Digital Workflow

[BlackeyCole]

I am not new to photography, I started back in the 70's as a teen was the photographer for the HS newspaper and did photos and darkroom work for the yearbook fot the hs after highschool I was empoyed as a free lance sports photographer for several of the loacal papers because I had the ability to produce the prints within 24 hrs of the event since I did my own darkroom work. Join the miklitary and photography would get push to the rear burner as I got married and countinued my career. But when I retired from the military a few years back I decided to get back in to photography and learn digital so I bought the Canon Rebel 300D and love it but never really learn to use it while I also got envolved in other things and I would just take so snap shots and get some good photos good enough that I have had several publised in our worldwide monthly newsletter. I am even sigled out at our events to take photos of this and that plus I usually take the award photos for the events that I attend. That lead me to taking photo to sell at a simialr event and that made me hav eto learn mor eabout the camera and the digital workflow. I

I did some searches on the web and found several great articles one that I am using as a template for my own work was an article by Moose Peterson( I believe that was his latst name). In it he listed the software he used and I tried it and other software. Right now I am using at least three different applications to get to the proof stage of my work flow. I use Chris Greeze's Downloader Pro to import/copy my images from th film card to my master directory where it creates all the folders that I use during a job not just the one or two that I have files copied to, I give the import a job name aand then a description, some keywords and then some more IPTC metadata then it goes to work creating the folders coping the originals files to the correct directory and then making a DNG copy to anothe rfolder.

Next I open up Extensis' Portfolio to catalog my images. I add the files to it then go in and edit some of the meta data, and updata a cusome field with the current status in the work flow.

And finallay I use light room to rat emy images and do minor adjustments. then I go back and make my final selections do the image adjustments and setup a slide show for my clients to view.

I go back into Portfolio and update the job status.

once the images have been selected for furter work they are converted to PSD using Dr Brow's Image processor Script in Photoshop. Now I am ready to twek the images in Photoshop. Then Print using which ever application above that offers the right format. I havent tried which appliacation to do the two types of photo discs that I need one is a selection of photos selected by the client that gives him a slideshow and alsoallows him to pull up the images himself to print I am think it will develop a pdf slideshow that will allow the the clinet to print the photo through any program that read pdf's, that seems the best choice right now for that option. and the other CD/DVD option I ofer is a slide show presentation of the whole event where I select the best photos of the event and add music and these can be played in any DVD player but the photos are not printable or editable.

The first event I used ACDSee to do everythign but I didn't like it's catalogy scheme. But it offered the ability to do must everything I needed at a basic level including the outpuut of the two different dvd options. I believe I have the output options between Portfolio and lightroom.

What I am lacking in the softeware that I am using is a one stop app and th eability to load up multible card readers and read them sequentually witout input from the photographer. If I need this option then I need to use Photo Mech to copy th eimages to a single directory then I start my normal workflow using that directory as my intial impport locatin instead of the film card. I hope I do not have problems with my file naming using this method as one of the reasons I am so fond of Downloader Pro is it flezability when naming files. It can use and of the meta data contained in the file in conjuction with any additional data that I desir eto add. That the fact that it creates folders in my directory structure resulting in me not having to copy a set of folders and renaming them prior to coying th efiels from the filncard. So it actually starts my whole process by getting the job name and someother data then creating everything that I need done. The only two features I find it lacking are the ability to select multiple cards for the same job at the onset and not having to run the card one at a time and the other thing is it make the copoes in the following formats for me: original file format, DNG format, jpeg, and tiff files. This is all during the intial download. One more file format option that I would liek to see is a PSD option. That way my original file is copy, a DNG copy of it is made for future compatability , and jog and tiff is desired but I prefer to work in the psd format so that I can use layers and never touch the original image then output that to jpeg ot tiff depending on the desire output option.

How do you do your workflow and what software do you use.

[Walczak Photo]

Hey Blackey,
I'm not going to address your whole post here (sorry dude, your post is a little hard to read), but in reference to what seems to be your primary question, here's how I handle my own work flow...

