[a a i b]

I only shoot RAW.

• Import card into Aperture.
• back up the library to a couple of vaults (and I don't usually erase my card until I've backed the library offsite)
• start my sort
• cull obvious mistakes (toggled "reject")
• fix white balance (more of a problem for Canon than Pentax)
• for some photos: make basic photo enhancements/crops to a sample photo and stamp them to others; others are fine, as is, for the rating phase
• rate photos, from one to five stars
• four stars or higher get collected in a smart album
• after rating the shoot, stack similar photos
• kept photos are then keyworded -- first pass places, next pass people, then other keyword categories if appropriate
• each night a back up routine dupes the library to another drive
• when I have a substantial influx of photos I take the drive to work and back it up there

Besides initial work in Aperture, I don't usually work on photos beyond that. They either got it, or they don't, really -- with a few exceptions.

I also have other smart albums that organize by aperture, focal length, camera body, etc.; and once and awhile it's good to see what apertures and focal lengths I'm gravitating to. At the same time I take a look at the five stars and make selects for the best of the year.

Finally, at holidays, the four star albums collections, keyworded, get worked into printed photo albums for gifts. Or project albums.

[sniper29a]

1. MOST IMPORTANT THING IS EXPOSE PROPERLY WITH BEST POSSIBLE SNR. WHAT IS NOT IN RAW FILE, NO MAGIC WILL CHANGE!!! WEIGHTENED TRIPOD, CLEAN SENSOR/LENSES!!!

2. scenario for web - shooting only necessary pictures. i really don't like sorting out heap of rubbish photos. usually, 1 pic is enough or some testing pictures in case of difficult chalenge/light. in case of high dynamic range 2-3 pictures per scene for digital blending in PS. web workflow doesn't matter much since there is no need of quality. so copy DNGs from memory card, open bridge, open ACR 5.7, do all necessary changes as exposure, WB, black/white point, clarity, maybe some saturation/vibrance. NR and sharpening no need since pictures are interpolated to 1024x768. click "DONE" in ACR. Once all files are done, TOOLS>SCRIPTS>Image Processor

3. scenario fine art - most important is point 1 to make sure highest quality has been achieved during crucial and most important stage of art of light. Maximum adjustments need to be made in ACR to ensure maximum quality (I assume all knows difference between analog and digital post-processing). In other words, do all tonal adjustments, WB, exposure, curves (I am still missing per channel tonal curve adjustments, even in LR3). NO SHARPENING IS DONE IN ACR since sharpening is last step after interpolation. I always shoot with lowest ISO possible to make sure I have got maximum dynamic range of sensor. In case of high ISO sport images, I use Topaz denoise plugin in PS (I wish that topaz denoise would be plugin right in RAW convertor. I believe there is topaz denoise plugin for LR3). I use ProPhoto RGB color gamut, 300dpi, 16b/ch + SMART OBJECTS. Once, image/images opened in PS, first step is denoise in case of high noise. In case of digital blending of more pitcures together. I use masking and so on. I also use nested SMART OBJECTS to make all easy. Once, all local changes are done such as local sharpening, levels and so on. I interpolate picture for final print size. Then there is first general sharpening with "High Pass" filter and set mode of soft light/overlay+fine tuning with opacity and so on. Once done, there is final fine sharpening of details with help of "Find Edge" filter and edge mask in luminance mode. Final sharpening is done by USM. Once done, there is final adjustments of saturation and brightness in case of sharpenning has blown out some highlights. Final step is adjustments for printer.

I forgot to mentioned a lens correction which is in experimental stage at the moment. I like DxO Optics Pro Lens correction/softness. Despite Optics Pro is brilliant RAW convertor. It is useless for any workflow due stability issues (at least on my pc, but many ppl complain about same problems from very beginning of this program). DxO Optics correction function is most likely best correcion SW in case you are lucky and your lens/camera is in database. Unfortunatelly, Pentax is not very popular, but my 16-45mm f4 lens is in database. Sigma lenses non existent for Pentax (in DxO database). LR3 has got Sigma lenses profiles.

