Author Topic: Workflow  (Read 9202 times)

Offline JT701

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Workflow
« on: May 29, 2008, 03:14:03 AM »
Hi there,

I have had PM for a about six weeks now and am sorry to say I only use it for ingesting my files.  I then tend to use lightroom for everything else which means that I am duplicating the import.

I now am going to be doing some press work, so need to get my workflow sorted and fast.

Over the weekend, I plan to practise with PM importing tagging captioning etc.

So if there is any workflow lists you guys have or tutorials i would appreciate your help.

So far any work I have done for magazines there is no rush on and any names etc were acceptable in a word document.  but now i need to get them images all into my laptop sorted add the info and away.  And I havent a clue were to start.

Please help.

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Workflow
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2008, 08:48:52 PM »
Hi there,

I have had PM for a about six weeks now and am sorry to say I only use it for ingesting my files.  I then tend to use lightroom for everything else which means that I am duplicating the import.

I now am going to be doing some press work, so need to get my workflow sorted and fast.

Over the weekend, I plan to practise with PM importing tagging captioning etc.

So if there is any workflow lists you guys have or tutorials i would appreciate your help.

In the downloadable manual there are some workflow examples:

http://camerabits.fileburst.com/Photo_Mechanic_4.5.3_Manual.pdf

Since you're using Lightroom it will be helpful to setup Photo Mechanic to be more compatible with Adobe's products.  Most important is to use an XMP workflow.  Below are the recommended settings for the IPTC/XMP tab of the Photo Mechanic Preferences dialog.




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Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Workflow
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2008, 08:50:52 PM »
If you really don't want to modify your RAW files at all, you can uncheck the option to embed IPTC data in TIFF-based RAW files.  Next I recommend setting up the Files tab of the Photo Mechanic Preferences dialog to look like this:



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Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Workflow
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2008, 09:13:05 PM »
The most important setting is the option to add tag, color class and rating to IPTC/XMP data for all photos.  This will maintain Photo Mechanic's 'soft edits' through editing in other applications.

Last but not least, I suggest opening up both apps and then make the Color Class colors and labels (on the General tab of Photo Mechanic's Preferences dialog) match your Lightroom settings.

Then use Ingest to download your images to a Primary destination and a Secondary destination.  Applying an IPTC Stationery Pad is also a good idea.  Start with only the fields and information that are applicable to the entire set of photos that you're ingesting.  Things like the Photographer, Caption writers, City, State, Country, your contact information, and copyright are often common between all photos.  Using Photo Mechanic's 'variables' can be a real time-saver here.  For instance in the Copyright field, you can put something like:

Copyright (c) {year4} your name

into the Copyright field.  When you apply the IPTC Stationery Pad to your photos the year that the photo was taken will be used in the Copyright field for each photo.

You can also rename your photos during the Ingest if you like.  You can also do the renaming later if you prefer, or do no renaming at all.

If you setup Ingest to open Contact Sheets while the images are being downloaded you can begin working with your images as soon as they begin to appear.  When you put your mouse cursor over the images you'll see four icons, two of which will allow you to rotate your images 90 degrees, and one will bring up the IPTC Info for an image (it looks like the letter 'i').  The last icon will preview your images.

While in the Preview window you can view your images in fairly rapid succession by pressing the 'right-arrow' key.  If you want to zoom in on some details in an image, hold down the Command key (or Ctrl key on Windows) and click on the area of interest.  It will zoom in at your current zoom level (by default it is 100%).  Command-click (or Ctrl-click on Windows) again to zoom back out.  The 't' key will toggle the tag checkbox, and there are many more keyboard shortcuts for Color Class and Rating your photos.  Check the manual for details.

What many people do is make multiple passes through their images, the first one to just get rid of any photos that are obviously of no use, then make another pass to rate or classify the images.

Once you have culled your images down you can then switch to using Lightroom to make any RAW adjustments and if you have Lightroom just reference the photos where they reside then you can switch between the two apps to make use of each app's useful features.

Hopefully this will help you get things started and get you familiar with Photo Mechanic.

-Kirk


Offline JT701

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Re: Workflow
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2008, 11:49:50 PM »
HI Kirk,

I really Appreciate all your help. Thanks.

I shot a concert last night and soley used PM to do everything bar edit them in CS3 which was just a crop and a levels. so this is what I did.

I shot the concert in Jpeg, as in Fine format and medium size (nikon)

1. Ingested whole card.

2. Went through each pic and pressed T on the ones I liked.

3. Kept hitting F3 to only show up my narrowed selection.

4. When I got down to my final 20 I then went through each one that needed a levels or crop alteration and hit CTRL E opened it in CS3 and did what I           needed to do.

