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What is the order of your workflow when using PM & PS?
David Boily, Photographer
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Montreal | QC | Canada | Posted: 3:13 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> I know I am behind the times, but I finally got around to downloading the demo of Photo Mechanic and definately see the potential for speeding up my workflow. Until now, I have been using a mish mash of ACDsee, PS and and Smart FTP.
My process was basically:
a) Copy straight from the cards the pics I liked to a folder using ACDSee.
b) Edit the pics (crop, levels, color, sharpen, then caption in PS) and save to another folder.
c) Transmit everything in that folder.
There is so much versatility built into PM, I have no idea where to start. What is your workflow using PM?
thanks,
Dave |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 3:39 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> Dowload images select images using Photo Mechanic tagging by color class, copy only those images to a new folder using Photo Mechanics copy files command.run noise ninja if needed, on only those selected images.Use photoshop if needed, for cropping levels, etc.. Write captions using photo mechanic, Transmit. Archive later after I get back.
Glad you started this post I am sure to learn other workflows that may speed mine up as well. |
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Vasha Hunt, Photographer
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Opelika | AL | USA | Posted: 4:26 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> Here is my workflow:
I set up caption info in the IPTC Stationery Pad (command-i or, on PC, Control-i) and fill in the caption info with a partial caption (later I'll only need to enter names to finish the caption info).
I also use other parts of the IPTC Pad to add my name, newspaper name, Keywords, and other variables to put exposure info and time/date info into other fields for later searches or information needs.
I use Photo Mechanic to ingest all my images from the CF Card, applying the IPTC Stationery to all the images and renaming each image with the eventual filename I'll use combined with a sequence variable (starting at 0001 for the event) and then the framenumber variable.
The Sequence variable keeps the frames in proper order outside of photomechanic, like when looking at the files in a folder etc., even if you used multiple cameras or went from frame 9999 to 0001 in the middle of a shoot. It looks like this: “20050216-AU BKCvh {seqn} {fnum}” (without the Parenthesis) in the ingest box under "Rename Ingested Photos As:."
As the ingest process begins photos show up in the PM Window, and you can start to browse for your best pix. I have PM preset to display three across and two down (by selecting in preferences: contact sheet the "Default thumbnail size" at one click right of the middle, which sets me up to see three across on my 17" laptop screen). This configuration lets me see enough detail to tag or not tag shots I like.
When I'm done tagging pix and the ingest is complete, I click the "Filter View By" button at top center of the window that is usually set to "All" and click on "Tagged" – This gives me a view of just the tagged photos - and I do a second edit of only the tagged pix.
Beneath each file name is a long thin bar that can be clicked on and color-coded. In preferences you can change the names and colors - I have my first four levels called Pick One through Pick Four with distinctive Color Codes.
From the tagged view I'll pick the better pix and code them with Pick One (Set to blue on my computer). Then in the "Filter View By" button at top center I can pick the View "Pick One" and will see only the images I designated “Pick One-Blue.” If necessary (football, basketball, etc.) I might go into another level of editing or two to get to my best photos.
At this point I highlight the images I want to submit to the paper and Command-E (or on PC Control-E) and the files are sent to Photoshop. I prep them in Photoshop and put names into File Info, then save them back to the same folder.
I change the view to "all" and highlight the Photoshopped files. (A nice trick at this point is to change the "Set Sort BY" button at top-middle-left from Capture Time to Filename - all your Photoshopped files will jump to the top or fall to the bootom, depending on how you renamed them, for easy location of the files) I hit command-U (Control-U on PC) and get a splash screen for FTP, hit Send and they are FTPed to our site.
Later I can go back and view a "Pick One-Blue" view or "Tagged" view for some of my best unused pix when searching for art for another story.
Hope this all helps.
Vasha |
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Jake Schoellkopf, Photographer
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Albuquerque | NM | USA | Posted: 4:28 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> I create an event folder and write a generic cutline (who what where...) in PM's IPTC ("Apple" + I key) and save the generic cutline to the event folder. Do all this before the event.
