GadgetFreak

Seriously. Im rather new to digital photography and I do it like film from the standpoint of trying to get the right exposure by bracketing, etc. But what are some suggestions on setting up a "workflow" to sort, optimize and organize photos as well as make them available and print selecteds. What type of software do people recommend. What about a "digital darkroom" set up? Ive done some film darkroom work but a real novice to digital. Since I suspect it matters, Ive been shooting recently in Canon RAW format (EOS20D) with the second highest resolution JPG being generated also. Thanks for any guidance.

richarddd

Photoshop is the standard recommendation (unless cost is an issue). I just read "Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2" by Rob Shepard, which I liked and recommend if the subject coincides with your interests, and am about to delve into "Adobe Photoshop CS2 one-on-one" by Deke McCLelland, which came highly recommended. Scott Kirby's books are often recommended. There are also a very large number of tutorials on the web to teach you the basics and set up a good workflow.

Jeffie

I concur with the Photoshop recommendation. Yes, it's pricey, ~US$650 for the full install. The learning curve isn't all that steep but requires a lot of practice to become proficient(ex: burning/dodging). As you progress, find a series of plugins called "Kai's Power Tools". This provides many filters and effects that may be useful. There are many others out there, too.

A less expensive option is Paint Shop Pro, now a part of Corel. It's ~ $100, and downloadable from HERE. You can get the trial version which works, iirc, for about 30 days, then you need a registration code.

Photoshop is available for PC or Mac. PSP is PC and some of the newer Intel-based Macs.

Mikey likes it

Photoshop Elements is all you should need, and costs less than a hundred bucks. Available for either PC or Mac.

CPRich

Ahh, the joys of RAW workflow. I could write a book, but many books have already been written. I'm stalwartly sticking with RAW Shooter Premium, which I selected after evaluation Capture 1, Bibble, Adobe Camera RAW, and a couple of other players.

Sadly, Pixmantec, the maker of RSP, sold the product to Adobe, who are incorporating the technology into Lightroom and the new ACR in CS3 which was released in Beta yesterday. Since I will get a free version of LR with my RSP license, that's probably where I'll end up. The problem is, LR is still in beta and is dog slow (lots of non-optimized and debugging code still in there).

From what I've read, the currently shipping version of DPP, that comes with the Canon camera, is actually pretty darn good. I originally evaluated a 1.x version, which didn't make the cut. I tried 2.0 when it was released, and it was quite good, but I was in bed with RSP at that point. I believe 2.1 is out now, and it's free.

If I were starting over right now, I'd probably either dive in with Photoshop (see if a current CS2 purchase will get a discount for the CS3 upgrade), or use DPP to get the hang of it, along with Photoshop Essentials 5 ($70 or so) that should get you most of what you need. Then, if you find the need to do multi-layered, masked, action-based editing, you can step up to full Photoshop.

And read some articles on RAW workflow. I'm busy working through 800+ shots from a 5-day trip to Costa Rica and efficiency is key.

This was the best tutorial I found, but it is RSP-specific. But it will give you some ideas. - http://www.pixmantec.com/pdf/rawshoo...guide_v101.pdf

Google will turn up many other tutorials on RAW Workflow:
http://photography.about.com/od/digital/ss/raw_work.htm
http://www.emmettlollis.com/tutorial...-photoshop.asp
http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/w...flow_basic.htm

etc. And the 20D forum at dpreview.com has hundreds of folks that can provide advice - http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1019


You're right, it does indeed matter. In the digital age, having an efficient workflow, knowing how to use a RAW converter efficiently (tools like WhiBal cards and a Spyder Pro help quite a bit), and at least the basics in a Phostoshop-type tool (layers, levels, curves, selections, actions, etc) become as important as the shoot. I suppose it was the same in the film days - chemicals, cross-processing, burning, dodging, etc - but I just dropped my film at the local mini-mart back in those days.

Here a couple out-of-camera (Canon 10D) and after RAW workflow shots I just finished (only 50 to go...) that shows the difference. This is just RAW processing, not even touching Photoshop yet - just White Balance, Exposure, recovering some blown highlights, etc.

http://richs.smugmug.com/gallery/222...17107587/Large
http://richs.smugmug.com/gallery/222...17107455/Large

It took my a good couple of months to understand and construct a workflow that works for me.