After shooting the image(s), I transfer them to my laptop and I use either Adobe Bridge or Olympus Camedia to review them for the "winners" and "loosers". Images that are really blurry/out of focus I tend to just delete immediatly. Same thing with images that are out of frame...shooting critters, it happens...dogs, squirrels, birds...just as you snap the shutter button, they move (LOL!). Once I decide which images I plan to use (usually for prints) I then open them in Photoshop. Since I'm shooting with a Sony H1 and an Olympus C-4000, the first thing I usually do is convert the image to 300 dpi, then save as a .PSD file (I keep the original .jpgs sort of as negatives). Once the file is saved as a .PSD, then usually I'll crop it to whatever size I think I'll need for prints (i.e. 4x6's, 8x10's, etc) and then I'll usually do levels and saturation adjustments and check the image for noise and correct for that as well (that Sony of mine can get really noisy at higher ISO's). At that point (or somewhere there abouts), I usually need to make a few decisions about the image...do I need to do more extensive editing and so forth. Sometimes I simply need to clone out some minor imperfections in the image and from time to time, I need to replace the background completely. This is also where I will do things like adjusting the DOF if needed or any addition artsy/creative work on the image. Once the image is "composed" the way I want, I'll add an additional layer for sharpening...I usually do most of my sharpening with the High Pass filter. Once I feel all the "work" is done to the image, I'll flatten it and save it as a TIFF for printing. Sometimes I'll have my work printed at an actual photo lab, but more often than not, I usually have laser prints done of my work at a local office supply store....once framed, the "prints" are almost indistinguishable from actual "photos".

Now a quick word on storage...
As I said before, after I've taken pictures, I'll put them on the laptop however after a while the laptop's harddrive starts to load up (it's only a 20 gig), so usually ever few months or so, I'll transfer older directories to my main PC and then once or twice a year, I'll backup any pics more then a year old to CD-ROM for archiving. I tend to save my images in folders grouped by the date the image was taken with a brief description...aka, "021807 - Dog Park" so I know that the images in that directory were taken Feb 18th, 2007 at the local doggie park. This makes finding older images at least a little easier to find (LOL!). I should probably also mention that I've quickly come to the point that I find CD's to be a little ineffieciant any more. With as many images as I shoot, I'm probably going to end up getting a external backup harddrive soon and will archive most of my images there.

Incedentally, images that I've printed (and that came out well) I usually duplicate and save in a seperate directory in the event I want to reprint them again later. I.e., I've sold 8 pictures at my Art Show this month, so I'll need to re-print those for the next art show. I also have a running spread sheet that I've made up so I can keep track of which photo's I have on display at a given art show, which ones have been sold and I usually give a copy of the spreadsheet to the host of the art show with the values of each framed print/photo for insurance purposes.

I try to keep things as simple as possible. In my "early days" of photography, I'd shoot a role of film then after the pics were developed, seperate the good pics from the bad. The good pics would usually get framed, put up on the fridge door or whatever and the bad pics would get shoved in a desk somewhere (the proverbial shoe box). Back in those days on something like a vacation, I might shoot as many as 8 or 10 rolls of film total...less then 250 pics. These days with digital, I can easily shoot that many pics in a matter of a couple of hours! LOL!!! I've been known to literally shoot as many as 400 pics or more in a single afternoon at the zoo. When you start getting several -thousand- images stored on you harddrive, finding one single image that you maybe shot 4 or 5 months ago can get challenging to say the least so the more basic I can keep my "work flow", the better off I usually am

Okies...don't know if that helps you much or not, but I hope so!
Bright Blessings & Gentle Breezes,
Jim

[BlackeyCole]

Jim, thaks again for your input, I do perty much the same thing except I usually dump the images to a ext HD 120GB that is bus powered from my laptop. SO I rarely do I ever touch the deaktop in the other room, nothing wrong with it excet that I travel allot and need the portability of a laptop. I now have two of the WD 120GB passport drives great little drives or I should say great storage for such a small footprint and since it is bus powered it can also be used on the spot off the laptop bat. if needed. I am going to look at drive that has a built in reader so I can download my cards to it in the field without the laptop as a backup. No viewier just a storage device that lets me know if the files are copied correctly. I have forgotten the name of the one I am looking at I got turned on to it on another board.