work flow

[Renee Marquis]

can all you pros please explain your work flow.... shooting, uploading your images, files, how many files do you use.... then photoshop .... such as in photoshop do you use levels first then contrast.... thanks.....

[england1965]

Hi,

My workflow is pretty simple...

1) copy files to PC from CF cards
2) Backup files to storage device and DVD
3) Check that I can read DVD onto other PC
4) Did I mention I was paranoid? :)
5) Quick sort into time order (I usually use 2 cameras throughout the day)
6) Quick pass to remove duff shots (usually in Breezebrowse)
7) Taking each picture at a time I then crop, lighten, colour correct and then sharpen if necessary (always sharpen , sometimes the others)
8) save file with different name (usually add an "a" to filename) in PS
9) Back-up editted photos at the end of each day (see "4" above")

I *know* I can work smarter than this and when I get CS2 I will devote some serious time to getting that sorted.

Does that help?
I suspect you want more detail at step 7 - the others might be able to give you more on that

Cheers

Mark

[StagePhotography.co.uk]

Method for shooting...

1. Turn up at the hall/stage/location about 30 minutes before
curtain up. Check with Director and see if there's any surprises like REALLY dark scenes and any moments to watch out for...

2. Put batteries and empty cards ready for quick changes...

3. Curtain up and start clicking...

4. Moving back and for the stage, trying to second guess the actors (this is where I'm learning the most) and get the angles for the right shots...

5. Finish and pack up...

My method for processing them....... This is for mass produced Stage Photography..

1. Do you shoot.. Finish at 10.30 / 11pm..

2. Get home and load (the cards usually 2 to more) onto my PC..

3. Open a bottle of wine...

4. Right Click on the first and open with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

5. Flick through all images (usually 800 to 1300), deleting duplicates and fizzy ones... Edit this that require it... (Usually not that many..)

6. Use THUMBS6 to preview again all images as 500x333 in size (using CTRL+F2 to copy a broad selection of about 200 or less to a WEB directory)..

7. Working on the WEB directory ones, RESIZE all to 500x300 (auto done by Thumbs6)...

8. Rotate the portrait ones...

9. Using again Thumbs 6 to stamp "StagePhotography.co.uk" at the bottom of the WEB ones..

10. Again using Thumbs6 create Webpage/s for uploading...

11. Upload the images to the Web. (Even using broadband usualyl takes 20 to 30 minutes sometimes...)..

12. Delete all the temp/Web images and files.

13 Copy all images to a Backup Harddrive.

14. Re-Save all the pictures to smaller file sizes so that 500 to 700 images fit on a CD. Usually about 10 to 20% on a JPG compression..

15. Copy to a Master CD. Later when I get the orders I simple Copy the CD...

I'm phasing out Thumbs6 and coverting most things with Paint Shop Pro scripts.... Except generating the Web Pages..

16. Finish bottle of wine.... And at about 2am go to bed...

[tonymidd]

At which stage do you pour the wine George?
I'll post mywork flow in the morning, it's been a long hard day. http://www.wedding-photography.org/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

[StagePhotography.co.uk]

Straws are wonderful things....

:)

[Stemmy]

The bottle is finished between step 3 & 4

[BarryM]

1 transfer photos from card to pc into " raw folder"
2 make raw adjustments then save into " raw completed folder
3 open each image in cs2, crop to my size, adjust levels, contrast (if needed)
4 open in colour mechanic and make any colour adjustments needed
5 sharpen image using focus magic, if there is any problems
6 save image as a tiff into appropriate category folder which contains various print size folders i.e 10x8 etc

[Dotty.c]

At what point should one open the wine Barry, I'm new to digital and the wine does seem to figure alot according to George :confused:

[Stemmy]

Ok heres mine

Cards out of camera (at the wedding)
Dump everything onto Flashtrax (portable hard drive & viewer)
Have a pint & recover from wedding
Go home copy cards onto PC
Burn two discs (One stays at my house one goes to mum & dads)
Then using CS2 go throug all images in Adobe Bridge & raw Converter (400 images about 1.5 hours)
Sharpen selected images (Action in Photoshop)
Crop selected images - tweak (remove unwanted objects etc.)
Add vignettes (Dark & Light) soft focus etc.
Reduce images ready for DVD (Action in Photoshop) using a script that ignors orientation so you dont have to seperate landscape & portrait
Add copyright (Signature brush made in Photoshop)
Copy images - Change to B&W (The images are shown to the B&G in colour & B&W.
Make DVD
Make prieview pack for customer (proof prints/order forms/price lists/album brochure etc.)
Copy full folder including DVD reductions DVD slideshow to another disc. This is filed away with the original images disc.
Remove everything from folder apart from the full size images shown to the customer - burn a disc (this is what I use for reprints etc)
Do web images
Job done

I then after while copy as many weddings as I can (show pisctures folder) onto DVDs. Usually this is five or six weddings. Twelve months on 10 discs . These again are taken to my mum & dads. Im a worrier like George but it means should the worst happen and my house burn down my Mmum & dad have all the original images and a copy of the shown images.

