My photography workflow 2020

Setting up a "workflow" or an organisation to your work, is a key part of moving from a beginner to immediate kill and above. So a bit about my photography workflow since I am slowly retiring my old Mac Mini and OSX Snow Leopard and moving to an old Windows 10 desktop. Just before COVID-19 turned the world upside down I had also got a new camera not supported by any of the RAW converters I was using. 

Shooting


For my veteran Canon 450D I have a couple of styles setup from Cinescopophilia shooting RAW + JPEG. I have in the past sometimes shot RAW only, but it was a pain if software didn't support it. But now even my phone can process the CR2 RAW files!




On my X100 and X-T100 mirrorless cameras I have started to try and follow the tips from In Camera: Perfect Pictures Straight Out of the Camera by Gordon Laing with general settings from Fredrik Averpil and Film simulation settings on Fuji Weekly The X100 is also another veteran now, but being a premium camera when launched it has 3 custom settings compared to the newer entry level X-T100 that only has one setting :-(

The red thumb grips add a bit of bling and make the smaller mirrorless bodies a bit easier to use. As does the screw in soft release button on the X100. I also use my spare on my Grandad's old Olympus Trip 35 film camera.

Editing and storing

The biggest journey I have been on in photography is my technique around editing. I used to like DxO Optics and the very finely tuned body + lens corrections, but as a hobbyist it's a bit of overkill, the equivalent of a startup adopting the process a multinational needs. 

I have 5 key bits of software I use - RAW conversion to "develop" and polish photos. Library to store, search, and organise. Film effects to give a vintage look, if I'm honest usually to make up for errors in shooting settings ;-). HDR for landscapes or interiors with tricky lighting for a single frame to capture. Finally, Panorama stitcher for when I don't have a wide enough lens to do a scene justice, or to provide a much higher resolution image than I could with a single frame.


From;

  • RAW conversion: Digital Photo Professional (DPP), DxO Optics 6, Aperture
  • Library: Aperture
  • Film effects: DxO FilmLab 3, CameraBag
  • HDR: HDRist
  • Panorama: Panorama Maker 4




To;

  • Raw conversion: DPP 4, CaptureOne Fujifilm express, CameraBag Pro, Polarr Pro (also on Chromebook and iPhone)
  • Library: CaptureOne Fujifilm express
  • Film effects: CameraBag Pro
  • HDR: Skylum Aurora 2018
  • Panorama: Panorama Maker 6


The main switch has been giving up Aperture. It's a shame that Apple retired it, I plan on going back to Apple hardware once finances allow and trying out Gentleman Coders RAW Power as a successor to Aperture. I have been tempted by Lightroom at several points, but the relationship that CaptureOne has with Fuji plus some good reviews comparing them means I'd rather pay for CaptureOne Fujifilm. One minor faff at the moment is using either DPP or CameraBag Pro to convert my Canon RAW files to TIFF, so that I can edit them in the Fuji specific version of CaptureOne. I don't shot that much on it anymore, but I find as my skills improve I'm editing RAW files over a decade old!

Polarr Pro and CameraBag Pro are both good value Lightroom alternatives for the kind of photo editing I do. They also have free trials, so it's worth taking a look.

One addition to my workflow is syncing my output folder to Amazon Photos, plus manually backing up originals periodically. I used to copy all my iPhone photos into the same local file system on my Mac Mini, but now I also sync that automatically. Luckily the GoPro and Canon software can automatically pull photos off the memory card. They then go into source folders that Amazon backup is watching. The technology pretty much just works, and it is one less thing to think about.

Before I realised that Amazon photos stored uncompressed hi-res files by default, I was planning on using Google Photos to go alongside my Chromebook. I've used Picasa since before Google took it over and folded it into Google+, before a linkage with Google drive and then its current incarnation. It's slowly become less useful and if it wasn't a key consumer feature to have, I expect it would already be in the Google graveyard.

Having created order and a system with my photography has been oddly therapeutic. It's also a useful skill to practice! 

Sharing

This is one part that I am still figuring out. I used to use Flickr as my main way of sharing images, with albums on Facebook. Now I seem to be in a cycle of sharing an image (or small set) on Instagram. It feels like the community on Instagram is much more like the community of 2008 Flickr. I also have a small portfolio on GuruShots. So far from their competitions I have got photos that are going to be in exhibitions for galleries in Berlin, Stockholm, and Melbourne. For a hobbyist like me, it helps give inspiration and focus on what to do next.

Comparisons of Lightroom and CaptureOne

In case any Lightroom uses are interested in jumping ship. Lightroom seems to be the "average" RAW converter these days - not the worst, but not the best either.

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