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Photography: Workflow Options

July 14, 2010

With the advent of digital photography we have gained enormous freedoms and abilities to do things that anyone familiar with film and chemical darkrooms would have found almost impossible to imagine even after a long night in the pub.

I guess that there will be a good many reading this for whom film is something that they have never experienced. Those readers will never have had to think in advance what type of film would best suit the job or what ASA or ISO it should be and why. For them, the old thrill of dropping off your work and awaiting the results for a week, then poring over them eagerly will be perhaps unimaginable.

So many things will slip by the wayside now: an old trick of mine, for example, when shooting a lot of film was to tear the first half inch or so of the film leader off, instantly identifying which rolls had been used and which had not to avoid mixups. I guess such tricks will fade into history now.

Now, however we are faced with the dilemma of what to do with all these images we shoot. We arrive home and load them up into the computer. First choice: what sort of computer? Well, for me a Mac is the only choice. Once you have used one, you will realise just how much better than Windows-based machines they really are.

OK, got the computer. Now what software should you use? Well, Apple people have the excellent Aperture and that is my preference. Adobe’s Lightroom works on either platform and is very similar. Both allow you to build libraries of your images and to carry out 90% of the adjustments you will usually want to make to exposure, sharpening, image repair and so on.

Both programs also open and display RAW files for most cameras. This removes a separate step which used to be common when using this type of file. Your end use will determine whether you shoot RAW or JPEG: I recommend RAW personally. Mac’s operating system OSX will open RAW files by itself, unlike most versions of Windows.

Then you need some form of protected storage to ensure that your valuable work and irreplaceable memories do not vanish when your computer hard drive dies. For this, one of the most useful options I have found is Drobo. This plug and play system takes normal HDD’s of pretty much any size and completely automates the process of protecting your data. The basic unit takes up to 4 HDD drives of any capacity and there are options that take many more for those who need that level of storage.

Many photographers are members of the Photoshop Appreciation Society. I am not. I am a professional photographer who does not even own a copy of Photoshop. There. I said it. My reasoning is simple: I find it very counter-intuitive to use, with possibly the worst User Interface of any software written in the last 10 years. Compare PS to any software written by, say, Apple and you will immediately see what I mean. PS is also far too complex for 90% of photographic requirements.

So, I use Nik Software plugins for Aperture. This is a suite of outstanding software add ons that work far more intuitively to anyone who is a photographer first and a digital imaging technician second. They give results as good as – or better than – PS in less time and with less frustration. Occasionally, of course, my clients needs dictate that something be moved, added or whatever and PS is needed. In these cases I outsource that to a PS specialist because I would rather spend my time making images and working on my business.

So our workflow is shoot, download into new projects in Aperture, back up the images to 3 internal drives in a Mac Pro workstation and to the Drobo external drive, keyword and rate images in Aperture, process the resulting selects in Aperture (and with Nik plug-ins) and then export to disk/client/printer/web.

Keep your workflow simple, look for software and hardware that fits the way you choose to work – don’t change your habits to fit the software/hardware engineer’s plan! Also, never be afraid to be different and run against the herd in your choices: creativity is as individual as you are and so is the process you employ to create!

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Written by Marc Adams · Filed Under Digital Photography 

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