What is Your Post Workflow?
- Thread starter SkvLTD
- Start date
sonicbuffalo_RIP
Senior Member
@Horoscope Fish.....thanks....I really like to hear about pp tools because I'm gonna be buying something soon. I don't have the cc, but I do have Lightroom 5.7, and PE.....have you tried PE? Which Nik Tools Program do you recommend first? I'm no big into B & W, so I'm not sure about Silver Efx.
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Perhaps it will come with more experience. I'm reminded often that I haven't had any other camera besides a point and shoot since the '70s, when being capable taking good photographs mattered much more than the ease of the digital age.
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
I've used Photoshop Elements a little bit, yes... In my mind PE is a mixture of both Lightroom and Photoshop. I rather like it, but I don't care for software that catalogs my shots, I have a system for that and prefer to handle it myself.
As for NIK Tools, there are tons of videos on Youtube and Lynda that will guide you. The nice thing about NIK is that there are pre-sets you can choose from but you can also adjust them easily (and dramatically) using sliders. If you want to go "full manual" there's an app for that (Viveza). All the adjustments in NIK are applied to a separate layer so if you decide you don't like the changes, you just trash that layer and you're back to square one.
All of the tools in NIK are pretty easy to use since they come with pre-sets. Vivzea is the only one you might find confusing at first because it's like shooting in Manual and there's no set path to take or any real direction provided; it's all up to you and what you want to accomplish. Color Efex Pro is probably where most people start but all the tools, really, are pretty intuitive. You might even find yourself being drawn to the "artsy fartsy" B&W crowd once you see how easy Silver Efex is to use...
I'd suggest you download the free trial, give it a whirl and see what you think.
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I'm shooting digital since August or something and although the first impression was that the digital age is easier, I'm not longer sure that's really the case. In the past I put in my film, exposed according the ISO it had and the conditions I was shooting in, framed the shot and pushed the trigger. Getting it right was about the only thing I had to worry about since there was too much time between the shot taken and the shot seen to allow me a second try at it.
Now in the digital age, the shot taken and the shot seen are only as long apart as the shutter used. It gives us plenty an opportunity to get it right for those shot that allow it. But instead of just having to get my exposure right for my ISO and frame it, I have to think about many things more than I had to in the past. What ISO will I use best? Do I underexpose or overexpose a bit to get more out of the scene? How far can I go with my settings and still recover that in post?
I'm not saying I have it difficult but while shooting there's a lot more I have to consider than I did in the past. It's because the technology these days gives me much more control than I had in the past. And just like with film, occasionally I have to wait until I am doing post, to see if I got it right. The LCD only shows that much.
Slipperman
Senior Member
i have my SDHC card reader set up to auto start Nikon Transfer which is where i specify the destination directory and file names. Transfer itself is setup to start NX2 once the transfer of pics is complete but i don't do any editing there - i do that in Photoshop which i start up manually. i drag and drop the RAW files from NX2 (like the fact that you can use it like File Explorer) into PS and do all my editing with Camera Raw. after doing basic stuff in Raw (can't remember the exact names of the tabs i use but i do exposure comp, contrast, lens correction (or straightening), aberation removal, luminance, saturation, etc), i may or may not use Nik to spice things up. same with other filters. all created/edited jpgs are stored in the same directory as the Raw file so everything is in one place.
maybe not the most efficient cataloging method but it works for me. it's the storage thing that may become an issue. i store all my pics on my PC's hard drive and have a WD Passport set up to automatically back up that main directory. trouble is i may very well run out of space on my HD soon meaning i'll have to change my store/backup routine.
maybe not the most efficient cataloging method but it works for me. it's the storage thing that may become an issue. i store all my pics on my PC's hard drive and have a WD Passport set up to automatically back up that main directory. trouble is i may very well run out of space on my HD soon meaning i'll have to change my store/backup routine.
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rocketman122
Senior Member
the black and white is really great in the color efex but silver efex is just astounding for black and white. really gorgeous stuff. shame though its laggy to load or to run a filter. but it is what it is. older versions were much quicker.
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Agreed... Silver Efex is astounding. NIK Tools is nothing short of astounding if you ask me...
I can't really complain about lag, but the computer I use at home for post processing has 16GB of system RAM because I'd heard a lot of horror stories about how much memory it consumes. I wouldn't mind things being faster still but no real complaints from me regarding speed, really. Maybe you need an upgrade?? Hmmmmm... I'm very good at spending other people's money, so just let me know if you require any assistance.
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SkvLTD
Senior Member
So, what does NIK do that shop can't? Or is it just a clever collection of good presets for any situation imaginable + usual manual tweaks? I do most adjusts by hand when needs be (playing with contrast and colors if I'm making a B/W, etc), and I can't really imagine what ACR lacks on almost any front.
@YOT , when you shoot in RAW camera does absolutely nothing to the image. Easiest example of quick and easy post op is making it properly sharp and say, tweaking the white balance. Can be a completely different photo from just a raw, RAW.
@YOT , when you shoot in RAW camera does absolutely nothing to the image. Easiest example of quick and easy post op is making it properly sharp and say, tweaking the white balance. Can be a completely different photo from just a raw, RAW.
rocketman122
Senior Member
load PS. I use PS CS6 then run efex pro. I use 4. I counted 8 seconds the first time and 6 seconds the 2nd time. and this is on an extremely fast SSD. try it and let me know. anything over 4 seconds to me is slow for a plugin. if PS takes 5 seconds and a plugin takes more than the heavy PS to load then its inneficient and bloated. and it hasnt changed much since 2 versions back. only lightly tweaked.
specs are fine. dont assume people dont know gear. how many people take apart their GPU to clean it from dust? how many people know how to take apart their laptops and clean it as well?
FX8350 (dont bring up intel, I hate them with a passion)
8GB corsair ram
GA-990FXA-UD5
GTX660
EVO 850 256gb SSD
excellent for editing D3/D3s files.
the software is very slow. has gotten bloated from version to version. likie adobe software
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Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Wow, okay... Sorry if I offended. I wasn't making assumptions I was being humorous.
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SkvLTD
Senior Member
Somehow I'm still not complaining about speed using a laptop, but the bulk of work is now the comp doing a batch jpegging while I read/watch flicks/do my own thing, so given that most jobs aren't hour nor minute sensitive, speed is pretty relative unless you do heavy video work.
1. Copy pictures from card to Macbook
2. Copy from Macbook to my server so I have two copies
3. Do a "first pass" of the pictures on my Macbook, deleting ones that I'm not fond of. Get frustrated with how slow my Macbook became for this step after the upgrade to Mavericks.
4. Import the remainder into Aperture
5. Correct them in Aperture as needed.
6. Export JPGs from Aperture
7. Copy 'final' raw + jpg files to my server
8. Run a script to import them into my normal directory system
9. Eventually, enter data about each picture into my home-brew database (title, location, categories). Sometimes I do this immediately; other times it can take me a couple weeks to get finished.
2. Copy from Macbook to my server so I have two copies
3. Do a "first pass" of the pictures on my Macbook, deleting ones that I'm not fond of. Get frustrated with how slow my Macbook became for this step after the upgrade to Mavericks.
4. Import the remainder into Aperture
5. Correct them in Aperture as needed.
6. Export JPGs from Aperture
7. Copy 'final' raw + jpg files to my server
8. Run a script to import them into my normal directory system
9. Eventually, enter data about each picture into my home-brew database (title, location, categories). Sometimes I do this immediately; other times it can take me a couple weeks to get finished.