WorkFLOW not WorkSLOW

[MDJAK]

As some here who were very helpful to me in the past may recall, I was thinking of making wedding/event photography sort of a second career.

Well, I did one paid wedding and one family member's wedding, but faced what to me was an imsurmountable task of editing and converting the raw photos.

Well, come tomorrow, Friday, Dec 8th, I'm attending a four-day workshop/seminar on Raw Workflow. Hopefully, my old brain will be able to absorb some of it and I'll be back on the road to doing weddings, etc.

The seminar is given by www.d65.com (http://www.d65.com)

I saw a preview of it at the New York PhotoPlusExpo show in New York last month and was very impressed with Jaimie.

I'll give a full report after my head stops spinning.

mark

[jessiper]

Wow, 4 days of RAW! Actually, I wish I could attend a seminar like that, it would probably do wonders for my workflow. Have fun!

[BJ Pulsipher]

I would also love to go to a RAW workshop. I've taught myself how to do things. I do have a system. Shoot, download, back up originals, separate the wedding into sections. Delete the superduds. Work on each section of 'best' shots. Pre-wedding, formals shots, ceremony, reception, etc. Otherwise you get so overwhelmed with 600 shots.
Good luck with your class. Maybe you can post the highlights for us after?

[BrittanyElise]

RAW Workflow for Wedding Photography Online Course (http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/PGR04.asp)
Can't wait to take this one!

[subtle_spectre]

What sort of things are taught in such courses?

[Dchemist]

MDJAK, have you tried Adobe's Lightroom... I think it has potential to help with the need to process batches of photos. I have used it for a few hundred images in a shoot and it was useful. Best regards, Dennis

[picturecrazy]

Hey, that sounds neat. Fill us in on the juiciest details of the course!

[MDJAK]

What sort of things are taught in such courses?

They teach the ins and outs of Adobe Bridge, including writing scripts, which to my vague understanding are like macros. You turn on scripts and execute a number of commands. Then in the future by invoking that script, the computer executes many functions for you.



MDJAK, have you tried Adobe's Lightroom... I think it has potential to help with the need to process batches of photos. I have used it for a few hundred images in a shoot and it was useful. Best regards, Dennis

I have tried it, Dennis, and I like it. In fact, it was supposed to be part of the course but because it is still a beta release, they are not including it. When they come back in April, they expect it to be out officially and will make it part of the course. I am a bit disappointed in that, but they did offer to either give me a full refund or move my registration to the April dates.

I choose to stick with this one for now. It is sold out, as I understand all their workshops do.

During the PhotoPlusExpo a month or so ago, I watched many pros demonstrate lightroom and it looked great.

I will do my best to put my thinking cap on, remember as much as possible, and will share whatever I can.

mark

[MDJAK]

There's a pdf document that they sent along with the entire agenda. I tried to copy and paste it here but it won't work.

[tim]

4 days of RAW workflow? I hope it covers more than just that. Just read the Bruce Fraser book and you'll be way ahead of most people, but practical advice at a seminar might be handy if you learn well that way.

[MDJAK]

This is a bit of the course outline from their website.

Photoshop CS2
* Adobe Lightroom
* Camera Raw
* Bridge
* Exposing for Digital
* Processing Files
* Digital Negative (.dng)
* Color Management From Input to Output
* White Balance
* Creating Actions to Automate Digital Processing
* Customized Scripting
* File Naming Conventions
* Metadata including EXIF and XMP
* Sharpening : Capture, Creative and Output
* Upsizing & Downsizing
* Copyright and Security
* Archiving & Storage
* Digital Delivery: Interactive Web Photo Galleries & Customized Presentations
* Printing, Soft Proofing & ICC Profiles
* Converting to CMYK
* Monitor Profiling
* Retouching for Digital
* The Business of Digital
* Digital Camera Maintenance

[MDJAK]

This is the actual agenda, subject to change:

9am Welcome
10am Overall Digital Lecture
Shooting in RAW
Understanding Histograms: The Digital Conflict
Exposing for Digital
16 bit vs. 8 bit
Color Space
Working in ProPhoto
Created and Natural Light
Custom White Balance
Color Management
Sharpening
Shooting at the Optimum ISO
Choosing the Right Media for Your Camera
Using a Gretag Macbeth Color Checker
Keywording
Metadata
File Naming Conventions
Ranking
1pm Lunch Break
2pm Optimizing Your Computer
Set up THE D65 LAB
Photoshop Preferences
System Preferences
Color Settings in Photoshop
3pm Profiling A Monitor & System
4pm Sensor Cleaning
5.5pm Class Over...Homework Time

Saturday
9am Bridge and Its Undocumented Features
Menus within Bridge
Editing & Ranking in Bridge
Custom Settings
Creating Workspaces
10.5am Batch Renaming
11am Creating Metadata Templates & Insertion of Metadata
12pm Lunch Break
1pm Using Camera Raw
Fine Tuning Custom Settings
Custom Subsets & Defaults
3pm Understanding Sharpening
Capture Sharpening
Creative Sharpening
Output Sharpening
4pm Writing Actions and Batch Image Processing
5.5pm Class Over...Homework Time

