July 05, 2006
iPhoto RAW Workflow
The “low end” in Low End DSLR extends to the software that I use for editing photos. Up until recently, that was Photoshop 7, since I have not upgraded to either CS version yet, along with the File Viewer Utility and Digital Photo Professional software from Canon (both included with the camera). I used the Canon software to view the RAW files and make my selects for additional editing in Photoshop after exporting them.
While this worked, it wasn’t anything approaching an optimal workflow. In fact it was too frustrating, slow and awkward to really be called a workflow, more like a work bottleneck. Add to this that I was doing this on an 867MHz 12-inch PowerBook G4, and you can see where much of the frustration came in (not to mention the lack of USB 2.0 for importing the photos onto the PowerBook to further add to the bottleneck).
With the acquisition of a G5 iMac (reasons for purchasing that are detailed at iBlog), the workflow has improved. Included in the iMac is the latest version of iLife, including iPhoto 6. This update to iPhoto has greatly improved RAW support and handling, along with an increase in the number of photos it can handle, and the speed with which it deals with them.
After having worked with the software for some time, I have begun to fall into some patterns of use that can reasonably be called a workflow. I’m sure this will be refined as I continue to discover new ways to work with the software, and my even be replaced at some point in the future should I upgrade Photoshop or even to Lightbox or Aperture. But for now this is a good low end workflow.
Import
To save on camera battery, I invested in a basic card reader that stays connected to the iMac. When I pop a card in, iPhoto comes to the fore and I import the photos. Depending on the contents of the card, before clicking the Import button, I might take some time to add a description.
Project Album
The next step is to create what I think of as a Project Album. This is analogous to the idea of Projects in Aperture. All the photos from a particular shoot go into this album. If the shoot is all on a single media card all the photos are automatically selected once they have finished importing. Otherwise I select all the photos from the Library that I want included in the album. Then I click the New Album button on the bottom left corner of the iPhoto window (it looks like a “+” sign), and name it something like “Photos - Sabino Canyon.” The selected photos are automatically added to this album. (Click images to enlarge.)
Keyword Assistant
This little piece of software has become an important ingredient in my workflow. Keywords are critical for keeping track of photos, but are painful to add using iPhoto. Keyword Assistant takes away the pain. You can add multiple keywords to photos, even creating new ones on the spot. The auto-complete feature comes in handy when you are creating new keywords, so that you don’t end up with similar keywords to describe the same thing—“California” and “CA” for example.
If you don’t have Keyword Assistant, you can assign keywords to one or more photos by selecting them and the choosing Get Info from the Photos menu (Command-I), and then clicking the appropriate checkmarks after selecting the Keywords tab in the resulting Photo Info window. Adding Keywords to the list means opening iPhoto’s Preferences (iPhoto/Preferences… or Command-,) and clicking Keywords. Then click the “+” button at the bottom left of the window and type your new keyword. It will show up in the Photo Info window. You can also re-order the keywords in the Preferences window and they will be re-ordered in the Photo Info window.
Perhaps now you can see why I like Keyword Assistant.
Once I’ve assigned keywords to the photos I use those keywords when creating smart folders for each photography project.
Smart Albums for Selects
I take a lot of photos of my family when they are with me on various excursions where I take photos. It is useful to be able to quickly sort through which photos include family members and which do not when I am making selects. In fact I want to make selects of family and non-family photos. So I make some Smart Albums and they do the sorting for me.
Clicking the “+” button gives me a choice of what kind of album I want to add. The pop-up choices include Album, Smart Album, Book, Calendar, Card and Slideshow. The default choice is Album.
I first create a Family Smart Album. In keeping with the previous example, I’ll name it something like “Family - Sabino Canyon.” Clicking Create lets me configure the Smart Album. Here I restrict photos to the Photos - Sabino Canyon album by choosing that album from the list in the last pop-up menu. Then I click the “+” button for another set of conditions. This time I choose Keyword from the first pop-up. The second pop-up changes to contains, which is what I want. The third pop-up changes to a text box so you can fill in what you want. If you want to limit it to the exact keyword, then you can change the second pop-up to is to get a choice of Keywords in the third pop-up; choose the Family Keyword.
Click OK and all the photos in the selected album with a keyword of Family are added to the Smart Album.
Then I’ll Right-click (or Control Click if you have a one-button mouse) on the Smart Album I just created and choose Duplicate from the contextual menu. This has the desired effect, adding a “2” to the name of the Smart Album (if your duplicated album’s name ends in a number, that number will be incremented by one). Double-click the Smart Album to edit its name. This time I’ll delete the “2” and call it “Family Selects - Sabino Canyon.”
Right-click again and choose Edit Smart Album from the contextual menu. This brings up the same sheet as before. This time I add a condition based on the photo’s rating. Add a new condition by clicking the “+” button. Choose My Rating from the first pop-up and is from the second pop-up. Click the fifth bullet to make the rating 5 stars and click OK.
I duplicate this Smart Album and rename it to “Selects - Sabino Canyon” as before. Then I edit it and change the second pop-up in the Keyword condition from contains to does not contain, and click OK. Now I have a Smart Album that picks all my five star images that do not contain family members, as well as one that does contain family members. Both of these are also restricted to the same project, as defined by a particular folder.
Project Folder
I’ve just added 4 albums to my source pane. If I do this every time I import photos it won’t take long to fill that pane up with albums, so I create a new Folder (File/New Folder) and name it something like “Sabino Canyon.” Then I drag all the new albums into that folder, which I can toggle open or closed with the disclosure triangle to its left. This helps keep things a bit more organized in the Source pane.
With the Project Folder selected, I go through each image and give it a rating—either no rating or 5 stars to begin with. This sorts the best images into the appropriate Selects folder depending on if it has a Family Keyword or not. This can be done in a slideshow - set the time per slide to something like 60 seconds so you can have enough time to evaluate each picture without it automatically advancing to the next image. You might want to turn music off so it is not a distraction. You can rate each image as it goes by.
Or you can simply magnify each image to fill the pane and step through them, adding your ratings as as you go.
Just getting started
Now that I have my Selects and Family Selects, I can further refine my choices, use the Effects and Adjust panels in Full Screen Mode to make tweaks to exposure or the histogram, or send the image out to Photoshop for further editing.
I’ll save that for another post…
