What’s In My Computer?
There are a ton of stories about “what is in my camera bag” and I will no doubt do that piece also. But today I thought I would quickly share with you what is in my computer and how I use some of the applications.
First off, I have a two computer set-up, I take a Mac Powerbook into the field and have an iMac back at the office which is where I prefer to do the majority of my work.
Powerbook
- Adobe Bridge & Photoshop: De-facto image editor.
- Daylite 3: Daylite is a great Customer Relationship Management project. It handles all of my contacts and calendar. It is also has project manager, notes, and tracks opportunities. What is special is that it integrates all of things and has some automation features for common tasks.
- Cyberduck: A FTP client, A great thing when you want to upload your photos “Old Skool” style to a server.
- Flickr Uploader: An application provided by flickr to upload photos.
- Browsers: Safari & Firefox, I had been a firm believer in Safari but then recently tried Firefox and was very impressed when it worked out better on some sites where I had layout issues when pages loaded.
- Image Rescue: I should knock on wood as I say this, but I haven’t had to use this yet. It came with one of my CF cards from Lexar to rescue pictures from bad CF cards.
- MarsEdit: Another new tool in my belt. MarsEdit is an offline blog editor which gives me more flexibility in my writing of blogs.
- Photo Mechanic: In the field PhotoMechanic is my image management tool. I use it to bring in my photos and image browser as I look for my selects. I also use it for my captioning and keywording. It is killer fast and the work done keywording and captioning isn’t lost when I bring my photos into my main digital asset manager (Aperture, see more below) on my main work machine.
- Photoshelter Uploader: An application provided by Photoshelter to upload photos.
- Soundslides: A great tool that many photojournalists use to create Flash based multimedia shows from images and sound/music.
iMac
- Aperture: I don’t think that my explanation would do justice to all that Apple’s Aperture. Think of it as the Swiss Army tool for digital imaging, it does more than you would expect and then a little more.
- Adobe Bridge & Photoshop: Same as above
- Daylite 3: Same as above
- Cyberduck: Same as above
- Flickr Uploader: Same as above
- Browsers: Safari & Firefox: Same as above
- Image Rescue: Same as above
- MarsEdit: Same as above
- Photo Mechanic: Same as above
- Photoshelter Uploader: Same as above
- Soundslides: Same as above
Busy Day For OffWing Photographers
Saturday was a busy day for the OffWing photographers. Kate McGovern was covering the exciting the story of the Capitals getting into the playoffs by the hair of their chinnie (not sure of the spelling on this), chin chin. Don’t get me wrong with that characterization, the Washington Caps have been playing great.
Alexander Semin celebrates his third period goal with Ovechkin and Green. The goal sealed the win for the Capitals at 3-1.
Photo by Kate McGovern
The Caps have completed an incredible comeback as the first team in the 30-team era of the NHL
Fun With Flickr
OffWing Photo uses both Photoshelter and Flickr to share our photos with clients and with fans. Like any good handyman the trick is using the right tool for the right job.
One tool that I have started using is referred to as a Badge by Flickr. Flickr provides both html and flash versions that you can include as part of any website. They also have several different layout options that you can personalize. Photoshelter has just launched a similar service however it is not as robust as the Flickr tool.
Following is an example of a Flickr badge, using photos from the last game we shot.
| www.flickr.com |
Click through to see and learn more.
Apple Introduces Aperture 2.0
Aperture is Apple’s pro photo management application that I use. Today Apple announced version 2.0 which I am excited to try out for myself.
Early reviews claim big improvements in speed which will make any photographer happy with.
For more information a great resource is the Aperture Users Professional Network (AUPN), they have a lot of great resources for photographers and illustrators that use Aperture.
AUPN will be a great place to check in over the next couple of weeks as more and more people work with the latest release and report their impressions.
Workflow: Image Storage And Archival
Previously we covered how to get the photos to your computer. This installment of photography workflow will cover how to best store and archive all the images.
My system for storing and archiving photos is based on a couple of principles. I have applied these principles then to my current situation which may be different than yours.
- My photos are my number one asset
- I am always looking to improve my system
- Multiple back-ups
- Images should be easily accessible
Making the back-up happens quickly in my workflow because cards and hard drives can and will go bad, guaranteed. The only question is when. For this reason I store my photos on two external hard drives (HD’s).
One HD is my working drive which has the images that I will work from as I process them. The other drive is a back-up that includes the same images.
Workflow: Getting Pictures Off The Camera & Into Your Computer
While most cameras allow you to connect directly to your computer to download pictures, save yourself the headache and get a card reader that you can keep connected to your computer.
Card readers of all brands come in two real versions based on how they connect to your computer, USB and Firewire (IEEE 1394). I have been able to pick up USB 2.0 readers at my local computer store for $9.99 and typically can download multiple types of memory cards. You can’t beat their price and they work fine if you are not under time restraints for downloading and accessing the pictures.
This year I bit the bullet and purchased a firewire card reader because the consistent throughput of data is faster than a USB reader. The firewire card readers I have seen will only fit one type of card. The one I use is pictured and will only work with Compact Flash cards which are the cards used in most Pro/Semi-Pro DSLRs.
The speed at which it downloads pictures is very important to me when I am on assignment and trying to quickly download the pictures so that they can be posted onto OffWing Opinion and distributed through our syndication service.
In between periods of events you will see the sport photographers running to empty their cards and upload their pictures as quickly as possible. Time is money…because editors on deadlines will run the best photos available at that time.
This part of the workflow is pretty much Straightforward. Let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them.
Have a Happy New Year!
What Happens To All Those Photos You Take?
If you don’t know the answer to that question then it is about time you spend some time thinking about “Workflow.” So what is workflow?
Workflow is everything that you do after you take the picture. It can be simple or complicated. My workflow might not work for you, there is no single perfect workflow. There however some basic elements to workflow.
- Acquiring the images from your camera
- Storing the images on the computer
- Processing the images
- Archiving the images
Sounds boring, eh? So why do I need to care?
Ahhhh, let me take you back a few days or weeks when you first got your new DSLR with that huge sensor of megapixels and the ability to fire the shutter 3-9 times per second. You take this beauty out take some picture of your son or daughter and you come back with a 4gig card full of pictures. So what do you do with all those pictures?
Having a consistent method for handling all those images will make your life much happier and increase the chance that someone will actually see some of those great pictures you took.
I have put a lot of thought into this because of the amount of pictures that I take at a typical event. Of course these are just a reference, your mileage may vary:
- hockey game: 150 – 300images
- wedding: 300 – 700 images
- swim meet: 200 – 300 images
- soccer game: 70 – 150 images
Stay tuned as I try to help you figure out what you should do with all of your great pictures. Shoot me questions and I will try to answer them the best I can.
I will leave you today with a fun read about Sports Illustrated’s digital workflow from Rob Galbraith’s Digital Photography Insights written in 2004.
