Exercise. Your Own Workflow.
Before I embark on the workflow exercise I will list what equipment I use.
Cameras etc.
Olympus E3 and E330 bodies with a wide range of lenses from 7-14 through to a 70-300. Two large flash guns, a tripod and monopod, plus a mixed bag of filters, memory cards and spare batteries.
I also have two Canon compacts, a G12 and a G1X.
Computers.
My main laptop is a MacBook Pro but I also run an old HP Pavilion for programs that do not run on the Mac. Both laptops have external hard drives that automatically back up all my files. The laptops and printers are wirelessly linked via the house router. The scanner is old and has to be wire connected when required.
Printers and scanner.
Two Epson printers. A Stylus Photo 2000 and Stylus PhotoPX710W office printer. I also have an Epson 3170 Photo scanner for scanning in old photos and negatives.
Software.
Photoshop CS5.
Planned workflow.
Check equipment including batteries, lenses and auxiliary lenses and memory card. As the Canon G1X is heavy on batteries, check the spare.
Set up camera for conditions: WB, ISO, AV for this shoot.
Plan locations and possible shots.
Take pictures having regard to changes in light and weather.
Download files to laptop. Name files.
Sort out usable pictures.
Carry out any corrections such as colour, contrast, sharpness, cropping and straightening.
Name finished product and place in new named files.
Place these files, as a package, within my existing filing system.
Publish, email or print.
The Exercise.
Last week two Scottish relatives of my wife came down for a short stay. As this was their first visit to this part of Kent we did our best as tourist guides. To photograph Wee Ronnie was the basis of the exercise.
I changed the brief slightly in that I used a number of different locations but still put myself under a time restraint at each location.
The first choice was which camera. As these were going to be informal shots, where I wanted the taking of the pictures to be unobtrusive and the quality was not the highest factor, I settled on my Canon G1X. As there was the possibility of some sun I fitted a polarising filter. I fitted charged battery and carried a spare. The 8GB memory card was newly formatted and I didn’t consider a spare necessary. I checked the lenses for dust and marks, set camera to shoot RAW, dialed in AV, auto WB and ISO200. I was ready to go.
Over the two days of their stay we visited Walmer Castle, The Royal Hotel, Deal Pier and a local church. I placed Ronnie in a number places and in a number of poses. Some worked and some didn’t. As you will see Ronnie is no Brad Pitt but I don’t think the front page of OK magazine was the aim of the exercise.
My camera is set up to start a new file each day and the date is the file identifier.
The first session was at St. Georges Church. Ronnie was taken by the gravestone that bore the inscription, “A Brick Grave”, so I posed him by it. The first of the three shots was the best as it had a nice air of spontaneity.
We moved on to Deal Pier where I wanted the typical tourist shot of tripper on pier with the town as a backdrop. Of the three shots taken this was again the most spontaneous.
We continued to the restaurant at the end of the pier for coffee and cakes. Ronnie likes his food so a picture of him eating his cake seemed in order. The low angle was chosen for a number of reasons, first,the restaurant was pretty full and I didn’t want to draw attention to the fact I was taking photographs, second, the low angle emphasised the size of the cake the Ronnie was eating, third, it made him and his cake the only features in the shot, and lastly, I thought that the low angle would make an interesting composition. This again was one of three shots taken. I chose it because of Ronnie’s interaction with the camera.
The fourth and last of the set was taken at a rather boozy lunch at The Royal Hotel. The idea was to have Ronnie’s head contained within a glass of wine. It took five attempts but I got what I was after.
Post Production.
Having completed the taking of the pictures I downloaded the files from the SD card into my Mac via a card reader and named them Ronnie 26/06/13 and Ronnie 27/06/13. (I have attempted to produce a screenshot but all I get is a reference to these images).
I started a file, which I named ”Your own workflow”, into which I placed the two photo files and this Pages file.
I opened the photo files and checked the results. I very rarely discard pictures. This was a habit I got into while I was acting as photographer at my wife’s school. When I did a shoot at the school I always lodged an unedited disc of the pictures with the head master so that any interested party could see the results. At that time I had three CRB certificates.
The first file contained 27 pictures. Of these some eight appeared usable. On some a combination of the midday sun and Ronnie’s hat was throwing a harsh shadow on the face. I reduced the selection down to four.
The second file contained 16 of which I used five.
The first shot was the one by the grave in St. George’s Church yard. I warmed the colour and tweaked the blacks and saturation. I also cropped it slightly. Ronnie and Brick Grave.
The Picture of Ronnie on the pier was as I hoped, a nice holiday snap. This is pretty much as taken and fulfilled what I was after. Ronnie on Deal Pier.
The cake eating shot worked out well. The cake does indeed look larger that it really was and he has lovely smug and satisfied look on his face. Other than some slight straightening this is pretty much as taken. Ronnie and cake.
The head in the wine glass again worked out the way I had envisioned it with Ronnie's head appearing to float on top of the wine. Some straightening and cropping gave the look I was after. Ronnie in a glass.
On the 27th we went to Walmer Castle, originally built by Henry VIII and now the residence of The Warden of The Cinque Ports. Photography is not allowed in the Castle but we used the gardens for the next set.
Ronnie is not the tallest of men so I took the opportunity to exaggerate this by posing him on the longest bench I could find. I tried three versions of the shot but this is the one that best draws attention to his lack of height.
As we walked round the gardens we found ourselves in a greenhouse. The door was propped open by a watering can which I promptly pressed into service. One of three shots taken. The other two were rather static. In this one Ronnie is looking in the direction of the imagined pour and the watering can is angled as though in action.
The next was not very successful. The idea was right but the execution failed. The idea was to frame Ronnie in the gazebo at the far end of a long pond and have him reflected in the still water. It looked OK in the viewfinder, although I could see that a fair amount of cropping would be required as the lens on my Canon was not really long enough for this shot.
The last is of man at ease. There are a number of campaign chairs on the sea side of the castle so that visitors can sit and gaze out over The Channel. The canon and canon balls give a feeling of location.
The bench picture was a rather cruel attempt to draw attention to Ronnie’s height and in that it works pretty well. I have reproduced a kinder version of this picture which I am sure Ronnie will like better. Cropped, straightened and colour corrected. Ronnie on bench and Ronnie on bench 2.
The reflection shot was as I have said, a failure. The lens was indeed too short for the job. Had I taken it on my Olympus with the 50-200 it would have worked well enough. Reflected Ronnie.
The picture of Ronnie reclining in the chair was a one shot picture. I took a while framing it and got what I was after. Ronnie and canon.
I place the high resolution pictures in one new file and low resolution copies in another. This gives me my working jpgs in easy to locate files. The whole lot is then put in the Digital Practice file within my BA file.
The work flow I have followed here is that which I normally follow. It the work is in some way sensitive, as when working with children or vulnerable groups, an unedited copy of my work is given to the client in disc form to show what I have taken.
I do not make hi and lo res copies unless I am intending to put the results on the web in some way. If that is the intension I make the lo res copy at this stage to save time later.
As I said in my original introduction to you I go back to the days when film was the only option when taking pictures. It was then that I got in the habit of using a workflow as without one it was too easy to be up to ones knees in half processed work and unfiled strips of negatives.
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