[dj_saunter]

I've been kind of blindly fixing my photo's in RAW mode without having done too much online research on the subject.

I was hoping some of you could tell me about what your basic workflow is when processing your pictures (photoshop/lightroom/gimp/whatever).

[JohnBee]

Depending on what you are asking, this could be a very long answer

But typically, I start in ACR(Adobe Camera RAW v6.x) and make all of my WB, highlight/shadow, lens(CA/PF) adjustements there and carry the remainder of the file over to Photoshop afterward for final processing. However depending on what type of file I'm working with(High/Low ISO etc), this will change how I handle RAW sharpening and noise reduction settings. Though in most cases, I choose to avoid those altogether in favor of more advanced Photoshop tools.

Following this, I usually start all processing with noise reduction followed by major touchups(first and foremost). This will help establish a good working grain and eliminate any obvious sensor dust spots and/or blemishes also.

Once I have a clean, noise free image to work from, I then proceed to do all of my editing and adjustements. After which I will save a composite and duplicate a flattened file for final rendering. The last part of the process will be the deblurring and sharpening process and finally resizing for print or screen depending on the output.

Which pretty much sums-up an a-typical RAW workflow on my end.
Granted... I left out a ton of possibilities(color correction, duplicate RAW entries, texture rebuilding, highlight and blowout management etc. etc. and of course print and press exceptions. There just are too many possibilities to cover in one useful comment tbh.

[Ash]

This is a personal choice and each person might process their RAW images differently.
Though there's not much more else to it from what John said.

Agjust exposure settings and consider colour replacing and sharpening if you're keen.
Save as high quality JPEG then move onto next stage. PP work then takes over to add colour, selective dodging and burning, and sharpening.

[newmikey]

I've been kind of blindly fixing my photo's in RAW mode without having done too much online research on the subject.

I was hoping some of you could tell me about what your basic workflow is when processing your pictures (photoshop/lightroom/gimp/whatever).

I basically use batch processing (UFRaw and ImageMagick) with parameters set on the basis of the EXIF information.

For lower ISO's no NR is applied while as the ISO goes above 400, NR gets increasingly aggressive.

Lower ISO's have a reasonable amount of unsharp masking applied, where as ISO's go up, the amount of USM goes down and the threshold goes up.

For the lower ISO's I will use the AHD debayering routine where from ISO400 and up I'll use VNG to limit noise artefacts.

Eventually these variables are fed into a commandline with ufraw-batch, the output of which is fed into ImageMagick to come out as a JPEG at the other end. RAW conversion is done using a colour profile I made from a colorchecker card with destination colorspace ProPhoto. All USM is done in ProPhoto colorspace and just before the JPEG conversion, the file is converted to sRGB.

PS [EDIT]: all of this in 16-bit PNG format until the very last moment when the final JPEG is created.

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Last edited by newmikey; 09-23-2010 at 05:10 AM.

[Marc Sabatella]

On many shots, my workflow is to just accept a default conversion.

On others, it is to copy the settings I used on a similar shot that I thought needed custom processing.

On the shots that I think need custom processing, I'll often start by loading one of my presets. I have one for low light, for example, that sets WB to tungsten and sets a "reasonable" level of NR. Sometimes I find that's close enough that I don't bother doing more.

For shots where I do wish to do more, I generally first get color - fine tuning WB mostly, sometimes playing with vibrance or some of the other color controls. Then I go for exposure, including any adjustments to curves, local contrast enhancement, etc. Then I'll see if I need to play with sharpening or NR any - although mostly I just load one of my handful of presets for those. Finally, I do any cropping, rotating, or perspective adjustment I need, unless I get impatient and do that first, which isn't that uncommon.

[Michaelina2]

1. Get a copy of...

Amazon.com: Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Voices That Matter) (9780321670090): David duChemin: Gateway

2. ... followed by a trial version of LR3.

3. Work though the author's LR exercises and you will be grounded in the fundamentals when you finish.

4. If you like LR, buy it, or get something else. The author's pp principles and approach apply to all images. You just go about getting results in a slightly different way with other pp packages.

... my 2 cents..

[gooberlx]

Currently, I'm using the following:

Import and Organization: Windows Live Photo Gallery (latest beta)
RAW processing: Raw Therapee v3 alpha
Post-processing: Gimp...though I try not to do any manipulation if I can avoid it.

