Newbie workflow advice

[c71clark]

I am debating using DNG, but so far my newbie workflow seems to be okay. I'm doing all people shooting, headshot's and portraits. Will probably be doing this for a while. I got Imatch, and just DL ImageIngester to try out. Here is the process.

1. Copy CR2 to hard drive (specific folder structure, file names)
2. Open them all in ACR, delete bad stuff from inside ACR (nice big preview window), adjust raw files, and export a JPG preview
3. Use JPG's to filter out the rest till I have my final few
4. Open CR2 originals in ACR and fine tune the settings, then output into PSD
5. Open PSD in PScs2, tweak, save, output Tiff or Jpg for printing in the various media needed.

So, is DNG something I should consider? I honestly can't see how it would add anything. I don't really like sidecar files though, and apparently DNG embed's all EXIF, ITPC, etc in the DNG. I have a dos batch file I run to hide all XMP files.. ugh.
Thanks!

[In2Photos]

I am debating using DNG, but so far my newbie workflow seems to be okay. I'm doing all people shooting, headshot's and portraits. Will probably be doing this for a while. I got Imatch, and just DL ImageIngester to try out. Here is the process.

1. Copy CR2 to hard drive (specific folder structure, file names)
2. Open them all in ACR, delete bad stuff from inside ACR (nice big preview window), adjust raw files, and export a JPG preview
3. Use JPG's to filter out the rest till I have my final few
4. Open CR2 originals in ACR and fine tune the settings, then output into PSD
5. Open PSD in PScs2, tweak, save, output Tiff or Jpg for printing in the various media needed.

So, is DNG something I should consider? I honestly can't see how it would add anything. I don't really like sidecar files though, and apparently DNG embed's all EXIF, ITPC, etc in the DNG. I have a dos batch file I run to hide all XMP files.. ugh.
Thanks!
This is precisely why I started converting my CR2 files to DNG, sidecar files. I don't want to keep up with them. I accidentaly moved some files outside of Bridge, then renamed the files in Bridge and lost all my edits. I use LR now so it is not as big of a hassle (it uses a database so everything is kept there).

[kevin_c]

Same as Mike ^^^ - I swapped over to using DNG because of the 'hassle' of those stupid XMP files :-) I simply import my CR2's and after getting rid of the dross, I convert them to DNG.

When i download my files from the CF card I use Downloader Pro, this is set up to automatically create CR2 backup files in a seperate folder though, this is backed up to a server and occasionally burnt to DVD as well, just to keep the original CR2 files, 'just-in'case'.

[c71clark]

I only have maybe 3k images, and am not a prolific shooter yet. Imatch works fine, but I think I jumped too fast on it. I suspect I should have done everything manually for a little bit (kinda like learning camera's, ehh?) before getting a tool to do those things for me. So, I am going to give that a whirl for the next few shoots I do: Everything done manually with a specific tool for each step. DNG will be a part of this I think. Adobe weilds great power in the photo arena, and I will always have the Canon raw files anyway if needed.

[tim]

I have tens of thousands of wedding images, and the same again of my own images. I leave them as CR2 for now because I see no advantage of converting to another format yet. I don't care about XMP files, I like having the metadata tweaks external to the image file, on occasion i've edited the XML with a text editor.

One day I might batch to DNG, but then again I may not. By that time I might need to outsource the work to a render farm or it'll take days of processing!

[c71clark]

Okay, so ImageIngester is pretty cool, so I will be using it for a while. New workflow...

1. Set up II to copy cr2 files from the CF card to a certain Archive directory (it creates and names a directory per my directions, and also renames the files per my instructions), it copies the files, then runs the free DNG converter and puts the new DNG files in another certain directory (working directory, in a similarly names folder it creates).

This leaves me with the unaltered cr2 files in one directory where I can backup and burn them at my leisure, and also a set of DNG (no embedded .cr2) in a working directory I can edit as I please.

2. Open DNG files in ACR and weed out the crap, then output the medium rez jpg's for further sorting.

3. Make my 2 cuts, and start working on the few that made it.

4. Create web and print copies, then backup the Archive directory and the working directory.

So we'll see how this works for the next month or so.