First digital camera?...congrats to you. You'll love it.
Just a few quick points. The learning curve is steep, not to
mention startup costs. I read one of your earlier posts about
shooting weddings. I should forwarn you that extensive practice is
an absolute necessity before you even attempt to shoot a wedding
with your first digital camera. I am assuming that you are already
experienced at shooting weddings with film cameras (or not? dunno).
My workflow is very simple. You will quickly find out that a
burdensome workflow can drown you in many hours behind the
computer. First and foremost, try to nail down the correct
exposure/white balance/lighting/composition, etc in-camera** for
most of your shots, so you don't have to spend excessive hours in
post processing afterwards. Producing near perfect images in-camera
requires extensive practice, but you are bound to get good at it
with time.
My simplied workflow is this: Nikon View 4 transfer to Cumulus 5.5
through Nikon D1x firewire connection. Rotate images as needed in
NV4 first, rename the file folder by adding the bride's first name
as the suffix after the default date/time stamp. Burn all original
(unedited) images onto CD-R discs for archive safekeeping and
secondary backup. NEVER erase images from your memory cards until
you are certain that your images are safely backed up onto CDs, and
have downloaded correctly to your computer hard drive !!
Edit out all bad shots (blinks, bad expressions, etc). Further edit
out all duplicate images and keep the 1 best image if there are
multiples of the same. Use Photoshop to downsize and resize all
images to 72dpi JPEGs for purpose of importing images onto
FlipAlbum program (FlipAlbum.com for free demo), which will create
a virtual wedding album that a client can preview for reprint
orders. FlipAlbum has encryption so clients cannot copy or print
images from the burned CD. (FlipAlbum is a much better client
presentation than a CD full of file folder names).
The prints that clients actually do order, I can then go ahead and
maybe make any minor adjustments in Photoshop (levels, composition,
etc) prior to burning a CD to send to a lab that offers Fuji
Frontier Printing onto Fuji Crystal Archival Paper with matte
surface finish (approx .49 cents or less for each 4x6" size print).
Note that I DON'T make any corrections prior to creating the
FlipAlbum CD, only afterwards if the clients actually order a
particular image--why bother correcting images that the clients may
never order, right?
I primarily shoot Fine Jpegs for all candid shots that require no
larger than 8x10/11x14 size (at reception, etc). I shoot TIFFs for
all formals and portrait setup shots (church/park, etc) that I
think may be enlarged to 16x20 or larger. I shoot a fair amount of
TIFF images, and hence I use 3 IBM 1GB cards for each wedding.
The fastest way to start a heated discussion on this forum is the
perennial debate as to whether to shoot RAW/NEF images, or not. I
generally stay away from RAW shooting because I can honestly tell
you that better than 80% of my images are pretty much near pefect
that don't require any post processing whatsoever. The primary
advantage of shooting RAW is that you have maximum flexability of
making changes to the images afterwards. But what if I don't need
any changes? I'd rather shoot in a universally accepted format such
as TIFF and JPEG so I can immediately burn images onto CD and make
prints right away, so I don't have to spend hours post processing
between 500-700 images from a wedding. Try making adjustments to
several hundred images, and you'll see what I mean.
However, that said though, when Nikon Capture 3 comes out, I am
tempted to get the program and actually shoot a few RAW frames now
and then just to play around with making adjustments. But I know
that I will never use this as part of my regular workflow, only for
making changes once in awhile.
Bottom line, Rick, you will of course develop your own workflow
style that suits your needs. Others here will give their
suggestions as well. You will need to experiment and find a method
that works for you.
PS: Do a search under my name in this forum, and you will find more
of my 2 cents worth of advice, assuming if anything I wrote is of
value.
Regards, and good luck...
Casey
This is my first digial camera and I am hoping to integrate it
quickly into by work, but I need more input as to software & work
flow. Can the two of you give any suggestions. I've got PS 6,
Nikon View 5 (we all will), and, ACDSee. What programs do you use?
Do you like Bibble or N Capture?
Thanks
Rick
