What's your digital workflow?

[MyopicJoe]

Being a noobsumer, I'm currently only using Photoshop Elements 5 for my photo editing / organizing (it came with my camera). If I feel like shooting RAW, I'll use "DNG for PowerShot" to do my conversions, since my A720IS is too pathetic for ACR to support. For video I'm playing with VirtualDub.

I haven't tried Windows Photo Gallery or Movie Maker. I'll have to play with iPhoto and iMovie, too, since we just got a MacBook for my wife/kids.


I've been going nuts with the continuous shooting mode on my camera (a blazzing 1.3 FPS! ). I can easily take 300 photos in a few hours. It doesn't take long to realize organizing and tagging all those photos is a critical task. My fear is having to redo days of data entry when I move from one application to another (say from Elements to Aperture).

[helen]

Re: What's your digital workflow?

The burst mode on my HP M547 camera allows me to take anywhere from 1 to 3 photos at a time. I find it useful when taking pictures of model rockets that are taking off. I usually take between 200 to 400 photos across a 2-1/2 hour period.

While I haven't filled a 2Gbyte SD card yet on a launch session I did have to change batteries during the last launch (on June 21), but that was due to me using alkalines in that camera. I think in future launches I will use Lithum batteries or try Ni-Cads.

I also use the Flip Ultra to film the launches since a typical flight is around 30 seconds or so, I have yet to use up an entire 60 minute on the camera, in fact during the last launch I accidently left the Flip on for 11 minutes inside my pants pocket and I still had 40 minutes available.

As far as the images I normally don't do anything to them, however once in a while I would use Microsoft Office Picture Manager to resize or crop photos (here is the original photo).

[dick]

Re: What's your digital workflow?

I use Photo Mechanic to browse and set initial caption and copyright info (plus a slew of other things). Then open selected photos in Photoshop for cropping, toning, etc.

[Kungpao]

Re: What's your digital workflow?

My workflow is so disorganized, i'm pretty ashamed of it. I should take the time to catalog everything I shoot but I rarely have time to do it. PLUS, I tend to want to rush things or see immediate results so sometimes, i'm ingesting photos and editing them on Photoshop CS3 here at work, then bringing them home on a thumb drive. Half the time, i'm wondering where some of my photos went. It's such a mess. I won't even get into the "now did i put them on my ipod, or thumb drive, and which one?" aspect of things.

As for software though, I generally like to view basic stuff with, wait for it, windows explorer's filmstrip function. That or I'll use the image expert program that came with my first digicam. I tend to "play" with most of my pictures that I like. (photoshop)

One thing I've got to force myself to do is delete files that aren't good. I have the mentality that I take the picture, I want to save it. Heck, even with post processing, I keep the original as well as the altered image.

I've started shooting in raw+basic on my D-40. Mainly because I've just discovered all the things I can do to a raw image with CS3. Basic because I like to send pictures to friends and family of just random things from time to time but don't need them to be overly nice.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: What's your digital workflow?

Silly me. I only listed the software I used, with no mention of workflow. I guess it'll give me something to work on while at work


Helen: pretty good resolution on your crop of the rocket in the air. I like having extra megapixels, they give me "room" to crop an image, until I get better at framing shots and predicting the action in an evolving scene.

I've been happy with Energizer's rechargeable lithium batteries that you see for sale in Sam's Club. Go for the smart chargers which have little computer chips that monitor the batter voltage, vs. the dumb ones which use a fixed timer.


Kungpao: heh, perhaps being disorganized is part of your creative process. someday, when you have a lot of time on your hands, you can go through your old "stacks" of photos and maybe you'll discover some lost treasure.

heh yeah, I have a hard time deleting the crappy pictures, too. at least hard drive / DVD space is cheap. the danger is "losing" the good pics among the garbage ones. I need to go through my collection and start ranking my pictures.

[LocalMotion]

Re: What's your digital workflow?

coming from a photographer by trade...

I use Aperture for 95% of my work.

A typical wedding i shoot comes to about 1200 images. I take my CF cards and copy them to a external hard drive. I could easily just import them straight into Aperture from the CF cards, but i'm paranoid and need multiple backups.

I shoot Nikon RAW.

In Aperture I choose to import images, and i can add keywords, etc at the same time of import. I setup my folders and projects in Aperture as well. With the advent of Aperture 2.x I can do 95% of my work inside Aperture. the adjustments available cover everything i need to process my images. After i finish editing i can create web galleries and book layouts directly in Aperture as well. When i export my final images, sometimes i go to photoshop to do some artistic edits or my favorite black & white conversions.

Aperture is a great DAM (Digital Asset Management) tool. It lets you use 1 program to do everything you need in your workflow.

Then I run a backup of my library directly in Aperture as a Photo Vault. The Vault backs up all images and RAW settings.

The best thing about programs like Aperture is it's a non-destructive editing app. I can make all the adjustments i want to my RAW images, and it will never overwrite the original. the adjustments are data files that it overlays on top of the original. So i can go in at anytime and change the adjustments i made...

[MyopicJoe]

Re: What's your digital workflow?

but i'm paranoid and need multiple backups

Heh, I don't blame you. I would hate to have a bridezilla after me because I lost all the pics from the Happiest Day of Her Life (tm). It's a small island. Not too many places to hide!

Speaking of which, here's a couple who does their version of Evolution of Dance at their wedding. The action picks up about 1 minute into the video. They look like they're having so much fun.

the adjustments are data files that it overlays on top of the original. So i can go in at anytime and change the adjustments i made...

Oh they can save the editing steps to the picture file? That's a nice way to save all your "darkroom" work.

[LocalMotion]

Re: What's your digital workflow?

Oh they can save the editing steps to the picture file? That's a nice way to save all your "darkroom" work.

yeah any adjustment you make is just taking the data in real time and displaying a version of it. you never change the master RAW file, then whenever you export a JPG it applies the adjustments and saves the file. Being Non-Destructive is a boon to working with RAW files...