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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Workflow for big assignments on deadline
Joshua Brown, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 1:08 AM on 09.06.04 |
->> I had my first experience as photo editor covering the BYU Notre Dame game. It was a learning experience for sure and I am evaluating how things went so it might go a little smoother next time. I am curious how you guys handle covering big assignments on deadline. There are some limitations that come with working at a small daily, but I am sure there are things that apply across the board.
So how do you handle the coverage at your publication?
I want to make sure I have things down before USC rolls into town. |
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Julian Jenkins, Photographer, Student/Intern
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Canyon Country | CA | USA | Posted: 3:59 AM on 09.06.04 |
| ->> joshua- do a story search for Reed Hoffmann of Blue Pixel. He is the BEST for digital workflow. |
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Stanley Leary, Photographer
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Roswell | GA | USA | Posted: 2:40 PM on 09.06.04 |
->> Joshua Brown
Workflow is even more important than when we shot film.
• Clean CCD (check to be sure it is clean, saves a lot of Photoshop time)
• Set date and time on all cameras to same known time
• White Balance (custom white balance or picking a standard)
• Lowest possible ISO for the situation (avoids noise problems)
• When shooting either delete or check the good photos, then you don’t have too many images to download
• Write a basic cutline which will be on every photo as well as setting all IPTC information so when ingesting images all this is attached to every photo. Makes writing cutlines easier.
• If shooting with two cameras sort or name photos using the date and time capture for sequencing. (easier to keep images in order)
• Occasionally shoot the scoreboard with clock after a good shot (you can match up with play by play sheet after game for a better written cutline)
• Rotate all images before writing cutlines.
• Quickly go through all images and delete any unacceptable.
• After writing a cutline for one image in series you can copy the entire IPTC in Photo Mechanic and then select a series of photos to paste it into. Thus you have now the same cutline for the series.
• If possible write a few cutlines in Microsoft Word and save the document. Use this document for copy and pasting to save on trying to be creative in the heat of the moment.
• Create a separate folder for transmitted photos and as you have one to send put a copy of it in the folder.
• When done with your images to be sent send the folder.
• Be sure every photo has some identification (doesn’t have to be complete sentences)
• Save all the images and drag them into database software which you have set up to read the IPTC fields. Now you can find all the images in the future by searching by the text. |
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Doug Pizac, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | USA | Posted: 5:57 PM on 09.06.04 |
| ->> What was your workflow procedure and where did you get bogged down? Did you edit onsite or back at the paper? |
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Joshua Brown, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 6:42 PM on 09.06.04 |
->> Here was the setup:
2 photographers (no laptops)
Mixture of D2h, D1h cameras
2 photo passes, supposedly not one for me
I was back in the Herald office (2 blocks from the stadium), we needed shots of the halftime celebration (1984 national championship team), we had a runner grab the cards right after that halftime show, I was in my car outside the stadium, got back to the photo dept halfway through the 3rd.
We are running on OS 9, USB card readers, original G4 towers. Long story short, I ended up using my personal powerbook and firewire reader. Photographers covered the last two quarters. We ended up running 9 photos. One on A-1, one or two on the front of sports, and a color photo page on the back of sports.
When I edited down to 20-30, I started toning and captioning them. Eventually dumped them in our server. Then we have to make physical print outs of each image on laserjets for the copy desk to take to prepress so they can find the image in the server.
On another note, I have been here for a week and a half so there is plenty of this that can be attributed to my inexperience.
I have submitted a list of equipment that would help speed things along. Laptops for the photographers to edit on would seem like the top priority. We also have no FTP server set up for them to transmit to. The noise on the D2H was pretty awful and I would like to switch to Mark II's, but that can't happen overnight, if ever.
Finally, there has to be a better system for dumping the images on the server and allowing the copy desk to see them and drop them in the place they need. We are migrating to OSX and InDesign in the next couple months, so I would like to have a new system set up for us at the same time. Is it possible to use Portfolio 7 server for this?
We would also like to get a web workflow together for getting more of the photos online, not neccessarily on the same time crunch.
So there ya have it. Any and all advice would be appreciated.
-On a final note, considering what we were working with, we ended up with some damn good photos which is what its all about anyway... |
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Jeff Stanton, Photographer
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Tucson | AZ | USA | Posted: 7:15 PM on 09.06.04 |
->> I do a couple of things that helps reduce my workload and speeds up my workflow. First, I use the Canon image browser available in versions CS and 7. Another big time saver is I prepare actions ahead of time in Photoshop. First, I set up an action for the file information. I input all the information for that particular job with the exception of description area of the file info. I leave it blank. I use a shortcut to get into the file information which is option/apple/i. Then all I have to do is input the description info for each image after I have performed the action which automates all the other information I have previously set up. This is a big time saver.
I also set up actions to change image sizes for transmission. I have an action for vertical and horizontal images. Once again, a big time saver. You can also set up an action for color correction, but that to me is a bit tricky since the color can shift in football stadiums, for example, that have dim spots in the end zones. Hope this helps. |
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Doug Pizac, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | USA | Posted: 7:57 PM on 09.06.04 |
->> Joshua...
