Photos : What is your routine in managing them after a trip?


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hood

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Jun 14, 2005
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Hello experts,

What is your best practice in managing your photos said, after a travel trip? Normally, I shot about thousands photos in a trip, but feeling time-consuming to go thru's all the photos. what is your work flow like? Care to share. Thanks.

For myself, I'm new to Photoshop, and do not have much time to tweak the photos, but slowly learning PS day-by-day. What I'm doing now is, short list the best photos, run the automation to resize it using PS. This is fast, but I did not "photoshop" every photo. Is just plain, resizing. As I have learnt more about PS, I would like to "touch" up some photos. So, what is your process in the managing your photos? Care to share. Thanks.

Thanks.
 

Lightroom 2 to handle everything.

I export out to PS and Photomatix when extra editing/processing is required and it gets auto-imported back to my LR2 catalogue when saved. Typically, PS is used for noise ninja and/or barrel distortions. Photomatix of course is for HDR tonemapping. I have a lot of presets but keep to my favourite few.

I maintain my recent RAW files on my computer itself and older ones get archived on portable HDs. Edited images are at this time are all kept on computer but will be progressively moved to portable media as required when my HD space diminishes.
 

I usually burn all of them onto two duplicate sets of DVDs. I select my fav few for processing onto my harddisk. i only use PS. usual things include recovery of some details from raw via adobe cam raw, stitching panorama, B/W conversion, noise reduction if necessary, clone stamping dust stuffs, contrast, curves, USM, resizing. HDR on the rare occassion. I usually save one big PSD file with all layers, a resized PSD file and a jpg version for web posting. The big PSD / resized psd and the jpg is stored in a folder which will later be burnt on a dvd , makes retrieving files easier later.

ryan
 

I only shoot in jpeg, its for own viewing purpose, so I don't waste time tweaking every one of the photo ,and only keep those that are sharp.
 

My workflow: transfer to HDD, delete non optimum images, shortlist and select a few images for processing. The difficult part is which image to select and which to delete. If unsure, do nothing; there is always the next time to review and decide.
 

What is your best practice in managing your photos said, after a travel trip? Normally, I shot about thousands photos in a trip, but feeling time-consuming to go thru's all the photos. what is your work flow like? Care to share. Thanks.

place your effort on photos that are worth placing effort on.

i don't know how you take thousands of photos in a trip. even for 2 week trips i click maybe 600, i bring perhaps 150 of these home, and only 20-30% of these ever see the face of daylight.
 

i don't know how you take thousands of photos in a trip. even for 2 week trips i click maybe 600, i bring perhaps 150 of these home, and only 20-30% of these ever see the face of daylight.

Well, I'm still learning photography. So for a scene, I took several shots with different settings eg. different aperture settings, or different exposure etc. That's probably why I have more shots on a trip.
 

Well, I'm still learning photography. So for a scene, I took several shots with different settings eg. different aperture settings, or different exposure etc. That's probably why I have more shots on a trip.

fair enough.. my advice is to be anal and selective about what you keep. knowing what is bad, is just as important as what is good.

i think we all start out like that.. my advice is to not be too serious, but also be critical enough to the point where you don't start beating yourself up. it's a fine balance, but it's important if you want to improve.. and improvement never stops. the moment you are content with your pictures, something is wrong, if you ask me.

well, keep shooting and experimenting.. and soon as you find something you like to shoot, just concentrate on that. i used to want to shoot everything when i travel. now i just focus on what i like to shoot, and i feel happier, have less to process too. kill two birds with one stone. :)

as for handling, some pictures just require more time and effort, and photoshop is not a cureall, nor is it the basis and cornerstone of a good photograph.. you need good material to work with to produce something you can be really, really happy with..

but not every photo needs 2 hours of photoshop work, or 12 hours. most photos, if you observe the quality of light, think before you shoot, and learn when not to shoot.. these will require minimal processing - nothing more than a simple workflow that takes less than 5 minutes.
 

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anyways, for most general photos (i.e. not deliberate portraits), this is my workflow. i have not changed it since.. 2 years ago , i think:

1) correction of horizon, vert/horizontal distortion, lens distortion if any (applicable to landscapes + buildings + anything where the verticals/horizontals play a significant role in the picture and are obvious)

2) shadows/highlights adjustment

3) curves (specific to every photo, i don't believe in batch processing)

4) color balance (maybe 10% of photos, particularly during golden hours)

5) layering work (most of the time pertaining to landscapes/scenics) to darken sky selectively, brighten up foreground selectively.. using layer type screen/multiply

6) USM

end of story. bulk of photos will only need #2, #3 and #6.
 

#1 create folder date (yymmdd format) - event
#2 create orig folder inside date - event then export all images inside orig
#3 short list images from orig then copy to date - event
#4 open image & signature on PS
#5 tilt correct
#6 crop
#7 WB correct
#8 exposure correct
#9 patch heal if needed
#10 smart sharp the subject or just part of it if needed
#11 despeckle
#12 smart blur back ground if needed
#13 resize
#14 drag signature
#15 adjust opacity of signature
#16 convert to mono tone if needed
#17 save
#18 upload to flickr, facebook, multiply
#19 post to forums
#20 reply to CCs

hth :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 

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fair enough.. my advice is to be anal and selective about what you keep. knowing what is bad, is just as important as what is good.

:thumbsup:

For my "work"-flow, the first step is to try to come to terms with the fact that I'm back in Singapore and the holiday has ended......
 

i think we all start out like that.. my advice is to not be too serious, but also be critical enough to the point where you don't start beating yourself up. it's a fine balance, but it's important if you want to improve.. and improvement never stops. the moment you are content with your pictures, something is wrong, if you ask me.
Good advice. On my last trip, I was too busy shooting away. Only back home, while reviewing the photos, then realize that photos with my wife were much less as compare to other trips.

Btw, what is USM?
 

Good advice. On my last trip, I was too busy shooting away. Only back home, while reviewing the photos, then realize that photos with my wife were much less as compare to other trips.

Btw, what is USM?
unsharp mask. :)
 

#1 create folder date (yymmdd format) - event
#2 create orig folder inside date - event then export all images inside orig
....

Pretty, similar with yours. I just run batch processsing for "add frame" and resize the photos, so, no touching-up of the photos. Still learning tips on Photoshop, will try to apply some on my latest trip photo.

Btw, what is despeckle? Sorry, I still learning.
 

place your effort on photos that are worth placing effort on.

i don't know how you take thousands of photos in a trip. even for 2 week trips i click maybe 600, i bring perhaps 150 of these home, and only 20-30% of these ever see the face of daylight.

when you try to do 9shots hdr + pano shots. hitting 1k is ez. say pano with 4 shots
4*9= 36.

1 photo = 36 shots!
10 = 360
30 = almost 1k :bigeyes:

process until siao!
 

Btw, what is despeckle? Sorry, I still learning.

for removing some of the noise by high ISO shots
8-1.jpg
 

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