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    Is My Workflow Overkill?

    Hi all,

    99% of the time my photography is out on the streets (people / buildings etc.). So when I get back from a shoot my workflow is the following;

    DPP to rate and reject images, still in DPP make basic adjustments (white balance / picture style / sharpening / shadow & highlights / lens correction), then export as 16bit TIF file to a folder.

    Then open TIF file in Affinity Photo to do rest of adjustments to finish image then export to a finished JPEG.

    So basically it is DPP - save as TIF - Affinity Photo - save as JPEG.

    Is this overkill?

    Cheers
    Ian

    #2
    Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

    Originally posted by ianrmontague View Post
    Is this overkill?
    I would say "no" but that's because it is effectively what I do! It depends on what exactly I want to do but I may well do less in DPP and more in Affinity (selective area sharpening or anything that requires layers, etc).
    Chris
    80D - 10-18 IS STM - 15-85 IS USM - 55-250 IS STM - 50 f/1.8 STM - 100-400L IS II USM - 100 f/2.8L Macro - 1.4x III

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

      Doesn't seem excessive to me.

      Mine is:
      DPP (Canon & Panny) or View NX2 (Nikon) to rate and reject
      Bridge to add JPEG rate any RW2 or DNG files from the Panny
      ACR for conversion and basic adjustments, export to CS3
      Save as PSD with any further adjustments.
      Flatten and save as JPEG, create websize or PDI projection size JPEG if required.

      What do you reckon on Affinity? I downloaded a trial but haven't gotten around to giving it a whirl. Did try a trial of the current PS Elements, realised it's barely any better than the old version 2 I had, still doesn't do 16 bit, masks still limited, adjustment layers still limited, blend modes still limited and the built in ACR is still worse than my CS3 offers... How does Affinity compare?
      Nigel

      You may know me from Another Place....

      The new ElSid Photogallery...

      Equipment: Far too much to list - including lots of Nikon...

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

        Originally posted by El Sid View Post
        What do you reckon on Affinity? I downloaded a trial but haven't gotten around to giving it a whirl. Did try a trial of the current PS Elements, realised it's barely any better than the old version 2 I had, still doesn't do 16 bit, masks still limited, adjustment layers still limited, blend modes still limited and the built in ACR is still worse than my CS3 offers... How does Affinity compare?
        I like Affinity a lot but am still on a steep learning curve, finding out what it can & can't do, but then again I never used anything else beforehand (except DPP) so how it compares to others I don't really know! DPP is the better RAW editor so as I said before, I do what I can in that first.
        Chris
        80D - 10-18 IS STM - 15-85 IS USM - 55-250 IS STM - 50 f/1.8 STM - 100-400L IS II USM - 100 f/2.8L Macro - 1.4x III

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

          El Sid,
          I find Affinity Photo does the job for me, i left the Adobe CC plan purely i got fed up with the subscription fee and found Affinity does everything i want i needed it to. Also finding it easier than photoshop, still learning but glad i made the switch.

          ctrollen,
          I've used the clarity in Affinity but not the sharpening, would you say it would be better to sharpen in Affinity rather than DPP?

          Cheers

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

            Only if you need to selectively sharpen an area rather than the whole image, otherwise DPP does the job just fine.
            Chris
            80D - 10-18 IS STM - 15-85 IS USM - 55-250 IS STM - 50 f/1.8 STM - 100-400L IS II USM - 100 f/2.8L Macro - 1.4x III

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

              Mine is to sort through DPP. Delete anything not up to quality, anything that doesn't work, anything I don't like and probably a lot of duplicates. I then proceed through DPP and get the "recipes" as good as I can, but only keep the overall sharpening to 3, or 4.

              I process the RAW files into JPEG's and check them in Preview (Mac) and weed out a further batch that are not up to it. This stage of weeding out still retains a copy in RAW, so if I am too aggressive at this stage, I can still process a new copy in RAW.

              These will have been rated in DPP, so my 5* shots will go into Photoshop for some final tweeking and a bit of selective work. Final sharpening will only be undertaken when I know what the image will be used for. Hi-Resolution JPEG is fine for nearly all of my needs, but if it is for publication, or perhaps a large print, for the odd image that needs it I can return to the RAW file and do a TIFF conversion. I see no point in over clogging the hard drive with TIFF's, when 99% don't need to be.

              It sounds quite laborious when I write it down, but it's actually rather quick. There was a philosophy with digital that you should keep everything, especially when memory is relatively cheap and I subscribed to that for some years. However, when you have to go back and trawl through loads of rubbish to get to the shot you want, you can appreciate why I am rather diligent in using the delete button and only retaining images of any merit.

              The only exception to this is family pictures because there is emotion tied to them, plus Mrs C would do unmentionable things to me if I even dreamed of deleting a photo of the grandchildren, however out of focus they were.
              Colin

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                #8
                Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

                I import directly to Lightroom and do all processing....I keep as RAW originals in dated folders by month....then export the best as TIFFS into category folders. Every few months I go through the originals and delete what I no longer want to keep.
                I’m surprised some members are saving as jpegs as a final image....as I’ve been back to old originals and Tiffs from nearly 10 years ago and reprocessed them in the latest software which I’d not get the best from had I compressed them into jpegs.
                Brian Vickers LRPS

                brianvickersphotography.com

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

                  I’m surprised some members are saving as jpegs as a final image....as I’ve been back to old originals and Tiffs from nearly 10 years ago and reprocessed them in the latest software which I’d not get the best from had I compressed them into jpegs.
                  With the RAW files still available, they can still be processed into TIFF's if required Brian.
                  Colin

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

                    Originally posted by brianvickers View Post
                    I’m surprised some members are saving as jpegs as a final image....as I’ve been back to old originals and Tiffs from nearly 10 years ago and reprocessed them in the latest software which I’d not get the best from had I compressed them into jpegs.
                    As Colin says I always have the original raws plus I keep the PSD files too. I try to avoid TIFF files as I have encountered far too many issues with programs refusing to open TIFFs created in other programs - compressed or not JPEGs at least open properly in everything and to appear to be a properly universal standard. If the image needs more than a slight bit of tweaking I would go back to the PSD copy anyway or even right back to the raw if needs be.
                    Nigel

                    You may know me from Another Place....

                    The new ElSid Photogallery...

                    Equipment: Far too much to list - including lots of Nikon...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

                      If the image needs more than a slight bit of tweaking I would go back to the PSD copy
                      Good point Nigel.

                      If I have done a lot of work on an image, with a few layers, I always keep the PSD file. It saves so much work if I later decide to make any minor adjustments.
                      Colin

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

                        Flick through them using picture viewer and remove the obviously blurred and bad ones. Then go back and if I have two similar shots flick back and forth and choose what I think is the best and process. I keep the raw file of the ones I process and the processed version.

                        Di.
                        Di ~ Trying to take "the" photograph.
                        Di's Flickr

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Is My Workflow Overkill?

                          Originally posted by ianrmontague View Post
                          El Sid,
                          I find Affinity Photo does the job for me, i left the Adobe CC plan purely i got fed up with the subscription fee and found Affinity does everything i want i needed it to. Also finding it easier than photoshop, still learning but glad i made the switch.

                          ctrollen,
                          I've used the clarity in Affinity but not the sharpening, would you say it would be better to sharpen in Affinity rather than DPP?

                          Cheers
                          Every editing guru I have ever come across says that sharpening should be the last process before output. This is to avoid amplifying any artefacts created by sharpening when carrying out other editing.
                          Alan

                          No longer using Canon but still teaching new Canon users (and others) the gentle art of Photography.

                          http://www.springfield-photography.com/

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