Workflow suggestions? I shoot RAW, she wants JPGs

I'd like to get some suggestions on a recommended workflow with a high Wife Appreciation Factor.

Her needs: quick access to JPG versions of all photos so she can send them via email, upload to online printing services, or post to Facebook.

My needs: shoot my 40D shots in RAW for maximum data retention and flexibility.

We have a network hard drive where I store all originals from 4 family cameras (2 Canon SD point-and-shoots, 1 Canon S5, and my 40D).

My existing workflow:
1. Get everything onto the network hard drive in directories by day (ex. 2012-05-18) and then stash those in directories by year.
2. Batch convert anything in RAW format to JPG using Irfanview and some dumbed-down settings.
3. Look at what's on her laptop, and copy over all files that she doesn't already have so that she can view them (as local copies) in Zoombrowser.

Can anyone suggest ways to improve this workflow? I anticipate having to retain local copies of the photo files on her laptop so that they're accessible even when she's offline (and this isn't so bad, because it's almost like having another backup of the files). I suppose I could shoot RAW+JPG at the same time, but then I get much less storage on a memory card.

Anyone have any good ideas here?

Well, if the jpegs produced by Irfanview suffice for her, then I don't see a problem with what you're doing...

You could try this:
http://rawworkflow.squ​arespace.com …nt-jpeg-from-raw-utility/

It's a utility that will extract the JPEG preview embedded in the raw file - worked well for me. Not sure what size the 40D's JPEGs are but the newer cameras have full-sized ones.

There are other pieces of software that will do the same thing, but this is one I've used.

Step 3 sounds rather cumbersome. I'd use software to synchronize the two folders so that it's done automatically.

http://sourceforge.net​/projects/freefilesync​/

joeblack2022 wrote in post #14453692
You could try this:
http://rawworkflow.squ​arespace.com …nt-jpeg-from-raw-utility/

It's a utility that will extract the JPEG preview embedded in the raw file - worked well for me. Not sure what size the 40D's JPEGs are but the newer cameras have full-sized ones.

There are other pieces of software that will do the same thing, but this is one I've used.

40D embedded jpgs are half sized (1/4 sized by area and resolution), but if she will further reduce them for posting they will suffice.

I would use DPP for this rather than Irfanview (which uses Dave Coffin's DCRaw, whose conversion is very generic, although it might in fact be the case that Irfanview is not doing conversions but rather extracting the jpg - it depends whether the CR2 plugin is installed). DPP,at any rate, would be faster, easier and produce higher quality conversions which are all but identical to camera jpgs by default (i.e., no settings required). Simply open a folder of CR2s, do "Select all", open the batch tool, designate the destination folder and hit "Execute".

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll try what Elie suggested and try the DPP conversion. Irfanview was picking up the EXIF preview, but at the 25% size, so I was actually scaling them UP by 125% to get to something like 1800x1200 - so the DPP idea sounds better.

I'll have to check out the freefilesync util, too.

Just shoot RAW + small jpeg, the small jpeg takes up hardly any space on the card.

Get Lightroom 4 for $65 and legally install one copy on your computer and another on her laptop. Use Lightroom to pull the photos off your memory card and automatically organize them in the folder structure you describe.

Synch the Lightroom catalog and the RAW files across the two computers on a regular basis.

Spend a few hours showing your wife how to cull, edit and tag her photos. Then amaze her with how easy it is to put photos into collections and then automatically resize and post the collections to facebook and flikr, email to friends, and then send them to your printer, to an online printing service, or to send them for pickup in an hour from Target or Walmart.

You can download Lightroom 4 for free and use it for a month. Lightroom seems complicated at first but just a couple hours of learning will make you fall in love with it.

Then, if you don't have it already, add Carbonite or Mozy backup service to the mix and you'll have the basis for a great backup system; your original, and identical copy, and an off-site copy of all files.

If you're using Windows, there is a free Microsoft application called SyncToy that might be a good option for syncing files to your wife's laptop.

My wife uses Picasa to view pictures stored on our network drive, and it can automatically scan network folders for images that have been added or modified. When I'm done post-processing RAW files with DPP, I use SyncToy to copy the final jpegs to our network drive and then my wife can see the new jpegs on the network drive whenever she opens Picasa. Picasa also supports RAW format, but I setup my wife's Picasa to not look for RAW files so that she doesn't accidentally try to email, upload, or print a RAW image.