[MetteHHH]

As far as I know Gimp is the most powerful free application for photo editing out there. The big drawback is, that it is working with just 8 bit data, which gives artifacts once one wants to do "stronger" tonal adjustments.
For that reason I wrote some plugins which work with 16 bit, so one can overcome this problem. If you're interested have a look MM Filters for GIMP - mm-log

greets mike

GIMP 2.8 is supposedly coming out in December this year, and it will be 16 bit! I am a GIMP user too, so Christmas is particularly exciting this year.

I found this workflow-thread very interesting. I often wonder what I am missing with the software that I never try out...

I like open source software, and I love working with GIMP, but for raw editing my choices have been mostly guided by chance.

I use FastStone to filter my shots and select the keepers, and then I have been editing exposure, WB and noise in UFRaw - mostly because it is a GIMP-plugin, and I was already a GIMP user when I began to shoot raw. Then for rotate / crop / cloning out dust, or any such further editing, I use GIMP.

But eventually, it occurred to me that it was kind of silly not to try out the Pentax software that came with the camera. So lately I tried doing my raw-edit steps here. And I have to say: Noise reduction is a LOT more impressive in the Pentax PhotoLab software than it is in UFRaw.

...and now I notice a lot of talk about Topaz DeNoise in here, and some impressive examples of what it does. So, I am considering if I should update my workflow again, and possibly buy commercial noise-removal software this time.

Is anyone here using Topaz DeNoise as stand-alone software, or it is mostly for Adobe users?

[rm2]

GIMP 2.8 is supposedly coming out in December this year, and it will be 16 bit! I am a GIMP user too, so Christmas is particularly exciting this year.

I found this workflow-thread very interesting. I often wonder what I am missing with the software that I never try out...

I like open source software, and I love working with GIMP, but for raw editing my choices have been mostly guided by chance.

I use FastStone to filter my shots and select the keepers, and then I have been editing exposure, WB and noise in UFRaw - mostly because it is a GIMP-plugin, and I was already a GIMP user when I began to shoot raw. Then for rotate / crop / cloning out dust, or any such further editing, I use GIMP.

But eventually, it occurred to me that it was kind of silly not to try out the Pentax software that came with the camera. So lately I tried doing my raw-edit steps here. And I have to say: Noise reduction is a LOT more impressive in the Pentax PhotoLab software than it is in UFRaw.

...and now I notice a lot of talk about Topaz DeNoise in here, and some impressive examples of what it does. So, I am considering if I should update my workflow again, and possibly buy commercial noise-removal software this time.

Is anyone here using Topaz DeNoise as stand-alone software, or it is mostly for Adobe users?

What I am not clear on from your post is if you are a Windows or a Linux user? If you use Linux, I would recommend that you first explore the many powerful alternatives you already have there. I am long time Linux user and I use the gimp very little. I just get better results with other tools.

[newmikey]

What I am not clear on from your post is if you are a Windows or a Linux user? If you use Linux, I would recommend that you first explore the many powerful alternatives you already have there. I am long time Linux user and I use the gimp very little. I just get better results with other tools.

Ditto here. GIMP is very useful but there are other tools that are fully 16-bits and are more powerful than GIMP.

I do use GIMP on occasion though, it still is a very capable piece of SW. Once 2.8 comes out I recon I'll be using it a lot more.

[MetteHHH]

No, I am afraid I am the sort of person who keeps talking about switching to Linux and just never get around to it...

Powerful software alternatives for photo editing sounds like the kind of thing that would make me let go of Windows, though. But it wouldn't be Topaz - their faq sais that it will not run in Linux.

Just saw from Martin Nordholt's blog that GIMP 2.8 development has been delayed. Oh well.

One good thing about keeping your raw files is that an improved future software workflow will improve your old photos too!

