Project – A sequence of actions

Exercises 1 and 2
Workflow: As suggested in the learning materials, I will complete these exercises as part of later assignments.
Meanwhile I thought it would be a good exercise just to note down what my current practice is.

• Check camera and lenses are clean
• Charge battery and spare
• Check camera bag for equipment (lenses, HD cards, lens tissues, notebook, pencil etc.)
• Reset camera to default settings
• Change settings to the situation. (I have two basic schemes depending whether I’m shooting indoors or out)
• Shoot
• Remove SD cards and store in cases.
• Load images onto PC using Nikon Transfer. (Images are saved to external and internal drives and after processing are archived to CD and indexed)
• View in Capture NX2, delete any gash files
• Select acceptable images and grade them

From this point my workflow, the processing follows this list

1. Geometric corrections. (crop, lens distortion, horizontal and vertical corrections)
2. Remove colour casts (white balance adjustments)
3. Initial retouching (spots, dust etc. using auto retouch)
4. Adjust tone and contrast
5. Perform colour correction (global or local)
6. Final tweaks
7. Sharpen and output the image

There is a wealth of information and advice on workflow but individual circumstances and preferences will dictate exactly how the process is carried out. A thorough understanding of each step will enable you to be flexible in your approach.