- Canon EOS Rebel T4i DSLR with various EF and EF-S lenses
- Canon Vixia HFM301 camcorder
- GoPro Hero 3+
- Apple iPhone 5
- Apple iMac, 27-inch, Late 2012, 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 3 TB fusion drive
- Seagate FreeAgent 1.5 TB external hard drive
- Western Digital My Book Essential 3 TB external hard drive (x2)
OK, now onto my actual workflow...
(1) Shoot. For any given event, I generally shoot and save photos and videos in the highest possible resolution. For photos, I set my DSLR to the maximum resolution and save files in both JPG and RAW format. I don't really care much about the quality of the JPG, it's the RAW files that are important to me, more on these 2 topics later. For videos, I generally record at the highest resolution which for current entry-level camcorder technology is 1920x1080, but 2.7K and 4K are becoming more popular. I will take videos at 1920x1080 for most purposes, but if I anticipate needing to crop or perform heavy image stabilization in post-processing, I may shoot in 2.7K and 4K. In terms of frame rate, 30 fps is generally sufficient for most settings, but if possible then I may decide to shoot in 60 fps if there is fast-moving action and of course if that frame rate is available on the device at the resolution I'm shooting.
(2) Transfer. The first thing I do after shooting an event is to transfer content from my RAM cards and devices to my computer. If I've shot using multiple devices, I'll dump the contents into several folders on my iMac's internal hard drive, applying the following naming convention: yyyy-mm-dd event_description (source/format). I'll create a separate folder for each unique source/format, for example:
2014-04-01 Barack Obama's VIP Birthday Bash - White House (AVCHD)
2014-04-01 Barack Obama's VIP Birthday Bash - White House (CR2)
2014-04-01 Barack Obama's VIP Birthday Bash - White House (JPG)
2014-04-01 Barack Obama's VIP Birthday Bash - White House (GoPro)
2014-04-01 Barack Obama's VIP Birthday Bash - White House (iPhone)
The AVCHD format would contain videos from my Canon camcorder, where I'd transfer the entire AVCHD folder and its subfolders, all the way down to the .MTS files and their accompanying metadata files. The CR2 format is for Canon RAW files, and the JPG folder would be for in-camera JPG files. In this example, I might have taken some photos and videos with my GoPro Hero 3+, and maybe I took some photos with my iPhone using the panoramic setting. So you get the idea, all content is separated into different folders and named accordingly.
(3) Backup. Before I do anything else, I make backup copies like a madman. I immediately copy all of my exciting new content from my internal hard drive (let's call this HD1) onto my Seagate 1.5 TB external hard drive (HD2) for redundancy. This is an external hard drive that I have plugged into my iMac and leave on all the time, and the intent is to serve as a temporary backup to my internal hard drive. I also have 2 additional Western Digital external hard drives (HD3 and HD4) that I use exclusively to backup photo and video content, and the intent is to serve as a long-term backup. I do not always immediately backup my content from HD1 to HD3 and HD4 but rather perform this step every 1-2 months--this is mostly because I don't have enough USB slots on my iMac to have all these peripherals plugged in simultaneously and also because I don't find it necessary to keep HD3 and HD4 powered on all the time anyway. So to summarize, I will always have copies on at least HD1 and HD2 for short-term backups and eventually all of my content ends up on HD3 and HD4 for long-term backups. As time goes by, I may selectively delete content from HD1 and/or HD2 to free up space, provided that the content has already been backed up on HD3 and HD4. At any point in time, I will have a minimum of 2 copies of my content and possibly up to 4 copies for more recent content. Only after I have backed up my content, I will erase images off of their original storage media.
(4) Review. For photos, most of what I shoot is not worthwhile to post-process, so I review then quickly with a slideshow application. Currently I prefer Phoenix Slides because it is free and does what I need it to do in a quick and simple way: let me browse through each photo in full-screen mode and show me the filename. I review the in-camera JPG photos and write down the photos that I would like to either include in a home movie or share with others via email, social media, etc. For videos, I review using VLC which is also free and plays just about any video format. While reviewing, I write down the clips that I intend to process and/or share.
