A presentation given to Olney Camera Club

1. Digital workflow hints and tips Mark Wilson, Olney Camera Club http://www.markwilsonphoto.co.uk/ http://www.markwilson.it/

2. Digital workflow? What’s that then?

3. It’s about process! Think back to the traditional (wet) darkroom: Film  Developer  Stop bath  Fix bath  negatives/transparencies  file Enlarger  Photographic paper (dodge and burn, tint, etc.) Or slideshow Or Scan and follow digital workflow Digital darkroom is the same Images  Disk  Photo management software  Metadata (tags, etc.) Apply adjustments Digital prints/slideshow/web

4. There is no “right” approach I’ll talk tonight about some of the tools that I use in managing my images Maybe some of it will be useful for you?

5. Some things to talk about Basic workflow Software Backing up your images Sharing your work online

6. Basic Workflow

7. Example workflow Digital negatives (original raw images and/or .DNG) Raw images with sidecar (.XMP) Raw conversion Image management Edited images (.PSD) Image editing Final images (.JPG)

8. Software

9. Which platform? Mac or PC? It doesn’t matter Both are just tools – a means to an end Macs are not infallible (despite what Apple might tell you) Windows is well-known and well-supported Linux may be an option for those who are technically competent

10. Things to know Windows and Mac OS X both have photo-management applications iPhoto Windows Live Photo Gallery No need to install Canon/Nikon software to get pictures off your camera Windows and OS X can both access cameras via USB Many computers have built-in card readers Adobe Camera Raw is free and can handle most raw conversion

11. On my machine Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard) Image management and editing: Adobe Lightroom 2 Raw conversion: Adobe Camera Raw Image editing: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Image management: Adobe Bridge CS4 Noise reduction: Noise Ninja plugin for PhotoShop Upload to online services: Flickr Uploadr Bulk file renames: Renamer4Mac Screen calibration: Spyder3Utility Film scanning: Nikon Scan 4 Tethered image capture: Lightroom Tether, Sofortbuild Other: EXIFtool

12. Demonstration

13. Backing Up Your Images

14. Backups Golden rule: No image “exists” until it’s backed up in at least two places(three places?) Hard disks are inexpensive But as we store more data on them, the chances of failure increase Your images are priceless

15. A cautionary tale Several thousand images stored on two hard disks attached to the same computer Nightly backup from one disk to the other User error resulted in wiping both disks clean Panic ensued – irreplaceable images of young children appeared to be lost!

16. A cautionary tale Stop! Do not attempt to write to those disks Sleep on it! Some Internet research turned up a $99 software package that examined the disk and found all the files – they were still there, just not accessible Different solutions for Mac and PC Full story at http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/05/recovering-data-after-destroying-the-mac-os-x-partition-table.htm

17. What can you do? Don’t rely on local backups! Burglary, house fire, user error – could all result in lost data Backup to a second hard disk and keep it off-site Store it with a friend or family? CDs/DVDs have a limited life (so do hard disks that are not used) Use Internet backup services

18. Internet backup services Not just the photo sharing sites but a place to store files online Various options: Windows Live SkyDrive – 25GB space free from Microsoft Mozy - $4.95/month for unlimited storage Dropbox – more expensive but more options Jungledisk – PAYG pricing using Amazon.com web services There are others too Uploads may take a long time (days, weeks, months!) – photographers have many GBs of files Some sites offer the ability to backup/recover by shipping physical disks

19. Data recovery Memory card errors Not all memory cards are created equal High end brands (e.g. Sandisk, Lexar) may provide software with the memory card (see http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2007/08/recovering-images-from-a-compact-flash-card.htm) Failed external hard disks Often the disk inside is fine, but the USB-SATA connection is damaged. It may be possible to access the disk in another enclosure, or installed directly inside a PC and recover the data

20. Sharing Your Work Online

21. Choosing an online service I use Flickr (now owned by Yahoo!) but there are others options too: Windows Live Gallery (Microsoft) Picassa (Google) Facebook (urgh!) Photobox Think about online privacy as well as potential copyright infringement

22. Why I use Flickr Huge site with lots of functionality, backed by Yahoo! Unlikely to disappear Granular control over access: Some images visible to all Other images for friends, or for family Able to issue guest passes Can mark images as copyright – or issue a Creative Commons license Full resolution image available to me (with a Pro account), but only low resolution displayed to others http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-wilson/

23. Copyright and creative commons In the UK, you automatically own the copyright on your images (unlike the US, where copyright has to be registered) © All rights reserved Creative Commons is a means to grant a license for others to use your work: Some rights reserved Various licenses are available - read more at http://creativecommons.org/

24. Summary

25. What have we covered? Described what workflow is, and what a simple workflow might look like Listed some of the types of computer software that might be useful for a digital photographer Stressed the importance of backups – and gave some advice on how to make sure images are safe Talked about sharing images online, including copyright and Creative Commons licensing

26. © 2010, Mark Wilson. Some rights reserved. CThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. For further details, please visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/cbn