> my brother's father-in-law > (there's gotta be a shorter way to say that)
If you're from West Virginia, 'father'. > -----Original Message----- > From: pdml-boun...@pdml.net [mailto:pdml-boun...@pdml.net] On > Behalf Of D. Glenn Arthur Jr. > Sent: 07 January 2010 19:52 > To: pdml@pdml.net > Subject: Whingeing about workflow > > At the family Christmas party, my brother's father-in-law > (there's gotta be a shorter way to say that) asked about my > photography and whether I did it for money, and I commented > that if I were any good at the _marketing_, I'd do it for > money. He asked me to round up a sampling of my work and > he'd see whether he could do anything to help with the > marketing angle. So I've been going through a lot of my > recent-ish backlog, picking out portfolio-worthy shots to > edit into shape. (When I go back home, I'll fire up the > scanner; here at Mom's house, I'm going by what I have on > hand on CF cards, CD, and cluttering up my laptop's hard drive.) > > The first step, of course, is to decide which photos are > worth spending any time on. I'm also trying to get some of > these folders of photos moved off onto CD to free up space on > the laptop. So I'm going through lots of images, deciding > which to copy (well, hard-link) to the "possible portfolio > candidates" folder to take a closer look at later and maybe > fire up GIMP on. > > And it strikes me that when I'm going through a collection of > photos where I tried different angles and lighting on the > same subject, or where I shot lots of frames of some event, > that culling the duds and picking out which of the good shots > to consider redundant ... was a whole lot easier when I was > sorting through a stack of 4x6 glossy proofs that I could > easily shuffle, look at in twos and threes next to each > other, etc. I haven't found an approach yet that feels > anywhere near as smooth or natural on the computer. > > And that's even before we get into the whole business with > corrections and adjustments the folks at the lab did for me > when I was paying somebody to develop and print. (OTOH, an > awful lot of film from the last couple of years before I got > the *istD is still in the freezer waiting for me to be able > to afford to have somebody develop and print it, so even > though digital is a lot more work, I'm actually _seeing_ what > I've shot instead of tossing it in the freezer to hopefully see > someday.) > > At the aforementioned Christmas party, folks saw me shooting > with a Fancy Camera (i.e. not a P&S, and with a big ol' flash > unit stuck on the shoe), and asked when they'd see the > pictures. So I made an effort to winnow that evening's shots > and tweak (crop/levels/etc.) the good ones in time to hand a > CD to my brother two days later when I knew he'd be stopping > by. I didn't keep close track, but it was something like 16 > hours of editing for one party worth (three or four hours) of > mostly casual shooting[*]. > > I'm sure I'll get faster at this as I go on. But I suspect > that choosing a subject, composing the shot, working out > lighting, and operating the camera will all continue to count > as The Easy Part. > (Maybe I need to team up with somebody who doesn't like > taking photos but loves editing them, and whose aesthetic > closely resembles > mine.) In the meantime, I guess I ought to crawl through the > mailing list archives for advice on digital workflow and > tools that I skipped over before. > > Anyhow, I just felt a need to whine about how long this > instant technology is taking me. Now to get back to editing > instead of whining for a while ... > > -- Glenn > > [*] I did go into Serious Photographer mode to try to capture > the smokestack on the cardboard-box "hotel" my nepphew made > out of the box a gigantic flat-screen television had come in > -- my brother stuck a humidifier inside so the mist would > come out the chimney and look like smoke. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly > above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
