I want to start shooting in RAW format and I'm looking for resources on the web or links to some FM threads that discuss both workflow and RAW processing - I'm sure this has been discussed hundreds of times on FM so please post the links to the threads if you have them. The RAW format will be new to me so I'm sure I have a lot of reading to do..
Currently I shoot everything in jpeg format and simply take my CF card out, put it into a firewire card reader and drag the files to my HD. Then I use the cheap windows viewer program to preview and delete the photos I don't want. From there I take the rest of the jpeg's into PS for editing and I'm done. It's that simple, I've never seen any of the Canon software of any of the 3rd party RAW processing software and I want to keep it simple.
Hopefully the workflow for RAW can be just as simple/efficient? I know there are several different software options for processing RAW files but hopefully there's a popular one that wins a unanimous vote....
I shoot action sports, portraits, and weddings....it was a hobby before, now it's becoming a job.
My workflow:
USB 2.0 cardreader
Download all pix to a new folder on my desktop, which I rename to the subject which I was shooting.
While doing this you can already open up adobe bridge. This will start generating thumbnails. At this point you can take a small break to wait for the computer to be done generating.
When you get back you start going through the pictures. I immediately delete the technically messed up shots. The good shots I flag by assigning a color to them.
Then I go through these flagged shots again. And then I assign a star rating to the pictures that I feel are total winners.
These winners get a Photoshop treatment and end up in a subfolder called PSD.
Ofcourse you need adobe bridge for this workflow. It was called different in PS 8 though.
My workflow:
1. Shoot in RAW (no embedded JPEG). Use AWB. Adobe RGB.
2. Copy to PC RAW file using card reader. Delete technically unacceptable (usually only out of focus) pics. Move to RAW sub-files by subject. Archive good to separate external HD as untouched RAW file.
3. Open in Capture One Pro. Adjust WB as necessary. Convert to 16bit TIFF/300 dpi.
4. Open TIFFs in Photoshop CS2. Crop if needed. All adjustments (sharpen, noise, contrast etc.) in 16 bit TIFF format.
5. Convert to 8bit TIFF.
6. Save as... JPEG in appropriate album.
Shoot RAW, download using card reader into a directory - photos\camera(1Ds, 1DM2, 20D)\date(2005_10_10). open in C1, adjust WB, exposure, contrast, saturation, ect. as required and store into subdirectory \developed as high resolution JPGs. Open \developed with Picture Window Pro crop, frame, etc. save as *_m.jpg for printing (100%) or print right then, or cut size down to 250-400k for network.
1. Shoot in RAW.
2. Copy to an Inbox folder, then run a batch renamer either Flash Renamer or iViwe Media Pro.
3. Open RAW files in Adobe Photoshop CS2 ACR
4. Tweak white balance, crop if necessary, brightness/exposure/shadow/etc. settings no sharpening
5. Open directly into CS2, run a default action which involves a edge mask+USM
6. Levels and curves
7. Additional post-processing from there
8. Save full size JPG at Level 12 (highest)
9. Resize, Smart Sharpen 50/0.3 save additional web sized version at Level 8 or 10 (or whatever I'm feeling like)
10. I do not save the Photoshop work, unless it was a complicated post-processing job like a collage. But otherwise the files take up too much room.
My workflow is very quick and straightforward (or I would go nuts and my wife would shoot me... she's pretty close to it already). I'll typically shoot 500-1500 RAW frames per game, depending on this that and the other.
I dump to the computer using a firewire reader and Breeze Downloader Pro. That's a big leg up right from the start. To see why, see this post:
Then I cull the shoot down to keepers, or maybe keepers, very quickly with a full screen sharpened view using BreezeBrowser Pro. This post details how I do that:
Then I convert the keepers using Capture One and Magne Nilsen's Hi-Sat profiles. A few more usually find their way to the trash bin at this stage. In the conversion I will crop (usually to one of several pre-set aspect ratios such as 2x3, 5x7, 4x5 or square depending on what the image requires), rotate if necessary to level the horizon, and adjust the levels. I shoot AWB and it is *very* rare for me to do any color correction at this stage — or any other for that matter. Default saturation, default sharpening, and only the default noise reduction that CO applies automatically. IOW, all I'm really doing is crop, maybe rotate, and levels. That's it. The conversions go to 16-bit tiffs, but that's overkill for the web and just saves a step at the print stage.
