Sunrise from a firetower - Copyright Tobias Gelston 2012

I have been busy shooting and processing these last two days, last two abso-stunningly-gorgeous mornings to be more specific.   I thought I would share a quick overview of my workflow.  This is the general, aerial view of my workflow – depending on the shoot- commercial or personal-  I will make a few changes and will note those.

It all starts with the shooting, shoot, shoot and shoot some more.  I don’t spend time deleting in the field.  I shoot RAW but the workflow below would be the same for JPEGS.

Return home and begin the import via Lightroom.  If this is a shoot for a client I will have it make a backup (copy the files to an external) as it imports.  The files now exist in three locations- The card(s) they were shot on, my work machine and an external.  The cards get set aside, they do not get reformatted until later.

Once all images have been imported and Lightroom has created standard previews I begin staring.  1-star for all the keepers.  I usually take two passes through depending on the number of images.

I will start to work on the 1-stars – adjusting exposure, adding a bit of clarity, sharpness and other tweaks.  Often during this I will knock a few 1-stars back to 0, removing them from the final images.    Occasionally I will move an image into photoshop, mostly for panorama stitching or some serious clone stamp use.

I will now add keywords, title & captions, and geotag all those 1 star images.

Now I export all 1 star as jpegs; Quality 90, Resolution 240.  No to resizing and leave everything else as default.  Start these uploading to SmugMug(personal) or Zenfolio(Business).

Now I filter two stars or better and export those as original files along with the XMP sidecar and upload to Smugmug (personal) to enter the SmugVault.  Zenfolio doesn’t currently have a similar service so business files get backed-up to the external hard drive.  My personal files also get backed-up to the external as their own catalog.  From time to time I add these to yearly catalog, makes finding them lots easier.

I will come back and update this post with a few screen shots soon – Please let me know if you have any questions.  No question is stupid.

This post brought to you by Adobe Lightroom – Making my life easier since 2008

I was recently asked for a recommendation for a lens in the 24-105 range that wasn’t as expensive as Canon’s lovely 24-105 F/4 L IS USM lens.  The lens is optically quite wonderful but at nearly $1000 it is a serious comitment.  So are there other options in this range that wont’t break the bank?

A few options that I am going to order in my own preference

Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 - You are giving up a good bit of range here but at $500 the sharpness of this lens and the fact that it is f/2.8 throughout the range is an excellent value.  If you weren’t wedded to having a whole lot of zoom this is an excellent lens.  I have done side by side comparissons with the 24-70 from canon that cost over $1200 and the Tamron often matches it in sharpness and clarity. Price is approximately $500

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 - A very nice range in a cheap and fairly lightweight package.  Downside is the aperture changes as you zoom, the more zoom the more light is required, helpfully the lens does have image stabilization (IS) which will help. Sharpness and clarity are good but not exciting, remember the more range you shove into a lens the more sacrifices you need to make unless you are willing to pay big money for the heavy lenses.  Price is approximately $350

Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 - and the kitchen sink too.  I am going to throw this lens on the list too, I figure cramming another 100mm range in a lens isn’t going to make a big difference and for the most part is doesn’t, yoru optical quality is going to be very similar to the Canon listed above.  Focus is a good bit slower and you are paying an extra $300, but if you really want ONE lens on your camera 99.9% of the time, this would be a way to do it.  Price is approximately $650

Considering a lens not on this list?  Let me know, there are others and I would be happy to offer an opinion about any of them.

This post brought to you by a lens hood.  Please don’t buy a crappy UV filter for any of these lenses, it will just decrease the image quality – Use a lens hood, offers more protection and blocks side light from striking your lens.

Thanks for reading.  Find me on twitter or facebook 

If you use a mid-range or higher DSLR this is likely an option and something I recommend you consider.  I switched to back button focusing about six months ago and find it 186% better than the standard method of shutter focus.  Ok, so I totally made up that percentage but it seriously works way better for me- read on to see if it will work better for you.

