a collection and start moving images that will be delivered into that collection.

After that is the final step to export the images, burn to CD, copy to flash or place them on Facebook or Flickr
 
// I use Lightroom.
// I have a watched folder which i copy the raw files into
// A copy of this folder gets backed up to my external hard drive automatically.
// I tend to edit one image to create a group of settings in terms of exposure, curves contrast etc
// then run the settings template across the shoot
// tweak individual shots where necessary
// export to jpg
// Then per shoot a cd is cut with all raw files and jpg files labelled and filed.
 
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SlinkyMike said:
Nice.

...then I spotted the iPod camera adapter doodad.
Click to expand...

Tell me more? I would love to know how to use my 80GB Ipod video like that.

I have a 4 week travel trip planned to Thailand and Australia so this would be of great use to me, I was going to either buy a few more SD cards (got 2 X 4GB at the moment) or drag my laptop along with me
 
SlinkyMike said:
I thought of getting a second card but then I spotted the iPod camera adapter doodad.
Click to expand...
I got an adaptor for the old iPod Photo - same one? How do you manage to keep it running long enough to download the contents of a card?

I cant remember - does it handle RAW? It might be handy to dig it and the iPod out. Not that I mind carrying my netbook in my camera bag but its another option.
 
Ferris Wheel Junkie said:
Tell me more? I would love to know how to use my 80GB Ipod video like that.
Click to expand...

It's this little guy:
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Camera-Connector-iPod-White/dp/B00083PGFS[/ame]

Review:
http://www.macworld.com/article/44013/2005/03/ipodcamconnect.html

I have found it works brilliantly, definitely get one for your trip. It's also very small and fits into my 'cod piece' (as bwana so eloquently puts it) camera bag easypeasy.


bwana said:
I got an adaptor for the old iPod Photo - same one? How do you manage to keep it running long enough to download the contents of a card?

I cant remember - does it handle RAW? It might be handy to dig it and the iPod out. Not that I mind carrying my netbook in my camera bag but its another option.
Click to expand...

Check the link above -that's the one I have.

I use a 4gig card so if yours is larger that may be an issue. I have noticed that the battery will groan (icon turns red) but it will still complete the transfer... often the battery will perk up again once it is complete.

Your work may be considerably more demanding on this front so my usage may not be a fair comparison.

It does handle RAW (or NEF) but will not preview those images - if you have your camera store one of each then it will transfer both and display the JPG on the iPod screen.
 
stix said:
// I use Lightroom.
// I have a watched folder which i copy the raw files into
// A copy of this folder gets backed up to my external hard drive automatically.
// I tend to edit one image to create a group of settings in terms of exposure, curves contrast etc
// then run the settings template across the shoot
// tweak individual shots where necessary
// export to jpg
// Then per shoot a cd is cut with all raw files and jpg files labelled and filed.
Click to expand...

Jislaak, but that's organised :eek: Wish I was as sorted as that!
 
Thanks for replies... a lot of people seem to have focused on drive management as opposed to post processing type workflow - not something I have really paid much attention to, I just kinda copy them onto a drive that has a folder named: 'Pitchas'.

:D
 
1. Shoot (in RAW)
2. Copy to PC using card reader (sorted in Camera\YYYY\DD-MM-YYYY) (Really need to change that to YYYY\MM\DD)
3. Import all into Lightroom
4. Apply WB, exposure adjustments, curves, color balance, sharpening, NR settings, etc etc
5. Export choice picks to folder on desktop for flickR, email, copying to CD-R for having prints done etc.

6. Backup onto external HDD every Friday
7. Backup onto DVD-Rs end of every month

I'm wondering if I should set Lightroom to automatically convert my RAW files on my CF card to DNG files and save them onto my harddrive.

Also, slightly off topic, but I never knew the LCD preview and histogram on your camera is affected by your Contrast settings, which don't apply in raw files
 
swift412 said:
Also, slightly off topic, but I never knew the LCD preview and histogram on your camera is affected by your Contrast settings, which don't apply in raw files
Click to expand...
Yeah - its based on a processed jpg and not RAW - you can often squeeze out quite a bit more from the RAW when you get it off the camera.
 
Remember, backing up to an external harddrive is all fine and well, and if your PC's hard drive dies, you'll have a backup. But if someone breaks into your place, they'll probably steal your external harddrive along with your PC.

Luckily I don't think many thieves are going to steal used DVD-Rs :D
 
stix said:
// I learnt after losing a hardrive :D
// Resorting images when there are 1000s is a pain in the ass
Click to expand...
Aperture's Vault system makes it pretty painless.

swift412 said:
Remember, backing up to an external harddrive is all fine and well, and if your PC's hard drive dies, you'll have a backup. But if someone breaks into your place, they'll probably steal your external harddrive along with your PC.

Luckily I don't think many thieves are going to steal used DVD-Rs :D
Click to expand...
Thats why I keep my laptop's time machine drive in my workshop and my aperture vault hidden away.

When I've got time on my hands I also export completed project's raw files to a DVD and jpgs to a CD . . . just in case. :)
 
swift412 said:
Remember, backing up to an external harddrive is all fine and well, and if your PC's hard drive dies, you'll have a backup. But if someone breaks into your place, they'll probably steal your external harddrive along with your PC.

Luckily I don't think many thieves are going to steal used DVD-Rs :D
Click to expand...

Good point
 
on an extended outing:
Take pics until card is full
Copy pics to PD70x (external storage device)
Put another card into camera
Format card and continue taking pics (I only have two CF cards per camera)

PD70x:
Move pics to hard drive with Faststone (delete the rubbish along the way) to a folder related to outing

short outing:
Take pics
Move pics from card to hard drive with Faststone (delete the rubbish along the way) to a folder related to outing

PC:
Edit pics I like
Upload smaller versions of edited pics to Smugmug
Burn RAW files and edited files to DVD with label related to outing
Delete files on hard drive
 
BigAl-sa said:
Burn RAW files and edited files to DVD with label related to outing
Delete files on hard drive
Click to expand...
Your archive is a [singe?] DVD of the event? You have a lot more faith in optical media than I do. :o
 
bwana said:
Your archive is a [singe?] DVD of the event? You have a lot more faith in optical media than I do. :o
Click to expand...
I have more faith in optical media than mechanical media (I have a box full of dead hard drives). I have lost one CD due to failure in 15 years (and I could recover the data with CD Diagnostic)
 
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