Then I feed the converted keepers to BB Pro again to produce my html web gallery. In doing so it applies some default USM to generate the jpg's, and of course converts them to sRGB. That's it... I'm done. Dump the new gallery to my web server, add a link to it from the appropriate index page, and go to bed.
From 1000 frames shot to 100 chosen, cropped, adjusted, converted and up on the web... usually about an hour and a half if I keep my concentration up, maybe two hours if I woolgather.
For print orders I use Qimage. The only times I open PS any more is to very occasionally apply NR (Neat Image or Noise Ninja, and that only for some prints larger than 4x6), and cosmetological retouching.
Strictly from the standpoint of the RAW conversion part, the key to this is Capture One. Once you get used to its somewhat non-standard interface, it allows you process RAW images at least as fast as you can process jpg's in PS.
Also, Don Cohen has a very nice article about RAW workflow here.
Isn't there any way to automate this stuff? It sure seems like a ton of time for very little benefit. I've yet to see my 20D produce a RAW file that looks better than JPG file, even counting all labor-intensive the post-processing. If I made a 36x24 poster it's possible I'd notice, but up to 16x20 I've seen nothing to convince me I should waste all that time processing RAW files.
But before all the RAW diehards flame me to death, I'm not saying RAW isn't better. Just that for me I've not seen a reason to kill all that time processing hundreds of files. I'd love it if someone could post a RAW+JPG sample picture that shows what the 20D spat out in JPG form vs. what the photographer massaged with the RAW file. That could easily sway me into the RAW camp if it was a compelling, significant difference...
I usully shoot Raw + Jpeg, Its nice to have a back up RAW file if I need to change settings or want to convert the file into a TIFF.
However I just came back from a week away shooting and only shot in RAW to conserve space and reduce the amount of times I needed to download files onto my X-Drive out in the feild, Big mistake! I ended up having to convert over 900 RAW files!!
Very slow let me tell you! Took over 3 hours using DPP
I wish that processing RAW Files was quicker.
p.1 #11 · Efficient workflow and RAW processing...
Been going through the 2,100 pictures I took at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta so i've been working on an efficient workflow for me at least
All CF cards were copied to Epson P-2000 40gb hard drive during the trip.
At home:
Copy Epson P-2000 to main computer hard drive.
Clean up folder structure (the epson makes a few too many levels for my tastes in folders).
Batch rename with Better File Rename.
Move all basic jpgs to a subfolder
Copy all files to my fileserver so I never lose the originals (even the bad pictures, although most of those are cleared as soon as I shoot them with the delete button).
Open folder in Adobe CS browse, let it chew on the metadata and previews for a while. While it's chugging, take a look at the basic jpgs that go along with the raw and start identifying pictures i'd like to process
Find my pictures with the white balance card, batch apply the white balance across the appropriate pictures (I shoot auto wb usually for speed and have a little grey/white card I throw into the picture every now and then)
Make sure that sharpening is at zilch on raw
Flag 'best' pictures with ctrl-'
View flagged only
For each picture
Open in CS
Resize/crop/rotate as necessary
(I have each of these actions individually recorded and I have another action that runs all of these actions in one push if I see no customization needed)
USM 10% - 50.0 - 0 (gives it a bit more kick. For some pictures i'll go to 30% to bring out the colors some more)
USM 75% - 1 - 3 (I think, doing this from memory) for minor sharpening
Convert to 8-bit
Save picture as appropriately level'd jpg
Next picture
For the majority of my work that seems to work just fine and i'm pleased with the results.
If I shot at a high iso i'll usually find the channel with the most 'noise' and median it
p.1 #12 · Efficient workflow and RAW processing...
Wow, thank you all for the great feedback, it looks like I have a lot of options...
