Digital Workflow

I know this will sound wierd to a lot of you but I do not feel that digital has really lived up to its full potential. So this is my objective. If I am going to make the move from film to digital this is what I need to be able to do every time, all the time.

1. Capture the image with my digital SLR.
2. The image is saved to the memory card as a black & white JPEG and as a RAW file.
3. I remove the memory card and insert it into the computer. (Obviously I can do everything up to this point already. From step 4 on is where things get dicey for me.)
4. When the memory card is inserted the computer recognizes it and opens my software program.
5. The software program automatically downloads the images to a folder on the hard drive based on a pre-set naming methodology.
6. The RAW images are automatically converted to color TIFF images using the capture info from the camera found in the EXIF file and saved to the same file.
7. The converted color TIFF's and the B&W JPEGS are e-mailed to Wal-Mart, Snapfish, MPIX, or who-ever for printing on 4x6.
8. The prints are paid for automatically.
9. The prints are mailed to me via USPS.

Is this workflow possible? Has anyone out there done anything remotely like this? I am not a computer wizard but I am able to find my way around a keyboard if I have to. I don't mind setting up batch routines or things of that nature as long as it is done once, not many times.

If it helps, I am using a Windows PC running Windows 7. I use Photoshop Elements 8. I am using a Pentax K7 so I also have the Pentax software as well. I am willing to work with whatever will work but I really would prefer not having to spend a lot of money buying additonal software unless I absolutely have to.

I do realize that there is much more to digital imaging than this. I do not mind working in Photoshop or any other program to manipulate the occasional image that I want to enlarge and print differently. But I do not feel I have to manipulate each and every image individually just to see them in the standard 4x6 prints that I can get from a plain old roll of Fuji Superia 100.

Thanks.

I think it's mostly possible on the pc side; some details like auto payment and file naming will depend on the service provider doing the printing. I think you can even directly upload from your wi-fi enabled memory card. You can save steps. Why even shoot RAW if you are going to auto-convert to TIF? You might as well just shoot color JPGs and specify whether you want color or b&w when printed.

You are right about the auto conversion process. It would be nice but my camera does not save to TIF, only JPEG or RAW. Right now I use the JPEG component to save the black & white because I am trying to teach myself to "see" in black & white.

canned conversions are almost never optimal. You can automate this in Photoshop, too, but the same applies; good b&w conversions need manual tweaking. If you are auto-converting RAW you might as well just upload JPGs. Sure, they are 8 bit, but they will upload a lot quicker and should be fine for 4x6 prints. This workflow is optimized for convenience, not necessarily quality

what are you going to do about making backup copies?

Also, why black and white jpegs. sending off for printing? Black and white from most vendors leave a lot to be desired. (imho)

Leaning to see in black and white is important, but learning how to convert is going to be another learning curve. You might check into Silver Efex Pro. it does very well and allows a lot of hands on tweaking; in fact it reminds me of the darkroom.

pschwart said:

canned conversions are almost never optimal.

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I do agree with you. When I have found an image that I really want to enhance the last thing I want is a canned conversion. Here is the problem though, the huge majority of my images probably don't deserve hours of my time in front of a computer screen.

With film
1. Film goes in camera (same as digital)
2. Capture images (same as digital)
3. Remove film and mail to lab, or take to Wal-Mart, whatever. (Like removing card and inserting into computer.)
4. Lab develops film and returns negatives (RAW files), prints (JPEGs OR TIFFs) and a Photo CD. (There isn't really a digital equivalent to this. Right now the answer appears to be downloading raw files to the computer, manipulating them individually, saving, and then printing, or having someone else print them. That is an awful lot of seat time in front of a computer just to see the same prints I used to get in the mail. Keep in mind, we haven't even reached the point in the digital flow where we have a wonderful image worth our time.)

With film, at this point, you go through your prints, or the computer files, select the few images, if any, that are worth some additional work, and decide what you want to do. I don't know about most people but the great majority of my images are not worth wasting any more of my time.

Now a lot of people enjoy working at their computer and spending time doing all this. But digital is supposed to make things easier, not harder. If I do want to spend that time at my computer, great. Otherwise it seems that I am stuck.

I guess that my alternative is just to transfer image files from the card to the hard drive without even opening any software. Then take my card to Wal-Mart, insert it into their computer, and select the images I want them to print. Once that's done I can re-format the card and start over. Maybe I am making this harder than it needs to be. However, by doing this I also lose the black & white images I have been capturing since I will have to start saving my JPEGs in color instead. I know, I know. The black & whites the camera provides are poor substitutes for what I can create by spending my time manipulating the image with Photoshop, but I am not looking for awesome black & white. I am only taking advantage of my digital cameras conversion process to help me learn to see the tonal differences that come with black & white. If I spot something worth taking the time to work on I'll pull the RAW file and start a full conversion.

