Digital workflow

[WhiteD3]

I'm REALLY, REALLY pleased with the 500D but the down side is processing (or at least sorting the chaff from the wheat) the pics. Ie yesterday's GCLRO trip to Uki I came back with 200+ pics and a dozen videos.

I use PSE7 for final editing but I find the browser so slow and clunky I hate using it.

Generally I use Irfanview Thumbnails but only because Irfanview is such a good viewer and it's resizing and batching tools are great.

The 500D came with a couple of apps (namely Zoom Browser) but I'm not impressed to date.

Any ideas would be welcome.

[dmdigital]

It only takes a day of lots of shots to realise how bad your work flow is.

I shot 1700 images in three two hour stints the other weekend and learned a lot about my work flow. Usually I don't take more than a couple of hundred shots.

1. Copy the card to new folder on your hard disk (as a backup).
2. Import the folder's contents to your image library area. Name the folder something like: <location>_<event>yyyymmdd.
3. As part of the import rename the images something like <location>_<event>yyyymmdd_<index>
4. Once you've imported the images bring up your photo library software and go through and rate the images. I do this as a 3 point system - reject, maybe (no star), keep (5 star). There should be a reject rating which will actually hide the images from the viewer unless told otherwise.
5. Show only the rejects and delete them (files and all - remember you have a backup).
6. Show only the maybes. Rate these according to what to do: 1 star = needs cropping, 2 star = needs exposure correction or reject
7. Repeat the reject phase
8. Show only the 1 star images. Go through all these and crop them and rate the new image version as 5 star
9. Show only the 2 star and edit to fix these then rate the new images as 5 star.
10. Purge the older versions of the editing stacks and you are left with 5 star images
11. Go through all the images and clean up, enhance etc before sharpening and saving if required.
12. Remove the image ratings and go through and reassign a 0 to 5 star rating.
13. Put card back in camera and format it.
14. Backup the image library to an external hard drive.
Done! Phew that didn't take to long.

If you have a Mac iPhoto or Aperture (especially v3) are very good workflow packages. I don't know the Canon software but Adobe's Lightroom is also a good option. PSE isn't that great, mainly for the reasons you state and v8 really is bad.

Do a search on photographic work flows and you should find some video tutorials on the web.

[WhiteD3]

Thanks Derek. Great advice:)

[flagg]

Take a look at a Bibble too.. Bibble Labs - Professional Photo Workflow Software (http://www.bibblelabs.com)

I've been using it for years. Its great. :)

Dec

[dmdigital]

I was trying to think of others. Bibble is good.

Another option is something like Photo Mechanic: Camera Bits, Inc. (http://www.camerabits.com/site/)

[dullbird]

I import all images to library.
I look through all images quickly and mark the ones I want to keep with a coloured flag if I want to keep to more than one area I use different coloured flags
once all selected I only show the non highlighted ones and delete.
I then select to show the highlighted ones
I select all and in the library name tag, type the subject of the photo's and sync all metadata (which is only selected to sync the library tag)
I can now get all these photo's up in my library with one click. (at a later date should I want to revisit)
I then go through and edit which ever photo's I want under the develop tag
then export all to photobucket (if I'm putting them on the forum otherwise I just export to a folder on my drive)
Done:)

[WhiteD3]

[LIST]
I import all images to library.

Define "Library" please:)

[dmdigital]

Depending on the application you use the images will be automatically or manually catalogued into either a directory tree on the hard drive or to a database or a combination of both.

This forms your library of images.

[WhiteD3]

Depending on the application you use the images will be automatically or manually catalogued into either a directory tree on the hard drive or to a database or a combination of both.

This forms your library of images.

I was afraid you'd say that:(. The browser in PSE7 does this which is fine as long as I use it alone. It gets confused easily and for some reason or other often refuses to show pics in a directory it has already catalogued.

[dmdigital]

This may help: Troubleshoot catalog issues in Photoshop Elements 7 (Windows) (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/408/kb408490.html)

Adobe uses catalogue files and these can be problematic. I haven't used PSE since v5 and I don't use Bridge even though it comes with Photoshop.

[Chucaro]

I am very conservative with my images.

I donwload the nef (raw) image from the camera to the Portfolio/On Pregress Foder.

Nikon Transfer is set up to create a sub folder with the dowloading date.
I open each image with Nikon Capture NX2 and adjust it in nef. If there is not doubt that it is beyond restoration because exposure or composition I delete it.

The ones that I selected and adjusted I save a copy in Tiff format.
Save the nef files on the Original Nef Images folder in my HDD and on my external HDD.

Once I have the images in both HDD then I format the cards on the camera.

Work on the Tiff files and after do the PP save them in the dedicated folder by subject like Landscaping, Birds and Wild Life, Abstracts, etc.

Only convert to jpg the images that will be in my internet page.

I would not recommend to destroy the nef/raw files even if they look a bit beyond the capabilities of the software on hand. You never know which type of software you will have in the future and the images can be restored.

