People shooters: whats your workflow

[DanWhite]

Since I just got back into shooting professionally again. I'd love to see what your typical workflow consists of.

I shoot mostly Actor head shots and Model beauty shots.
A typical 2 hour sessions yields about 150 - 250 images.

My Work flow is as follows.
1) Using a pic trans (i a java application i developed) I offload my cards
A) it creates the folders raw, jpeg, capture, PS, Final, and resized and coppies to raw folder.

2) Open first image in capture and bulk process all shots to jpeg

3) look at shots and cull out bad ones (OOF, Blinkers, bad poses, bad lighting and pick the best 30 to 40 images)
A) I post these to a web gallery for the model/actor to look at and pick there favorite 5 images
b) I usually add about 4 to 5 images

4) I then open the keepers one at a time. in capture 4.4 and do any raw tweeks (exposure, White balance). I am glad that I have gotten consistent enough that I usually do not have to do a lot here. I then save the image to the capture folder.


5) I then open the file in Photoshop. I do levels adjustments, blemish removal and skin work (bag removal, skin softening etc), I then work on the eyes, a little color enhancement, whitening, and removal of a second catchlight If I have one. I save this as a PSD to the PS folder.

6) Now I crop to 8x10 for actors and 9 x 12 for models and sharpen.
I then save to the Final folder.

7) I then open Nikon View and batch resize them to the resized folder.
then I run them via a batch action for some light sharpening and post them to a web gallery.

8) Now I burn all images that I processed to a CD with fill sized images and resized for web. I also send out to the lab each processed image for a print.

All this takes about 20-30 minutes per image.

 

[Jetta32696]

Wow, that's a serious workflow you have there!! Mine is nothing compared to that!! I shoot mostly Jpeg, so no RAW conversion necessary.

I shoot a bunch of stuff, weddings (w/formals shot in RAW), events, modeling portfolio stuff, and friends and family.

1. Create folder on external drive
2. Download card
3. go through photos and junk anything I don't like
4. Then, right to CS2 for editing. Work with original and change name of edited file and save to same location. All originals remain untouched in case I need to edit again.
5. Create additional folder for edited files, move all edited files into new folder...
6. Wipe forehead and have a drink! :biggrin:

 

[danmab]

Wow, that's a serious workflow you have there!! Mine is nothing compared to that!! I shoot mostly Jpeg, so no RAW conversion necessary.

I shoot a bunch of stuff, weddings (w/formals shot in RAW), events, modeling portfolio stuff, and friends and family.

1. Create folder on external drive
2. Download card
3. go through photos and junk anything I don't like
4. Then, right to CS2 for editing. Work with original and change name of edited file and save to same location. All originals remain untouched in case I need to edit again.
5. Create additional folder for edited files, move all edited files into new folder...
6. Wipe forehead and have a drink! :biggrin:

I don't do any professional stuff, but this is the same way I do things. I tried RAW for a while, but it added so much time to my normal PP workflow that I switched back to jpeg fine and do all adjustments in PS2. It's powerful enough to really accomplish any tweaks that you would need. I'll admit that the white balance adjustments on a RAW file is a very nice feature.

 

[srwatters]

I shoot RAW + jpg. Subjects get the jpg files burned to a CD immediately after the shoot. I will edit no more than two images per look as part of my standard package. They will most likely never use more than that, and I'm not about to waste my time (unless they pay for it) editing more.

Adobe Camera Raw - all color, contrast, exposure, WB work done in ACR
CS3 for edits only - I don't touch levels, curves or any other 'adjustments'
Assorted plug-ins used to get my 'look'

I save a master layered (Prophoto RGB, 16 bit) PSD file with all edits, then convert (via action) to a flat tiff (Adobe RBG, 8 bit) and save it as the edited master. Crop to the desired size (because 1/2 the time they don't know what they want) and save as the print master tiff. Run action to resize (fit to 700h, 900w, sRGB), sharpen and place logo for web image. Save as jpg. Burn CD and we're done!