Rudy Lopez Photography » Utilities/Data Management

HDR Tutorial – Part 2 of 2. Workflow and Editing

Rudy Lopez — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:06:07 +0000

This is the final part of the HDR tutorial, covering the processing and data management aspects of creating an HDR image. The process is better understood when presented in a way that follows a standard workflow, so I have created a few screencasts that will follow my regular process.

Screencast 1: Generating an HDR image

HDR tutorial 1 of 3: Generating an HDR from rudy lopez on Vimeo.

Screencast 2: Processing and Data Management

HDR Tutorial 2 of 3: Processing and Data Management from rudy lopez on Vimeo.

Screencast 3: Editing and Export

HDR Tutorial 3 of 3: Editing and Exporting from rudy lopez on Vimeo.

It is important to remember that the key to success is practice, practice, practice. The more you shoot, the better you will like your results. If you have any questions, please comment and I will respond quickly.

Aperture 2 Tutorials #2 – Selecting, Editing, Cropping, and Exporting Photos

Rudy Lopez — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:08:19 +0000

Now that your new images have been cataloged in the Aperture 2 library, it’s time to select, edit, and export the shots. You will need files that are versatile, good for print and web.

Excerpt from the video:

This tutorial will lead you through the selection, editing, cropping and rename-export process.

Open Aperture 2 and select the project you want to work on.
Click the Quick Preview icon to keep RAW images from loading while making selections.
Make your selections by clicking the green checkmark. This will assign 5 stars to the image.
You can isolate your favorite images by filtering the five star rated images.
You will need to disable Quick Preview in order to edit the images.
Click on the image you would like to edit. Information about the image is displayed in the adjustments tab.
Watch the following video for the rest of the tutorial.

Watch Aperture 2 Tutorials #1 – Importing and Organizing Photos.

Learn more about Data Management and Workflow with Aperture 2.

Aperture 2 Tutorials #1 – Importing and Organizing Photos

Rudy Lopez — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:02:17 +0000

Aperture 2 can be a daunting program without any guidance. The following video is the first tutorial in a series designed to make using Aperture 2 easier to use. This video covers workflow from beginning to end, importing photos and getting organized.

Excerpt from the video:

Create a folder called “dump folder” on your desktop. This is a permanent folder, you will use it to temporarily hold all new pictures until they are uploaded into an Aperture 2 Library.
Create a folder with a name you would like to have for the project. We will call this folder “House Plant Photos.”
Set Image Capture to import into the “dump folder.” Download Images.
Drag the images from the “dump folder” into the project folder.
Watch the video below to learn the rest!

Learn more about Data Management and Workflow with Aperture 2.

Data Management and Workflow with Aperture 2

Rudy Lopez — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:15:19 +0000

Creating beautiful images in only part of what it takes to be a successful photographer. Managing large amounts of data while still being able to access it quickly and easily is one of the biggest challenges facing photographers.

Today’s high resolution cameras generate an enormous amount of data very quickly, a 12mp camera will produce a 15mb RAW file. If you consider that a busy shooter will take hundreds of photos per week, the gigabytes add up very quickly. Developing a smart workflow and data storage/management strategy will allow you to concentrate on shooting, not where you are going to put your images (or worse, looking for a single image among thousands). I will be outlining my workflow and data management as a guide, your workflow will vary.

Here is my setup

iMac 23″ 2.4 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR2 SDRAM
1TB of space for storage, external drives (4)
Hoodman Firewire800 HDMA card reader
16 GB Pro UDMA CF cards (4gb each)
Aperture 2 (managing/organizing master files, keywords, tags, metadata)
Photoshop CS3 (batch processing, mostly)
DF Studio (for client proofs, final image delivery, archiving)

PC users can use essentially the same setup using Adobe LightRoom instead of Aperture 2. Both programs work on the “library” method of managing files. Okay, I am a bit of a Mac snob, but I will say that my Mac workflow is about a million times better than my best PC workflow. So, my advice is to switch to Mac as soon as it’s feasible.

The Four Commandments of Digital Photography

Always shoot RAW. No sense in not utilizing every pixel at your disposal. You will be able to generate and export any size file from your libraries.
Do Not Delete. Save all of your shots, the good, the bad, and the ugly. This serves two purposes, first, you can examine the bad images so you can improve your shots the next time you find yourself in a similar shooting situation. Second, just because YOU think it’s a bad shot, someone else might love it. Trust me on this one.
Do Not Edit Master Files. Your original RAW files should be treated very carefully. Think of engraving plates used to print money. Any changes made to the plate will show up on every copy.
Stay Organized. Once you begin your workflow, you need to follow it to the end.

It is possible to manage your images without using an application like Aperture 2 or LightRoom, but it is not recommended and will not be covered here.

The Digital Workflow

New Photos:

Import into Computer – Create a folder on your desktop called “Daily Dump Folder” or just “Dump Folder”. Download your images into this folder.
Import into Aperture 2 – Open Aperture 2 and drag the files from your dump folder into the library. Aperture 2 will automatically create a new project called “untitled project”. You can change this to indicate the date, subject matter, location, etc.. If you want to add more photos to this project later, you will drag the new shots into that folder and it will not create a new project. All of your projects are kept in a library. You can have as many libraries as you want. For example, I have alibrary specifically for pictures of my daughter, a library for each invoice period, etc.. Once the images have finished importing into Aperture 2, you can delete the files from your dump folder. Exact copies of the RAW files have been added to your Aperture library, where they will remain safe and warm.
Stack Images - Select the images you would like to keep as a group, then (apple key) + K. This will keep your images in a stack. Stack or unstack at anytime to make viewing easier.
Create Album - Select a new stack of images, the (apple key) + E to choose all of the images within the stack, then (apple key) + L to create a new album within your project.
Review and Select Final Images - Check the images you would like to use (using the green check mark will automatically assign 5 stars).
Export from Aperture – Select your final images, then ctrl + (apple key) + E to activate the Export dialog. From here you can rename your images as well as choose the size to export (JPEG – Original Size, for example). Export the images to a folder on your desktop. These images are now ready. Your original files have not been altered, the JPEG in the export folder is a version of your originals.

A note on libraries:

I only keep my active Aperture library on the hard drive on my computer. Every two weeks, I will create a new library, sending the previous library to an external drive. Each month has two libraries that hold all of the images for the period. If I need to locate an image from say, April 2006, all i have to do is open that library and its right there.

The key is consistency. If you use the same workflow every time, you will never have problems managing your data.

Happy Shooting!