After numerous emails, I decided to write this small article to explain in detail the way I work.

The workflow is an important step not to be overlooked for a photographer. Indeed, it will often take more time behind the computer to the shooting. This is not necessarily specific to digital SLR users. Our dear photographers equipped with silver, had also long hours in their dark room, laboratory or in front of a screen to scan their works! So I hope we can discuss our practices in order to spend more time behind the small LCD screens of our boxes, rather than our very large computer screens

I will not discuss here, the subject of pre-production (preparation), because it is specific to each type of picture, and therefore very special to me. However, in a future post I will try to reveal my organization before my shoots.

At home, post-production begins on the way home from a shoot (or subway train). Even on the ground, especially for my wedding. I tend to be sorted directly on the screen of the box. I basically check the sharpness of my photos with full zoom in playback mode. This is generally not recommended, but we must admit that the LCD of the 5D Mark II is fairly accurate with its definition (with the 50D, 500D, 550D, 7D and 1DMK4). I would not recommend doing this type of selection on a screen with a resolution of less than 920 000 points. Indeed, below this limit, the precise details will not be as relevant. In this case, better to await loading on a computer. This step frees up some space on the memory card and saves a lot of time when importing and breeding on the computer. Caution, however, do not delete the photos too fast! For the impatient, wait to get home

Now about the post production.

Prerequisites:

• A powerful enough computer. For those with soon change their configuration, do not underestimate the power of the latter on the grounds that you do "than the picture." Photography application and require a lot of resources. Especially if you shoot in RAW with boxes of very high resolution (> 15MP). I personally am a strong supporter of Apple and I use the most powerful of the moment (May 2010), The Imac 27 "Icore seven (four cores) 2.8 GHz, 8GB RAM, 2TB hard drive. Performance is very good, similar to the Mac Pro 2.26 ghz quad core. Being a Mac user, I can therefore advise you that the following configurations to suit your photo equipment:
  • You shoot mostly in JPEG, and use LR or Aperture: Minimum requirement, Macbook Pro 15 "or iMac 20" with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, 2GB RAM
  • You shoot in RAW <to 15MP and use LR or Aperture: Minimum requirement, Macbook Pro 15 "or iMac 20" min with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz min, 4GB RAM
  • You shoot in RAW and 18 MP + and use LR or Aperture: Macbook pro 15 "or iMac 20" min with an Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz min, 4GB RAM. You understood it, your case will cost more expensive, your computer will be more expensive.
• A sensor calibration. If you are an amateur beginner, the probe is not necessarily the priority. At least, the importance of a probe is related to the quality of your screen. Screens low-end PC can be full of surprises. The contrasts and colors displayed may be further altered! Be careful, your workstation. Also note that a good probe to screen a first prize will not be very useful. Only screens medium / high end can fully exploit a calibration. Macs them, equivalent to high-end PC. Thus, the screen quality is much better (you also pay the price). On some of my Macs, I happened to see a significant difference between a base color profile, and a calibrated profile: My article on the Spyder 3 sensor . By cons, if you are an amateur expert, a semi-pro or pro, so this purchase would be very useful!
• A card reader. The reader is not necessarily essential in itself. However he will be greatly helpful if you have to unload several memory cards. Preferences, try to choose a fairly quick reader and memory cards also swift. Personally, I use the 300 and 400X (45 and 90MB / s). The speed of the card will also prevent failures due to high imports (8-16GB) and wait 2 minutes for the card simply appears. The 133X should be avoided.

A convenient drive from Lexar

• Save with external hard drives. Yes "of"! Indeed, your memories and your works are part of your heritage. So you must save them with a certain paranoia. Know that in large companies, the change of hard drive is done every three years to prevent any problems. That is why, in my organization, I have three external hard drives (see below). One for the contents of my computer (which my photos), one for my bank and Aperture, exclusively reserved for my master RAW and my Aperture library. Sure why, to work "referenced", rather than embedding pictures in your database!

The issue of backup media:

For those who shootent Jpeg, the DVD can be viewed as a backup medium. But I personally do not like them. I much prefer the hard drives. I shoot exclusively in RAW. As a result of the DVD is emblematic dismissed because of his "weak" backup capabilities. The hard drive, it is a bit more expensive, but it allows for daily backups and incremental (it replaces only the modified elements). All this without the delay and DVD burning that pile. Note however that the design life of hard drives (100 years). The latter, if they are not used once a year, are more likely to crash. Another problem is the risk of malfunction (Error reading / writing) than the DVD ... Despite these shortcomings, it remains the best compromise for serious photographers . You know those shootent in Raw?

