RAW-image-file capture 195Workfl ow: pictures, you’ve got pictures
One of the few problems with digital image capture is that
you tend to shoot more photographs than you might otherwise
do if you actually had to pay for processing them. (You really
have to pay for all these extra images—there is no free digital
lunch—but that’s a topic for another book.) If you’re going to
make lots of pictures, you’re going to need a process to manage
them.
It all starts at before you begin making photographs. If you are
shooting an assignment with specifi c sections or categories of
shots, you may want to organize your images directly in the
camera and onto your memory card. Every professional digital
camera has its own methodology for creating folders and assign-
ing image fi le numbers, so take some time to read the manual—it
could save you time later in the workfl ow. If you can assign a
group of image fi les from a particular sequence or event, as you
shoot them, to a specifi c folder, you won’t have to do so later in
the workfl ow process.
You might want to consider how you set your fi le-numbering
system too: most cameras give you the option of resetting to zero
each time you insert a memory card, whereas others permit
sequential numbering; some let you do both. Even if you’re
shooting on 4 GB cards, the choice of sequential fi le numbering
avoids the problem of creating identical fi lenames and also
keeps a running total of how many images you have captured
with the camera. Those shutters won’t last forever, partner, so
think of it as an image odometer.
Get rid of the dogs right away. During a break in shooting,
take some time to chimp your photographs on your camera’s
LCD screen, erasing those that don’t make the grade. Don’t be
too hard on yourself (unless you don’t have many memory
cards)—you can keep marginal ones for later, more-critical
evaluation or to be used to create composite images, something
that I often do.“Chimping,” if you’re not familiar
with the term, is the behavior that
some digital camera owners
exhibit when looking at pictures
on those very same LCD screens.
Oooooh, ahhhhh, ooooooh...
know what I mean, Vern? © 2005
Joe Farace.