Sunday
9am Using Bridge & Batch Image Processing
10.5am Retouching For Digital
11.5am Writing Multi-Purpose Actions & Batch Image Processing
12.5pm Lunch
1.5 pm Additional Workflow Concepts
Alternative Keywording
Selective Metadata Insertion
Asset Management within Bridge
2.5pm Printing
Resolution
PPI vs DPI
Soft Proofing
ICC Profiles
RIPS
Foolproof CMYK Conversions
5.5pm Class Over...Homework Time

Monday
9am Client Delivery
PDF Presentations
Web Galleries
File Transmission
11am Writing Actions and Batch Image Processing
12pm Archiving
1pm Lunch
2pm The Business of Digital
4pm Final Q&A
Class runs from 9:00am - 5:30pm each day

What do you think, Tim and others?

mark

[tim]

It looks like a great head start to post processing images. You could learn it all yourself given enough time and books, but getting taught it all at once would be very handy and quite quick.

Let me know about the foolproof CMYK conversions bit! :)

[MDJAK]

It looks like a great head start to post processing images. You could learn it all yourself given enough time and books, but getting taught it all at once would be very handy and quite quick.

Let me know about the foolproof CMYK conversions bit! :)

Tim, you have way too much confidence in me. Don't forget, I'm a product of urban new yawk city schools. And next month I'll be 50. I just have a real hard time learning from books. Even this will be difficult for me.

I'll try to pay real close attention to the cmyk conversions, whatever that is.
mark

[Claire]

Wow,what a schedule.I could do with such a course. How much are you paying? Over here there really aren't many photo courses etc. And the few are soo expensive.

[nwa2]

Is the course chalk and talk? Or does it include work in front of a screen?

[canonphotog]

This is the actual agenda, subject to change:

Saturday
9am Bridge and Its Undocumented Features

mark

I especially like this undocumented features coverage and wonder out loud if the features are really undocumented or just being utilized in a manner that Adobe has not suggested.

Mark, I do hope you get a lot out of this. I am going to seminar in San Antonio next February covering CS2 for Photographers. While it is only a one day seminar, I'm sure enough will be covered to keep me busy going back over the material for the next couple of weeks following it. I can't imagine taking a 4-day seminar. Far too easy to forget what was covered on days 1, 2 and 3 by the end of day 4. Good Luck!, and good learning.:)

Ken

[tim]

Undocumented features would be good to know!

[MDJAK]

They were kind enough to take me at my word, which is my bond, and allow me to record the seminar on my iPod. I promised them I would not allow anybody to listen to it.

Unfortunately, like a normal iPod, it locked up from time to time, wouldn't allow the computer to power it through the microphone, etc. I did get quite a bit recorded though.

I've been a bit too busy to listen to it, but I have been practicing the workflow which is awesome. I processed 110 pictures last night in literally no time.

The batch renaming, the file naming convention, the metadata templates, keywords are very helpful.

The actions that we wrote were just fantastic. I can take literally hundreds of shots and have them converted to jpeg of any size I determine, sharpened in any way, output sharpened, etc. Then I can have them made into a psd format, sharpened, etc. All with one keyboard stroke.

Last night, I took 63 pictures and ran an action that made jpegs out of them, sharpened, etc, all while I went out to buy ice cream. This can get fattening. :)

mark

[MDJAK]

Is the course chalk and talk? Or does it include work in front of a screen?

It is 95 percent work with your computer. They project their screen on a giant white wall in a studio and everybody follows along. I couldn't learn any other way.

Each morning, we practice what we learned the day before.

Seth Resnick and Jamie Spritzer are truly amazing teachers. They are as engaging as they come, very funny, and literally made the time fly. They're not clock watchers, though they do like to start on time. The days typically ran from 9 am to 6 or even 6:30 p.m. with homework each night.

mark

[Claire]

Long days, but seems worth it!

I wish they'd have such seminars here as well.:(

[MDJAK]

Claire,

There was a guy by the name of Miguel who flew in from Denmark to take the seminar. I was actually quite surprised, but out of the 30 students, more than two thirds were out of towners. Some from California, Oregon, quite a few wedding shooters from Washington, D.C., etc.

We New Yorkers were in the minority.

mark

[Claire]

Mark,
Wow, flying over from Denmark. Yeah, I guess if you're a pro or something that could work, but I can't picture myself doing that. I'd be willing to fly within Europe though. I think they got various workshops etc in England.

[MDJAK]

I was quite surprised also. Some of the students were not even photographers, but were in the post production end of things, art directors, etc.

The gentleman from Denmark was kind of short of funds and he and his girlfriend (who didn't attend) were staying in a real crummy hotel in a part of the city called The Bowery.

mark