Informal Poll: What would you like to see added to dpBestflow?

[peterkrogh]

We've got a number of things planned, but we'd be interested in hearing what technology or workflow items you would most like to add t the site.
Peter

[JanRSmit]

Peter,

A first suggestion:
In the life-cycle from capture to archive, i suggest to add Publish.This because publishing(in the broad sense) is the primary reason for taking pictures, and the most difficult step in the life-cycle, because of the great variety of publication channels, use and duration. Also the step that provides the rewards or added value (commercially or otherwise), all other steps are basically "costs" and serve the "vallue add or reward" that comes from publishing.

Jan R. Smit

[JanRSmit]

Wrt to file-name conventions:
The aspect missing is the realm in which the file-name will provide uniqueness, thus prevent from accidental overwrite with some other file just happening to have the same name. So in short: provision of uniqueness and scope within.
When your file(s) get transferred to another realm, fi your website or your customer's environment, how do you keep track of that file-name?
Ideally something like EAN code or ISBN code provides uniquess within the world of large portion of the world as scope.
EAN in very simple terms provides a unique code for a manufacturer's product or product type(the catalog id, not an actual occurence).
The same can be applied to digital image products, once an image is final (developed) and ready for archiving/publication, assign a EAN like filename to it, and keep that filename from then on till the very end. This approach also prevents from generating unique names for the many files that never make it to the "product" stage.


Jan R. Smit

[timhoke]

Please add a jpeg workflow.  This is an area which is lacking from many resources.  I don't intend to have this be a replacement workflow for shooting RAW, but a supplement.  I realize that many people interested in these topics are certainly shooting RAW (as am I for many things), but how many people ALSO have a point-n-shoot that will ONLY capture jpeg?  I know I do.  For me, this ends up being the camera that can drop in my shirt pocket or go in the diaper bag for my wife who's on an outing with the kids.  Problem is, there isn't any (or none that I've found readily incorporated with RAW workflows) information that helps pull in those occasional jpeg images into the workflow.

So, this request is twofold:
1. Please add some supplemental jpeg information
2. Please point me in the right direction on incorporating jpeg into my workflow

[peterkrogh]

Jan,
I like the idea of adding Publish to workflow. I'll talk it over with Richard.

Tim,
JPEG workflow is very high on our list of demonstrations to add. You're right, a lot of people ignore it, but in some cases, it's the right solution.  we were thinking of it in the context of an event or photojournalism workflow, but it would also be valuable to add "pocket camera" workflow - how do you integrate JPEG workflow into a mostly raw workflow.  Once again, I'll talk it over with Richard.

Great ideas - keep them coming.
Peter

[BoglePhoto]

Peter:

This is more a specific question of a best practice for copyright registration. I would note that the site does a great job of explaining and summarize the topic, and bring together the resources to answer questions on the registration process in a clear and direct manner. My question is when you create the folders or files for copyright in a resized and JPEG format in a zip file, do you then archive that folder or the files as well? Where is that done (in which catalog or place, e.g. separate in a copyright folder or part of the image archive) to have a record of what was submitted and in what form? Is it saved in the 3-2-1 format as well, or do you rely on the Copyright office acceptance and records to be part of that backup?

I think that addition would be helpful.

Great work on the website. It really does a great job of answering questions and setting it out in a complete and understandable manner.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

[peterkrogh]

Bill,
It would be a best practice ot same a sample deposit (to hard drive or optical disc) as well as a notation in your catalog(s) that indicates the registration.
We'll be adding workflow videos for this as well.
Peter

[JanRSmit]

Jan,
I like the idea of adding Publish to workflow. I'll talk it over with Richard.

Tim,
JPEG workflow is very high on our list of demonstrations to add. You're right, a lot of people ignore it, but in some cases, it's the right solution.  we were thinking of it in the context of an event or photojournalism workflow, but it would also be valuable to add "pocket camera" workflow - how do you integrate JPEG workflow into a mostly raw workflow.  Once again, I'll talk it over with Richard.

Great ideas - keep them coming.
Peter

Peter,


I have a document with a concept of the workflow, how can i send this to you?



Regards,

Jan R. Smit

info@janrsmit.com

[peterkrogh]

peter at peterkrogh dot com

[R. Neil Haugen]

Peter,

I would second the need for a JPEG workflow intermingled with RAW/DNG. We are a portrait/wedding studio, shooting both Fuji S5 and D3. We do one or two country-club memberships a year, similar to church directory shooting. I shoot 'em on the D3, they take the card immediately to my wife to see 'em on-screen and order. We've got just minutes per subject/family. The software she sells from only reads jpegs and tiffs ... so I've a setting set on the D3 to get the best jpeg's I can, the white-balance is carefully set, and it works well.

The questions come in when we get back to the studio after a month out ... so far we treat them as "originals", and work them in Lightroom/CS4 to prep for printing, and export "final" jpeg's to send to the lab. Some are completely handled within Lightroom, so we've a derivative jpeg from a jpeg original ... some have been to CS4 with a tiff saved back, and a further derivative jpeg exported from the tiff.

I have wondered about going to a DNG workflow, converting both my NEF files and the wife's RAF files to DNG on ingestion ... and doing the same with camera-created jpegs just to be "consistent".

Questions, questions, questions ... how else would we keep so busy?

Neil

[peterkrogh]

Neil,
It's likely that we would first do a JPEG workflow where the entire shoot is captured JPEG - possibly a photojournalism or event workflow.  The workflow you're asking about sounds a bit specialized, since it seems to be centered on an application that can only read JPEG files.

As a general comment, I'd say use the capture format that best serves the end result. A high throughput environment with controlled lighting is an ideal JPEG candidate.

And while a DNG workflow for your original JPEGs might make sense eventually, I think it's probably best to let a JPEG be a JPEG for the workflow you outline.
Peter

[barbaramiller]

Hi Peter:

We Location Scouts also work in Jpeg.  I am in the process of trying to shoot RAW, learn to be fast in lightroom and output in JPEG for work; but until I really have it down, I keep going back to JPEG since it seems faster when producers are applying pressure to post photos ASAP (which has changed from before the next morning to an hour or two after shooting ends).  It's annoying because, at the end of the day (or year), I am stuck with some great shots that I wish were in RAW format.

Another issue that I have is that when we post our photos to a website, each location is one folder.  This emphasizes the folder hierarchy over keyword, which seems to point me to Bridge rather than Lr, but it's too slow.  I think I
just have to learn better how to create folders (collections) in Lr where I can also utilize keywording; but each location will have different keywords and I might shoot 12 locations in a day (restaurant, store, factory, ranch, etc.) so
it's hard to keyword on import.

Anyway, I'm sure this is all way too specialized.  But, I'm all in favor of JPEG workflow being outlined.

Thanks,
Barbara

And now back to dpBestflow as I think someone said you had a video about zero-ing out drives on the site.

[peterkrogh]

Barbara,
Yes, JPEG workflow is planned.
As to the folder organization, you might want to look into a web service like Smugmug or Flickr pro to see what is available that can organize more robustly than simple folders.  And that, too, is something we'd like to cover.
Peter

[Chris Bishop]

The ability to download and save the video would be good. I have the book, but would like to access the video when I don't have the internet. Possibly use a code within the book if needed?
Chris Bishop