Question About Other's Workflow: From Camera to Computer

[mike_yazzy]

Hello. I was wondering if experienced photographers could explain their

workflow for photography. I shoot Nikon Raw and have had some trouble getting

my workflow down, from the camera, to loading it onto the computer using a

flash card reader, to viewing my images in Abobe bridge and finally opening in

Photoshop CS2, which of course is the final destiantion (besides printing).

 

I don't know what I am doing wrong (if I should or should not use Nikon View to

transfer immages, then look at pictures in Bridge) but I feel I speak for a lot

of people that are having difficulty understanding the whole workflow process.

I'm currently trying to get a job working for the Michigan State University

Newspaper (I'm a sophomore). Workflow is what it's all about in the newspaper

business.

 

Also on a more specific side note, when I load my Nikon raw images on bridge,

the thumbnails will not enlarge past a certain point. I try using the slider

on the bottom to enlarge, try changing to slidshow view, nothing I do seems to

work. The images will get bigger and smaller to a certain point, but will not

go to the enlarged size where I can see if the pictures are fuzzy, sharp, good,

bad etc. I have a reasonabley fast comp: 2 gigs of ram, dual core processor,

loads of hard drive, so I don't think "loading" is an issue. Also I have the

latest version of ACR, and it's funny, becuase the metadata for my raw images

do not appear as well, just the time and date the pic was taken.

 

Well, I just was curious if some knowledgeable shooters could offer there take

on workflow, from taking the shots in Raw, to what folder or program they save

the immages in after they transfer them to the computer, to managing Bridge, to

sending them to that beast of a program CS2. (As well as offer some advise on

my little Bridge problem). Thanks a bunch.

[mendel_leisk]

One thing I do: Batch output the lot with all the Auto settings on,, then a second batch with all the Auto Settings off. Then compare and decide on one or the other, or settle on some manual adjustment. Usually I find the Auto settings are doing good things, but sometimes they backfire for me: say by extremely depressing the overall gamma of an image to recover some cloud detail.

 

Once in a while, when I like elements of both versions, I'll combine them through the Luminous Landscape Blended Exposure workflow.

[marc_rochkind]

Go to http://www.thedambook.com. The site and the associated book (The DAM Book) are

exactly what you need. It's all about workflow and digital asset management (DAM).

 

--Marc

[costandreou]

What i am doing is:1 Upload my picture to the pc by just cut and paste.

2nd i open Nikon view and i see my picture as i want, there is metadata there and i can enlarge as much as i want to evaluate.3rd i choose my picture and open them in photoshop using raw converter.if i want them converted to tiff, i do it in the converter. Easy yes!

[remco-jan.woldhuis]

My workflow is quite straightforward:

 

1- insert the CF card in a firewire cardreader.

2- create a folder to store the new files, named e.g. 2006-09-19 for photo's that I've shot today

3- copy the NEF files from the CF card to the harddisk folder

4- Extract the JPG's from NEF files using the dcraw open source software.

5- Load the JPG's in Apple iPhoto

6- I then simply look up the filename in iPhoto and open the NEF file I want to edit in ACR

[steve_koopman]

I'll see if I can help a bit. I shoot Canon and not Nikon, so I'm unsure why your thumbnails and metadata are giving you troubles. Maybe try using a different card reader to ensure it's transferring properly. Your computer is certainly robust enough as you say to handle what you are doing.

 

I never do a straight cut and paste from card reader to the hard drive using Windows. I used to incorporate the ZoomBrowser software from Canon but wasn't happy with it (plus it wouldn't auto-rotate my friend's images who uses Nikon and assists me with weddings), so now I use Downloader Pro from Breezesys. It allows you to rename in a variety of ways, non-destructively autorotates on all camera systems I believe, lets you change the ppi size (i.e., Canon's default is 72dpi, so I automatically switch it to 300dpi), and even do a DNG conversion if you shoot RAW. These additional actions will slow down your transfer over to your hard drive, but it's like doing 2-3 batch processes in PS without having to open up the program yet! Downloader Pro is free to try for 30 days and $30US to buy.

 

In terms of workflow, I would classify myself as an intermediate in the world of digital photography, so this is simply my experience and what works for me. Under My Pictures I have a main folder "Clientele", where I then create subfolders by name of my clients (for you it may be shooting dates or events). I then create two folders marked "Negatives" and "Edited". I dump all the photos from the card and place them on two hard drives in the "Negatives" folder. I then burn to DVD as a final back-up using the original file names (I am looking into the Delkin Archival Golds, but they are expensive!). Having double redundancy makes me sleep better at night, but it's not for everyone. I also never format my memory card until the images are transferred to at least two locations and I've checked the previews.

 

I then batch rename my negatives simply as "Negative 001, Negative 002, etc." You may prefer to rename by date possibly. I never work on my originals, although it's not as big a deal if using RAW. I like to go through my negatives using the slideshow in Bridge (Ctrl-L). As I arrow through the pictures I rank them just by hitting keys 1-5 (sometimes if I'm lazy I just mark the ones I know I'm going to edit with a ranking of 1 and leave the remaining with no rank).

 

Next in Bridge I filter only those files that are ranked and copy them over to the "Edited" folder. From there I work on the files in PS and when complete, batch rename "Edited 001, Edited 002, etc."

 

It sounds like a lot of work, but it actually isn't, and once you get into the groove, I find it's relatively efficient. Lastly, I feel like a lot of the work and organization is done on the front end, so you can hopefully enjoy the editing on the backend.

[mike_yazzy]

Hey guys, thanks a bunch for the follow-ups. Really helpful and insightful advise. Thanks again.