Your Work Flow 2.

EXERCISE: Your own workflow 2.

I am a member of the Deal Camera Club, which is currently in it's Summer recess.  During this time a number of us meet up to venture out to take pictures.  The venue is not chosen until the evening itself.   The choice is based on such factors as light, weather, tide, and whats happening in the area.  Because of this the choice of equipment can be difficult.  I guessed that with a dry and sunny evening we would most likely be taking either landscapes or seascapes.  I packed the Olympus E3 with a tripod and four lenses, a 7-14, a 11-22, a 14-54 an a 70-300.  I packed polarising filters for the last three.  The large front element of the 7-14 precludes auxiliary lenses.  Two spare batteries and some additional memory completed the equipment.

Seven of us met up and the decision was made to drive over to Thanet and chase the evening sun.  After checking out a couple of bays we settled on Botany Bay.  Botany Bay consists of a broad sandy area backed by tall chalk cliffs.  There was sufficient water remaining on the sand to give some neat reflections.  To the west was a promontory topped by a building.  I anticipated that the sun would  eventually disappear behind it.

As the wind was strong and gusting I mounted the camera on the tripod.  I started with the 7-14 lens as I wanted to get some wide shots of the cliffs and the beach.  The sky was a mix of blue and cloud and I wanted to included as much as possible.  With the sun behind me I had problems with my own shadow so had to move round.  This brought in the wet sand and the chance of the cliff being reflected in the water.  After taking the wide shots I changed to the 14-54 lens and took more pictures from further back.  This brought into play the reflections.  I had to experiment with exposure settings as the whiteness of the chalk cliffs was causing the the camera to under expose.  Opening up one stop cured this.  The histogram in live-view was a great help.

The next job was to find a position from which I could take the shots of the sun setting behind the western headland.  There were a large number of sea birds flying low across the western end of the beach.  This game me a new challenge.  To capture a bird or birds crossing the disc of the setting sun.  I know this can be done in Photoshop but I wanted to do it for real.  While I was setting this up one of our number walked into shot and gave me the classic small person in large landscape shot.  With the sun behind him and reflecting off the wet sand it looks OK.

After setting up for the last part of the shoot I returned to taking pictures of the cliffs which had now turned a nice warm colour as they picked up the colour of the reddening sun.

I changed to the 70-300 lens and set up for the last part of the session.  I was aware of the danger to both me and the camera's sensor in taking shots into the sun so take care not to over do it.  The biggest problem was to get the exposure right so that the sun retained its true colour.  This meant that the headland was thrown into silhouette. Left to the camera the shot over exposed and the sun and sky burned out.  In these circumstances the histogram was of little help.

As I had anticipated the sun set behind the building on the promontory.  As the sun got lower the birds came into play.  As it was too dangerous to look constantly through the viewfinder at the sun I pre-focussed and just hit the button each time a bird approached it.  As one can imagine this a very hit and miss approach but in the digital exposures cost nothing.  The results are not prize winner but I obtained the shot.    

The following day I checked my equipment for sand contamination.

I downloaded the files from the memory card into the Mac via a card reader and found I had taken some 240 exposures.  I named the file "Botany Bay. 10/07/13".  I made a preliminary check of the pictures using the Macs Quick View function.  I made a paper record of the 26 shots I thought may be worth further investigation.  These were reduced to 8.  These I named and worked on, cropping, cloning out unwanted figures, and generally tweaking.  I ended up with 7 pictures.

The last job was to make two files, one hi-res and one lo-res, name them and place them back in the Botany Bay file that was then placed in the Workflow 2 file within the BA file.

 This is my regular workflow system.  It gives me two usable jpg files, one for print use and one for net use.  I still retain the original which I can return to if I wish to select further shots.  This may not be the best workflow system but it does allow me to find files.  I an open to suggestion as to any better system.  When I first bought my Mac I opened up my files to its filing system.  After it scrambled my pictures it took a friendly IT guy to resurrect my files.  Since then I have been wary of proprietary systems.