Open card in PM (can be done automatically when card mounts on desktop if PM is already launched).
Loose edit, copy generic cutline to loose edit and copy loose edit to event folder.
Open that folder in PM and do final edit.
Open final edit photos in PS, crop and tone then save cropped and toned photos to desktop.
Drag one of the cropped and toned photos to PM icon and all cropped and toned photos open in a new contact sheet labled Desktop (on Mac OS X at least).
Caption each photo, select all in contact sheet, "Apple" + U key to launch PM's FTP client, select to whom photos will be FTP'd and click send button.
Archhive later. |
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Oscar Sosa, Photographer
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Jacksonville | FL | USA | Posted: 5:44 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> 1. I inset the Cf card into my reader amd PM opens the Contact Sheet.
2. I do a quick edit of the best 5-6 images
3. I open the first image in PM then click the "Edit" button on the menu and it opens in Photoshop for editing.
4. I color correct, size, sharpen caption and save into a folder on the desktop.
5. I go back to PM and either email or FTP the photo.
6. I repeat the above steps until my edit is sent.
The first image in my Photomechanic/Photoshop workflow takes me about 7 minutes from inserting the card to beginning of transmitting. Each photo after that takes about 4 minutes each because I can just pull up and refine the caption data with the File Info pull-down menus. It might actually be faster, but I've never timed myself. My priority is to get the best image from my edit out as fast as possible.
PM 4.3 allows me to work on my photos while I transmit. It's great for deadlines.
When I'm not on a tight deadline I do almost exactly what Jake Schoellkopf describes in the previous post, except I don't write my IPTC info until after the shoot as I generally don't know what I'm shooting until I get to the shoot. The workflow he describes works very well when you have multiple CF cards so you can put all your images into one folder. It also makes the whole process faster, but my priority when i'm on deadline is to get my best one or two pictures out fast.
I generally rely on Photoshop for all captioning during my edit/transmit because each of my images require specific caption data (usually different names, that kinda thing).
After I transmit I make a generic caption in PM, select all the images from the shoot and archive them into the new folder with captions, keywords, etc. My folders have the edited images in the root folder and a sub-folder titled "files" or something like that for the unedited shots. I like to use the Copy command with the delete after copying box checked, but that's just me. The Ingest command works well, too.
When I used the Photoshop browser to edit and transmit it took more than twice as long to get done.
oscar |
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George Bridges, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Washington | DC | USA | Posted: 6:16 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> Unless you are on a very tight deadline, I think it's worth copying everything from the CF card to your computer using PM to change the file name and add generic caption and IPTC data at the same time.
This way if there is a crash you have the images in two places, your assignment is safe. Also, working off the card is not a good idea. Folks who study this a lot will say that the card directory can get corrupted from this and you lose your data or have to go through a lengthy image recovery process.
With PM's tagging and color tagging system you can go through and make a quick edit tagging photos you like. Then view only those tagged photos. Then go through those and make another edit marking with another color. Then view that color class and there you have your final edit to open in Photoshop, caption and send. You don't have to copy from one folder to another anymore to get your edits out. You keep working in one folder so if you need to go back and look at another image to get a player's number or such all you have to do is select view all, get your info and then go back to the view of your color class to see your edits. |
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Gavin Werbeloff, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Decatur | GA | USA | Posted: 7:01 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> 1. Preset Event Caption info in PM
2. Ingest card and apply caption info.
3. Tag Selects.
4. Edit Selects in PS.
5. Save Edits in edits folder within original download folder.
6. When 4 Gigs of shots have accumulated, Archive on DVD. |
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Nik Habicht, Photographer
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Trenton | NJ | USA | Posted: 10:20 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> Open PM --- which by default opens the ingest disks menu. Select the disks. Type in the name for the destination folder which is always our assignment number followed by a short slug. Copy this complete field. Open the IPTC Stationery pad. Paste the saved slug in the Object Field. Change the City and State and keyword fields as necessary using the dropdown menus. (Also add new cities, states, or keywords as necessary.) Click on the today's date button.