5. Saved the images before closing it in CS3

6. Back in PM I then Applied my Captioning, (this was probably my slowest part.)  I already had my standard stuff in there like Copyright 2008 Kirth Ferris, my web address etc. But then needed to put in the captions.  So using the typical WHO, WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY Theory I entered something like:-

Louis Walsh pictured backstage before the Shayne Ward Concert at Belfast's Odyssey Arena on Thursday 30th May 2008 (Pictures by Kirth Ferris)

As I knew the last bit Belfast's Odyssey Arena on Thursday 30th May 2008 (Pictures by Kirth Ferris) would stay the same I simply selected all the images and then pasted this in.  So for my next two images which were of the crowd I simply typed in Fans wait to see Shayne Ward in Concert at which then completed the whole caption.

For the other images of the artist I then just added Shayne Ward performs on stage at before it to complete the caption.

7. I then selected them all and clicked save as and put them in another folder which I always save as the Artist/Job/Venue/Day :- Shayne Ward Concert Belfast Odyssey Arena 30th May 2008.


In seeing what all I did do you think there is anything I can sharpen up on.  I think my captioning might need a bit of work to be honest.

Any feedback from you press or sports guys would be much appreciated.

Kirth




Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Workflow
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2008, 06:19:24 AM »
Kirth,

I really Appreciate all your help. Thanks.

I shot a concert last night and soley used PM to do everything bar edit them in CS3 which was just a crop and a levels. so this is what I did.

I shot the concert in Jpeg, as in Fine format and medium size (nikon)

1. Ingested whole card.

2. Went through each pic and pressed T on the ones I liked.

3. Kept hitting F3 to only show up my narrowed selection.

4. When I got down to my final 20 I then went through each one that needed a levels or crop alteration and hit CTRL E opened it in CS3 and did what I           needed to do.

5. Saved the images before closing it in CS3

6. Back in PM I then Applied my Captioning, (this was probably my slowest part.)  I already had my standard stuff in there like Copyright 2008 Kirth Ferris, my web address etc. But then needed to put in the captions.  So using the typical WHO, WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY Theory I entered something like:-

Louis Walsh pictured backstage before the Shayne Ward Concert at Belfast's Odyssey Arena on Thursday 30th May 2008 (Pictures by Kirth Ferris)

As I knew the last bit Belfast's Odyssey Arena on Thursday 30th May 2008 (Pictures by Kirth Ferris) would stay the same I simply selected all the images and then pasted this in.  So for my next two images which were of the crowd I simply typed in Fans wait to see Shayne Ward in Concert at which then completed the whole caption.

For the other images of the artist I then just added Shayne Ward performs on stage at before it to complete the caption.

7. I then selected them all and clicked save as and put them in another folder which I always save as the Artist/Job/Venue/Day :- Shayne Ward Concert Belfast Odyssey Arena 30th May 2008.


In seeing what all I did do you think there is anything I can sharpen up on.  I think my captioning might need a bit of work to be honest.

Any feedback from you press or sports guys would be much appreciated.

If you're shooting events and you know who the 'players' are beforehand, you can really speed up your captioning by using Photo Mechanic's Code Replacement feature.  Basically Code Replacement is a form of shorthand where you create a set of short symbols (Codes) that expand into larger phrases.  You create a simple text file that has the following format:

code[tab]replacement
code[tab]replacement
code[tab]replacement

Where you see [tab] you type the Tab key.  So for your event you may create a file that looks like this:
lw    Louis Walsh
sw    Shane Ward
swc    Shane Ward Concert
loc    Belfast's Odyssey Arena
kf    Kirth Ferris

Then you save this text file and load it into Code Replacement by using the 'Set Code Replacements...' item on the Edit menu.  There you can choose your Code Replacement delimiter character.  By default this is the backslash key, but you can use whatever is convenient for you.  Back in the IPTC Info dialog you can use your Codes to quickly caption your photos.  In your example here is what you would have had to enter:

\lw\ pictured backstage before the \swc\ at \loc\ on {dow} {day}th {mnn} {year4} (Pictures by \kf\)

That would have expanded to:

Louis Walsh pictured backstage before the Shayne Ward Concert at Belfast's Odyssey Arena on {dow} {day}th {mnn} {year4} (Pictures by Kirth Ferris)

and when you saved the IPTC Info, the variables would have done the rest:

Louis Walsh pictured backstage before the Shayne Ward Concert at Belfast's Odyssey Arena on Thursday 30th May 2008 (Pictures by Kirth Ferris)

It may have been faster to have just entered the date manually instead of using the variables.  But the Code Replacement certainly saves keystrokes and once you get used to it, Code Replacement can really save time.

HTH,

-Kirk