Digital photography workflow - input, processing and output
This overview of digital photography workflow will give newcomers to photography a conceptual idea of the relationships between camera, computer and images. Workflow is the term used to explain the steps you follow when performing particular computer based task and different tasks call for different workflows. A workflow is similar to a food recipe in that it consists of a list of actions to be carried out in a sequence until you get the job done. That is why so many computer and related books are called cookbooks - they contain logical workflows for solving everyday computing problems
All computers do the same thing - they Input, Process and Output files containing data.
Digital photos are computer files and a digital imaging application is used to interpret what the data means.
In digital photography we are always Inputting, Processing and Outputting data.
The camera inputs light, processes it and stores the image sensor data to a file
An image manager is used to import (input) files from the camera's memory card to the computer
Every time you edit and save a photo you are performing an Input, Process and Output routine.
The shaded area in the centre of the graphic above represents the computer and our digital photo software. As you can see the software is always performing the very same Input, Process and Output routine when you are working with images and editing them for various uses
Getting Organised - Create a logical folder structure on your file system
Create a folder structure on your hard drive that makes sense to you because this is the most important step in creating a good image management system. Choose a logical folder structure similar to this:
This is an excellent folder structure to use for several reasons:
- It yields a lot of meta information in a small space - Year, Month, Day and Event
- It is chronological - good for jogging the memory
- Easy to search if you know the year and/or month when a certain photo was taken
- Using numbers as prefixes for folder names ensures that folders appear in a logical sequence
- The event or location appears in the folder name and aids your power of memory recall
Input (image capture)
The camera has its own peculiar workflow and the basic steps of working with the camera are listed below but all we are basically doing is inputting light, processing it and outputting it to a file which is saved in the camera's memory card for later transfer to a computer. After the shoot you download the images to your computer and then manage and edit them using software and workflows which fulfil your requirements
Camera workflow
- Ensure the lens is clean
- Set the camera white balance to match the shooting conditions
- Choose an aperture value and shutter speed to match the subject
- Check that the camera's light meter is giving correct exposure readings
- Focus
- Press the shutter
- Assess the image quality shown on the LCD screen and make any necessary adjustments
- Transfer your images to the computer
Digital Photo Software
After images are loaded into the computer you will want to view, assess, edit, archive and share them. Generally there are 3 classifications for software applications we use for working with photos: image viewers, image management systems and photo editors
Your computer operating system will have a simple built in image viewer and you will use this all the time but for added features you could use something like the free IrfanView or Faststone image viewers which are lightweight, fast and very capable image viewers. A good image viewer makes it easy to navigate your folders quickly while offering thumbnail gallery views of each folder, full screen viewing, zoom and rotate functions and maybe a slideshow feature. Individual or batch renaming of images and folders is another feature found in good image viewers and some also have a print setup dialog and methods for uploading images to the internet. There are tons of image viewers out there as you can see from the wikipedia article comparison of image viewers
An image management system goes further than an image viewer and typically offers extensive features for the cataloguing, tagging and searching of large photo collections as well as offering a good selection of photo editing tools. Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom are top notch image management systems used by professional photographers whereas applications like Picasa and Photoscape are equipped to meet most of the needs of amateur photographers and home users. Some features of good image management systems include: non destructive photo editing, batch conversions, web page gallery creation, contact sheets, slideshow creation with a choice of templates and image transition effects
A Photo Editor is an application which is classified as a raster (or bitmap) editor and it allows the localised editing of areas of a photograph. It has sophisticated tools for photo retouching, painting, and working with layers and masks. Two world class photo editors are Adobe Photoshop and the free, open source and amazing GIMP. These tools take photo editing to a new level and they take time to master but their sheer power is pretty awesome. A great way to get started in photo editing is to use online photo editors such as Piknic or Photoshop Express because they are easy to use and packed with features. Check them out via the links at the end of this article
Processing
Image Processing is done within your image editing software. This is your "digital darkroom" and here you will come across such concepts as "lightbox" or "cropping" for example. These are the virtual equivalents of the traditional processing and editing tools that were used years ago and the retention of this photography lingo has helped many a traditional photographer when making the big transition to digital photography
Image processing techniques you might use include: exposure correction, colour correction, retouching, filtering, dodging and burning, air brushing, layering and compositing etc. Just learn how to use these until your pictures look right. If they look right then they probably are right so the editing stage is then complete. When you have finished editing your images and are happy that you can't improve them further these then become your master files and you should back them up. If you want to practice then use copies of your master files - you can then go mad and experiment freely while leaving your originals untouched
Each processing technique has it's own mini workflow and it is a good idea to read up on the different techniques and apply them to your images. You may want to create an electronic diary of all the techniques you learn and keep it at the ready. Photoshop cookbook anyone?
Output
There are many uses for photographic images but most people use them for making photographic prints or for use on the web. These two common methods of image reproduction have different requirements with regard to the image file size needed and lots of people get it wrong. In my next article pixels and printing I explain what you need to know about image sizes and resolution for printing and web use
If you try home printing using a photo printer then you will discover that it can be expensive. The running costs are high because there are so many different paper and ink combinations to experiment with and you soon find that the cost of replacement cartridges easily eats into the housekeeping money:-( ... you might prefer instead to upload your images to an on-line photo processing website where the cost of a high quality archival print is cheaper than making your own
Fine art photography justifies the expense of working with an A3 inkjet printer because specialist photographic papers are available from companies with a long standing in the photographic industry. One such company is hahnemuhle who make beautiful papers in watercolour, rag and parchment finishes. There are also small cottage industries like the Dot Foundry that specialise in fine art inkjet printing services for creatives like artists, photographers and designers
Putting it all together
To help illustrate the points I made about processing here is my usual routine for processing images after a photo shoot. Bear in mind that digital cameras spit out images with meaningless file names and this will help explain the reasoning
Image management workflow - after the shoot
- Create a new folder and import the images from the camera
- Backup the folder on to a pen drive (memory stick or portable USB hard drive)
- Open the image manager and weed out the duffers. Only a couple are usually keepers
- Close image manager and then manually rename each image using the file system manager
- Open image manager and let it rescan the folder to pick up the changes
- Copy the folder to the pen drive replacing the folder you backed up previously
Image editing workflow - editing the keepers
- Exposure and contrast adjustment
- Colour correction and filtering if required
- Crop
- Dodge and burn if required
- Spotting - remove any small imperfections in the image when viewed at full size
- Apply artistic effects if desired - painting, blur, soft focus etc etc
- Archive the original and create smaller versions of it for web use
Final thoughts
Divide and conquer as Cromwell would say. All the workflows in Digital Photography can be analysed separately or in relation to the bigger picture :-) using the Input, Processing and Output concept
