DJ, a while back you posted your RAW workflow, and it seems to have been erased! Can you post that again for us? We may be moving to shooting all RAW...

I'd be interested in seeing it too!

Nathan: Hopefully DJ will post his, but I thought I'd give you a little Nikon info that the Canon shooters might not know about:

1. In order for iView to recognize Nikon RAW files (.nef), you'll need to have Nikon View 6 installed. I'm not sure if you use iView or not -- it's what we use to order the photos by capture date/time and rename sequentially.

2. If you use Photoshop's file browser and the Camera RAW plugin, you'll need to delete an extraneous RAW plugin that Nikon View 6 installs (if you went that route). I unfortunately can't remember the name of the plugin since I have already deleted it! If you don't, then all of your RAW files will open in NV6 instead of PS's Camera RAW (which we think is 10x more powerful and useful than NV6).

3. To batch convert all of the corrected RAW files to JPEGs, we use a script called "Dr. Brown's Image Processor 2.3" which can be found here... actually, it looks like his site is going through some changes. If you need the file (it's free -- or was), I'd be happy to email it. It's a pretty cool script and also allows you to add a copyright (meta, not a watermark) to all of the images during the conversion.

Hey Nathan...

Is this the post you were talking about???

click HERE

KK

I think it might be our Timmy's post that youre looking for???

I hope that was it..

KK

Thanks for finding that post Katherine! Is that what you were thinking of Nathan?

Our new intern is in the process of refining and very specifically documenting our workflow... and last Tuesday we spent 3 hours fine tuning how we download CF cards!

We're gonna put it in a packet with some other stuff and have it available at some upcoming workshops that Pictage is planning.

That's great! Thanks! I was looking in the wrong place!!

Would love the opportunity to be able to have that detailed workflow overview that you were talking about DJ! Let us know if it will be available or for sale!

Peter, can you give me an idea of your RAW workflow using Photoshop (how you bring the files in, open them, process them, etc.)? Thanks!!

No problem! Our's is about 2 weeks old, so I'm sure it could use a ton of fine tuning. Since we shot our first event 100% RAW (engagement session) we have been so happy with the results and wish we would have made the switch sooner. By the way, we are on a Mac (I think you guys are PC, right?), but all of our software is on the PC too.

1. We shoot everything in RAW, and about 90% with auto WB. The other 10% we manually set the WB, almost exclusively for tungsten lighting.

2. We get home and download all of our cards (we don't do any downloading while on the job) into one folder with the date (YYMMDD) and clients names (e.g. "050514_AlicePhilip").

3. Then the folder is imported into iView for chronological ordering and renaming (see note above about having to install Nikon View 6 for iView to recognize .nef files).

4. In iView, we sort by "capture date" to put all of the images in chronological order. We shoot with 4 cameras between Megan and I, so this works like a charm! About 95% of our ordering is done by this point. (**For all of you that sort this way but have been lucky enough to never have your clocks out of synch, synch them for each event. We had one camera out of 4 randomly off by 2 minutes and it threw everything out of whack!)

5. Once all the files are in chronological order, then we rename them all using the "incremental setting resulting in the following: 1001.nef, 1002.nef... etc.

6. Then we add a few letters to the mix: AP_1001.nef, AP_1002.nef... etc.

7. From there, we exit iView and split the RAW folder into 500 image chunks (to keep PS from lagging too much!). **Before we split the files into chunks, we burn our backup DVDs with the new file names.

8. Using the File Browser in Photoshop CS and the "large" thumbnail size, we do a rough edit on each 500 image chunk, and make batch adjustments to color and density as we go through.

9. Then we increase the thumbnail size to ~450px and do a more thorough edit on each chunk.

10. The we run the Dr. Brown's script to convert everything to JPEG, and add our copyright to the meta data.

11. When the JPEGs are processed, we open all of the combined JPEGs up in the File Browser (seems redundant, eh?) for the sole purpose of doing a final edit, check and final ordering of the images.

***We host our own client galleries, so this last step is a final check, but also to put the images in numerical order (0001, 0002...) as that is how our client sections load the images.

12. Once we are done with everything in the File Browser, we select all of the images and append another numerical sequence (e.g. 0001AP_1001.jpg).

13. Then we run an action we created to add borders and size the images as 4x6 prints to go to the lab.

14. Then a final action to make the files for our website. If you want to see our demo of the client gallery, it's here.

Finito!

I'm sure there is room for improvement there, perhaps by cutting out the JPEG editing steps (10 & 11).

Hope that helps!

Wow!!! Thanks! It's great to have a Nikon shooter giving some imput here as well! Wish us luck! We're going to try to shoot in all RAW tomorrow... May have to still buy some more cards!

I'm excited to hear how it goes for you! Nikon RAW isn't as friendly in post as Canon RAW but I think there are still some programs to make the batching work the same way!

Tim and I had to switch over to JPEG yesterday before the ceremony!!! It was wild...I don't think I've ever shot that much! I'm curious what the final count was! It had to be close to 4000!

Have fun!