My RAWs are organized by RAW/yyyy/yyyy-mm-dd/*.dng and the jpegs are organized by category (Holidays, Vacation, Art, etc...). Also, tagging (including face and geo) inside WLPG works really well for additional organization and easy searching

After using the LR3 beta, I desperately want to switch to using that, but I just can't afford it right now.

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Last edited by gooberlx; 09-27-2010 at 02:41 PM.

[cabstar]

Lightroom 3.2

Import images into lightroom, copy to hard drive, add metadata etc on import.

Pick out the images I want to keep & delete the rest

I usually shoot live music events so first image I use to correct colour balance then sync that with all other images

Then each image individually

Crop, rotate, spot correct
Adjust exposure
Adjust fill light
adjust Adjust recovery
Adjust blacks
Select lens profile
Adjust noise reduction, luminence, detail & contrast
Sharpen adjust amount & radius
Adjust clarity, vibrancy, saturation
Finally export
If I need to do any dodge & burn then open up in photoshop for final edit
FTP up to my agency's server using filezilla
Hopefully watch them appear in the next days press (fingers crossed etc...)
Back up images to my spare drive
Delete images from memory card

[rm2]

I prefer to work in digiKam. You can read about my basic steps here:

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

Something that I recommend is to keep your RAW images on a different directory tree from your JPEGs. That way you can use 7squeze to compress the RAW files and save tons of space. You can read about it here:

PCLinuxOS Magazine - HTML

7Squeze started as a Windows program which you can still get here (but probably not for long):

http://sites.google.com/site/rmcorrespond/7Squeeze_1_0b1_exe.zip

PS:
By the way, in all the years this tool has been in existence, I have never had a single blip of feedback. I don't know if it is because nobody has dared to try it, or because they just think it is awful and don't want to make me feel bad. Any way, if someone is brave enough to try it, I would love to hear it (I think). Thanks.

[AVANT]

For Casual Shots, I'll be honest, I shoot JPEG. Press RAW+ on demand for shots I want to pay attention to. Saves a LOT of time for me (and time is valuable). I do shoot JPEG + RAW or just RAW for my serious gigs.

Once I get my RAWs, this is what I do.

- Upload to computer
- Open Adobe Bridge and have it preview all RAW files with autofix applied.
- Preview photos, find your keepers and possible keepers.
- Now that you have your keepers and maybes, adjust things that can be applied to groups of photos (temperature, contrast, brightness, etc)
- After colors are adjusted, review these keepers and maybes again, determine which ones are the keepers that deserve attention.

Now the batch work is complete, now on to opening single pictures and edit in this order:
- Determine the style you wish to present the photo
- Duplicate the image to another layer (point is to always have the original to revert back to if needed).
- Adjust composition (be sure to use adjustment layers so you don't alter the original)
- Adjust detail altering items (noise reduction, heal blemishes, remove glare, etc.) Sharpen images LAST. Sharpening too early makes correcting more difficult and more obvious in the end product.
- Apply effect filters if you wish to do so (blurs, etc).
- Save as PSD (if you're in photoshop like me.)

Now that you have all your photos from the session completed, it's time to save, export and back up.

I don't believe the non-keepers are worth keeping and delete them, but if you're a photo pack rat, export those non-keepers and maybe RAWs into JPEG. Why? Because they take up less room, and is now in a compatible format for anyone to see. Yes you sacrifice the extra 10% of adjustments in the future, but it really is a very small sacrifice for photos you don't plan to deal with again.

I upload all the JPEGs to my online photo site for archiving and sharing (can't do that with RAW). I do not keep the RAWs but I do keep my PSDs from the select photos, they will remain in my normal computer back up routine.

[Ron Kruger]

I shoot a lot, so I try to keep it simple and fast. I have my camera set the way I want the shot to look, and I almost always shoot 100 ISO, so results are fairly consistent and I simply convert the keeper RAW images to JPEG using the Pentax Browser. Original crops are done in the Browser as well.
For many years, I've used Photoshop for final touches, but a few months ago I switched everything over to ACDSee. Really seems compatable with Pentax, while I think most other PP softwares are designed for Canon and Nikon.
What I do to the JPEG differs with almost every shot, but generally I do as little as necessary. During my original edit in the Browser, I trash anything that doesn't hold up to 100 percent, so I never sharpen.
Generally, I do a lot more editing (trashing) than PP work.

[NaClH2O]

First of all I shoot in Raw (PEF because its quite a bit smaller) + jpeg

Go thru the jpegs to sort out the 'keepers'. Delete all the others (jpeg and PEF)

Check the jpegs to see if there are any that need no further processing

All others covert to PEF to DNG using the Adobe converter (free from adobe site)

Copy and save folder to an external HD reserved for backup.

