What's your digital photo workflow ?

[BytePhoto]

In an effort to help beginners to digital photography achieve the best results for their photos, it would be great to hear from the more experienced members their digital photo processing workflow.

Here's my general workflow, but it may differ from time to time depending on the photo.

My in-camera settings are set to "low contrast" and "low sharpening", thus allowing better control over the final photo.

I shoot in RAW format for most of the time, with one of the advantages of not worrying about the White Balance, as it can be adjusted to taste with Adobe Camera Raw (or similar software).

Then I export to Photoshop in 16 bit mode, maximum image quality, so as to allow finer adjustments.

Then, if needed, I remove any noise and I adjust the "Levels" and "Curves", and always in 16 bit mode.

Next I crop to a reasonable size for web display, 800x600 pixels (or 600x800). There is no need to upload to the web the largest size your camera can produce.

Sometimes after the crop some fine tuning is needed in regards to "Levels" or "Curves", so I use an "Adjustment layer" for this. In some software you may need to convert to 8 bit mode before adding an "Adjustment layer".

I then remove any unwanted dirt, dust etc., using the "Clone Stamp Tool".

The next thing I look at is the colour and contrast, if needed I increase the colour "Saturation" to taste and also the "Contrast", to help add some 'pop' to the image.

And finally some sharpening using "Unsharp Mask".

Voil’*‚„’‚‚* !! That's my way, but it may differ from others so let's hear your digital photo workflow. Hope this helps some....

[budguinn]

RVB...good idea.

I use, mainly, a Nikon 5700 5mp.

I usually always shoot in the Fine mode.....uses jpeg compression.

I leave all of the in-camera settings to normal...no sharpening or saturation.....I do all of this in Photoshop.

I have a small action that I next run......it consists of:
Neat Image
USM for depth.....
USM for sharpness
Hue/Saturation
Levels
Neat Image

The action allows me to use whichever of the above that I want....for instance, I rarely ever use the first Neat Image if it is shot at 100iso (which most of mine are)....but if shot at a higher ISO it is important to remove the noise and ca before the sharpening steps.

I then downsize for the web....I try for an image file size of less than 100kb....allows for easier download for the dialup users.

After downsizing I check the sharpness and sometimes readjust.

that's about it..........of course if there are shadows that need lightening or selective sharpening, then I'll use a few layers and masks to fix it.....

bud

[me_wrestler]

RVB,
I have pretty much the same workflow. The only thing I can add is the way that I edit my photos.
First I go through all the pics taken with any program that has thumbnails and I delete out of focus and mistake photos.
After this step, I burn the pics to a DVD or CD (these are burned in RAW format). I keep everything that is not an error.

Then I go through the pics looking the ones that I like the best. Sometimes this takes two or three passes. The best ones get individually processed and then burned to a seperate CD or DVD (these are normally burned in Tiff or PSD format). The rest get batch processed with an unsharp mask and a modified auto color and then I burn them too (In jpeg format).

This allows me to keep the "digital negatives" (RAW) and stil have access to the pics after they are completely processed.
Colin

[Gayle]

I thought the whole idea of posting was to give new digital photographers an idea of the workflow. For the really new to digital enthusiasts it would help to define some terms.

I just recently purchased a Kodak 6490 and am really enjoying it. I previously used (and still do) a HP 618. There is a world of difference between the HP (point and shoot), and the Kodak (pro-sumer) with all the various settings. I am still working with the settings and practicing daily with 100's of shots.

I under stand the white balance, which doesn't offer a lot of choice on either of my cameras but the 6490 does let me make some changes.

I am not sure what RAW format is so would appreciate it if someone could explain it to me.

I have various photo editing programs from the Adobe Photoshop 7, the Kodak provided software, the HP software, ACDSee for Windows, and Windows Photo Editor. I worry about conflicts between programs all the time.

I read the post and the work flow and some I just didn't understand.

Neat Image.......... Not sure what this means?
USM for depth..... Don't know what USM is?
USM for sharpness
Hue/Saturation
Levels
Neat Image

I love to take photos and would appreciate any and all help!

Gayle

[BytePhoto]

Hi Gayle,

Here's a quick reply to your questions

1. RAW format has no in-camera manipulation done to the file unlike JPG which is compressed.

2. Neat Image is a noise reduction application.
More details here

3. USM is actually 'UnSharp Mask' found under 'Sharpen' from the 'Filters' menu in Photoshop.
More details here

4. Hue/Saturation is found under the 'Image' menu >> 'Adjustments' >> 'Hue/Saturation'
More details here

5. Levels found under the same 'Image' menu as above.
More details here


Hope this helps.

[ImKayd1]

Gayle, not all cameras have the ability to shoot in 'raw' mode. My Olympus does my Panasonic doesn't. I don't know about your Kodak.

Two good sites for Sharpening information.

http://www.bythom.com/sharpening.htm

http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/11242.html

Hope this helps

Suzan

[ROstoski]

Greetings!

On my JPG work flow, I usually begin by running Curves (in PS) on the image at full resolution size. Many people use levels only because they are not familiar with how to use this tool. Curves is probably five times more powerful than levels. Not only will it correct your light levels, it will also correct your color "and" remove what I call a photo haze (usually visible only when you compare before and after). Also, if you accidently forget to change your white balance from the night before... curves will easily recorrect your colors back to normal.

To start with, make sure you are working at full resolution and you can see the whole image (i.e. 25-33% @ 6.3 mega-pixel). Second, make sure you can see your Info Palette (F8). Remember that black is 0,0,0, and white is 255,255,255. Bring up Curves (CTRL M) and click on the Black Eye Dropper (first eye dropper). Find the darkest part of your image that is closest to 0,0,0 and click once on it (watch your info palette as it will help you). You will usually notice that it will darken the image slightly. Then click on the third eye dropper on right (white) and find the most white area and click on it (again, watching your info palette to get the whitest area in the image). You should notice the image get brighter. If you can't find anything close to black or white, you can always grab the line in the middle of the box and pull it directly toward the upper left corner (just slightly), which will brighten your image (takes a few times to get used to).
Click OK.

Once I've run curves I will resize/crop my image, bump my Saturation and the last thing is to run unsharp Mask at a Radius of .04 and Threshold of 0.0. I shoot my pictures quite bland and don't let the camera process my images. I think PS does a much better job. I'm also working in an sRGB profile.

I have Neat Image but don't use it for every picture (you will loose sharpness if not careful). I will use it as needed which in my case will be when I'm shooting inflight shots and at an ISO of 400 primarily. I'm attaching a picture that I corrected with curves (shot in tungsten...Doh!). Hope this helps. Cheers, Rod