Next, you'll be asking about Color Management.....

murphy

Photoshop is great at manipulating and editing images, but it sucks for organizing, sorting, tagging, etc. You ought to look at the Adobe Lightroom Beta for Windows or Mac, and Aperture if you have a Mac. I think Aperture is really great. The Compare and Select features are invaluable. You'll still want to do eiting in PS, though.

GadgetFreak

I was wondering about Aperture. I can use either a Mac or PC. I signed up for the 1 month free trial of Aperature although I discovered after doing this that I need to update my OS to use it. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow and try it.

Do you use both Aperature and Photoshop on the same images? I thought that Apple was selling Aperature as a Photoshop replacement.

Thanks for the comments from everyone, they have been very useful. Ive started on my first set of 500 images using Digital Photo Professional just to start to get the hang of changing the images. I definately want something with more capabilities, however.

murphy

Aperture isn't really a PS competitor. It has only rudimentary editing tools. The thing it does really well is streamline the workflow of getting the photos off the camera and onto the web/paper. The closest competitor to it and Lightroom would be something like Adobe Bridge. That said, I have little patience for spending hours tweeking photos, and usually don't bother with PS. It does have an "Open in external editor" command, so I imagine most people are still spending significant time in PS.

Here's an interesting article on using Aperture+PS+Automator. You can do some really neat things.

Aperture requires a really beefy Mac. It loves RAM, and especially loves VRAM. It you have a Mac with a G4 or onboard video it's just not going to work. It also likes screen real estate. The bigger the monitor, the better the experience. Lightroom seems a little more forgiving hardware requirements-wise.

Since I've been using digital cameras, I've been taking a lot of pictures. I bracket and burst more with digital than I ever did with film. Before Aperture, sorting and compaing was a giant pain. Aperture has made that part much easier for me. I don't spend a ton of time doing post on my pictures, so its editing features tend to be good enough for me. It sounds like you're interested in doing lots of editing and manipulation, though, and for that PS is really a must. If you're going to use PS a lot, you'll want to look at Lightroom, as I imagine Adobe has somewhat tighter integration between the two.

I should also add that Aperture is at v1.5 now. When reading reviews, it's important to note the version number. Version 1.0 was slow and buggy. It's come a long way in a year.

dheera

keep in mind that if you're a student, you can get Photoshop for highly discounted prices. there are "Academic" editions.

If you're not willing to spend money, get GIMP. It does most of what Photoshop does, for free, in a very similar interface. It was originally written for Linux/Unix, but google for the Win32 version for Windows. It's reasonably intuitive for being free.

As far as organizing and publishing, there are many websites online that are geared for that (Picasa, Flickr, etc.) But I would recommend keeping your own good organization on your local hard disk too, do not rely on those websites to do organization for you in case they go down

SoManyMiles-SoLittleTime

I don't use PS, so can't really compare, but I do use GIMP, which they tell me is similar.

Big advantage: FREE. ^

CPRich

Agreed for CS2. But if you're including betas in the mix, the CS3 beta has a new version of Bridge that is a tremendous advance in the up-front organization function. Not surprisingly, Bridge and ACR in CS3 are verrrry similar to the functionality in Lightroom.

GadgetFreak

Well, I tried the Canon Digital Photo Professional although I could only use an early release since the upgrade wont work for some reason. I also tried Aperature 1.5. They have a free one month demo of Aperature and I like it quite a bit so far. Im not sure what Photoshop Elements is missing compared to Photshop CS2. Im thinking of trying a combination Aperature and Photoshop Elements to get started and if I need CS moving to that later. Does that make sense? By the way I am eligible for academic pricing on Aperature and I think CS2. The Academic prices are big discounts, I trying to decide whether there is anything offered by CS that isnt in Elements. Thanks.

murphy

I don't know what's in elements, but I can tell you that CS2 is not a universal binary, and won't run well on an Intel Mac. If that's what your main machine is you'd be better served waiting for CS3. And, from CPRich's experience, maybe that'd work best for you anyway?