Workflow help!

Pure

TPF Noob!
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
421
Reaction score
1
Can others edit my Photos
Photos NOT OK to edit
I finally admit defeat to the monster that is proper work flow. Mine sucks, plain and simple. At this point in time at 11:32pm on April 5th, I am currently more than 500 pictures behind where I want to be, finished.

:banghead:


This is my current work flow, please laugh now.

1. D90 RAWs on memory card.
Not much to say here, just the pictures are on the memory card.

2. Manual copy and paste on to two hard drives, one internal, one external.
At this point I copy and paste the photos onto two hard drives, obviously for backup reasons. Are are any programs that will do this for me? ViewNX sucks at this. Does Adobe Bridge do this?

3. Opening each picture individually in Adobe Camera RAW/Photoshop
This is the most painstaking part. Other than using some presets that I can only use maybe for 5-10 pictures, each picture is individually edited using Adobe Camera RAW within Photoshop CS3. Lightroom 2, duh? [I really need to learn how to use it, what is a catalog? WHOOPS.]

4. Saving each finished picture in TIFF/JPG, etc. into a folder.
Obviously, but done manually as well.

5. Backup of that said folder.

Duh.

6. Uploading online/Move to flash drive for printing at camera store
No issues here.

7. Printed pictures
Finally.


Here is where I have issues.

I really need to find a better way to upload pictures onto my computer more efficiently and such.

I need to learn Lightroom 2?

Can "live" backup be done? Where is a folder is modified, it is automatically backed up to another drive instantly?
Note: I cannot afford a RAID 1 setup with multiple drives at this time.

My real issue is that I'm paranoid about losing data/pictures.

I need to makesure all pictures are backup at all times, etc.

Thanks for your help.
 
I'd say learn lightroom. The workflow is so much faster. It backs up all your photos that are in it (everything you've ever imported into it) at an interval you set (it can be once a week, or everytime you open lightroom, or once a day when lightroom is opened). Its much faster to do basic edits and such in lightroom, and even on a mass scale. Then you can open in photoshop for any detail work.
 
Any suggestions on where to learn it? Books, sites, videos,etc?
 
Adobe Bridge greatly streamlines my workflow, saveswhere I want stuff saved,individuallyt and in large batches. It works directly hand in hand with CS3
 
If your final 'acceptable for printing and framing' ratio is anywhere near mine, an initial review of your exposures, made with a critical eye, will eliminate at least 90% of them. The 'delete' function is one of the greatest 'work flow' speeder-uppers I know of. I make liberal use of it.

The trick, of course, is to use it as early in the process as possible.
 
my i ask, why open every file?

that will save you a huge amount of time.

review in bridge and then only open and convert to a work folder those images you know you really love.

i do something along the same lines, altho, i also make a contact sheet of each folder , as i like to review the images as one would a contact sheet for negatives. this comes from many years of doing darkroom work.

i also make up 4 backup copies, which is always a pain ;)
 
1. Lightroom can read memory cards.
2. Lightroom can import from the cards and auto save a backup on an external at the same time from the import dialogue.
3. Lightroom's Develop Panel is the same as Adobe Camera RAW's with a few more features. Two single click will open an image in photoshop, create a virtual copy, and group it with the original image so you see the before and after edited versions.
4. Lightroom's Export Feature
5. Export twice :p
6. Export with options that autoresize and autosharpen the image to make uploading or printing easier.
7. Lightroom has a fully featured softproof capable printing system.

So yes you need to learn Lightroom. The thing is Lightroom for the most part is non-destructive in editing so providing you backup on import and backup your lightroom database frequently you have all your source files covered.

As far as your final exported files. What is it about RAID1 that incurs extra costs? Windows has software RAID1 features built in, and so does mac. But that is a bad mindset. RAID is for high availability and not a backup solution.

I suggest once a month or once every 2 weeks plug a HDD into the computer, run any of the countless programs that allow you to synchronise two directories (I use CopyTo) and then unplug the HDD and store it offsite. Take it to work, give it to a friend, or bury it in the garden in a airtight box. That is a backup. Something that will survive a fire, or you accidently highlighting every file and hitting delete (RAID1 saves you from neither).
 
From Raw I write to dvd, backup to hd and again to the storage drive in my laptop,open PS, then I view files in the file browser, flagging all files of similar exposure, I then use Dr Browns image processor (GOOGLE IT, he's the bloke who wrote the lightroom script), this opens the first selected image in camera raw, I do basic adjustments click ok, this then works at converting to tiff n jpeg right through the folder. Then back to file browser and do similar on the unflagged ones.