DJ

Peter,

I use a very similar all Raw workflow (Nikon). If you haven't downloaded the new CS2 (Trial version available on Adobe) stop right now and get it. The new Photoshop CS2 has revolutionized working with Raw in Photoshop. It's waaay faster, you can crop right from within the Raw dialog, you have curves available within the raw dialog, color eye dropper, and soooo much more. Photoshop User calls this version of Photoshop the best release ever (especially for photographers).

It really rocks!

It's shipping now but I haven't found it in stock yet.

Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps someone.

Hey DJ...or anyone else on this topic..


Do ya'll use JUST 2 gig cards? What about the 4 and the 8 gig ones? I noticed that you have several 2 gigs (just remembering from your website's equipment info). Is there a reason why you stick to just 2gig ones?

KK

Oh...and when I was at PPA in Jan, someone at a booth told me that I shouldn't stick to anything higher than a 2gig because of the download time or something rather. I thought if you had a fast computer it would be okay. I would buy a 4 gig or higher if ya'll recommend it. I've got some beautiful weddings coming up this hot as haites Louisiana summer (ugh )

Anyhow...Just wondering...

Nice! I can't wait to check it out!


I originially bought the 2 gig cards b/c I was scared of losing too much data if a card went bad or we lost it or something like that...being that we haven't had any problems I'm thinking of upgrading to the 4 or 8 gig cards...but it's not a very high priority and I know that Tim enjoys downloading and documenting 15 cards after every event and I'd hate for him to be bored while only downloading 3 cards!


Your download speed isn't all that dependant on your computer...more so on the speed of the card and the method of transferring...unless you have a gnarly old computer of course!

BTW - this multi quote feature is sooooo cool!

Alan: Thank you! That info is extremely helpful and definitely sealed the deal for me regarding CS2. I had been yearning for some of the things you mentioned it has and will definitely purchase the upgrade!!

DJ, what do you think that Canon's DPP has over Nikon Capture Editor? Curious, 'cause you all seem to have a great workflow going with DPP...

I've heard that the Nikon software doesn't hold different settings on files within the same folder. So you are forced to either export the files as you edit them or separate them into separate folders of each batch. I've never used and they may have fixed this already but I remember that being a pretty big deal to some of my Nikon friends.

Follow Alan's advice and download CS2!!! It's amazing and Nikon shooters must be rejoicing right now because it looks like Photoshop will be the new way to batch process!

I was only able to tinker with it for a few minutes but checkout the setting options you have to choose from when pasting from one file to another!

WOW!

DJ, not totally sure what you mean about being able to save files in different settings in the same folder.... Would you not just save each file as you go, or does Canon handle this differently? I'm curious, because now as we switch to a RAW workflow, I want to figure out how we can make our workflow as efficient as possible... Maybe you can even put me in touch with some of the Nikon friends that you mentioned.... Or did they already switch to Canon?

"DJ, not totally sure what you mean about being able to save files in different settings in the same folder.... Would you not just save each file as you go, or does Canon handle this differently? I'm curious, because now as we switch to a RAW workflow, I want to figure out how we can make our workflow as efficient as possible... Maybe you can even put me in touch with some of the Nikon friends that you mentioned.... Or did they already switch to Canon?"

I think what DJ is talking about is that when you work with raw the setting for each file such as exposure, contrast etc.. are saved in a separate file. I can't remember if the Nikon View software does this or not, but I can tell you that the new Photoshop CS2 does:-) It's soooo nice now to be able to copy a folder of raw images to another drive and Photoshop remembers the settings next time you open a file. Before you had to do an export or something and it was weird.

Bottom line... if you are working with raw file canon or nikon... the new CS2 is a must have. DJ provided the link above in another post.

You can thank me later DJ on tipping you to the Trial version

Thanks Alan! Great call on CS2!!!



Several did make the switch but now with CS2 taking care of the batch processing I see one less reason to jump over to Canon!

I wouldn't worry about figuring out Nikon Capture or DPP...Photoshop is gonna do the magic now!

I'm excited!

Alright, as soon as I get done writing this English paper (a positional paper written while being objective....................???) I'm downloading the trial version of CS2 and giving it a whirl, then, before I graduate (which this English paper will hopefully lead to) I will purchase CS2 with a student purchase price.

Well, I got a chance to try RAW workflow in CS2 and I am pumped!!!! It's so cool to make color/exposure corrections to one image and then watch as you simply copy the corrections to other groups of images in that same folder... and the images miraculously improve right before your eyes!!! The only thing that really seems to be slow is the RAW to JPEG coversion (haven't tried TIFF yet) using the image processor. I wonder if the Nikon software would covert faster after I make the corrections in CS2 and Bridge....

Heh, well this is because they weren't around for the PS 2.0 to PS 2.5 jump back in 94/95 Now THAT was a tremendous jump!! But regardless, this version of CS is amazing. I even found settings for "divide dirty clothes into whites/colors", "Start dish washer", and "check oil and tire pressure on SUV." AMAZING!!

