It is about time to add another post about my current post-production workflow. I shared my experience with using “free software” in very details but this was back in 2015 with two smaller updates in early 2016. Now in 2018, many things have changed.
Hardware
Post-production happens now on Apple hardware only. I replaced my windows powered 17″ laptop with a small 13″ MacBook Pro for two reasons. Mobility: The 17″ laptop was so heavy and so large, I couldn’t take it with me. Although, labeled as “Laptop” it’s more a fix desktop solution. Monitor Colours: The large laptop frequently changed monitor colour-settings when attaching an external monitor or using certain programs. Whenever I started to edit photos, I first had to run through the colour calibration process. Annoying.
My 13″ MacBook Pro fits weights almost nothing and fits into any size backpack or bag. Further, no application installed on my mac turns the screen to blueish or reddish and no colour calibration needed.
Software
As much as I want to get rid of using Adobe Subscription, I haven’t found a way around it. Thus, all me editing is still done using Adobe Lightroom.
Workflow
- Copying all files from memory cards to the external drive
- Importing all files from external drive into Lightroom
- Browsing through all newly imported photos and reject them [press X] if I don’t like them.
- Delete and remove from disk rejected files [command + delete]
- I then go through the remaining photos again and rate them with 3* [I like it] or 5* [I love it].
- I crop so that the main object of the photo is into the one of crosses of the thirds. Specially with animals on the move, composing the photo before taking the shot is not really an option.
- I then go through the different sections of Lightroom’s control in the right column with particular attention to shift the histogram if necessary and to enhance/balance the colours and to suppress noise. I almost never use additional software like photoshop or affinity photo to edit photos.
- Finally, I geo-target the photo using the map and export the edited photos into a temporary folder on the desktop
Organizing and editing the photos of an average output of a photo session [about 1000 shots] takes me up to three hours. Most time consuming task is the selection and rating of the photos though. At the end, I have about a handful photos ready to be published.
Publishing
The 5* rated photos are published in my Flickr account. All new species and interesting close ups of other species are published in my web site Fauna & Flora Photography.
I used to publish frequently in Fauna & Flora Facebook page and on Instagram. Nevertheless, recent events at Facebook have discouraged myself to continue using Facebook and Instagram.
Featured Image
Close up Great Blue Heron [Ardea herodias], Rapids Park Lachine, (c) KHMuller 2018
Note: I intentionally excluded two subjects which are my current photography gear and video recording. I will discuss these subjects in a separate post in the near future. I am expecting some significant gear upgrades in the next days which would make any thoughts about my current gear obsolete within days, My video processing workflow is such a mess not worth talking about.
Disclaimer: Products and services of all brands mentioned in this post have been purchased by myself and they are not mentioned here because I recommend them but solely because they currently are part of my workflow.