See an article on the various media

Chronological order, I do this:

• Creating an album in Aperture eg "Année_mois_jour_Titre"

Organizing my files

• Import RAW files:
  • presets automatically applied to the RAW import: + 0.06 Contrast, Brightness +0.28, and +0.2 exposure. I very rarely apply the saturation tool. I much prefer the adjustment of brightness. It is more subtle and less destructive than the classical saturation.
  • In Aperture 2, I applied the same settings on all the pictures, just after the import. Function built directly into the import Aperture 3, is a real time saver!
  • Then I wait Aperture treats well all thumbnails (a bit long for 1000 photos).
  • The import is complete, I still did not erase the contents of memory cards, especially NOT! This is the first backup.

Import Wizard in Aperture 3

• Sorting and selecting photos, through the removal of blurry images, bad framing, etc..
• Journal of photos one by one, for more precise adjustment of white balance, exposure, contrast and brightness. If necessary I will also adjust the highlights and shadows (white sky, for example). Please do not abuse this tool!
• For minor alterations such as Dust Delete the sensor, cropping, adjustments, or peeling skin defects if I stay in aperture.

Note: I do not apply to sharpen filters because I hate the rendering given to export photos. From experience, it shows very quickly. For noise, same thing. I try to shoot as much as possible to heal my photos, so as not to apply filters to "rescue". More noise reduction is inevitably accompanied by a smoothing and loss of sharpness.

Exporting a JPG with the sharpness filter applied heavily to the right. The contours of the eye has a bad record.

• For major alterations (very rare in marriages) I use Photoshop, always in Aperture.
• For black and white, I use Silver Efex of Niksoftware directly under Aperture. This plug-in is really one of the best tools black and white market. A laboratory, which will give you an exceptional record, "almost silver" your Black and White!
• When all treatments are completed, I turn to the classification. Star ratings photos and allocation of keywords.
• Finally I export all the photos in full resolution and low resolution for delivery on DVD.
• I conceive my images exclusively in Aperture Books. tool design book , is a marvel, and you can have on hand all your photos, classified and recorded. Since the Version3, you can also create photo books out of Apple, such as luxurious Couture Book , or very (very) sélectes Queensberry .
• Slideshows often require an additional selection, and a crop in 16/9 for best viewing on TV screens. Since the slide show feature in Aperture 3, I see them within the software and iDVD to make through the menu and burn the DVD.
• I then exported all the wedding pictures on a web gallery created via the plugin to Photoshelter for Aperture (are the same for LR) or via software export MacOSX / Windows. Thanks to this gallery (protected by a password) Photoshelter, guests can download or purchase prints, share photos on Facebook or Twitter, or view a slideshow. Sample Web Gallery . The photography part is now complete. Now for the backup!

The Plug-In for Aperture Photoshelter

Example of a Photoshelter Gallery

• First automatic backup without making head thanks to the fabulous Time Machine.
  Here, the entire contents of my computer is backed up with My RAWS and the ". Aplibrary" (Aperture library with touch-ups, rankings, keywords) are saved.
• Second backup of my library aperture through banks of images of the application.

Backing up the Aperture library on external HDD

• Third semi-automatic backup of my RAWS and the ". Aplibrary" Aperture, present in the Images directory from my mac. For that I use the weekly backup software Personal Backup X5. The third hard drive does not stay connected to my computer. After the backup is stored in a secret location to avoid theft or destruction ...

Incremental backup scheduled under Personal Backup X5

• I can now erase my memory card safely. Always format the card after each use! On the one hand, it will avoid ending up with a full card on your next shoot and the other, you'll have less risk of error card (believe me I lost a Lexar 8GB 300X like that).

Schematic summary (click to enlarge):

My stream of Production

Learn more:

• Workflow Jensen Larson, wedding photographer
• Article "Effective Workflow" Antonio M. Rosario

Where to buy:

• Switch to Mac: Apple store
• Spyder Calibrator 3 pro
• Card Reader LEXAR RW035-266
• Transcend memory cards (very efficient)
• Lexar memory cards (cheaper or more reliable than Transcend)
• Lexar memory cards on Foka

I await your comments and tips!

Read also:

1. [TECH] vs. HDR. Highlight tool / Dark
2. [TECH] The rendering of the sRAW is it really that of RAW?