Pre-write the generic part of my caption. (Example: Nottingham's Hightstown's during the quarter of their girls basketball game at Mercer County Community College in.....) Everything after the dots is abbreviations for cutting and pasting variables from the other IPTC Fields --- so PM can insert the city, state, Day of week, month, day, four digit year, and my credit line. Change the headline field.
Click o.k. and then click on ingest. Images copy to the folder and are sorted by time shot. Once they're all in, I eject the cards from their readers. Then, back in PM, I select all and rename them by pasting the assignment number and slug again, and resetting the counter to 001. I rotate any images thumbnails that were shot vertically and then preview the whole folder, tagging as I go. When I reach the end, I deselect all, select tagged only and preview. I add players names and other details to the captions of any image I want to transmit.
I then hit the letter E to send the image to Photoshop for cropping, exposure and tone adjustment, noise reduction and sharpening, before saving the image to the TRANSMIT folder. A copy is saved to the job folder as well with the letters ED added to the filename. Back in PM I open a contact sheet for the TRANSMIT folder, click on the image and hit the letter U to bring up the FTP window. I select the destination from the dropdown menu and hit enter.
I then flip back to the job's contact sheet and work on the next photo. Captioning varies a little for news jobs --- for instance when I shoot a press conference or a candidates forum with multiple images of multiple speakers, I'll write the generic caption at ingest, but then select all photos of person X and apply a more specific caption to those images, rather than captioning each individual photo. If deadlines are really tight, and the image techs at the paper have time, I might skip the photoshop work on a portion or all of my images and just transmit from PM --- letting them deal with the unworked files......
Crucially important jobs get ingested to a second hard disk immediately. Cards aren't erased until I've confirmed that the images are safely on the paper's server or in the client's hands or also backed up to optical disk. During cleanup my TRANSMIT folder gets emptied into TRANSMITTED, which in turn gets backed up to an external drive along with the My Documents folder. |
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David Boily, Photographer
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Montreal | QC | Canada | Posted: 10:48 PM on 02.19.05 |
->> Thanks everyone so far for your input. I am sure it comes after MUCH trial and error and I appreciate you sharing it with us. I already have a good idea how I want to use PM.
Keep'em coming... |
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David Boily, Photographer
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Montreal | QC | Canada | Posted: 7:55 AM on 02.21.05 |
->> I used PM for my first assignment yesterday. After I was done, I was left wondering "did I forget something?", "that was a little too fast?". It was the first time I rename my files as I copy them to my hard drive and it is great. I'm sure it will help me find files in the future.
Thanks for the tips. |
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Craig Peterson, Photographer
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St. Petersburg | FL | US | Posted: 8:56 AM on 02.21.05 |
->> Does anyone use Foto Station? All this talk about PM is making me feel like I got the wrong software....
I like to use windows XP to do my editing. I download my images off the card to a folder then I just use windows to delete the images I don't like and rotate all the vertical shots. I then open said folder in Foto Station and caption, then transmit via FTP.
I've never timed myself, but when Oscar said it takes him 7 minutes from the time he inserts the card, that blew me away....It probably takes me that long just to download the images, and captioning seems to take forever....I must be doing something wrong! |
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Conor O'Healy, Photographer
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Hubbard | OR | USA | Posted: 6:45 PM on 02.21.05 |
->> My workflow is a basterdization of different workflows that I was taught by different photographers.
1. Download card, name that folder with the assingment slug.
2. Create 2 folders, "Raw" and "rough" (as in rough edits).
3. Drag raw folder to PM, and browse through, picking the best shots.
4. Copy my rough edits to "Rough" folder.
5. Open "Rough" folder in Nikon Capture if I am shooting raw.
6. ate 2 folders, one RAW and one Rough (as in Rough Edits)Convert images to jpeg, and import to photoshop.
7. After saving, I review all images in the "rough" folder back in PM, deleting images that don't make it.
8. Rename all images in "Rough" folder.
9. Send images by either email or FTP, depending on client.
That is my standard workflow, but it can vary widely, depending on the assingment.
Conor |
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