Glad your enjoying CS2. A tip on converting to JPEGs. Usually when I'm converting all images to JPEG it's for use on the web or in a DVD slideshow, both of which can be low res 72 dpi. If you open the first Raw image in Bridge and set the dpi to 72 then open the image and close it, it will keep this setting when you batch process the others. Doing a batch conversion on hundreds of pics at 72 dpi is much faster than at 300 dpi. Of course if you need the high res this trick doesn't help :-) Also don't forget to change the dpi back later:-)

Hope this helps

Same forum title, slightly new problem!

K, so I'm TRYING to convert to RAW workflow for my Canon, and am already using CS2. I just finished an afternoon shoot and uploaded all the images, backed them up and opened the folder with CS2 Bridge.

First off, I've got DUPLICATES already for every picture. I'm just now realizing that the RAW+ M1 means a Raw copy AND a jpeg at medium setting 1. Dumb, I know -- I didn't read the whole manual!! Is there a way to turn this duplicate feature off and still shoot RAW? I'm sure it's simple, I'm sure I could fetch the manual and look it up in the index.

If no one posts, you know what I'll be doing tonight, after orientation meetings are over (summer starts for us on SUNDAY -- send prayers!)

Secondly, the color on this whole shoot is ATROTIOUS! In CS2Bridge I can double click jpegs and open them in PS, just like always. I'm familiar with how to do all my image layer adjustments there and know how to achieve the colors I needed/saw originally. But I'm lost in RAW. I see more settings, but no traditional sliders... ugh.

On this same note, assuming I can figure out how to maniuplate an image's colors to what I want, what's the process for batching a whole set? Just group select and ...? I'm only asking because I'd rather be walked thru this the first time before I wind up accidentally adjusting the color in ALL my photos and then be unhappy.

Help?

Yup...which camera you shootin?

The great thing about RAW is that it doesn't matter what the color looks like straight outta the camera b/c EVERYTHING can be adjusted in post! :-) ....do you see the dialogue below when you open a RAW file? If so...which settings were you looking for that you didn't see?

Are you asking how to color correct a group of files? ...or how to export a group of files already color corrected?

DJ,

thanks for posting, man!

I'm Shooting the Mark IIds. I found my color sliders under the "calibrate" tab in the dialog box you showed me, but I'm not seeing what I'm used to and am wondering how to do what's familiar... For jpegs I usually adjust levels, color balance (on shadows, midtones and highlights) and then do a saturation adjustment if I need it -- in that order. Is there a way to do similar adjustments for those three tonal ranges, and not just one color slider for the whole image?

I'm actually asking both: how to adjust a whole group and then... why export? Export to what, jpeg, tiff or ?? Also, any clue why I'm getting both RAW and Jpeg images for every shot?

Thanks for the help -- I'm up late editing again

Love ya bro!

Shua! Hope everything is going well for you!

To apply the RAW settings from the image you just worked on to other images (batch process).... Click "Done" after working on the image, and then when you get back to the file browser, select the images you want to apply the RAW settings to, and then (on a PC) right-click on the selected group of images, and choose "previous conversion," and ta-da! you have made changes to the images! (I still think it's the coolest thing to watch that part happen! )

My favorite way to adjust the exposure to the image is still to simply use the "exposure" slider because you loose contrast when you start working with the "brightness" slider, but the "brightness" slider would be comparable to working with your midtones in "levels." The Shadows slider is there for work on your shadows, though it doesn't give you as much flexibility as the "Shadows/Highlights" adjustments in CS. You can do at least some work on you highlights in the curves tab of Camera RAW.

Next, if you go to the "Calibrate" tab of Camera RAW, you can do manual adjustments to the RGB channels like you were wanting....

Lastly, the export to TIFF or JPEG would simply be so that the images can be used for printing, album design, etc. I have come to appreciate TIFF files more and the importance of losslessness (is that a word? ). I now am converting my edited RAW files to TIFF, and then will be converting them to JPEG before sending them to the lab, so I always have that lossless, edited file to pull up as much as I would like and not worry about losing quality as I would with a JPEG...

DJ posted recently about this same stuff here.

I think using curves might be your best bet -- you have the same control you do with levels (setting the black, mid and white points) as well as color balance (setting the RGB values for shadows to highlights), but on a much more powerful level. Have you used curves before? If not, I can give you a semi-lame overview, but if you want something intelligent and clear, you should see if anyone else can help!

As an aside, I'd say chances are you might not need more than the controls the "adjust" tab offers plus some minor color tweaks in curves. All 5 of the lower sliders (exposure through saturation) are awesome and will get 95% of your images 95% of the way there. I've noticed that there are a few consistent tweaks I need to do to our images (pull a little blue out -- which I've been doing in the calibrate tab -- and pump up the contrast a bit) and then they are pretty near close to being done.

For those who haven't yet suscribed to "Photoshop User" I would highly recommend it. Virtually every topic we discuss here about Photoshop is covered in one of the last Photoshop user magazines I've received.

If you make your living using Photoshop like many of us do. It's a must buy. And No I'm not associated with the mag

They currently have a special edition of their magazine out just for CS2.

Photoshop User Site Link