I’ve had my camera for over a month now and I just pulled my pictures off the memory card last night. The reason is that I’ve been intimidated by so many things with the new camera/workflow/postprocessing. I want to do everything “right” from the start so that I don’t have to go back later and fix stuff.
Both Matt and I decided to shoot in RAW which results in larger file sizes. I bought a 500 gig external hard drive to hold my pictures and we have an even bigger one to backup both of our pics on. I’ve been trying to figure out the whole workflow thing. Do I drag them all over, then go through them in a program where I can view them? Which program to use? I have 50,000 Canon applications that open when I plug my camera into my computer… none of which professionals seem to be using.
Last night I decided to learn more. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Lightroom so I started working through the tutorials on Adobe’s website. I also pulled my photos off the memory card and stuck them on the external hard drive. It was a bit of an ordeal because it was a months worth of pictures. I followed the tutorials advice and created a picture folder and within that a 2009 folder and within that separate folders categorized by state, city and month. It, of course, feels good to have them finally organized. It was also fun looking at them all (using the Lightroom trial).
Next thing to work through is the whole processing of images. I’m excited to start watching the rest of the tutorials so I can start messing with my photos. I still don’t understand the whole RAW thing and how to edit them. I fumbled my way through it the other day to put up a few pics but it took waaaaaay too long and was really frustrating. I feel like the whole process is probably pretty easy, I just don’t understand it yet.
It’s raining outside and I was up sick all night, so today is my day to sit in front of the computer. Guilt free. Haha.
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Rands in Repose had a good post about writing Tweets. Twits. About Twitter.
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hey you. I’m definitely interested in some head shots. what’s your schedule like?
i emailed you.
Lightroom has great reviews and comes highly recommended. I don’t have it but I wish I did.
the tutorials have gotten me pretty excited to use it. i just want something fast and easy. i don’t want to spend tons of time processing… or opening pics. hehe.
I like the new look! Also, I hear ya on the workflow thing. It takes a few tries to get a good system down and I’m still trying to figure out how to categorize my folders. I have way too many in my opinion. Are you loving your new camera?
thanks! yes, i love my camera. i’m still learning to use it though.
I’m impressed that you are tackling the whole photo thing- I still have yet to do that. I’m happy with my Nikon d50, and the simplicity of it, at this point in my life- so I haven’t pursued bigger avenues. (I’m leaving that up to Kev.)
It’s different in here! Very clean looking! And tiny… at least this little comment box is really tiny!
Sorry about the tiny… ness. I didn’t see any other themes I liked.
Hey Steph!
Mr. Hammond might not like that very much 
Hope this helps!
Check out http://www.pixelpond.com. It doesn’t look like much when you first get there but if you click on the class notes link there are a bunch of pdf’s with notes on photoshop techniques. If you click on the advanced photoshop techniques once you are in the notes section there is a technique specifically for the raw plugin in photoshop. The author of this site was one of the original developers of photoshop. I took a class from him at one point in time. The site is really for class attendees so don’t spread the knowledge too far
thanks adam! i’m going to check that out as soon as i finish the tutorials i’m working through now. i can use all the help i can get.
Hey Steph iI am just now getting around to reading your blog. Good stuff here!
I wholeheartedly recommend LightRoom. The time i spend on workflow (in lieu of PhotoShop) is probably 10% or 20% of what it used to be. LR is great at managing workflow including those times where you really do need the full power of PhotoShop.
PS: LightRoom is much better than its main competitor, Aperture, in my opinion. But you can do a trial of it as well and compare.