[LRflex] Re: Digital Workflow - How Do You Cope?

At 31/01/2009, you wrote:
In summer 2006 me and Spela traveled to Spain and Portugal and I took 10 rolls of film with me. With some palnning I was able to cover our three-week trip with 360 shots. When I got home I developed the slides and framed around 100 keepers. Shortly after I bought my first DSLR and thigs changed. Two and a half years later my computer HD is almost filled with pix of various quality and I get nervous every time I work on my photos with Gimp (the program has nothing to do with it :-))). It never happened in my wet darkroom, even if I spent the whole night in there. So tell me how do you cope with the digital workflow. Do you shoot jpg, RAW, do you shoot more now and have more keepers? Do you print your files or keep them on your HD?
P.S. A friend of mine who is an architect and also a photographer bought himself a DSLR with some tilt/shift lenses a year ago. For fun, he told me. He only takes 10-20 shots per assignment. "That`s two times more than with my Sinar" he replied seriously..."And it is enough"... 

Best regards,
Miha



Hi Miha!
My digital workflow is complicated (more steps than many make) but I find it fast and easy. 

1) shoot photos - 100% in RAW.
2) Use Adobe's DNG converter to upload photos from card reader to hard drive, doing the conversion from ORF to DNG files automagically. On my computer this takes about 5 minutes per 100 photos.
3) Use Stamp v2.8 to rename files from whatever the camera calls 'em to the format YR.MO.xxxx, where the Year and Month are taken from the EXIF data, and xxxx is the 4 digit serial number assigned by the camera, for that file. Doing this takes about 1 minute per 200 photos, but means that my files are now all in DNG format, and named in a way that the computer file them chronologically, automatically. Unless you shoot more than 9999 photos in a month, you will never suffer a duplicate file name... something which became a real problem when my R8 failed and Solms loaned me an R9. It duplicated filenames (folder and serial number) of the R8, leading to much confusion!
4) Review the shots using SILKYPIX, and delete the obvious failures. I then tweak those I wish to develop (crop, sharpness, exposure, contrast, etc.) and find I can do most in about 1/2 minute per developed shot. With a little extra time for the tricky ones, or those which I really feel are important, say about 100 shots/hour.
5) Because SILKYPIX takes considerable time to develop each one (but it does a lovely job) I set the files to develop for "Batch Development", rather than wait for each one, and then go watch TV, read, or have lunch, while the photos develop in "Batch Mode". (200 developed photos can take an hour!)
Afterwards, I back up to DVD-R discs, using DeepBurner ... making 3 copies. One for daily use, one for backup and one stored in the basement of a friends house (in case of theft or fire). The daily use ones, I store in 3 ring binders, using plastic CD holders that hold 4 per side/8 per sheet. I then use Faststone Image Viewer, to make "contact sheets", which hold 48 images per side and which I print on a laser printer that prints on both sides of the sheet. I can comfortably hod a years worth of photos in a single Duo-Tang folder with a clear plastic front. I find locating old images much faster and more comfortable when I can look through a "picture book" in my easy chair. Because the images are coded by year and month (remember STAMP?), it makes then finding the correct DVD a snap!
The amazing thing about this setup is that it is remarkably easy to use, gives very nice results, takes minimal computer time and, other than Silkypix ($150) it is entirely free software!
Like Doug, I tend to shoot more, with digital. This is quite desirable when shooting wildlife, kids or sports, for all three can lead to a lot of wasted shots. I also delete a lot ... though shots which are well exposed and sharp are kept, even if the composition is less than ideal. After all, many a good photo has come from old negatives not considered worth while, at the time. But I only actually develop the "cream".
I seldom leave my photos on the HD for long, without backing up to DVD.... after all, it is never a question of "will my hard drive fail?" Only a matter of "when". 

Hope this helps!

Cheers!


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David Young,
Logan Lake, CANADA

Limited Edition Prints at: www.furnfeather.net
Personal Web-site at: www.main.furnfeather.net



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