where there’s smoke there’s forum fire
Thanks a lot for all the info, really useful clues here! (yeah, digging out the old topics)
Do you keep profiles for shooting condidions (for example, you often shoot concert lights, in a specific place - still lightning conditions, etc?
I just shot a family party and are digging through the RAWs slowly.One thing I found great in Lightroom is that you can actually copy your develop settings and paste them to another photo. Then just tweak the settings you need and you're done!
Even better, Vall, is how you can highlight multiple photos in develop and sync all or part of the settings to all of the selected photos. Here's a list of tips/shortcuts I wrote to one of my friends who was just starting with Lightroom:
D to go to the develop window
G to go to the library window
L to cycle through light dimming settings
F to cycle through window settings (fill, I guess)
shift+Tab show/hide all menus
1-5 rate picture
Use the target button for hue/saturation/lightness: you click on the target, then click and drag up or down on a pixel of the color you want to change.
Use the dropper for white balance by clicking on a gray spot on the image after picking up the dropper.
hold down alt as you sharpen to see the sharpening in black and white. Also (one of my favorite features), hold it down while changing the sharpening mask to see what you're actually masking from the sharpen.
to sync settings, you highlight a group with the one that has been edited superselected (if that's the word I want), then click "Sync..." at the bottom and choose which settings to sync.
My workflow (using Photoshop CS4 or CS5) is to bring in the RAW images as smart objects, and whatever sharpening is needed becomes a smart filter. Colour edits if needed are done in camera raw, otherwise, I've preset white balance. It's a habit I've had for a long time. Although auto-white-balance in the cameras works better these days, I never trust it, I manage that myself for predictable results.
If I need to edit contrast, I just drag the black/exposure sliders while holding ALT. You can see when detail is blown out or too dark quite easily.
Dust spots, if I need to do anything with them is simply adjusting the black slider in Camera Raw to around 50 or 60, and then dragging the image about in a circular motion (100% size). Dust spots are easy to see like that - and you can then use the dust removal tool in camera raw to get rid of them, and then reset the black slider when you've finished. But generally I don't have too much problems with dust - I keep the sensors clean with blowers or otherwise, for nasty dust spots, I'll clean it properly the same way Nikon does themselves. It's not too hard - just scary the first time.
I don't normally need to do much editing of my images in Photoshop - they are pretty good right out of the camera. And I hate editing things in Photoshop - it's a time consuming but necessary evil and I'd prefer it takes as little time as possible.
Hello all. I thought I'd chime in on my method of workflow.
Day of event:
Sync camera times.
Shoot event; delete trash photos on the fly when possible.
At event upload into Aperture on Macbook Pro and on to two Western Digital 1TB portable hard drives. (3 copies of raw images at this point.) If possible upload every 75-100 images.
Delete card. (Usually I won't unless absolutely necessary. I do not count this as a copy of the images.)
Home process:
Export from Aperture the event on to two more Western Digital 2TB hard drives. (5 copies of raw images now.)
Edit in Aperture basic tweaks.
Export onto the last two 2TB drives and delete the raw images on one drive only. That way only the keepers are one of drives and then the second drive has both raw and keepers.
Edit in Photoshop CS4.
Again refresh the two 2TB drives.
Burn 4 separate DVDs. Here are where they go. 1-On site copy. 2-Client copy. 3-Off site copy (safe deposit box at bank) 4-On site safe.
Upload keeper images onto Windows Skydrive (free). 1 account is always for my business. Then make an account with password to give client for immediate viewing and download once payment is delivered.
Delete raw images from the first two 1TB portable drives and delete CF cards if not already done.
Delete project from Macbook Pro.
I forgot to mention a few things:
I shoot everything in RAW format and all settings (WB, ISO, Shutter, etc.) is done Manual. (I shoot with a D3 primarily.)
When I said raw, I meant "raw as in unedited straight out of the camera" images.
Sorry if I caused any confusion.
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