Editing Workflow - Pls ahare some tips

[Sean Harrison]

Having recently purchased PSE10 I was wondering if more experienced "editors" on this forum would be willing to share their workflow technique. More interested in the process followed than the actual "how to" for Portait, Landscape and Macro photgraphy (If at all they differ)

Thanx

Cheers

[Roberto]

Over 50 views and no replies is to be expected.

I would offer you my help unfortunately I only know the very basics... crop, brightness/contrast, levels, selective colour, sharpeness etc. Heck I don't even know what layers are, as far as I'm aware its what you find in cakes.

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

I think the problem is that the question is very vague...

My workflow for a Beauty shoot is:

Shoot, Download RAW, Backup RAW to Lacie. At home, I backup Lacie to Drobo, Import RAW to the CaptureOne v6 Pro. Check focus mask and delete that has focus elsewhere than the eyes. Make selections from the remaining shots, and convert to 16bit TIF. Pull to photoshop and edit. Batch Keyword in Bridge when all tiffs are done. Convert Batch to JPEG level 12 and upload to Photoshelter offsite storage and distribution. Distribute via server side FTP to agencies, wait for SMS from bank to inform me if sales were made

That's my process... not my editing technique... or did I misinterpret?

[Roberto]

Hetsekind, a member here on ODP was kind enough to offered a work flow to anyone interested some time ago. Perhaps drop him a PM.

[elsahoffmann]

I really dont think its rocket science - I am with your Sean.
basically shoot, download and backup
select images in you want to keep, do adjustments in RAW, export.
Images needing further work goes to photoshop
save and go make coffee.

everyone has a different way/place to back up. As long as you do it.
togs use different engines for RAW conversion - process remains the same.

[Patsy]

This is the beginners section. "Not rocket science" really isn't helpful. I also have PSE and was hoping for a little more info. I thought it was a great question....guess not.

[Roberto]

I think the OP was referring to Post Processing Workflow's as he was being specific regarding subjects unless of course some people download convert and file each category differently which I doubt.

I recall John Deakin starting a thread a while back asking members to share their PPW and I don't think the thread even went half a page and I have personally pm'd a few ODP members r.e. PPW and to date have received zero replies and cant even get a sooting location let alone a PPW out of them.

Personally, I shoot Jpeg and try and do the bare minimum to an image, 90% getting the photo right and the other 10% Photoshop which may include crop (1024L X 768H), Shadows/Highlights, Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Selective Colour, Sharpen, Neat Image (a noise reduction software) Clone tool, Healing brush, Lasso tool and utilize plugin's (Nik Software and Power Retouche) which I find have way better B&W converters for instance than Photoshop has. Just play around with the sliders and brush patterns and strengths and you will eventually find your own unique style.

I don't print so I have no clue what editing that requires.

My camera settings are basically out the box settings apart from User Style where I utilize a default user setting and bump up the sharpening, long exposure noise reduction is on and High ISO speed noise reduction is on including one or two other not so important settings.

You will find that entry level cameras/software offer certain functions to pro cameras/software so some information may not be able to help you.

Cheers.

[elsahoffmann]

This is the beginners section. "Not rocket science" really isn't helpful. I also have PSE and was hoping for a little more info. I thought it was a great question....guess not.

Perhaps you prefer the word "complicated" to "rocket science"

the question is not very specific. ask a specific question and one can answer it better. We cant guess what people need or want to know.

what EXACTLY do you need info on

[EttVenter]

Yeah, mine is somewhat similar. Capture one just isn't part of my workflow. That's a couple hundred dollars that I still need to spend.

Mine is something like this:

Shoot, get back home, import everything using Lightroom, converting to DNG in the process. If what I'm importing is work-related photography, I create a new LR catalogue for the job. If it's personal work, I import into my own personal catalogue and just make sure to keyword it well. Once that's done, my machine automatically copies all the new data to a second hard disk as a backup.

In LR, I do all my RAW processing, and most of the time, all my other processing happens right there. If something needs some work in photoshop, I just "Edit in Photoshop" from Lightroom, do my work in PS, save, and then it'll automatically update in Lightroom. Once I'm done, I export the images at 900px and host them on my site in a password protected gallery for my client to look at. I also export all the finished images at full res and those are automatically backup up to the cloud at midnight every night.

Yeah, that's it, more or less

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

This is the beginners section. "Not rocket science" really isn't helpful. I also have PSE and was hoping for a little more info. I thought it was a great question....guess not.

Patsy... how did you interpret the question? what was the answer you were looking for?

I am still not sure I actually answered the question the OP (Sean Harrison) asked...

[Leo Theron]

OK, let us look for a moment what is REALLY meant by WORKFLOW… (I see that there is a slight bit of confusion…)


===
Workflow: The process set up and followed - what do you do? - eg: Copy to PC, Backup, import, Keyword, Process, Output…

The most important part of workflow is to follow YOUR process EVERY time. You see, there is no place for a 'quickie' in here! Quickie - just process these files quickly to ….


