My SHORT Workflow - How Will it Change by Shooting RAW?

jhelms

I'm finally going to start shooting RAW.

(prior to now, my only hesitation was because I don't have much time at all to post-process files so I've enjoyed the uick-n-easy jpg fine files)

I ordered Adobe LR (to go along with PSE7.0 and PS CS3) and was just wondering what changes I'll need to make to my workflow.

Here's the short version of what I do now:

1) Shoot jpg fine files on a clean formatted CF card
2) Dump pics to generic "My Pictures" main folder on computer
3) Do quick 1st run of deleting blurry and unusable shots
4) Create folder for this event, move pics into that folder
5) 2nd run of deleting unusable pics, begin basic edits contrast / etc.
6) Finish basic edits, do detailed edits on a few of the best pics
7) Upload to website, backup to 2nd hard drive, format CF card

So now, when I dump the raw files to my hard drive, I'll have to process them before creating the jpg files unless I shoot raw+jpg fine (which I probably will) - anything else that will change.

Or anything from my workflow above that I SHOULD change?

thanks!

Candid Arts

I tried doing the RAW+JPEG once... I just ended up with a bunch of JPEG's that I didn't use (wasted space on CF card and hard drive and time offloading photos to computer).

The only extra step that you'll really have is (and it's not really an extra step) exporting the RAW file (after you've done the editing to it, which you're already doing) to a JPEG file. I say it's not really an extra step because now once you've edited your saving the new edited file, so instead of doing that, you're just saving the RAW as a JPEG now. Now though you just have A LOT more information to work with when editing (EX: 25MB vs 5MB of data).

davidweaver

your short workflow:
1) Shoot jpg fine files on a clean formatted CF card
2) Dump pics to generic "My Pictures" main folder on computer
3) Do quick 1st run of deleting blurry and unusable shots
4) Create folder for this event, move pics into that folder
5) 2nd run of deleting unusable pics, begin basic edits contrast / etc.
6) Finish basic edits, do detailed edits on a few of the best pics
7) Upload to website, backup to 2nd hard drive, format CF card


Here's my short workflow:
1) Shoot RAW+JPG(regular)
2) rename pics as I transfer them to an event folder.
3) In Bridge I open RAW pics and make adjustments there before they go to PS. As the next pic I work on is likely to be very similiar to the previous one I use 'previous conversion' a lot.
4) Once all the pics have been sent to PS I make crops and adjustments as needed then save to PSD and JPG in one action.
5) JPG photos get sent to my editor.
6) Backup ...etc...

I use more space and work faster. I don't see any reason to cull any images as I'm looking at them in Bridge to select them. I move and rename all pics in one step into an events that is named for that specific event. Renaming adds the date and time shot to the filename. Sure my final posted shots are jpg (10-quality) but I retain the PSD in addition to the original RAW file.

When I move to PS-CS4 I'll start using Lightroom and DNG formats. But what I have now serves me well.

Cheers!
David

Mike J

Here's my workflow (for what it is worth)

1. Shoot RAW on clean camera-formatted card.
2. Use Downloader Pro to copy files off card to a To_Import directory and create a backup copy on a separate network drive.
3. Import files into Lightroom from the To_Import directoty. I use the move file and add to catalog option. I also rename the files at this step. I use a generic name that prepends my intitials and date of shoot to the camera generated name. I don't use LR to create a backup on import because I don't like the limitations that LR currently has even though it would eliminate a step in my process.
4. Eliminate the trash and then do RAW processing in LR. For 90% of what I shoot, this is all of the processing that I do. I'm sure that will change as I get more familar with other PP tools.
5. If I do further editing, it is either in PSE7 or Professional Portrait. For PSE7 the RAW file is exporting and then a PSD file is imported back into LR. For Professional Portrait, it is all through TIFFs.
6. For web outut, I use the Export to Smugmug plug-in and the LR/<WBR>mogrify plug-in to add a watermark and resize if needed.
7. I print from LR. The only thing I wish I had was soft-proofing. Hopefully this will be added to LR3 (or I could get a full-version of CS4)

Slinky0390

Here's my workflow

1) Shoot RAW on a formatted card
2) Import into Lightroom/import backup to external disk
3) Rename folder to event name/place/date
4) Run through photos and flag unusable photos as unwanted
5) Run through photos a second time to make sure I didn't miss anything
6) Run through unwanted photos to make sure I didn't make any mistakes, then delete
7) Adjust photographs based on my personal rating system
8) *Depends on what work is for* Export to hard disk or upload to SmugMug from Lightroom

I don't backup the photos after edits because my computer backs up my entire disk for me, and if something should happen before the backup, I already backed up the photos upon import and Lightroom backs up my .Lrcat files which contain the edits.