Beginning to end (Standard Wedding) 3.5 hrs. This does not include the computer rendering the DVD slideshow which takes around 45mins.

[tonymidd]

As soon as I'm home the RAW files are transfered from the cards to two disks, one working copy and one archive/just in case copy that goes to my daughters. These disks are checked in another reader to make sure they are OK, like Mark and Martin I try to cover my self.
If it's a job that's been shot under one lighting condition I'll batch process the RAW files off the disk into 16 bit tiffs on the main computer's hard drive.
If not each frame gets corrected individually and saved as above. In this case, which applies to all my personal work, I'll do as much as possible working on the RAW file in Nikon Capture 4.4. These tiffs are quite large files, 58mb, approx 12.5" x 8.5" @ 300ppi. These are saved onto 2 disks UNSHARPENED; again one disk stays with me and one to my daughter's. I try to keep as little as possible on the main hard drive. As all my files are saved unsharpened I can convert to jpegs, re-size for printing, whatever, and apply a lab sharpening action to them in PS as the last process. This greatly reduces the chances of any artifacts appearing.

[Choogster]

shoot in raw (1 day = 200 shots+, 1 week 3000 shots +)
quickview shots in microsoft raw viewer and ditch the ones which dont make the grade
import each other chosen image into photoshop with raw import (contrast, brightness, white balance).
make tif versions of the best, downsize also for web previews
upload images (1 minute for 100 meg of images)
finish

[Alan Schofield]

Shot Job as so

Check all equipment at home ( the night before charge all batt )
clean all lens etc
go over all the details ( places ,time ,names etc )
make sure that I have my little goodie bag ( food & drink )

During wedding I check that the images are fine & put all used cards in safe place , max card that I use is IGB

At Home

1 Load all images from cards onto PC

2 Burn all images to dvd x2 ( I'm paranoid aswell ) 1 copy at home, 1 at work in clients job bag !!

3 Go though all images 400/500 av to delete all bad ones , closed eyes bad expressions & ones that I just do not like, this is all done on Compupic

4 Eat a meal & open a bottle of wine

5 Alter all the remianing images, lighten/darken ,colour saturation b/w, sepia & a light shapening all in compupic

6 Rename & number

7 Open photoshop & crop any images that I feel need cropping

8 Change a couple of images with actions (soft focus, mix of b/w & colour)

9 Run the images though a slide show to look at the wedding

10 Go back & alter anything that I feel needs changing

11 Make a proof book using compupic thumbnails, printed on Epson printer

12 Design a cover using a image from wedding c/w all my details on the top + print up order forms etc to go at the back of the proof book then get it bound

13 Upload all the images to the web-site using Breezbrowser

14 Using a pre-designed template, print the cover for the DVD

15 Make a DVD using Pro Show Gold

16 Print label for Dvd

17 Go to pour some wine too find that its all GONE !!

This normally takes between 3/5 hours depending on the size of the wedding. but I make sure that each wedding is finished & uploaded before the next day as that can quitr often be another wedding , Still it does mean another bottle of wine, hic hic hic

Hope this helps

Alan

[Dotty.c]

ah ha I spotted that wine thing again, is this just a digital thing or can 35mm users do it to? :D

[Alan Schofield]

:D I think that 35mm users can only drink shandy !!:D

[Dotty.c]

don't do beer, guess i will just have to use hubbies digital, he doesn't drink anyway hahahaha :D

[StagePhotography.co.uk]

Yes Film users can't drink as they got to feed the film in.

The Memory cards are firmer and don't bend... sometimes...
as easy.... :)

[Dotty.c]

My camera self loads, as long as I can hit the green line (s) :D

[LTJ]

Make new Folder-open wine

[Kirsty]

nice & simple thts how it shud b!

[Alan Schofield]

Heres Mine Specially for Stemmy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Make new Folder-open wine


So That's were I have been going wrong, I have been waiting too long before I opened the wine

I can remember the good old days of using a 645, I needed more then wine or beer after those weddings

Alan

[StagePhotography.co.uk]

Ahh the good old "645"....

Great bottle openers they were... *sigh*