Sullivan's Fire

© Robert Donovan

Halfway Creek Church

© Robert Donovan

Misty hue

© Robert Donovan

Got up at 4:30 to go out and get some more sunrise shots but the cloud cover made the light pretty drab, but allowed the fog to hang around in the distance. Grabbed a few shots before the bugs carried me off. Sent this one through Color Efex pro for black and white and Bi-Color filter processing. Really like the final product.

Ghostly Walk

© Robert Donovan

My Digital Workflow

This is a work in progress. I've been trying to get a good work-flow taking a photo from Lens to Print (or at least to final file). I've gone through a number of iterations of this but at this point in my sophomoric place as a photographer, I'm here. Granted, I know this is not the most efficient flow by a long stretch, but I think I'm utilizing the best of each of the steps.... or at least as far as I know.

1. I take the photo in my D300 as a 14 bit RAW. I figure might as well get the most information I can at the time of the shot. I have a few custom picture controls set up in the D300 but I tend to take most of my Landscape shots in Vivid mode at +3. I'll drop that to +2 sometimes. I've just uploaded the D2x controls to the D300 so I haven't used them yet, but will be messing around with them. I also have a custom set up for shooting people (something I really have room for improvement) that is Standard with saturation at +2.
2. I download all of the RAW files into Adobe Lightroom 1.4 so that I can organize them. Once I get them in I go through and start flagging the ones I want to work on.
   
3. I open each of the files in Capture NX 1.3 because I think that it does a better job at the raw conversion that Lightroom or ACR, at least for my Nikon NEF files. Plus It will use the picture controls from the camera which the adobe products strips out.
4. I'll do some color, Black and white points and contrast plus a few other adjustments in CaNX and then save the file as a 16 bit Tiff back into the same folder that I saved the original NEF file appending a _NX.tiff to the file.
5. Next I synch the folder in Lightroom and then tell it to open for edit in Photoshop CS3.
6. In photoshop it really varies with the file but typically there are some or all of these adjustments, all in layers of course
   
1. Crop
2. Multiple exposure blending
   
3. curves plus and minus with masking layers if needed and brush tool to bring out highlights or darken areas
4. dust specks removal
   
5. color saturation
6. color adjustment with Color Effect plug in
   
7. Sharpen using unsharp mask
8. Noise Reduction with Noise ninja (though i sometimes find this causes some issues)
9. any other number of adjustments
   
7. Save the file as a PSD back in the folder with other files.

Ok so I know that is not efficient but it's where I am. I'm frightened at trying batch processing but I need to give it a shot.

If I'm working on an HDR I'll take the raw files directly into Photomatrix Pro and adjust then save off as a .tiff. Then open it in Photoshop CS3. I haven't tried taking each raw into Capture NX first then bringing the .tiffs into Photomatrix but I'll probably give it a shot.

As far as printing goes, I currently do not have a decent printer so I upload photos to my ImageKind account and have been pleased with their result over all so far.

Breech Inlet Sunrise

© Robert Donovan

7 Exposure HDR

Swamp Deadwood

© Robert Donovan

First time messing around with textures. I think it turned out pretty good.

What to do while the D300 is being repaired?

Since the main camera is off getting fixed for the next 3-6 weeks I need something to so. Yes i'll still be going out with the D70s but it just doesn't feel right. I know I know, I should be tied to my equipment but damn, I was having fun with the new D300.

So in light of that i decided to sign up for the Monthly subscription at Kelby Training and take some Photoshop classes online. I'm pretty much self taught in Photoshop so i know there is a lot to learn. Figured with was as good a time as any. I'm not sure at the quality of the classes but it looks liek a good deal. All the classes you can take for 19.95 a month. There are all of the Adobe products (well most all), some general photography classes, lighting, and others. Hopefully it will be worth it. I can't really see that it won't.