I have then got basic proofs (jpeg) and tiff's to work on, any which need other adjustments I work the raw file singly till I'm satisfied then output to tiff for final working. 500 proofs in this way would take about an hour to produce, from there I just wait for the selection from the client before working individual files. H
 
1. D90 RAWs on memory card.

2. Manual copy and paste on to two hard drives, one internal, one external.

3. Opening each picture individually in Adobe Camera RAW/Photoshop

4. Saving each finished picture in TIFF/JPG, etc. into a folder.

5. Backup of that said folder.


6. Uploading online/Move to flash drive for printing at camera store

7. Printed pictures

1 - Do not copy from camera. Use a USB 2.0 card reader. If you have a fast UDMA card, firewire external readers are the fastest.

2 - Lightroom can copy & backup in one shot.

3 - Lightroom. Faster and easier. You can go through an easy 40:1 ratio for culling when using LR. 75% of your basic adjustments can also be done in LR.

4 - Automatically done in LR.

5 - Several options here, but doing this manually is no big deal. Once a month or whenever I hit 8GB, I copy them to my SAN and then burn 2 DVDs... no biggie.

6 - Nothing you can do except maybe get a faster ISP, normally no biggie for you.

7 - If you are going to a place to get the pics printed, copy JPGs you want printed to a 1GB memory stick ($10 at Walmart). Go to place and do your "thang" to print. If you are uploading, see if printer has a print profile... us it if available (ie: Costco has a printer profile!)

Seems you really could benefit from LightRoom 2:
- you can cull 30-40 times quicker
- you can crop faster
- you can do 75% of your basic corrections faster
- it backsup automatically if you tell it to during the initial transfer from card to computer

To learn how to use LR... the best source: Lynda.com they have an awesome tutorial.
 
5. Export twice :p

Of all suggestions, I would pass over that one... it is faster to copy a directory manually than to get LR to export it 2 times. I can copy 3 gig in about 1-2 minutes, but to create 3 gig of JPGs in LR would take me about 10 min.
 
So I should skip Bridge altogether and just use Lightroom 2? I already own it, but I haven't had enough time to learn it. I haven't even opened the box yet! :/ Damn school and lacrosse.

Jerry, I do use a USB card reader! No way in hell am I connecting an $900 camera to a usb port.



Also a few questions on keeping pictures. Lets say I have 100 pictures after an event, after doing in-camera deleting. Then I get home and look at them again and I now have 80 pictures. Do you guys keep all 80 and just edit those you really like, or do you delete all of the pictures you don't edit.
 
Also, with monitor calibration, just a few questions.

Normally in Adobe Camera RAW I tell Photoshop to ignore my color profile for my monitor. When I do this, my wites are white, and my blacks black. However If I don't then my whites are brown and such. Can I continute to just ignore my color profile? Or should I fix it? All of my edited pictures look fine on Flickr on both my PC and other PC's.

Thanks!
 
Yikes. Sounds like you ought to use Lightroom indeed.

But, alternatively, the CS3 and CS4 versions of bridge offer a ton of the exact same functionality. Unfortunately, it doesn't fill in the organizational gaps for you so you have to make it up yourself, which I suppose is really what you're having trouble with. Regardless, if you do use Bridge, you can cut down on your proccessing time a lot by making all of your adjustments then using the Photoshop image processor to export them all. I opted out of LR because I don't want something helping me stay organized. So I use bridge for all this stuff.

Depending if you're running a Mac or a PC there's lots of software you can get that will do the backups for you. On Mac there's a free program called Carbon Copy Cloner, which backups selected folders and files at increments your select--or whenever the files change. On PC, there are other options, which I am unfamiliar with.

But, again, it does sound like you're best bet will be buckle down and use Lightroom.
 
Also a few questions on keeping pictures. Lets say I have 100 pictures after an event, after doing in-camera deleting. Then I get home and look at them again and I now have 80 pictures. Do you guys keep all 80 and just edit those you really like, or do you delete all of the pictures you don't edit.

I never ever delete at an event. First, that is time wasted chimping when I should be doing something else... like taking pics.

Second, the camera viewfinder, and I do not care WHAT viewfinder you have, is not an accurate reproduction. It may be darker, lighter, more or less blurred. I never rely on hte viewfinder to make a decision on what pic to delete.

Third, to make a decision in under 1-2 seconds if a pic is a keeper or not... bad move. Unless it is something like a totally black frame, it should be given the FULL attention it deserves... even then, at the event is not the time. At home, relaxed, we go through them. This process is called CULLING and what it is done at that point in the process.
 
Also, with monitor calibration, just a few questions.

Normally in Adobe Camera RAW I tell Photoshop to ignore my color profile for my monitor. When I do this, my wites are white, and my blacks black. However If I don't then my whites are brown and such. Can I continute to just ignore my color profile? Or should I fix it? All of my edited pictures look fine on Flickr on both my PC and other PC's.

Thanks!

Is your monitor calibrated? If so, you *should* be using it. If it is not... it should be calibrated. ;)
 

Most reactions

Back
Top