Sunday, April 20, 2014

Three thoughts RE: Post Processing

The Good

 
I have read about how other people organize their folder structure when dealing with their photos, and I've incorporated various ideas and have had a good structure, in my opinion, as an initial stab.
 
I use Nikon ViewNX2 and its Transfer software to import and manage my folders. I also have Adobe Bridge and Adobe Elements 12, but I prefer the Nikon software. It will read from the storage device (I actually pull the card(s) out of the camera and insert them into SD card readers built directly into my Windows 7 PC) and will copy to two folders with the one process. I copy to my internal hard drive for my working copy as well as to an external USB hard drive for a back up. At the same time, the software will re-name and re-number the files (using something more useful like "CaveSpring_20140410_001.NEF").
 
If desired, I can also add EXIF data or even delete the originals from the SD card. I rarely do the deletion - that way I have the originals until the copy process is done. Before I go shooting again I reformat the SD card in the camera to help make sure it's formatted the way the camera likes it.
 
The problem I've had with my folder structure until recently is how to handle the images after post processing and I think I've settled on a decent structure. In each of the main image sub-folders, I create a sub-folder I label "Publish". This is where I store the images after post processing, whether I've used Nikon CaptureNX 2, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, or Adobe Elements. This folder contains all of the images I've touched and declared ready for others to see. But, they're not quite done at that point...
 
I've created a logo that I put on all of my images (or try to). Adobe Lightroom makes it very easy to apply the logo in a batch process (BTW, I don't know how they do it in Lightroom since Lightroom doesn't support layers through the user interface) and to apply other processing if desired, such as sharpening and resizing. What I normally do, then, is run all of the images in the "Publish" folder into one or two additional folders: 1) one sub-folder under the "Publish" folder that I call "FullSize" which I use Lightroom for adding the logo and nothing else, and 2) another sub-folder that I call "2048" which I use Lightroom for adding the logo, applying a small amount of sharpening, and resizing so that the maximum size of either the width or height is 2048 pixels. I use this folder to store images that I post on Facebook or on this blog.
 
My top level folders are generally broken down into a high level subject such as "Arizona", "Family", "Pets", or "Music". Under that I'll have a more specific sub-folder with perhaps additional sub-folders separated by date. For example, I've been to Dead Horse Ranch State Park a number of times so I would have folders similar to the following, including my "Publish" and sub-folders:
 
<drive:/>Pictures
                    Arizona
                             Dead Horse Ranch State Park
                                        Dead Horse Ranch State Park 20130828
                                                 Publish
                                                         2048
                                                         FullSize
                                        Dead Horse Ranch State Park 20130915
                                                 Publish
                                                         2048
                                                         FullSize
                                        Dead Horse Ranch State Park 20131107
                                                 Publish
                                                         2048
                                                         FullSize

Note that it may be desirable to have additional folders under the Publish folder, for example, if you use special treatment for printing you could have a folder using the printers name.

This structure  more readily separates the original images from the edited images so I don't have to wade through folders with hundreds of files trying to figure out which ones I've selected for publishing or otherwise doing something useful with.

The OKAY (not so good, not so bad)


Once I get the post processing done, I've settled on trying to use "jAlbum" software for hosting my own image gallery as a place to show them off. It is pretty popular and after trying a number of the freebie sites, like flickr.com, jAlbum offers things I want. Specifically, it supports GPS information embedded in images by displaying an image on a Google map corresponding to where the picture was taken. I think that is cool.

The software has a nice look (I'm using the "Turtle" skin) and works pretty well on multiple devices by resizing the images, etc. It has a good amount of functionality such as thumbnails, the google maps, and a shopping cart.

However, it's inexpensive and it seems to work accordingly. Like a lot of software these days, there is very little help documentation available. My copy seems to hang up frequently when I'm uploading files to my host. I can't do much of anything else on the PC when it's running. It doesn't seem to like images or folders with names that include spaces - which I don't mind, but I wish there was some sort of documentation that let you know about this instead of having to figure out why some images cause the software to abort.

I see things that make me realize that it is still kind of a hack bit of software, such as dialog boxes saying it's processing item 5 of 0 (zero). The timers it tries to display are as bad as most Microsoft timers - it'll say 1 hour remaining for an hour then it'll be finished without showing any of the shorter durations. I know that's hard software to write (especially software that is dependent on an Internet connection), and maybe the better statistic is something like the number of bytes or files processed.

There are other things like dialog boxes that display at their default size but command buttons are only half displayed. Settings that can't be set (like the URL for the website in the "Upload/Manage" dialog (what kind of name or English is that?).

I don't think the authors are native English speakers, which is fine, but it'd be nice if they'd found an English speaker to do translations or grammar checks, perhaps pay them by giving them a free copy of the software. I'm sure there would be takers out there somewhere.

I paid my $40 and I'll use it but I won't brag about it or advertise for them.

You can see my site at: http://www.RandyMorter.com/photos

The Bad


One final note about post processing. While I enjoy getting my images ready to show to the world, I've found over the last couple of months that sitting at my PC using the mouse so extensively causes me pain in my right shoulder (I'm right handed and use the mouse with my right hand).

I have to take a break at least every hour or so. I don't even want to spend more than maybe 4 hours total doing post processing in order to keep my shoulder out of the red zone. I never thought that taking pictures would cause pain!

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