 Posted 12/17/2006 10:03:52 AM
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Effective digital images come primarily from proper camera settings and through-the-lens composition. Improving the quality of one's photos can best be accomplished by fine-tuning the capture of light with your camera. That's where most of one's time should be spent. After the shutter release button has been pressed, one faces the prospect of post-processing. The precision with which one captures the image, in terms of composition, focus, exposure, white balance, etc., will speed the post-processing steps.
Often, and understandably, newcomers to digital photography will mis-allocate their time by spending a lot of time on post-processing and probably not enough on the fundamentals of photography prior to pressing the shutter release button. Many photographers become frustrated and discouraged as they try to "turn lumps of coal into diamonds" with their post-processing application. No amount of PhotoShop time and effort will make a great photo out of a mediocre photo. Post-processing application procedures can enhance an already good photo. The very best, award winning photos often require the least amount of post-processing.
The purpose of this forum topic is to lay out my post-processing work flow. Nothing particularly magic or special about my process. But, it is a process I follow as a routine, because I end up with an acceptable end product in an acceptable amount of time.
1. Remove flash memory card from camera.
2. Insert flash memory card into card reader, attached to computer storage.
3. Download RAW format images to computer hard drive, or storage media.
4. Open RAW conversion software.
5. Select image to convert.
6. Level horizon, if needed. Crop to one of the standard image proportions.
7. Adjust exposure, white balance, saturation, contrast, levels & sharpness.
8. Remove dust spots, if needed.
9. Convert to .tiff or .psd format in 16 bit and 350 ppi resolution.
10. Open post-processing application.
11. Clone out minor distracting elements (if allowed by target contest).
12. Convert to 8 bit format
13. Convert to sRGB color space for internet upload purposes.
14. Resize image to maximum allowable pixels on the longest dimension.
15. Apply one or two Unsharp Mask Filter passes. (75%, 0.4, 1)
15. Select "Save for Web", which will convert image to 72 ppi resolution.
16. Constrain file size to maximum allowable for target contest.
17. Save image on computer with appropriate title.
18. Upload to contest
When I first began learning to use post-processing software, I spent hours trying to transform average images into something great. This was, in general, a waste of time. That was three years ago. Today, I like to spend the lion's share of my time with the camera in my hands. I've learned to quickly spot RAW images that are best candidates for post-processing work flow. Usually, post-processing about 2% of total images captured takes only minutes per image. I think this may be a surprise to many new digital photographers. You don't have to process everything you capture. And, it need not take more than a few minutes to process the best of your shots.
Hope this perspective helps a little. Feel free to ask questions. I'd be happy to help. The work flow process listed above is not the only way to do things. There are many variations which can be used.
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Posted 12/17/2006 12:38:42 PM
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| Hahn, Thank you for your informative post I was kinda feeling like I was doing something wrong by not wanting to spend much time post processing. As you know I just got PS for myself at a great deal. I am dismayed however at the seemingly more time it takes to use compared to picasa. I feel much better about my images knowing that all the ones so far that I have entered , really have not taken much processing at all save for the ones that I post in "other" .. These images were creative urges I had but still did not have enough processing in my mind to be considered Digital Art.. Can you give me more info on the conversion to tiff?( as opposed to leaving it in jpeg) I pretty much do the same steps up to 9,, so what would it benefit to convert to tiff or psd in 16 bit and then later converting to 8 bit? I will just start there for now..
I may not always be wRIGHTbut I am never wrong Profile -  Top 24 - 
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Posted 12/17/2006 12:54:34 PM
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This work flow is for images captured in RAW format. Not all cameras are able to save in RAW format. Some cameras use algorithms to directly convert, in the camera, to .jpg format. There's nothing wrong with this, but a lot of image shot parameter flexibility is lost in the shortcut process.
My process is from RAW to .tiff 16bit to .tiff 8bit to .jpg. There is no benefit, nor any reason to reverse the process and convert from .jpg to .tiff.
If .jpg format files are the only camera option, then it simply puts more pressure on the photographer to get the shot parameters exactly right in the first place. During the "in camera" conversion to .jpg, about 90% of the image data is discarded.
.jpg is the "lossy" format, so with each "save", the image will lose some quality due to .jpg compression algorithms. One can perform about 4 or 5 .jpg saves before it becomes a noticeable issue.
.tiff and .psd are "lossless" formats. You can "save" many times without experiencing any image deterioration from compression. These formats create much, much larger file sizes, so there is some inconvenience involved.
For website contest upload purposes, you will need to convert to .jpg and 72 ppi as a final step before uploading.
Hope this helps. Ask more questions!
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Posted 12/17/2006 3:03:30 PM
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Okay.. Well I scrolled through all of my camera's menu options..I see no choice in format so I must assume that it is jpeg automatically.. So this is not a concern for me at this point..Now stupid question.. after files are uploaded, can I not convert them to tiff and then perform the same number of saves....Althought this is not really an issue at this point for me because I save my orginals, then I also save the edited version as well as the converted size version...so I can go back and later try something different with the original version and therefore it will end up being only one save for each version... I am getting so swamped .... I like the save features of picasa,, I have played with a few images in PS but it seems that whether I save it or not , going back to that image in picasa it has been altered there from PS as well...dont like that... My Kodak software is constantly giving me problems, I am not sure if it is because I have 3 programs saving 3 sets of images...I would like to get rid of Kodak but it does have one feature that Picasa does not , I am sure PS has it but , alas, I am having a slow go at figuring that program out.. Sorry off topic here...Okay well I am going to post this and go back and review the rest of the list....
I may not always be wRIGHTbut I am never wrong Profile - Top 24 -
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Posted 3/27/2008 1:03:32 PM
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Update! Since I posted this thread, my workflow process has changed. RAW conversion software has evolved significantly with programs like Lightroom and Apple's Aperture 2, I don't use Photoshop products anymore. It's all about efficient workflow and the quality of the end results.
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Posted 5/9/2008 4:47:06 AM
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| I follow much the same process in Post Process, although the reason for the conversion to 8bit eludes me. But I do have one question. When I do the RAW to TIF to JPG I loose all shooting data. If I convert directly to JPG I don't. Is this a common situation or is it just my software. I'm currently using the software provided with my Canon camera.
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