The USC-BYU game is at 8p, so you'll be under even more pressure with the later start.
Ideally, you should get a third credential for you to edit. that way you can digest the takes quarter by quarter. The key, however, is getting the images back to the paper and having your desk deal with them. Not having a server to FTP them to is a problem though.
Can your desk deal with images that come into your system via AP's Photostream server?
I'm the AP staffer in Salt Lake. I'm booked Tuesday and Wednesday. How is your Thursday or Friday, 9th/10th? Maybe I can schedule a trip down your way and we can figure something out. |
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Stanley Leary, Photographer
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Roswell | GA | USA | Posted: 8:05 PM on 09.06.04 |
| ->> For very little money you can setup a ftp server through one of the many web providers. $5 to $10 a month and you can get a server with more than adequate room to transmit at the game with and for you to download from at the office. |
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Nick Doan, Photographer, Assistant
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Scottsdale | AZ | USA | Posted: 8:15 PM on 09.06.04 |
->> Joshua,
I like Doug's idea of you editting at the game. When I was working as a picture editor, I preferred to work on-site if at all possible.
See if you can get a press box/photo area credential for yourself and some desk space and a dedicated phone line. Another photo runner's credential for you to get cards every 20 minutes or so, and I think you'll be good to go.
The biggest limitation I found in getting photos was that of getting them from the camera into my computer. A runner and being on-site will alleviate that a great deal. |
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Joshua Brown, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 9:21 PM on 09.06.04 |
->> Yeah I am definitely going to try to get that third credential. Supposedly its really tight for these first two games (ND and USC)but I hope to work something out.
We do have a runner that is there on a writers credential.
The FTP server is coming, but I don't know when our IT guys will get to it.
Doug, thanks for the offer. If you can swing down sometime I am sure you could offer some great input. I will be in touch.
Thanks for ideas everyone. |
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Marc F. Henning, Photographer
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Bentonville | AR | USA | Posted: 9:33 PM on 09.06.04 |
->> deadline? what's a deadline? oh yeah, that's what we blew by over an hour on saturday night thanks to numerous transmission problems, on our end, at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. i was ready to chunk my old G3 laptop out of the press box four stories to the street below. due to the holiday today we still haven't had the expected sit down with our editor to splain things.
marc |
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Kevin Udahl, Photographer
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Calgary | AB | Canada | Posted: 11:58 PM on 09.06.04 |
->> Hi Joshua:
I am one of eight photographers at a daily newspaper and we just went digital over one year ago. I was, unwittingly, put in charge of developing a system for image transmission. All of our photographers have their own laptop, so I can't really speak authoritatively about your situation as an editor who is receiving CF cards from the shooters. All of our shooters do their own "first" edit. How they do this is completely up to them, but for the most part, all of the suggestions above are excellent. Anything you can do to give yourself more time to actually EDIT is a bonus. Using the actions pallette is a great way to automate and speed up your workflow (ie. image resizing, basic levels and curves adjustments etc.) provided that the lighting (and camera settings) characteristics are consistent throughout the game. Also, as someone already mentioned, have a standard caption pre-written to save yourself some valuable time. Cut and paste that caption, and then simply fill in the more specific details.
As far as the actual "system" of transmitting, I relied heavily on my systems/IT department to help me with the actual image transmission workflow. We developed a system (using FTP) whereby a copy of each image transmitted was sent to the library (for archiving), and another copy was sent to our SOLO browser (the server through which our editors can view AP, Reuters etc. as well as all of our staffers incoming images). The Systems/IT department made this happen for me, and I have to say I would have been completely lost if they couldn't have handled the technical aspects. Having this system also required us to develop a file-naming convention that was consistent accross the board. Most browser software like Photo Mechanic, Fotostation, and even Photoshop's browser have the ability to name the files in batches. If you are ingesting the entire disks onto your hard drive before you edit, I would suggest renaming the files at that point. I hope some of these comments were somewhat usefull to you. |
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Nate Parsons, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Arnold | MD | USA | Posted: 12:49 AM on 09.11.04 |
| ->> A method I learned from picture editors at the Dallas Morning News for editing several shooters at the same event is to use multiple firewire readers run through a firewire hub into a Mac. This way when you receive several cards from one shooter you can ingest all of them at the same time into one folder with ITPC info for basic captions. Sorting by file creation time and you have the entire take in one folder quickly. Saving each photographers stationary info ends credit errors with multiple shooters. For the DNC in Boston and RNC in New York we used photomechanic setup to ingest cards into two macs set up as FTP servers sitting on high speed lines on the convention floor to down load cards nearly as fast as the firewire dumps them to our editing macs in the digital darkroom on site. Between the four lines, eight firewire readers, two down loading/FTP macs, two editing macs and a runner we down loaded and edited 13 to 17 gigs a night from four shooters working the convention floor. Moving 40 to 60 images a night. The updated version of photomechanic with FTP built in is a huge time saver, as well as the crop and rotate functions to save files on the way to FTP. |
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