Digital Workflow-I am Changing My Workflow
by admin on Nov.18, 2008, under Photo Applications
Digital Workflow—I Am Changing My Workflow. Let’s learn from the Pros?
In my last post, “How do you want your Photos?”, I admitted to learning from my friend Rob on the “new” ways to show off photos other than 4×6 prints and the dilemma of whether or not to ask Pat how she wanted the photos. Well, we did discuss the question; however, no conclusions have been reached because we really haven’t given the alternatives much thought. Actually, I think she was in shock that I was even asking the question. Or, maybe it was the magnitude of the job of putting 6 years of prints into albums. But, the fact is there are other ways to show photos today other than prints. And, that fact has a major impact on our digital workflow and how we manage and edit photos.
My Previous Workflow-The 4×6 Print Workflow
While I have not made or ordered prints for Pat’s albums I have edited most of the photos I shot with my Canon cameras. After transferring the files to My Pictures (SP)/Pictures (Vista) folder I did the following:
- Created an Archive folder of the original photo files for backup and future reference. I typically create an archive sub-folder within the main folder and then use the main folder as a working folder.
- Using a photo editing program (we will get into editing programs later) I reviewed each picture and cropped to 4×6 print format and color corrected the ones worth keeping. I deleted the shots that were not worth editing or keeping. The folder then contained the edited versions of the photos worth keeping ready to be printed to a 4×6 format.
- The final step before printing was to rename the edited photos, (i.e. Christmas 2007-001…)
This workflow works great if all you will do with the edited photos is to make or order 4×6 prints.
Spearfish Canyon Falls-CorrectPhoto with New HDTV Cropping Format
New HDTV Delivered Yesterday—Now What?
Well, we finally decided to get a new HDTV and it was delivered yesterday. So, if Pat decides that she wants to be able to relive family events on the TV and wants me to make DVDs instead of prints I will have to go back and re-edit the photos for the optimum HDTV format. Yes, I know I can use the 4×6 format and not have the photos fill the screen, but I will want to crop to the HDTV 16×9 format. So, maybe I shouldn’t crop the photos until the “How do you want your photos?” question is answered.
Another Lesson Learned from Bill and the Pros.
Last Friday I helped my friend, Bill, who recently returned from a European trip (Belgium, France, and Italy), with his photos. Bill is one of those guys for whom the film to digital transition has been a challenge. He finally said he was ready to fight and overcome the “digicam syndrome” and I was eager to help. Bill has made some progress in the transition in that he already downloaded the photos to his computer and had them neatly organized by the dates the photos were taken. He even made an archive CD of the original files. So, after the appropriate “atta boy” I loaded CorrectPhoto (Elements is too complicated for Bill.) onto his computer and began to show him how to edit his photos. When I started to crop a photo he stopped me. Since he didn’t know what he or the people to whom he promised copies of the photos were going to do with the photos he suggested we not crop them. Good idea I thought and we proceeded to go through the photos deleting the bad ones and color correcting the rest. We ended up with folders with a set of color corrected photos that can be cropped to fit for the desired presentation media. Bill made CDs of the corrected photos to give to the other travelers and they can use them in a way that best fits their needs. In fact, that is exactly what most of the wedding photographers I talk to do after they shoot 1000 photos at a wedding. The first thing they do is go through the photos, delete the bad shots, color correct the good ones and upload them to their website so the client can order prints. When a client orders a set of prints they use their favorite editing program, most likely Photoshop to do the final editing.
My New Workflow
Okay, so an old dog can learn new tricks. Here are my digital workflow suggestions.
- Created an Archive folder of the original photo files for backup and future reference. I typically create an archive sub-folder within the main folder and then use the main folder as a working folder.
- Using a photo editing program (I would suggest either Photoshop Elements or CorrectPhoto) select the folder with the photo and review each photo and either delete or color correct the photo. We will discuss the color correction alternatives in a future post.
- Rename and number the corrected photos.
- When you (or your spouse) decide how you want your photos you can crop to the desired format and store them in a separate folder. If you cropped to 4×6 prints you can print them on your computer, make a CD or put the files on a thumb drive to take to your favorite photo lab, or upload to an online printing service.
A word of caution: When editing and saving JPEG files you need to be careful to minimize the number of times you edit and save a JPEG file because you lose a little image quality every time you do. This is less of an issue with the high resolution cameras and if you have the JPEG quality set to HIGH. However, to minimize the effect always start with the color corrected base folder if you are going to crop for different media applications.
Another modification to the above approach is to sort through the archive folder and select the ones worth keeping and transferring them to a new working folder. When you are ready to edit for specific media you can edit (crop and color correct) the original photo and create a new folder. This, of course will result in optimum results. However, if, like Bill, you are going to give a set of you photos to someone else I would recommend color correcting them first. Since you took the picture you are a better judge of the color than someone who did not.
Hopefully, these suggestions will be helpful and, at least, will get you to think through your digital photo workflow and maybe make a few changes. Ultimately, it is up to each of us to figure out what works best for us. I promise that we will get into photo editing soon and you will see my real opinions and prejudices rise to the surface.
Wayne, http://www.correctphoto.com
