Photoshop CS - No More Workslow 2003 Seth Resnick For the past year or so, I have been living a secret life. Yup, the cat is now out of the bag. I have been doing all my workflow in Photoshop CS. A few years ago, I likely shot my last roll of film. I am fully digital and loving it, but up until CS, I had been severely missing an appendage from my film based life. No, not the chemicals, not the three-hour waiting time for E6, but rather the actual workflow. I remember the days that the film came back from the lab and was placed on a light table. I took my loupe and little red sharpie and put a dot on selects as I poured through the film. Even with twenty or thirty rolls of film, the process was fast and simple. Digital came along and the quality was amazing. The files from my Canon D30 were great, they were even better from my 1D and quite simply blow away from my 1Ds. I fell in love with digital. Everything was instant and I thought that my time taken away from shooting would be minimal. OOPS, this is where I miscalculated. Digital is neither cheaper nor is it less time consuming than film but it is substantially better in my book. The problem with digital is that workflow really became WORKSLOW. I was amazed that camera companies could build these phenomenal cameras, yet they couldn t build software that allowed a photographer to edit and work the way we have done for our whole lives. Workslow at its finest moment, when in fact production of digital still cameras leaped a whopping 59.7 percent in 2002. Adobe offered some relief with the introduction of Camera Raw but the editing process using the browser in PS 7 was painful. Many photographers were using combinations of software like Photoshop, Iview, PhotoMechanic, MacBibble and FotoStation. In reality, clients could care less if you used one application or fourteen. The client s only concern was the expectation of having the files yesterday. The use of multiple inefficient applications certainly didn t aid the process. With the release of Photoshop CS, ( 8 for all those who can t accept the notion of CS) workslow becomes WORKFLOW. CS isn t perfect but it is a vast improvement over 7.0 and truly allows a photographer to work fluidly in one application. Here are some of the key features, which truly improve workflow.
IT ALL STARTS WITH THE BROWSER The Browser is a new animal. It is command central for workflow in CS. One of the first things that appealed to me was the ability to make customized thumbnails with high quality previews. From the Photoshop Preferences menu one can choose a custom size for thumbnails. I have found that a size of 256 works extraordinarily well. With a layout like this, Photoshop finally resembles a photographers light table. The eye can easily scan the images picking selects and either flagging them, rearranging them or simply deciding right on the spot that an particular image is worth processing. Aiding in the basic editing process is a new configurable preview pane allowing for high-quality fast preview images to further aid in the editing process. Batch renaming to configure the camera files into a sequence, which fits your workflow, is cinch. Files should be renamed according to a naming structure that provides accurate information about each file and each job. I suggest a system based on the date and a series of letters defining the file. Example 20030602STKSR1_0017.tif 20030602 defines the date. With this file naming method, files are always sorted by date order. STK means Stock and SR in my system defines that it was generated by SR ( Seth Resnick). The number 1 defines that it was the first assignment or collection of images of the day. The numbers 0017.tif defines image number and type of file. File names should be limited to a total character length of 31 including the file format extension. I suggest that photographers put all of the information needed to define a file and job on paper and build a reference key for file naming. File names must include the 3-letter file format extension such as.tiff or.psd or.pdf. For cross platform considerations, file names should not contain special characters or symbols other than underscore or hyphen. Characters in such as \ / : *? " < > are reserved by the operating system's shell. Criteria such as high-resolution files, layered files or files that were published can be addressed with a naming convention. The browser can be even be used to search for keywords and metadata and insert metadata from customized templates. The Browser has clearly grownup. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore
The Browser in CS with customized thumbnails. I make mine 256 for easy selection process. I use a combination of the date and a sequence of letters to define information about every file.
CS Browser has a high quality preview panel for simplified editing and selection. Metadata can be applied to any or all of the images in the File Browser.
IT ALL RELATES WITH CAMERA RAW The entire concept of workflow in Photoshop CS becomes evident when using the second generation of Camera Raw to process files. CR is no longer a plug-in but rather part of Photoshop CS but that is only the beginning. There is a whole new UI with advanced calibration controls allowing the user to create customized color profiles tailored to specific cameras. Once the user adjusts an image to his or her particular tastes the settings for that image can be saved and applied to any image in the File Browser. The File Browser will also update the thumbnails to reflect changes applied by Camera Raw. Hopefully you can see where this is going. The key is that the photographer can now go through groups of images in a folder creating customized settings as they browse the folder and then apply those settings to different images in the File Browser and batch process all of them at once. We have all waited a long time but finally digital processing and editing is approaching the ease of the old film based world. A new UI for Camera Raw allowing even greater control over raw file processing
Settings for an image can be saved from the CR dialog box and applied to any image or groups of images in the File Browser. Camera Raw Settings can be applied to any image in the browser and the thumbnail will update to reflect those changes METADATA AT IT S FINEST. Metadata has taken a major leap forward in Photoshop CS with the deployment of XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform), which will hopefully establish a common metadata framework to standardize the creation, processing and interchange of document metadata across publishing
workflows. What does this mean for the future of metadata and it s usefulness to photographers and imaging artists? XMP holds the promise of providing a significant and extensive platform for a wide array of various implementations. The capability exists to use metadata for critical technologies such as Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM). The most impressive part of XMP is the ability to create custom File Information palettes customized to the needs of the individual. Although this is far from easy, it is a critical component of workflow. As time progresses the ability to create templates rather than writing code will no doubt exist but even in the current form XMP is a welcome addition to Photoshop CS. File Information drop down menu. The standard File Information menu in Photoshop CS
An Example of a customized File Information Template created using XMP. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER AND CALLING IT WORKFLOW Having the ability to use the File Browser, Camera Raw and File Information together in a seamless fashion sets the stage for real workflow. It all comes together in CS with the use of actions, which can run directly from the File Browser. For my own workflow I place my raw files in a folder named Raw-Source-Folder and all my processed images in a folder called destination-folder. By doing this I can always apply different batch actions easily because the source and destination are always the same. Inside the destination folder are additional folders for each task I am trying to accomplish with the action. Typically I will write an action that includes converting the raw file into a 16-bit file, applying different Camera Raw settings to images in the File Browser. The action will insert Metadata saving a copy as a 16-bit PSD. The action will create a subset of images as jpegs with the same metadata and conversions for use as files for the Copyright Office, my own Filemaker Database and for use as submission material to my stock agency. The key for me is that the actions process all the images at once and save iterations of the file directly to subset folders.
Workflow completely comes together with Photoshop CS. Source and destination folders with subset folders created for various actionable functions. Your own workflow will vary dependent on needs. Photographers are spending incredible amounts of time in front of computers, instead of using creative energy to make more imagery. Photoshop CS brings it all together. Fine camera hardware working with great software in a smooth and efficient fashion. This helps define the true process of workflow by allowing the wetware known as our brain to spend more time on the actual creation process. The change from workslow to workflow takes on new meaning with the release of the Photoshop CS. Seth Resnick Co-Founder D-65, LLC e-mail seth@d-65.com http://www.d-65.com Pixel Genius, LLC seth@pixelgenius.com info@pixelgenius.com http://www.pixelgenius.com