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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Learning & Using Photo Mechanic
Martin McNeil, Photographer
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East Kilbride | Lanarkshire | United Kingdom | Posted: 6:06 AM on 03.19.10 |
->> Having just downloaded a demo version of Photo Mechanic, I'm looking for pointers on how to best learn and use the software.
Up until now I've been relying on using Getty Images GIFT software (based on BreezeBrowser) for assignments that they've given me; for everything else, I've been using a combination of Adobe Bridge to ingest / caption and SmartFTP to transmit.
So: I'm not coming from a totally novice background but any tips on how to get the most from PM would be appreciated. Thanks in advance! |
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Dennis Wierzbicki, Photographer
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Nigel Farrow, Photographer
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Suffolk | UK | United Kingdom | Posted: 8:51 AM on 03.19.10 |
->> For the moment I would suggest writing out the stages of your workflow and finding out how to do each in the manual. Reading the whole thing at this stage is probably to much. At least this way you can get up and running pretty much immediately tweaking your set up once you have used it a few times, by adding in caption snapshots and code replacement.
Also don't forget the forum. Possibly many of your questions have already been answered on there. If not post a question and often Kirk or one of the staff will give you an answer within an hour.
Don't forget to set up your default editing applications via Preferences => Launching => Assign Default Application =>Choose
You can also set up specific applications for each file type. The same dialog lets you set Photo Mechanic to launch when you connect a card reader.
The biggest problem I think I have had was to get IPTC data including labels to read in Bridge when editing RAW files. There is a lot of info on this in the forum and in the manual. In the end my own solution came when I decided to go back to the default settings as a starting point then found them to work. |
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Neil Turner, Photographer
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Bournemouth | UK | United Kingdom | Posted: 9:24 AM on 03.19.10 |
->> Zack Arias has posted a video of his PM workflow http://www.zarias.com/ and I described mine in 2009 here http://www.dg28.com/blog/technique/workflow09.htm
The bottom line is that it is a brilliant and fast tool that just keeps getting better. I didn't know that I needed code replacement until they added it and I never appreciated keyboard shortcuts until Photo Mechanic came into my world. The integration with other software is excellent and I find it hard to believe that anyone prefers to use any other application to ingest, edit, sort, caption, rename or even transmit their images. |
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Martin McNeil, Photographer
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East Kilbride | Lanarkshire | United Kingdom | Posted: 10:18 AM on 03.19.10 |
->> Neil,
The workflow you posted on you blog is almost the same that I've been doing using Adobe Bridge and Camera RAW; my reason for looking at Photo Mechanic is to see if it can speed up the process - especially as it has inbuilt FTP, thus lessening the need for me to switch between applications.
Nigel, Dennis: thanks for chipping in with those pointers too - most useful! |
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Neil Turner, Photographer
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Bournemouth | UK | United Kingdom | Posted: 5:35 AM on 03.20.10 |
->> The captioning, ingest and file naming using Photo Mechanic will be faster. Sorting, copying and deleting are also quicker. I promise you that PM will give you great service and that you will be singing it's praises very soon!
Neil |
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Robert Scheer, Photographer
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Indianapolis | IN | USA | Posted: 7:00 AM on 03.20.10 |
| ->> It's a great program. Agreed about the inbuilt FTP (Apple U for macs). The ability to rename, resize, and shoot photos directly into an ftp server is the best feature of many, IMO. |
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Ed Wolfstein, Photographer, Assistant
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Burlington | VT | USA | Posted: 8:31 AM on 03.20.10 |
->> There are just so many things that are efficient in PM workflow, it's hard to name them all, but for a start, the two I like the best (from a speed in captioning point of view) are: Code Replacement, and Snapshots. Master those, and you'll cut your workflow in half!
Cheers!
- Ed. |
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Martin McNeil, Photographer
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East Kilbride | Lanarkshire | United Kingdom | Posted: 6:37 PM on 03.20.10 |
->> Ed, I found the Code Replacement guide on here and wow - talk about increasing productivity!
Although I primarily shoot fight sports and thus don't have to keep track of a lot of action, I could easily set up code replacements for all the fighters on a given card AND also include shortcuts for specific moves... so I could have wwgsp for "welterweight Georges St Pierre", rnc for "rear naked choke and much, much more.
Robert, built-in FTP is what brought me to Photo Mechanic as the time spent flitting between Bridge and SmartFTP has, on occasion, caused me to either miss a folder or accidentally re-send one twice - not ideal.
Neil, at this point in time my workflow with PM is about on a par with the speed I can work with Bridge and SmartFTP; no doubt as I become more confident with it my speed will increase.
Thanks to everyone whose chipped in - your advice has been most useful! |
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John Korduner, Photographer
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Baton Rouge | LA | United States | Posted: 7:00 PM on 03.20.10 |
->> I haven't spent much time at the website, but I was never impressed by the user manual. I probably read it cover to cover 4 times, and still find myself wondering how to do things that I know are elementary. Nonetheless, to think that I purchased it in September and didn't start using it consistently until December makes me ill...as it's a huge time saver.
Does anyone know if there's anywhere to download code replacements for sports not offered by stonephoto?
I'm sort of surprised I haven't seen any threads about trading code replacement files....I'm quickly growing tired of copying baseball and softball rosters! |
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Martin McNeil, Photographer
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East Kilbride | Lanarkshire | United Kingdom | Posted: 9:22 PM on 03.20.10 |
->> John,
You could always start such a site - or perhaps suggest it to SportsShooter.com staff and/or the folk at Camera Bits? |
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Dennis Wierzbicki, Photographer
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Brad Barr, Photographer
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Port St. Lucie | FL | USA | Posted: 9:20 PM on 03.21.10 |
->> John you can make your own code replacement text file, and simply cut and paste the rosters off the teams website (providing they have one of course). Thats a time saver for non listed sports I found. just tab separate the numbers/player info.
bb |
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Svein Ove Ekornesvaag, Photographer
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Aalesund | Møre og Romsdal | Norway | Posted: 3:07 PM on 03.26.10 |
->> I downloaded a trial version to do some testing.
Does anyone know if there is a way to "sync" the rating in PM and Digital Photo Professional? DPP has 1 to 3 rating, PM has 1 to 5. But PM and DPP don't show each others ratings, so when I want to convert only my rated pictures from PM in DPP I can't find them using the rating system.
If I want to rate and caption my photos in Photo Mechanic and then select only one spesific rating in Digital Photo Professional I haven't found a way to do it.
One solution of course is to move the rated files to a new folder, but I like to work with all the files in one folder until I have converted the "final selection" to jpeg.
The manual says "One benefit of the Star Rating is that it can be read by other applications so a ‘rated’ folder of images can be viewed in other apps with the Star Ratings still intact." |
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Chuck Steenburgh, Photographer
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Lexington | VA | USA | Posted: 8:41 PM on 03.28.10 |
->> Svein,
The 5-star rating system is a standard (Windows, anyway); the 3-star is not.
Chuck |
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