Umesh Bhatt

Well, i have written about Workflow a number of times here , here and here.

So, why again? Well – Like all other things, “time” changes things. So is my workflow. I process more volume of images from my photo shoots, and process images differently (HDRs, Panos etc).

For starters, I shot a total of about 3000 RAW images on my recent trip to India. Here is what i did every day after each photo shoot:

1. Boot up my Macbook, Connect the Wolverine hard disk, and CF card reader to it.
2. Fire up Light room (LR). and Injest all images. LR is configured to import images based on “Date” folders.
3. Add Metadata keywords for photoshoot and preset ACR calibration adjustments during Import. Also – basic rating (flag for delete on blurred or unusable images)
4. Flush the changes to the XMP files (Meta-S command on Mac).
5. Manually, copy the images injested by LR into the Wolverine disk. While you have an option to configure your LR (Import menu) to automatically backup a copy into your external disk, i prefer to do this instead so as to accomodate changes and include rating into XMP files before they get backed up. Also – this manual backup file structure ensures that the copy on the external disk is identical to that on the Macbook.

When i got back to my home base, here is what did:

1. Copy the folders from the external disk manually into the home computer’s LR images main root (Folder Name: “2008″) folder.
2. Right click on “2008″ and select “Synchronize folders” option.
3. I am done importing images (and meta data, tags, ratings etc. )and my LR at home computer matches that of the Macbook.

The next step is to rate images. I have been typically been using this pattern:

• First step that i do is to do “Auto Stack by Capture Time” – Play with the values and check to make sure that the images i think were captured to be HDR are all in the stack. Expand All stacks before moving on to the next step.
• Rating is typically 1 star for those images that repeat images (eyes closed, person turned away, not smiling etc.), 2 star for candid, documentary and travellogue kind of images. 3 star images for those images that i think are good, and i plan on using them for post processing and displaying.
• HDR and Panos have their own workflow as well. All stacked images are examined. If the stacked images are in even numbers, I know that this is not an automatic stack for HDR. HDR images are always in odd numbers (3, 5, 7 or 9 images, with equal number of under/over exposures and one correct exposure). This forms the basis for re-grouping images (Meta Shift G to ungroup and Meta G to group them on Mac) and using the “Red” rating to flag and identify HDR images (The Filter option can be used later to filter and identify only HDR images for exporting). The Pano shots are group stacked together and given a “Yellow” rating.
• For HDR and Panos, I typically export images from LR as original RAW images to separate folders and use Capture NX’s Batch mode to convert them to TIFFs before taking them further into Photomatix or CS3. The rationale is that Capture NX is the absolute *best* RAW converter for NEF files. I sometimes batch process all other RAW images similarly and drop them back into original LR folders, and sync the images so that processed images from NX are managed from LR as well (rated blue – to indicate that these are processed images).
• Images that i have shot as In-camera JPEG are given a “Blue” rating (I don’t post process these images), and Print ready images after post processing are given “Green” rating (Those that make it to Flickr!).
• I rarely give out 4 star ratings (Usually done after post processing, if these are Portfolio worthy images – those that get printed).

The above is the most tideous part of image processing. I have often taken days/weeks after shoots even to finish this exercise. However, i have learnt not to skip this. Finding images later on is far more easier if i do the hard work initially. Also – i usually remember most about the image and its background when doing this. Gives me time to think about how to process the image as well. I have found that this buffer time between taking the image and post processing helps me evaluate the quality of the image better. In fact, i have sometimes gone back and readjusted ratings of images as i start post processing.

Post processing is started typically by Filtering images to show only 3 star or higher images, and then working on them in the Develop module. About one in every 5 or so image gets processed further in Photoshop. I have found that the images that i work in Photoshop usually end up getting 4 stars and/or get the “Green” rating.

The images that need to be processed for HDR and/or Panos are identified based on their color ratings, and each stack is exported as TIFFs into a separate folder. There is a specific reason that i like the HDR sources to be TIFFs and not RAW – Alignment. I often shoot HDR exposures hand held. Now this means, most of the images are mis-aligned to start with. While Photomatix has good alignment options, I find that CS3′s stacking and alignment is way way better. Loading images from a stack can only be performed on TIFF/JPEGs and therefore the TIFF export for HDRs (avoids repetetion plus, 16 bit TIFFs are the same quality as that of RAW files anyways).

Now you know whey i take so long to process the images!