digital file workflow

AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
edited May 20, 2004 in Finishing School
seemed like this was a good time to discuss this. here's how i protect myself, digitally.

* during the day of shooting, i normally copy my raw files to my laptop that i carry with me.
* when i return to my studio, i empty my cards and memory sticks on to my main system, d: drive, and in folders by month. i have separate folders for originals and edits. in the edits folders, i have subfolders for psds, web versions, and print versions.
* i use a program called retrospect to back up my d: drive nightly to a maxtor external hard drive (250 gigabyte). so, within hours of every shoot, i have my originals and any edited work at least double saved. usually triple, becuase the files are on my laptop too, from field work.
* once a month, all the files from that month get burned to a dvd, and that dvd is kept outside of my home.

home storage is cheap, with external hard drives costing very little these days. i'm very happy with the maxtor hard drive.

i've been asked about saving .psds and why i do that, becuase they are so darn big. well, i want to be able to go back later, after i've learned a new trick or two, and further refine an image. i have the psd, so that's a great starting point. i usually won't save .psds for simple post-processing, but for the more complex work i always save the psd. you never know.

anybody want to add to this thread? we can all benefit from each other's experience!

enjoy (covering your a$$) photography,

Comments

  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited May 20, 2004
    I use iView Media Pro, C1SE and PS. (Mac OSX)

    I import the RAW files with iView. It gives the option of locking the files on import. Since I'm shooting RAW and won't be changing the actual files, I like this because it prevents accidental erasure of the files.

    I then convert with C1, which gets me really close to what I want processing-wise. A little tweaking in PS, and I'm set. I always save in JPEG, since if I really want to keep going back to an image, I always have the original RAW to re-process.

    iView is an awesome cataloging app, and it just became available for Windows.
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  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited May 20, 2004
    I've heard this iView is supposed to be great... but how is it that much better than just using the file browser in PS? I guess I'm a caveman...

    I make a folder for each shoot or day of shooting, make a subdirectory in there for raw files - put those right in there - then all variants (jpg, occasional psd) go up one directory to the main dir for that day. the whole deal goes up to the Maxtor at least a few times a week. Love that thing, one touch and all, little scripts for all my backups.
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]


  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited May 20, 2004
    DoctorIt wrote:
    I've heard this iView is supposed to be great... but how is it that much better than just using the file browser in PS? I guess I'm a caveman....

    The benefits over the PS browser are too many to mention. The short list is speed, power and flexibility. Give it a try.
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  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited May 20, 2004
    DavidTO wrote:
    The benefits over the PS browser are too many to mention. The short list is speed, power and flexibility. Give it a try.
    So do I need the pro version? or is the Iview Media enough? 21 day trial, guess I can try them both. Is it really worth the money though for me not making a living with this... hmmm... maybe the $50 media, but $200 for the Pro, wow.
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]


  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited May 20, 2004
    DoctorIt wrote:
    So do I need the pro version? or is the Iview Media enough? 21 day trial, guess I can try them both. Is it really worth the money though for me not making a living with this... hmmm... maybe the $50 media, but $200 for the Pro, wow.
    Hey Erik, the non-pro version is useless. No RAW support. Just downloaded the trial.

    :D

    And hooray, it makes yet another file (.ivc) to organize your files... What am I missing?

    umph.gif
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]


  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited May 20, 2004
    DoctorIt wrote:
    Hey Erik, the non-pro version is useless. No RAW support. Just downloaded the trial.

    :D

    And hooray, it makes yet another file (.ivc) to organize your files... What am I missing?

    umph.gif

    Wow. I bought 2.03 a less than a month ago, and it was $160. Guess they raised the price when they released 2.5.

    But like you said, the non-pro version isn't very useful.

    Are you mac or windoze?
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