===
Process the image - eg: Flag the images that you are going to process, then: Crop, WB, Exposure, WB (again?), Fill Light, Blacks, Brightness, Contrast, saturation, Burn and dodge, do sharpening (this is not clever me - that is just following LR develop module from top to bottom!) Images are now star graded and colour coded for specific uses.


At this point I use the EXPORT module (in which I have 30 pre-sets - prints, view files, BIG files, small files...) to give me the final products that I want.


For example (This is LR specific!!): I spent some time in Arniston. During the workshop I shot some locals - some more successfully than others - - but I decided to give each a print. All the shots of the locals were coded red, and using a preset - I wrote the files to a memory stick to a PRINT directory that already contains my name. Selecting the print preset wrote the 12 files to the 5x7 directory, with the right size, colour profile and sharpening.

[Patsy]

Patsy... how did you interpret the question? what was the answer you were looking for?

I am still not sure I actually answered the question the OP (Sean Harrison) asked...

Sean I suspect you did answer the other Sean's question. But what I would like to hear more about is specific editing technique rather than workflow. But that's not what he wanted or asked. I hope we/I didnt run him off.

For one sharpening, unmask sharp what this is and various other sharpening uses and applications.

[Patsy]

This is the beginners section. "Not rocket science" really isn't helpful. I also have PSE and was hoping for a little more info. I thought it was a great question....guess not.

Please someone save me from my mouth.

[EttVenter]

Please someone save me from my mouth.

I'm not sure what the problem is. That's a pretty valid statement. This IS the beginner forum. Some of us know all the ins and outs, and the beginners don't. So give them a break.

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

Sean I suspect you did answer the other Sean's question. But what I would like to hear more about is specific editing technique rather than workflow. But that's not what he wanted or asked. I hope we/I didnt run him off.

For one sharpening, unmask sharp what this is and various other sharpening uses and applications.

Ok, that one I will leave for the others. My workflow on an image differs greatly from subject to subject. If its a comercial beauty retouch it is a 1 to 4 hour run (colour match, clean skin, replace bad skin, match face to body, clean up eyes, clean up teeth, rebuild lips, give hair depth, etc, etc, etc)

[Leo Theron]

Back to the topic - and the unasked question of sharpening.

A tutorial in sharpening is a little much to answer in this thread, I think.

From the G ogle search I did two came up that might just do the trick:

- http://www.adobe.com/designcenter-ar...dvsharpen.html

and from the Thom Homself:

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


Sharpening is an action that nearly all images need - and in many cases it is overcooked with disasterous results. Also there is no single recipe - each image needs the more sugar or more yeast to get the bread just right.

[Patsy]

Thanks Leo, you're the best.

Lordy Sean I had no idea. if you're ever bored one day something that would be a lot of fun for the beginners would be a progressive series of shots (4-5) of a complicated beauty retouch with a little description of the edits as you go.

[Sean Harrison]

Thanks for the responses Sorry that the question was so vague... Must go with the fact that I'm new to this! Sean , your interpretation is correct, what I was looking for was the process flow used when doing post processing. My assumption was that there would a common process. I.E start in raw, modify WB etc etc etc and finish with sharpening.Thanks again for the input all....

[Sean Harrison]

OK, let us look for a moment what is REALLY meant by WORKFLOW… (I see that there is a slight bit of confusion…)


===
Workflow: The process set up and followed - what do you do? - eg: Copy to PC, Backup, import, Keyword, Process, Output…

The most important part of workflow is to follow YOUR process EVERY time. You see, there is no place for a 'quickie' in here! Quickie - just process these files quickly to ….


===
Process the image - eg: Flag the images that you are going to process, then: Crop, WB, Exposure, WB (again?), Fill Light, Blacks, Brightness, Contrast, saturation, Burn and dodge, do sharpening (this is not clever me - that is just following LR develop module from top to bottom!) Images are now star graded and colour coded for specific uses.


At this point I use the EXPORT module (in which I have 30 pre-sets - prints, view files, BIG files, small files...) to give me the final products that I want.


For example (This is LR specific!!): I spent some time in Arniston. During the workshop I shot some locals - some more successfully than others - - but I decided to give each a print. All the shots of the locals were coded red, and using a preset - I wrote the files to a memory stick to a PRINT directory that already contains my name. Selecting the print preset wrote the 12 files to the 5x7 directory, with the right size, colour profile and sharpening.

Thnks Leo... This is very helpful

[Sean Harrison]

Hetsekind, a member here on ODP was kind enough to offered a work flow to anyone interested some time ago. Perhaps drop him a PM.

Thanks Roberto... Will do