I know there is an answer, I just haven't found it. Right now I don't want to move from film to digital and lose the negatives and prints I get with film. If I choose only to shoot JPEG I have lost the wealth of image data that comes with that RAW file.

ann said:

what are you going to do about making backup copies?

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Typically I run a full back up of my entire hard drive once a week. Once a month I copy my entire month's work onto another external hard drive. I hope that works.

ann said:

Leaning to see in black and white is important, but learning how to convert is going to be another learning curve. You might check into Silver Efex Pro. it does very well and allows a lot of hands on tweaking; in fact it reminds me of the darkroom.

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Thanks Ann. When I do find something I really want to work on I do use Silver Efex Pro. I think it is an awesome program and I love working with it.

I have also found a nice lab that does a very good job of printing my black and white prints, much better than I do myself since I can't afford a good, dedicated printer for black & white.

I do like digital and there are a lot of advantages to using digital. For one, I rarely worry very much about scratches or dust spots on my negatives anymore. For another it is a lot less expensive. But I much prefer spending most of my time creating images, not working on them with the computer. Right now I have not found a good workflow alternative to the old film process of having a lab develop your film and print your pictures. That old workflow wasn't perfect, but for most of my work it is still much easier, and takes less of my own time, than what I do with my digital images right now. I am not so worried about seeing my images immediately, even with digital I rarely spend much time looking at the display screen on the camera. It is so tiny it doesn't really help me much in my humble opinion. I would much rather look at a print before I make my decision on what to keep and what to spend more time on.

I really do intend to spend much more of my time working with digital in the future. But I don't want to lose what was good by making the move before I fully understand what I need to do to preserve what was good about film.

Pioneer said:

But digital is supposed to make things easier, not harder ... Then take my card to Wal-Mart, insert it into their computer, and select the images I want them to print.

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Or just (auto-)upload everything on the card to an online printing service. I think this is the apples-to-apples comparison with drug store prints from film.

Thanks Phillip. BTW, love the cat avatar.

Lab prints from film are not alway analogous to "drug store" prints, but having picked up my share of Wal-Mart shots I do know what you mean. However it is possible to get some very, very good 4x6 or 5x7 prints made by some of the digital printing services out there today.

Anyway, I'll keep chewing on this. There should be some way to convince our fabulous digital software and hardware to auto convert from RAW files using the EXIF data available in all digital image files. Certainly the attraction of digital is the ability to further improve the quality of the capture, but if the photographer does his or her part the images that are captured in the camera should not always need a lot of work to make presentable prints.

Pioneer said:

There should be some way to convince our fabulous digital software and hardware to auto convert from RAW files using the EXIF data available in all digital image files.

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FYI: Adobe Bridge can auto-convert selected images, even entire directories, from RAW to JPG and TIF at the same time in one action, and can also do grayscale conversions. Check out: Bridge->Tools->Photoshop->Batch. You can define templates for the conversions or just use the defaults.
Lots of options available, like resizing and metadata updates.

Without buying another software package the closest option that I am aware of in Elements 9 is the "Process Multiple Files" command but so far I cannot figure out how to get that to open, or at least offer to open, whenever I insert a memory card with pictures. However it does let me capture my black & white JPEGS in camera and then convert the color data in the RAW files to color TIFF or JPEG files alongside the black & whites.

One thing I did learn today while playing was that this command will work just by identifying the master folder on the memory card (DCIM) and then going to all the associated sub-folders. For some reason I have overlooked that one all this time and it does help speed things up. I am getting there but it is still a series of discreet steps instead of one flow. The more I work at this the closer I get.

Onwards and forward.

I would start using Adobe's Lightroom. It will be money well spent. It can handle the import part, and there are many plugins to handle the export and printing part. See Lightroom Plugins - alloyphoto for a whole bunch of printing service options. There are also others. It is also great for nondestructive editing.

I don't know if you can fully automate the import and then export steps, but I also don't see why you would want to either. At a minimum I would want to take a few minutes to cull the bad shots out, crop and make minor adjustments to white balance, exposure etc. The savings of not printing everything should easily pay for Lightroom after a few sessions.

L Gebhardt said:

I would start using Adobe's Lightroom.

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Elements also has print options within the program itself that are pretty easy, I can go through ShutterFly or Kodak Print (maybe others, I don't know) but your point is well taken. I can download and try Lightroom for 30 days without having to pay for it, so I will give it a shot to see what it can do for me.

Thanks.