Open each DNG I want to "enhance" (read fiddle with) in Adobe Camera Raw.

Adjust WB if needed (usually not) Exposure, and the other sliders.

Usually then open in PSE 7 and crop, fiddle with light levels, etc. final two steps would be unsharp mask if needed and noise ninja, also if needed. Save as highest level jpeg.

NaCl(seems like a lot of work but it goes quite quickly)H2O

[mmickey]

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

[brofkand]

Not sure if you use a PC or Mac, but here's my workflow from beginning to end:

I shoot JPEG High unless I need more information in the shot to start off with (typically, I'll shoot DNG + JPEG in that case so I always have a fall-back JPEG that was processed by the camera). Always shoot Adobe RGB; that's the color space my monitor is set to.

I import my photos into Aperture, allowing it to re-name the files and catalog them at will. It does a good job of organizing by event; I further catalog by rating, subject matter, assignment (if for school), etc.

Aperture has some "standard" adjustments; sharpening, WB, levels, etc. I typically only use those as needed. Typically, if the image is going straight to web I just have Aperture spit out an sRGB-formatted jpg that is 1024px on it's widest side, 72dpi.

If I need more editing than Aperture can give me, I'll tell it to open it in Photoshop. The nice thing about that is Aperture does the work of managing that file for me; if I convert to B&W in Photoshop, it is reflected in Aperture. But, Aperture keeeps my original JPEGs (or DNGs) always.

If I am printing the image, I'll open it in Photoshop and do my correction there, since I am much more familiar with the filters, masks, etc that Photoshop provides and how they work. I'm not sure if my settings in Photoshop for sharpening are the same as Aperture's, for example. When I'm done, I'll have Photoshop spit out an 11x14" JPEG at 300DPI in sRGB, depending on what the lab needs.

Used to use Bridge, but don't any more. I abhor Lightroom's discrete tools: View, Develop, Print, etc. I don't want to work modally like that.

[jeffkrol]

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

You might want to look at RawTherapee.. VERY interesting open source development.
RawMagicLite uses floating point math though it's a bit sloooow and I do not believe it's supported much anymore. And it is $35.....
Bibble5 is also interesting... though err.. expensive and it does not seem to have quite got the hang of SOME Pentax RAW yet (or I haven't got the hang of the program).
Rawshooter essentials was very good till it was absorbed by Adobe and basically squashed..... another reason I avoid "the big guys"
About us
Download RT v3.0 alpha 1
Bibble Labs - Professional Photo Workflow Software
Anyways to the OP, if time is not of the essence, find a RAW editor and then export to 16bit TIFF to a photo editor.
RAW edits for me are mostly white balance and maybe some changes to "highlights" and "shadows" w/ there tools.
Then export to 16bit for more editing..ie cropping, curve/tone tweaks up/down sampling.... then saving in Corel native and/or exporting to jpg when finalized...
oI, unsurprisingly because I love underdogs and dislike Adobe, prefer Corel products and "upgrade" my Corel Draw Suite to an older version when a newer is released.... saves a big chunk of change.
Mainly for the 16bit editing tools which are not always found in lesser programs.
I also can (and sometimes do) work in CMYK or Lab modes.
LAB (which actually has some benefits for me w/ select images, anyways I love choice)
Lab color space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Additionally, many of the “colors” within Lab space fall outside the gamut of human vision, and are therefore purely imaginary; these “colors” cannot be reproduced in the physical world. Though color management software, such as that built in to image editing applications, will pick the closest in-gamut approximation, changing lightness, colorfulness, and sometimes hue in the process, author Dan Margulis claims that this access to imaginary colors is useful, going between several steps in the manipulation of a picture.

This stuff is really more for "fun".... imaginary colors..


RAW editors are in a constant state of flux and more open to "rogue" programs that may favor fidelity over speed or just "because we can" philosophies.
Case in point RawTherapee is shooting to use multiple demosaic algorithms where a "commercial" package will usually stick w/ one based on a marketing choice....
It all sounds complicated but it's really simple in practice...sort of.
I'm sitting here w/ 4 RAW converters installed and a total capital outlay of about $70........
review here of bibble5...... which I wouldn't recommend for old "D" shooters...
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/digital-processing-software-printing/7306...ibble-5-a.html
Sorry more of a ramble then help but I think "finding your way" is part of the fun......