Tag: Workflow

Within the field of photography and digital imaging, a number of debates are argued by users and experts: Nikon versus Canon, Mac versus Windows, zoom versus prime lens, RAW versus JPEG—the list goes on and on. Add to that 8-bit versus 16-bit. What’s the difference? Is the controversy useful or viable? After reading our primer, you’ll have a better idea about where to stand on the issue.

If you’ve set up your digital workflow to be completely color-managed, congratulations! You understand exactly why it’s important. If you haven’t calibrated your gear because you don’t think you need to do it, that’s because you haven’t calibrated. Confused? It’ll all become clear—but only after you calibrate.

Making the move to a fully digital workflow can be like trying to merge onto the information superhighway in a brown Dodge with a yellow door and white smoke pouring out the back. You sometimes feel like you’re only seconds away from getting creamed by a semi with Digital Asset Management written in 10-foot letters on the side. To get turbocharged and start your trek to the fast lane, you need to get some high-horsepower help.

On the surface, keeping highlights from being blown out is a good idea. Once their brightness passes the threshold of a sensor, detail is lost. No amount of Photoshop work will bring back the detail in those highlights, though there are some fixes that can fill in washed-out highlights. For an efficient workflow, you never want to needlessly increase your work in Photoshop.

Adding a second monitor to your setup is an ideal way to get the extra working space you need. With today’s lower-cost units and operating system software that allows us to add them easily, there’s no reason to work in a cramped desktop environment anymore.

We discuss RAW workflow a lot in the pages of Digital Photo Pro. Having the ability to work smoothly and quickly with RAW files is key to getting the most out of them. It’s a simple fact—if you can’t make RAW files work efficiently, you’ll end up wasting a lot of time or just switch back to JPEG. If we assume you want the power of the RAW file, then JPEGs simply aren’t acceptable.

Personal creativity comes from the “sweat” of making great pictures. Get the balance with powerfully effective imaging tools; it’s choice, not chance! Let’s examine the balance of color. Deeply involved with digital, I draw upon film experience and knowledge about color rendering. Balance has always been a key factor. Film photographers choose a film for its color rendering, but digital photographers make the same decisions through observation and their camera’s and software’s digital tool control; digital provides a broader range of personal control.

I was drawn to wedding photojournalism because, for me, it’s the perfect combination of documentary street photography and imagery that infuses moments of humor and levity; it simply makes people feel good. On a regular basis, I’m invited into the lives of strangers, armed with the task of finding the elements that make their worlds unique. A stage has been set with characters and lush backdrops. At times, I become a director; at other times, I’m a stylist or even a therapist. In most cases, I’m a silent voyeur recording the events as they unfold.

The next best thing to driving a $1.3-million Enzo Ferrari is photographing one. Epson America challenged us to photograph the legendary car in our studio at Stage 3 Productions and create the most detailed digital files possible. Dan Steinhardt at Epson specifically asked for a final file that was unflattened, 16-bit, Pro Photo RGB-captured to the highest resolution possible. Using a Sinarback 54HR, P2, the final size after retouching would be in the gigabytes.

Image file delivery is one of the most integral parts of a professional photographer’s job. The assessment of your work begins before your images are ever opened. In the days before digital transfers were so ubiquitous, you’d send your best prints in an appropriate package so that your client would be impressed from the moment the box landed on his or her desk. How many pros have been dismissed for sending a stack of 8x10s in a Ziploc® bag with the words “Please Handle Carefully” scrawled in Sharpie® across the plastic?

Getting precious digital image files from capture to output is tricky under the best circumstances. Just imagine how difficult it gets when you’re on location for National Geographic in the most remote corners of the world for weeks on end and you’re bringing back 10,000 images at a time. That’s exactly the situation faced by Frans Lanting and his staff.