I'm thinking if Nill can weed through 1000 images in a couple hours and have them organized, renamed, adjusted, cropped, posted, and ready for print then I'm going to try what he's doing because this is how long it takes me to process 1000 jpeg's in PS....although Nill's workflow might look complicated it can't be because he's being very efficient. If you're a perfectionist like Nill I'm not sure that it could be done any quicker unless you're a script writing guru....
I'm sure it will take some time to get used to the new software/process but it sounds like it will pay off. I'm a little worried about cutting PS out of the process because I'm so used to it, maybe I can keep adjusting my images in PS?
Thank you all for your time.
One question for Nill: Does Breezebrowzer Downloader Pro give you the option to rename your files names, dates, and numbers instead of identifying the camera type up front? I would prefer just to rename my files with the names and dates if this is possible. You lost me while you were explaining this....
p.1 #13 · Efficient workflow and RAW processing...
artsupreme wrote:
One question for Nill: Does Breezebrowzer Downloader Pro give you the option to rename your files names, dates, and numbers instead of identifying the camera type up front? I would prefer just to rename my files with the names and dates if this is possible. You lost me while you were explaining this....
Yes, DL Pro is extremely flexible and configurable. That's just the way I personally have it set up.
p.1 #15 · Efficient workflow and RAW processing...
No. A large part of it is the superb (IMO) color rendition that I get from C1 using Magne Nilsen's Hi Sat profiles for my cameras, and the DR I get from RAW files using C1. The rest is just levels. There's no magic to it, and it's not complicated, and it's not even hard. It's just taking the file that has *all* the information in it and taking that little bit of extra time to make it better than what the camera spits out.
Put on top of that the remarkable leeway you have to recover from "excursions" of exposure and WB, and there's a lot to be said for it.
p.1 #16 · Efficient workflow and RAW processing...
I have to agree with Nill on Breeze DL'er Pro. Its a crazy steal for the price. I have it setup to automatically pop-up when I insert a card (or the 20D). It then prompts me for a jobcode (optional). I give it an appropriate name and it downloads and renames on the fly (rename is set to delete all but the image number, add [date], add [camera name], and add [ISO]). I've got it set to create a new directory named "whatever the jobcode was" under an existing "Unprocessed" directory. It then creates a "RAW" subdirectory and D/L's the raw files to there with my preset naming convention (See this link for the available naming options - AKA tokens). If I happened to shoot JPG as well as RAW that day, I have it set to automatically create a "JPG" subdirectery under the "jobcode directory" and D/L the JPG's there. This comes in handy when shooting stuff that my wife will want to access quickly. She understands the beauty of RAW, but has not yet embraced the workflow!
From there:
Open in bridge
Tag keepers/maybe's
Delete goof's
Rate keepers/maybe's
Levels/WB/exposure ETC...
convert to TIFF
Archive all keepers to external HDD (and eventually to DVD)
PS keepers and convert to JPG if needed
It takes a bit of time, but I think its worth the effort, no doubt.
p.1 #17 · Efficient workflow and RAW processing...
I wasn't a RAW believer until I forced myself to use it for a few weeks. Can't express enough how working with RAW files saved a lot of my mediocre photos from the DEL key.
All my RAW files are stored on my desktop in a DUMP folder
Phase 1 -- Initial Filtering
I use Microsoft's built in RAW viewer and go through the images -- spending about 2 secs on each one, deleting the ones I don't care for. This eliminates about about half the shots.
Phase 2 -- RawShooter Essentials
I go through the remaining shots using RawShooter Essentials (pixmantec.com). This program has a fairly intuitive navigation/thumbnail setup. So I'm able to scroll through these images for the ones I really like. Of those selected few I adjust WB, Saturation, Contrast, Exposure, etc (all within RawShooter). Once I'm happy with these, I export them to high quality JPG's to a WORK folder.
Phase 3 -- Photoshop
Since all my image manipulation was done in RawShooter, I simply use Photoshop for cropping, removing skin blemishes, adding copyright info, downsizing for web use, etc. Then I save it to a folder called FINISHED -- from there I upload to my photoblog.
Phase 4 -- Cleanup
Move all the remaining RAW files in the DUMP folder into my secondary harddrive for backup. Then I grab a beer and watch cartoons.
