Blessing of automation part one: overview
A few of you asked so decided to summarise again. Automated workflow for the photographer.
I work basically of five steps/level.
1. shooting.
this is the moment you have to decide if you shoot in RAWs or JPEGs or both. Shooting of course on clear, formatted cards. I shoot RAWs + JPEGs. Why both? Later 🙂
2. backup.
backup as you may know is crucial for me. It doesnot matter how great shots you have until they are safe. I have two stages of backup. First of all I backup all JPEGs. Why? It’s damn faster, consumes less space. If you have 20 minutes for backup – it’s better to have all in full hiresolution JPEGs then 1/10th of RAWs you did. So if you asked why I shoot both RAWs and JPEGs – this is the reason, straight from the camera body JPEGs are simply ready to backup. No need for processing them. AdobeRGB profile. It’s also linked with the thing… I donot post process too much. In the past I was shooting RAWs only and after backup on RAID drive I was making automated convert to JPEGs as test of RAWs integrity after copying from cards. Since last 3 years I have no problems with copying from my cards so… I dropped the automated conversion. This is the way to make it simple, safe and fast. Once you have RAWs on drive, you can convert them to full resolution JPEGs with Profoto profile.
how to backup and where to backup is whole story. One step to start is here. I will cover a few solutions to consider in next articles included automated backup and synchronizing folders and remote servers.
3. workflow.
although automation is a part of every step this one should be called ‘automated tasks’. Got images back’ed up? Client’s picking the the files in webstore system or sending you list of files or sending you zip archive with files. One click to have this as selection in Adobe Lightroom or other. Adding keywords, copyrights. Keeping all in order.
4. postprocess.
all the things we do with picture. high resolution, TIFF, 16bit, Prophoto or AdobeRGB as working profile. where automation can enter? all colour changes, levels, curves, batch modyfication we do and – when we will finish post process we can start automated tasks as resizing, applying colour profiles for specific print papers, web spaces etc.
5. final delivery.
print. publish. whatever. final resolution, profiles, sending via ftp or other services. can be fully automated. even preparing album digital files, making slideshow for web. depends on our invention and… the reality – if the application we use for specific services is scriptable.
Eager and ready to dig in more?
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