In the RAW??
Everything I ever needed to know about Raw workflow...
So you want to know what this RAW business is all about? There are pros and cons, plus required changes in workflow - but in the end, RAW can be of tremendous benefit to any professional photographer. In all honesty, anyone collecting money in exchange for photographic services should be using a RAW workflow. Anything less, in my opinion, is simply cutting corners.
So welcome to the light. Now step back from everything you've ever known about workflow and re-consider the way you work. Raw really does make MUCH more sense than Jpeg. Additional requirements, yes. But absolutely worth the effort in the end.
Why RAW?
Raw simply captures an exact map of the data coming off your camera's sensor. It's not a photograph, it's just a file containing 'Raw' data. This data is a higher bit depth (12 bit with current release sensors) which allows for more color levels and cleaner transitions opposed to 8 bit Jpeg images. But that's all techno babble and won't make your images any better.
Raw really works in practice (with photojournalism such as wedding photography anyway) because you can make very fine adjustments in exposure, contrast, tone curves, white balance, all all the qualities that define the final appearance of your photograph. Sure, you could control this inside your camera. You could white balance with a grey card or a Digital Calibration Target like those offered by Ed Pierce. You could totally master your light meter, adjust color and tone curves between every shot, vary sharpening settings as needed - between every single shot. Anyone who's spent more than 30 seconds photographing a fast moving wedding knows most, if not all of the above is simply out of the question. You get it close in the camera, but you'll never nail it 100% of the time.
Your client has paid a hefty sum for top quality images. It's my feeling that one would be shorting the client in a major way to deliver a collection of under exposed images full of white balance errors. It's just not professional. With Jpeg, holding to this quality level, you're going to have to open every single image in Photoshop. You'll be there all month.
Enter Raw: You can now quickly batch process 1000+ images in a couple hours. They are perfectly rendered, perfectly exposed, perfectly white balanced - flaweless images ready for delivery to the client. No Photoshop required.
The Downside:
Raw requires more space on your memory cards, as well as adopting an additional piece of software. If photography is a hobby - give Raw a spin. If you're collecting money in exchange for your photography - a Raw workflow is simply a requirement. Anything less just won't do for a client expecting the quality they are paying for.
Workflow:
Your workflow needs to change, but I assure you, it'll save you lots of time in the end. It really doesn't need to be all that complicated. My workflow goes something like this:
1. Shoot an event in Raw using multiple cameras and a belt full of cards. (I currently carry about 18 GB of memory cards to a wedding, allowing for almost 2000 images from the Canon EOS 1DMkII / 1DMk2).
2. Run DIM to copy all images to the workstation. This will automatically time merge all images in chronological order from all cameras.
3. Open Breeze Browser and batch rename all images with bride's name followed by number - you'll get "suziebride_0001.cr2" to "suziebride_1232.cr2" or whatever.
4. Open your RAW processor. Set it to save all processed images inside a folder inside the folder containing the raw images. C1 processes them to "Develops", Pixmantec goes to "Converted" or something similar.
5. Do all your color tweaking in the RAW processor. Nearly all of them will allow you to copy WB, exposure, contrast, etc and paste to groups of similar images - get quick on this and the tweaking goes super fast. I typically spend about 4 hours to do a very detailed correction to 1200+ individual images.
6. Once they're batched - you're done! You can now deliver these images and your client will be perfectly happy. They are all perfectly white balanced, exposure and contrast corrected. They look awesome.
7. I then go back and open the processed image collection in Breeze Browser, open my favorites in Photoshop for some artistic editing, then re-save.
This workflow I've developed over the past couple years and is by far the quickest and most direct process I've come up with to date.
Stay tuned for a future article reviewing some of the various Raw processing software packages on the market today.
So you want to know what this RAW business is all about? There are pros and cons, plus required changes in workflow - but in the end, RAW can be of tremendous benefit to any professional photographer. In all honesty, anyone collecting money in exchange for photographic services should be using a RAW workflow. Anything less, in my opinion, is simply cutting corners.
So welcome to the light. Now step back from everything you've ever known about workflow and re-consider the way you work. Raw really does make MUCH more sense than Jpeg. Additional requirements, yes. But absolutely worth the effort in the end.
Why RAW?
Raw simply captures an exact map of the data coming off your camera's sensor. It's not a photograph, it's just a file containing 'Raw' data. This data is a higher bit depth (12 bit with current release sensors) which allows for more color levels and cleaner transitions opposed to 8 bit Jpeg images. But that's all techno babble and won't make your images any better.
Raw really works in practice (with photojournalism such as wedding photography anyway) because you can make very fine adjustments in exposure, contrast, tone curves, white balance, all all the qualities that define the final appearance of your photograph. Sure, you could control this inside your camera. You could white balance with a grey card or a Digital Calibration Target like those offered by Ed Pierce. You could totally master your light meter, adjust color and tone curves between every shot, vary sharpening settings as needed - between every single shot. Anyone who's spent more than 30 seconds photographing a fast moving wedding knows most, if not all of the above is simply out of the question. You get it close in the camera, but you'll never nail it 100% of the time.
Your client has paid a hefty sum for top quality images. It's my feeling that one would be shorting the client in a major way to deliver a collection of under exposed images full of white balance errors. It's just not professional. With Jpeg, holding to this quality level, you're going to have to open every single image in Photoshop. You'll be there all month.
Enter Raw: You can now quickly batch process 1000+ images in a couple hours. They are perfectly rendered, perfectly exposed, perfectly white balanced - flaweless images ready for delivery to the client. No Photoshop required.
The Downside:
Raw requires more space on your memory cards, as well as adopting an additional piece of software. If photography is a hobby - give Raw a spin. If you're collecting money in exchange for your photography - a Raw workflow is simply a requirement. Anything less just won't do for a client expecting the quality they are paying for.
Workflow:
Your workflow needs to change, but I assure you, it'll save you lots of time in the end. It really doesn't need to be all that complicated. My workflow goes something like this:
1. Shoot an event in Raw using multiple cameras and a belt full of cards. (I currently carry about 18 GB of memory cards to a wedding, allowing for almost 2000 images from the Canon EOS 1DMkII / 1DMk2).
2. Run DIM to copy all images to the workstation. This will automatically time merge all images in chronological order from all cameras.
3. Open Breeze Browser and batch rename all images with bride's name followed by number - you'll get "suziebride_0001.cr2" to "suziebride_1232.cr2" or whatever.
4. Open your RAW processor. Set it to save all processed images inside a folder inside the folder containing the raw images. C1 processes them to "Develops", Pixmantec goes to "Converted" or something similar.
5. Do all your color tweaking in the RAW processor. Nearly all of them will allow you to copy WB, exposure, contrast, etc and paste to groups of similar images - get quick on this and the tweaking goes super fast. I typically spend about 4 hours to do a very detailed correction to 1200+ individual images.
6. Once they're batched - you're done! You can now deliver these images and your client will be perfectly happy. They are all perfectly white balanced, exposure and contrast corrected. They look awesome.
7. I then go back and open the processed image collection in Breeze Browser, open my favorites in Photoshop for some artistic editing, then re-save.
This workflow I've developed over the past couple years and is by far the quickest and most direct process I've come up with to date.
Stay tuned for a future article reviewing some of the various Raw processing software packages on the market today.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home