work flow tips for newbies

[UFObuster]

I just read the thread on RAW vs JPEG, etc and appreciate the experience in this forum. I'm just 4 days into digital with a G3. Having lots of film experience, I'm having an easy time with evaluating adaptor rings/lenses, filters, etc. but the 'work flow' issues related to digital processing is entirely foreign. I DON't want to re-invent the wheel so I'm asking for a thread to help me with suggestions on which essential software you have/use and which ones I should avoid....obviously trying to shorten my learning curve. I see references to BreezeBrowser (vs. ZoomBrowser), ARC, Intellisharp, etc. Just looking for good examples of YOUR current essential workflow suggestions that is a good starting place.

Thanks, Roger

[jboyd]

Hi Roger,

While I am also new to digital, I am still learning too. But, I will give you my input anyway. I haven't even loaded the software that came with my G3. I use a card reader, and download photos directly into Photoshop Album. Very easy!! And I use Photoshop 7 for any editing - I am still learning on that one, too.

Just my opinion.

[Cheryl3700]

Extremely Important: BACKUP your photos! I take lots of digital photos, but do not print many at all. Currently I have about 4,000 photos stored digitally on my C: drive. They are in a folder called PHOTOS, with sub folders. Always keep your original .jpg in tact once loaded off the camera card onto your puter. Save any changes to it as another name. I use the software that came with the camera to load my photos. It is slow though. I load them to a folder called TOBEFILED. Then when I get time, I move them around to the appropriate folders. I just bought an external IEEE fire wire hard drive (western digital) 80Gig for backups. It worked perfect first time I plugged it in. Backed up all my photos, videos and music in 10 min. I don't have much advice on software. I use something called Image Expert which came with my first camera, I use it to reduce the size of my photos for emailing. Of course I save the reduced size photos to another name and I dont' overlay the original. I have used Corel photo house to do a few effects, but again - that was a freebie software. I don't really do too much with my photos. Sometimes I put them into powerpoint and make collages that way. I bought ULEAD photo exlporer and I like that for managing my photo folders. I also bought ULEAD DVD pictureshow and was able to make a DVD slide show in minutes. However it wont work since I upgraded to Windows XP, so I think I need to purchase the next version ULEAD DVD picture show 2.

Anyway good luck and happy digitaling!

Cheryl