Mac converting to DNG

[stustaff]

Hi I use Image Ingester to get images off of my camera it renames the images for me and also converts to DNG and inserts my ITPC standard profile from PS.

but after reading DAM book and browsing around am wondering if I should be working on my RAW files first then converting to DNG?

What do I gain by doing that? or am I imagining it?

[peterkrogh]

If you make your DNG files before you adjust, then you will take a big speed hit when you do finally adjust the RAW files.  Try it. (Make sure you have Camera Raw preferences set to update the Preview.)
Peter

[stustaff]

Wow quick response! thanks.

"Big speed hit" can you clarify that a touch.

I know its dependant on system to an extent but are we talking twice as long or a few seconds, minutes???

Also is that the only drawback of doing it that way round?

[peterkrogh]

Several seconds per image.  Try it.
Peter

[stustaff]

fair enough will do!

Only read the book once and seems good, but hasnt all sunk in yet.

btw its great to see an active forum with the author involved in it.

Had a similir experience with www.smugmug.com always makes me more likely to part with more money, just bought rank and file and will consider the raw adjustment thingy too once im more sorted.

[peterkrogh]

happy to oblige.
Peter

[pvonk]

I bought RapidFixer, but discovered that after using ImageIngester (converting to DNG), I couldn't use RapidFixer on the DNG files.  I had to use the Raw versions, then later convert to DNG.

- Pierre

[stustaff]

Cheers, I had a play last night and am now not converting to DNG until after RAW adjustments in Bridge.
I then use Automator on my mac to grab all of the RAW files convert them to DNG files and put them in the right folder and create copies for backing up purposes.

[BobSmith]

If you want to convert to DNG early in the workflow and not suffer the editing slow down... keep Camera Raw prefs set to NOT update the embeded jpeg preview.  Then update all at once after you've finished an editing session... or just before you add the images to an iView catalog.  As someone pointed out to me in another thread here, you can manually update the previews by selecting all of the images and opening in Camera Raw, then from the flyout menu select Export Settings.  Updating all at once will take a bit of time but its something that can easily be done unattended while you work on other tasks.

Bob Smith

[peterkrogh]

Bob,
The trouble with that methodology is that you now need to remember another step, and actually do it.  Personally, I already have enough steps in my workflow that I don't want to add two more (initial conversion to DNG before editing and later exporting previews.) 
Out of curiosity, why are you interested in converting to DNG so early?

Pierre,
Yes, RapidFixer only works on original RAWs, due to a bug in Bridge that won't let us configure it for DNG files.  In most cases that is the right order for making proofing corrections: Correct>Convert to DNG.

Peter

[pvonk]

Peter,

Good - I wanted to be sure that Rapidfixer worked only on RAWs.  That's fine by me, since RapidFixer is great for working with multiple images of similar shots, and it doesn't matter to me where in the workflow I do the converting to DNG.

I should add that after a few weeks of intense reading and experimenting, I think I've got a good workflow defined (basically using the DAM outline).  Since remembering this workflow is another matter (especially when long stretches of time elapse between photo shots), I've used Circus Ponies Notebook to create a document of the step-by-step procedures involved.  Now I can reference that as I go through the workflow.  I figure that in time I'll remember the process better as I use it more.

- Pierre

[peterkrogh]

Pierre,
Just like working with film, stuff that seems inscrutable at first becomes second-nature eventually.
In the meantime, the checklist or chart is very handy.
Peter

[BobSmith]

Out of curiosity, why are you interested in converting to DNG so early?

I don't always.  I'm still trying to sort out which is most convenient.  Initially I tried converting early as it just seemed like the thing to do.  As long as I'm going to archive and base a workflow on DNG, I might as well start working that way early on.  Then I hit the roadblock described in this thread.  Even understanding that, there are still times that I think I prefer to go ahead and convert to DNG, archive the native camera format files (Kodak and Canon, I don't catalog these) and move on.  With some jobs, I may not do final tweaking and cropping of raw files until well after the shoot.  And with some jobs I may be doing that to a lot of images, not just a couple of selects.  However I may want to go ahead and get this job into the archive and catalog system fairly early on just to clean up my "Working" drive.  Once you understand the issue with DNG preview rebuilding, I don't find it that much of a hinderance or slowdown to just remember to do an "Export Settings" at the end of an editing session.

Bob Smith