(5) Post-process. This step applies primarily to my photos. Assuming that I have content worthy of post-processing, I typically perform RAW conversions using Adobe Photoshop which brings up the Adobe Camera RAW dialog box. Typically I first apply lens profile corrections which I value most for correction of barrel distortion, especially at wider focal lengths. Then I often apply noise reduction, especially for photos shot in low light (high ISO) conditions. Depending on the lighting conditions, I often make adjustments to exposure, color temperature, highlights, shadows, and tone curves. I repeat this process for each photo. Some people ask me why I don't use RAW workflow apps like Apple Aperture or Adobe Lightroom. In short, because I don't usually shoot studio photos with constant lighting conditions, I apply different settings to every RAW conversion and don't find Aperture or Lightroom to be that helpful. I also rarely if ever go back to old RAW libraries so don't need a place to store all prior settings. I a control-freakish way, I actually prefer managing my files in the Mac OS X Finder and backing them up manually as described in steps 2 and 3 above. Another factor is that I don't like being app-dependent for my photo workflow management. Case in point, Apple recently announced plans to retire Aperture and migrate to a new Photos app which is under development. As I understand it, Aperture users will eventually need to migrate their photo libraries if they move their workflows to a new app, but I'm immune to this because I manage my files manually. Obviously this makes sense for me as a hobbyist, but I can see why professional photographers would find a lot of value in Aperture, Lightroom, and other tools. Perhaps I'll write more about RAW conversions in a separate post someday.
(6) Make Movies. For "significant" events like my daughter's birthday parties, school performances, family vacations, and trips to theme parks, I make home movies which typically run anywhere from 30 seconds to more than 10 minutes in duration, depending on the amount of photo and video footage I have. I perform almost all of my video editing in Apple Final Cut Pro X at 1920x1080 (full HD) resolution and 30 fps. If I have 60 fps video footage, then I might step up my entire home video to 60 fps. I usually add a title, transitions, and a fade at the end. For photo slideshows, I try to add a soundtrack and actually find this to be the hardest part of making home movies. Perhaps I'll write more about my video editing process in a separate post someday. After my video is complete, I export the video in its original full HD resolution for viewing on large computer monitors, our 60" HDTV, and for archival purposes.
(7) Share. Depending on the intended use case, I may share my photos and videos through a variety of channels. Generally speaking, I share "high resolution" files when I think the recipients may want to print or archive the content, and I share "low resolution" files when I prefer recipients to only view the content. For "high resolution" sharing, if I have less than 20 MB of content to share with a limited number of recipients, I might simply email the contents. For larger sizes, I typically post photos to Picasa Web Albums and post videos to my Dropbox account for viewing and downloading. For "low resolution" sharing, I reduce photo dimensions to 1600 or 1200 pixels along the longest border, typically using Photoshop which can batch process photos. I shrink videos down to 1280x720 (technically still HD) or 960x540 (preserving the original 16:9 aspect ratio and thus avoiding letterboxing or pillarboxing) or smaller. For this video conversion process, I use Xilisoft Video Converter since it has some useful presets and is easy to use. From there, I might post to Facebook or sync with my mobile devices. Regarding mobile device synchronization, since I've bought into the Apple iOS ecosystem, I dump the low-resolution photos and videos into iPhoto and iTunes respectively so I can sync them with my iPhone and iPad. As compared with people who shoot and store photos and videos with their iPhones, I have only my "greatest hits" on my mobile devices, and rather than storing 8 MP images on my phone, I have much smaller images that take up a fraction of the space so am able to store much more content.
Well, there you have it. I know that the above workflow is far more complicated than the average user workflow (e.g., shoot, share, and maybe backup), but I tend to obsess about the quality of my content and am happy to pay the workflow premium to get that quality. While many folks live in a mostly mobile computing environment where screen sizes tend to be small even for tablets, I still value large displays like desktop monitors and HDTVs where I can show content in higher resolution to bring out details. After all, I have to live up to my Digital Daddy moniker! What do you think about my workflow? Please feel free to leave comments below.
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