[sniper29a]

Problem with GIMP is very poor RAW workflow. There was thread about it as well. 64b version of GIMP is sporadic under windows and windux is no option for me due special SWs I use.

It depends on the purpose of SW. Photoshop Elemenets/GNU SW is sufficient for majority users. Most ppl take picture and put it on web. No need of any special SW packages for hunderts. Anything will do for WEB output, even for printing of family photos. Unless, someone has got expensive high quality printer and uses pro papers as well.

[eddie1960]

Currently my workflow is
Import with Lightroom adding basic metadata on import
Rate imported photos to smart collection
Post process all photos i marked for WB Color Noise etc (usually very basic, if I shot well then little post done)
Add keywords and Titles amend metadata if needed
Export to drive
Review again for any photos I want to take to b/w alternate images or alternate colour and either use lightroom or export to DXO for additional processing and save to an alternate folder
Back up all folders to an external drive and upload anything I'm going to put on Flickr
I used to spend a lot more time on post
now I'm focused on getting it right in camera and doing as little post as possible, I'd rather spend the time shooting or in the darkroom with negatives and wet prints

[sniper29a]

eddie1960: what version of DxO do you have? I tried latest version (6.2) due the one of the best optical correction function. Otherwise, DxO Optic Pro is pretty unstable program to work with. Do you have stability problems as well?

[eddie1960]

I haven't had any stability issues to speak of (at least nothing i would put down to me being stuck on the windows platform)
Since I got Aperture I primarily use the film pack from DXO and the lens correction occasionally
I try very hard to leave myself little to no post beyond raw conversion and some noise cleanup on high iso stuff (ie concert shots) and when lighting at shows is against me I tend to go to DXO film to at least make the noise pleasing using one of the b/w films in conjunction with a blue filter (to offset the red) usually
To be honest lately I've been shooting more film and need to work on a scanner workflow so i can post some of the stuff.

[sniper29a]

I haven't had any stability issues to speak of (at least nothing i would put down to me being stuck on the windows platform)
Since I got Aperture I primarily use the film pack from DXO and the lens correction occasionally
I try very hard to leave myself little to no post beyond raw conversion and some noise cleanup on high iso stuff (ie concert shots) and when lighting at shows is against me I tend to go to DXO film to at least make the noise pleasing using one of the b/w films in conjunction with a blue filter (to offset the red) usually
To be honest lately I've been shooting more film and need to work on a scanner workflow so i can post some of the stuff.

thx for info. if I use just optical correction functions of DxO I have no problems too. But once I start to do more adjustments, bang crash.

[max_power]

What I am not clear on from your post is if you are a Windows or a Linux user? If you use Linux, I would recommend that you first explore the many powerful alternatives you already have there. I am long time Linux user and I use the gimp very little. I just get better results with other tools.

What other linux tools are you using?

[rm2]

What other linux tools are you using?

I use primarily digiKam.

Open Source Photo Processing Comes of Age An alien’s viewpoint

I have been very happy with it. It has a great B&W conversion tool. It also has an excellent interface for exposure blending that produces very realistic results. This is a great way of extending the dynamic range of your pictures. Here is an example (three shots blended):




If I had not told you, you probably never would have guessed that this is not a one shot picture. But the conditions were such that no single picture could have captured that much detail.

Besides that, it has great Digital Asset Management features and is constantly being upgraded (as opposed to just being updated).

[max_power]

I just downloaded digiKam last night and was disappointed to see it does not like PEF files. I have been using a combo of rawtherapee and gimp but I wanted to try out some other solutions and see if there was anything I liked better.

[rm2]

digiKam does support PEF files. Maybe you have a newer camera that needs a more recent version of digiKam? On PCLinuxOS I am using digiKam 1.7, and it says that it supports all the new Pentax cameras, including the K-5. Some distros tend to fall behind in version numbers. What distro are you using?