Workflow

[John Lindsay]

Hi All,

If you've seen my other thread, You'll notice that I'd been having some problems with Raw Conversion etc. Got them all sorted out now though.

Up untill now, I've never really done any really important photography, I shot a wedding last saturday and want to back up the Images, and get the best out of them, previously when I've been shooting with no real importance I just open them one by one, as and when I need them, make and save any changes. Now I have 900+ shots which need to go out to the client and be good quality.

OK, so my question is now, How do you manage your workflow?

Obviously the idea is to have lossless quality up untill you go to print. (Loxley prefer a 300ppi Jpeg).

Here is what I am going to do, you can pick holes in it, and tell me where you think I'm going wrong.


Download Raw Files from camera to desktop
Process in DPP, to change WB, Exposure etc.
Save out as 8-Bit Tiffs
Make any further changes to the Tiff files to avoid losing quality
Once I'm happy with them, batch process down to 300ppi Jpegs


The one thing I'm not sure about is, do I backup using the Original Raw, Processed Raw, or the Tiff. I would imagine using the processed raw would be the best bet, as the changes (I assume) will be locked in the file, so that If I ever need to go back to them again from my backup, I wont need to alter white balance or exposure, however, the reason for not backing up the Tiff is that I cannot if necessary change the exposure or WB again.

If that made any sense to anyone, I look forward to your replies and advice.


Cheers



John

 

[Craikeybaby]

I use Lightroom for my workflow, but with regards to backing up I always take a copy of the original raw files (so if the worst happens I always have the originals). Then process them, these are the files I work with and these are also backed up, the changes can be written to the XMP sidecar file (although I use dng as less space). Because in Lightroom you don't need to use a tiff I don't need them and I never save the resulting jpegs as they are easy to recreate.

 

[Chappers]

I would suggest that the RAW files are the best to back up. There is more data in a RAW file then in an 8 bit tiff.

I back up the original RAW file twice. Once to an external hard drive and then to DVD. May be a bit paranoid , but it's saved my bacon once or twice