Watching the 2nd DVD

[danaltick]

Peter,

I've been going through the second DVD as time permits.  Hope to get through it all this weekend.  I just wanted to say the information is invaluable and you do a great job of presenting it.  I'm learning so much more now about the workflow with iView that's really critical to bringing it all together.  Thanks so much for creating these.  I'm sure I will have some more questions once I'm done.  So far though, everything you're doing makes perfect sense.  I will definitely be making some alterations to my workflow once I'm done.  I do have one question though.  I didn't see you backup your DNG's from folder 4 to your server.  I only saw you transfer them to your primary archive.  I'm assuming you do do that until the next bucket burn, correct?

Dan

[peterkrogh]

Dan,
the entire working files folder gets backed up every night.  The images stay on the primary workstation until the Bucket gets backed up twice.
Peter

[danaltick]

Peter,

Makes sense.  I'm assuming you use a mirror type job for your working files folders.  I move my DNG jobs into a subfolder called "Copied2Archive" that resides in my #4 folder once the DNG's have been copied to the primary archive.  I do this just to get them out of the way of incoming jobs.  If I remember correctly, I believe you said you have an analogous "Transferred to Archive" folder that you put them in.  Just making sure you're still doing things the same way.  I go ahead and just keep them in a "Copied2Archive" subfolder  that gets backed up along with the rest of the working files folders because I don't have an additional harddrive to store them on at this time.  My working files primary and secondary harddrives are about 80GB each so I can afford to keep them there until the next bucket burn.

Dan

[peterkrogh]

Dan,
that's exactly what I do.
Peter

[danaltick]

Peter,

Still making my way through the second DVD.  Just got through all the various ways of rating the images in iView.  I have not yet used iView for the initial rating of my images.  Would you mind briefly stating which views you prefer for which situations when rating, or do you bounce between them.

Do you ever use the Slideshow over the Lighttable for rating?

Also, what do you cite as the primary advantages to using iView over Bridge for ratings and re-adjustments.  Here's my take:

Advantages:
   1) Catalog Sets for grouping
   2) Seeing the sharpening effects
   3) 100% view in Lighttable
   4) Speed (not sure about this one)

Disadvantages:
   1) Slower re-adjustments due to re-building the DNG preview

Dan

[peterkrogh]

If images all get the same adjustment, then it's probably more efficient to rate in iView, since you get a faster 100% view, and you have more robust grouping tools.

If they need custom adjustments, then they need at least a preliminary rating in Bridge.
Peter

[danaltick]

Peter,

Thanks.  I will start doing some ratings in iView to get a feel for it.  I'm sure I will start to see it's advantages once I get hands-on with it.  You're video demonstrations were really good.  I believe that video is definitely the most effective means of relaying this type of information.

Dan

[danaltick]

Peter,

In reference to your last movie on derivative workflow, don't you have the same capability in iView to page through layered Tiff's the same way you page through layered PSD's?

I see now why you put alternate versions in a single file.  iView makes it convenient to page through them.

Dan

[peterkrogh]

Dan,
I have not checked recently, but I don't think so.  This is a quicktime capability that is leveraged by iView, not something the program does on its own.
Peter

[danaltick]

Peter,

You may be right there.  I will check that this evening when I get home.

I have seen the error of my ways now after watching your derivative workflow.  I definitely want to do it the way you are doing it.  I'm currently mirroring my current bucket to an alternate drive because I'm putting my derivatives directly into the current bucket rather than having a separate derivatives working files folder.  By doing it your way, I can get rid of the mirroring on the current bucket and just mirror my working files folders.  That makes it easier to add additional buckets without having to deal with changing a backup job everytime you add a new bucket.  The catalog will keep track of any additional metadata I make on those files, so no need to mirror for that reason either.  The mirroring only picks up embedded metadata anyway.

Once I have this in place (waiting on a new harddrive to arrive) our workflows should be pretty much identical.  I believe we will only have two basic differences that I opted for in order to save on hardware costs: 1) Creating Raw and DRV sub-buckets with a common parent bucket on a single drive that we discussed earlier.  2) Putting my Derivatives and Raws in the same catalog.  If you have a good reason for keeping your derivatives in a separate catalog let me know.  Since I'm keeping only one top-level bucket structure, I felt it only natural to keep only one top-level catalog.  Thanks.

Dan

[peterkrogh]

I would suggest that using a single catalog is ideal, if your library is small enough to fit in a single one.  I only split mine up because I have to.
Peter

[danaltick]

Great!

Right now too, my secondary archive is still on my LAN.  I'm going to switch that over to an external SATA solution as soon as possible.  Even though I have plenty of security on my LAN, there's really no sense keeping that disk spinning unnecessarily.  This will give me a chance to test out an inexpensive external SATA solution as well.  I think it's time I get in the habit of using Sneakernet ;-).

Dan

[Chris Bishop]

Watching how many times you replicate headings,sub headings etc into different catalogues (I understand why) isn't there a quicker copying method available? or was it just to make the explanation easier?
Chris Bishop

[peterkrogh]

I'm not sure what you are referring to exactly when you say "headings and sub-headings"
Peter

[Chris Bishop]

Question re Masters.
I can see how different versions of the same master can be created by judicious use of layers (As shown on the CD). Also the file structure is backed up, while the files are "current"--overnight??
What happens during the course of working on one file? It may take several hours. How do you insure against a computer freeze or crash? it must happens to MACs as well as PC's. Do you have multple versions of the "working file" saving every 5 minutes or so? and clear the older ones-daily or on completion of the job?
Using Elements it is easy to save as a "version of-".
 Chris Bishop