Workflow

Image production workflow (Wedding photographs)

These are the methods and procedures I use to produce/post process my wedding image workflow before presenting the finished product to the customer 

     Shoot/Record images:

I use Canon 5d cameras to record my images, I use these cameras because of their low light caperbilities which are very good at shooting in low light circumstances and environments. I use these cameras in preference to other canon models because they have full frame caperblities which produce outatanding clarity and definition.

I have used other canon models to produce the same images such as the 7D for example but in caparrison their is deifinatly no competition with the quality and clarity of images that are produced on full frame cameras. The 7D uses a crop sensor which cannot produce the same difinition as full frame sensors. The end result produces images that are of inferior quality and contain much more noise and less detail than images produded by full frame cameras

Using Canon 5D2 and 5D3 cameras I record all of my images into my camera memory cards. The cards I use consist of Compaq Flash and SD cards. I use high end fast Lexar cards with write  speeds of upto 90 mb per second, this allows me to use rapid frame bursts to capture those unmissable confetti shots etc 

The really good feature about my Canon 5D3 is it has dual card slots,1 SD and 1 CF which enables me to record my images twice, both at the same time which is grerat for a backup when I'm shooting wedding photographs. I can shoot one card in jpg and one in raw. In comparrison to my 5D2 which only has one Cf card slot to record images I find this double feature an excellent addition whch can speed up my work flow

 

Download images from camera

I use a very fast card reader to download my images to my Imac or Sony Vaio laptop,this is a Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot reader which is extremely fast  reader which enables files to be downloaded in seconds rather than minutes from less superior card readers

I have tried other brand card readers in the past such as Sandisk and Kingston and these do not  seem to be a patch on the Lexor professional for speed and reliability

Catalogue of images

When my images are downloded to my Mac or laptop I use a folder system where my images are dated and catologued before I open up the images in the software "Adobe Bridge"

I use this software to view my photographs in large batches after they have been taken. This enbles me to view and seperate different formats of images such as Jpg and Raw
I can view and edit large batches of images and will regularly take 500 images at the average wedding. I view, grade and remove unwanted undesirable or out of focus images from here and narrow my best images down to about 200

I then rate my images using a star rating system which is built into the software which enabled me to easily group and rate my photographs for final selection by labeling each image with a 1-5 star rating or colour code them using 5 different colours built into the software 

     

Shown below is a screen grab from my Bridge software which shows the star ratings given to my photographs which makes life far easier when I want to select a group of images all with the same ratings

Once graded with a star rating It is then very easy to display just 4 or 5 star images instead of trawling through all of your images to find your best shots

Post Process Images:

Some of my final 200 images may need working on to enhance their appearance so I normally load them into the sofeware Photoshop CS5 where I work on them to embellish and enhance their appearance. I use Photoshop CS5 at home on my I mac and CS3 on my laptop, I also use CC6 in college to post process my images before going to print

This is the stage of the workflow where the images are given final adjustments before being saved and stored before going to print.

Some of my images need certain processing to make them look their best. I change lighting,tones,white balance,colour and sharpening here. I normally set up"Batch processing" a technique in Photooshop or Bridge where a group of images are selected and then worked on as a "batch" instead of working on them individually which would take hours to complete. This allowed me to process a large group of photographs which all have the same characteristics as one another. In this way they all had the same process applied to them for eg, white balance, image size and cropping

Applying "actions" and "batch processing" using PS5 and Bridge

This grab shows how I set up an action in Photoshop to manipulate a whole batch of images before they were batch processed

I set up an "action" within Photoshop which enabled me to "Batch Process" most of my images. I applied this process to all my images to change image size and cropping which saved altering every single image one by one which would have taken hours instead of minutes

Image sharpening and final checks:

Shown here are some of my Actions that  I use in Photoshop to speed up my workflow

I set up another "Action" within Photoshop that applied a final sharpening of 15% to all of my images after post processing them.This, I find gave my images a final burst of sharpness and clarity. I find giving over 15-20 % sharpening to my images starts to degrade the images and adds a more grainy effect which is not pleasing to the eye. I used the unsharp mask filter within Photoshop for this process. I gave a last visual check to my images then gave a final check to remove any unwanted or obtrusive objects that would be shown in the final print

I am in the process of buying Adobe Lghtroom 4 the Wedding photography industry standard software for post processing my images, I hope to review this software shortly and compare my results over the Christmas period. Shown here is a video of kevin Kubota world renown wedding and portrait photographer who demonstrates the wedding photography work flow using Adbe Lightroom to post process his images