[300+]

I file by date before subject. I also have a year structure.

For example:
2010 is the folder, which contains a month sub-folder, which is in number form (03 for march, etc.). Within the month is a date for the day and the subject, such as 23 GLCRO Trip.

You can also use one layer below the year, so the images are in "0323 GLCRO Trip"

I used to have one level, such as 20100326 GCLRO Trip, but you have too many folders in the view. Hence the multi-level folders.

But, which ever you use, year first, then month, then date, then subject. That way everything is arranged in chronological order in the folders. Generally you will remember which part of the year a picture was taken and this helps find it.

Apart from that I pretty much use Derek's workflow in conjunction with lightroom.

Cheers, Steve

[mowog]

I use Adobe Lightroom to process my images. I shoot everything in RAW and Lightroom is great for handling RAW format. It is also a lossless editor, that simply means the original RAW file is never changed.

My workflow is...

1. Dump the card to directory related to the camera used. A folder is created for the date of the card dump.
2. I synchronise the folders in lightroom.
3. Select the new folder and start working on the images I want out of the library.

I have a separate output folder and depending on what the image is being used for sets what its exported as. jpeg, tiff, dng, raw....

I rarely delete a photo even if it is crap.

[5teve]

AS mentioned... i also use lightroom... although quirky to start with i find it is incredibly quick...

I import from the card, into my top level folder then under a subject - date folder and under that into a RAW folder.

If i have masses to do i apply a predefined develop setting and then tweak them all afterwards. but generally i will review them all, flag the ones i want to process (keepers but i dont delete any) and then follwing that i filter by flag status. I then process each one starting with the predefined develop setting, i generally only then adjust for spots or for sharpness.

If sending files or printing externally i will then export to a JPG folder under the subject - date folder. i can choose whether to stack these with the original treat as separate files or not catalogue (my generally used setting)

Lightroom is incredible once your used to it. non destructive editing, virtual copies so you can have 20 variations of the same file but as its a database you still only have one physical file (until you export) full keywork indexing and some pretty good processing... i will stress that it takes time to get used to and seems a bit quirky to start with.. i wouldnt do without it now..

Worth having a look at the free trial.. bearing in mind v3 will be out soon... so probably not worth buying just yet. Im using 2.6

i havent fully sorted my workflow out yet as im not always making jpgs, i just rely on lightroom to veiw the raw files... something i need time to think about. but new business has took over (and learning to create websites!)

if you need any more info (from an amateur) then let me know!

Steve

edit:- forgot to add - there are plugins that enable you to export straight to flikr, picasa etc etc etc.. so makes dumping stuff online a breeze!

[dullbird]

sorry should of put that my editing software is lightroom 2 as well :)

hence the sending it straight to photobucket...oh you can send straight to photomatix as well if you want to play with your HDR's

[WhiteD3]

Thanks for all the input:) Having come back from Caloundra with 600+ images whittled down to 500+ after deletions I've come up with this work flow process.

After a day and a bit of processing I got down to 30+ keepers which I worked on in PSE. http://www.flickr.com/photos/48686896@N03/sets/72157623826366246/

In my first post I said I didn't like Canon's Zoom Browser EX but now I've learnt how to use it I've found it excellent for sorting images.

Using Explorer:
Copy all pictures from the card to the HDD.
If working in RAW, delete or move JPEG files.
Within the directory create 4 folders as follows; 1 star, 2 star, 3 star, finished.

Using Canon Zoom Browser EX:
1. In Preview mode, browse to the folder.

2. Delete unwanted images: Scroll through the images and delete all unfocused or poorly exposed images.

3. Name images – Sets the first part of the name for all images:
Set the default file names as follows:
Select View & Classify (RHS of Zoom Browser), then Rename Multiple Files
Select New Name + Number
Specify the new name as YYMMDD – Place
Select Finish.

4. Classify the images:
CTRL-A to select all images
Right click, change star rating to 1 star
View each image and set the star rating as 1 (not for processing), 2 (possible processing) and 3 (For processing).
Once the above step is complete, select Filtering (top RH corner). Select 1 star only, then select all and move to the 1 star folder. Repeat for 2 and 3 star images.

Using Photoshop Elements:
1. Open Windows Explorer to the 3 star folder. Open another Windows Explorer to the Finished folder. In Window Explorer, use Open/PSE to open images in PSE.

2. Open each image:
Set WB and exposure in Camera Raw
Level horizon!
Adjust lighting and highlight colours
Crop
Set image information (File/File Info)

3. Saving & Resizing:
Save finished image as a PSD file for future editing.
Save copy as JPEG. Set image size as 8” (longest side) which results in a file ~ 1.5MB. Set panorama image size to 12” (Longest side, ~700KB ).

Notes:
Do not resize JPEG files due to losses. Resize the PSD file then resave as JPEG.

BTW I use the reverse date format of YYMMDD so that the files will sort correctly. This is the format I use at work for project related files.