Working Smart

Digital Photography Workflow

Earlier this summer, my wife bought me a Canon Digital Rebel XT SLR camera for my birthday. Prior to that, I had a very portable Sony Cybershot DSC-1 (non SLR, point-and-shoot). I enjoyed the Cybershot, but I thought I might be ready to upgrade to an SLR camera. Thankfully, my wife agreed. Overnight, I became an addict. The Canon has brought me more joy as a hobby than anything I have done previously.

Part of why I enjoy the camera so much, I think, is it gives me an opportunity to express myself artistically. In addition, it satisfies my enthusiasm for gadgets and love of software. The only downside is that it can get expensive. Fast. The upside is that I don’t have any film costs, and I can shoot hundreds of photos with nearly instantaneous feedback, thanks to the LCD screen on the camera itself.

Initially, I used iPhoto to manage my burgeoning photo collection. (If you haven’t tried a Mac before, this application could almost justify the purchase. It’s a model of usability and coolness.) In addition to organizing my photos, it also provides a really simple but elegant image editor that is sufficient for 90% of my photo retouching needs. At least, until I discovered Photoshop Elements (available for both Mac and Windows). Now I am using it for the other 10% of my photos—the ones that need something that is beyond what the iPhoto editor can do.

For example, a couple of weeks ago I was showing my daughter a picture of her that I had taken. In it, she had a giant smile that was magnetic. She liked the picture, but she didn't like her teeth. “Can’t you make my teeth whiter, Dad?” “Hmm,” I said, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it with iPhoto. However, I stumbled across a tutorial for Elements that was just the ticket. It was on a great site called PhotoshopElementsUser.com. The tutorial was called simply Smile. The tutorial took me less than five minutes. I then worked the magic and showed it to my daughter. Both of us were amazed. (If only we could make these kinds of quick touch-ups in real life!)

Now I’m considering moving to iView MediaPro to manage my digital images and using Elements for 100% of my image editing needs. The nice thing about it is that the most-used features—cropping, red-eye correction, levels, healing brush—are readily accessible with keyboard shortcuts. (In that sense, it is even easier to use than iPhoto.) I am considering MediaPro for a number of reasons. For one, it has a much larger capacity than iPhoto, and my images are multiplying like rabbits. Second, it allows me more flexibility in terms of defining my digital workflow.

Speaking of which ... if you use MediaPro, I’d like to hear from you. What is your digital workflow? What specific steps do you go throough when you’re ready to download your images? How do you name your files? How do you structure your folders. Inquiring minds want to know!

iPhoto—Almost Perfect

I don't pretend to be a great photographer. I know just enough to be dangerous. However, I really enjoy manipulating the images and creating slide shows for my family. It's amazing what you can do with today's digital cameras and image editing software.

When I was still on my PC, I was using Adobe Photoshop Elements and loving it. I have never used a piece of software that so elegantly balanced power and ease-of-use. I could do just about anything I wanted. However, when I switched to the Mac, I decided to give iPhoto a whirl.

No doubt about it, you can do some very cool things with iPhoto. It is a great album organizer. It is also a wonderful tool for sharing your photos. For example, emailing photos to friends is a snap. I simply select the photos, select Share | Email and the program opens a new mail window in Entourage with all the photos attached. (You can specify your default email program.)

Last night, I wanted to upload some photos of my new two-week year old granddaughter to a Website where my family and friends could enjoy them. I opened a trial membership to .mac (pronounced “dot-mac”), selected the pictures I wanted to upload, chose a “theme” for the Web page, and clicked “Publish.” The whole process took less than 15 minutes.

As satisfying as this experience was, I am not equally happy with the image editing functions of iPhoto. The red eye tool, for example, is very weak—virtually useless. You have very little control over it. You cannot identify the area you want to change other than by clicking in the center of the subject's pupil. The program then decides what to do with the red color. If the color is orange or less than really red, the tool doesn't work. You're simply out of luck.

At first I thought it was just a particular picture. But I had nearly the same experience with every picture I tried. By contrast, I emailed a few of the photos to my wife's computer. She pulled them into Photoshop Elements for Windows and neutralized the subject's red eye with two clicks. This worked with every picture. (The worst part is that she winked at me and said, “Maybe you should switch back to a PC!”) I spent the next hour reading the iPhoto help file pertaining to red eye. I also visited the Apple iPhoto discussion group. Evidently, I wasn't the only one experiencing this problem. Bummer.

So this morning before work I downloaded the trial version of Adobe Photoshop Elements for the Mac and iView Media Pro. The latter looks particularly interesting. However, I don't know if either of them make sharing pictures as easy as iPhoto (especially in terms of emailing photos or uploading to .mac). Another option is to continue to use iPhoto for organizing and sharing and use an external image editor like Elements for image editing. Fortunately, iPhoto provides a way to use an external editor.

If there are other options I should consider, please let me know.