Typically one presses the camera shutter halfway to focus, pressing it all the way takes the photo.  Pressing the shutter button also meters, that is the camera quickly determines the correct exposure for the image you are about to take.

Back Button Focus or BBF is simply assigning a button on the rear of your camera, usually a button right where you right-hand thumb falls.   99% of the time I use a single focus point in the camera, I want to make sure I know what the camera is focusing on.  The few times I let the camera decide, by using all the focus points, I am often disappointed in the results.   So single point AF is great, me deciding what to focus on is great AND deciding when to focus is the cherry on top.  By using the back button for focus you can focus, compose and shoot a photo, and shoot another photo without worrying about the camera trying to refocus in-between shots.  i could even recompose slightly and shoot again, again without worrying or waiting for the camera to focus again.  Maybe a scenario will help explain: I was shooting a college commencement last weekend and framed the college president between the heads of two graduates, their motar boards making a nice frame.  I framed the shot, focused and then waited for the president to look toward my side of the room, when she did I fired a few shots leaning to keep her framed as she and the graduates all moving.  The opening between the two graduates was very narrow and they were moving around, if I had used the shutter button as focus it would likely have grabbed onto one of their edges in the second or third shot and I would have waited a few frustrating seconds for it to focus on what I wanted, these few seconds add up for multiple shots.   I didn’t need to refocus for any of these shots because my basic distances remained the same.  Same idea for portraits or really any series of shots where you might recompose a bunch – even switching from landscape to portrait, you nail that first focus with your back button and then just snap away.

I have also experienced frustration shooting birds in trees – if there are a few branches between you and the bird your camera is going to waste effort on refocusing for each and everyshot.  using back focus you can get the focus nailed and take a few shots, at least until the bird moves again.

So give it a shot, it might not work for you but as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it has made me 187% happier!  Scientifically proven!!  yep, I added 1% because I realized as I wrote this post that it really is that great!  Here are some directions for Canon shooters .

• EOS Rebel T3: C.Fn 7 (option 1 or 3)
• EOS Rebel T3i: C.Fn 9 (option 1 or 3)
• EOS 50D: C.Fn IV-1 (option 2 or 3)
• EOS 60D: C.Fn IV-1 (option 1, 2, 3, or 4)
• EOS 7D: C.Fn IV-1 (Custom Controls — Shutter, AF-ON, AEL buttons)
• EOS 5D Mark II: C.Fn IV-1 (option 2 or 3)
• EOS-1Ds Mark III: C.Fn IV-1 (option 2 or 3)
• EOS-1D Mark IV: C.Fn IV-1 (option 2 or 3)

Nikon Shooters I suggest you google back button focus and your camera model – directions are out there.

I hope this helps some of you- I invite questions and thoughts – leave them here or post on facebook.

This post brought to you buy my favorite budget tripod – all the features of a $200 tripod for less than $40 – Dolica Proline Tripod

Thanks for reading!

Note that the 5D Mark II will remain in production and has now dropped in price

• Wifi Enabled like the new Canon HS530
• GPS like the not as new Canon SX230
• Constant Autofocus during video (Nikon DSLRs have had this for almost 2 years, it is not great but I could see Canon saying “ME TOO”)
• Slo Motion Video like the Canon HS300
• Digic 5 Processor  also like the Canon HS530
• Touchscreen – I hope not, I am not ready for this one

Glossary

ef-s(canon), DX(Sigma)

Built for crop sensor cameras, not useable on full frame cameras

ef

Suitable and useable on crop sensor and full frame cameras

IS, OS, VC

Image Stabilization(Canon), Optical Stabilization(Sigma), Vibration Compensation(Tamron) – All terms for a system built into the lens that removes camera shake and allows you to shoot at slightly slower shutter speeds.

USM(Canon), HSM(Sigma)

UltraSonic Motor – Means fast and quiet autofocus

Zooms

Walk-around

Wide-angles

Primes

Macro

Canon Elph 320 HS	Canon Elph 520 HS	Canon Elph 530 HS
Touch Screen at 3.2″, 5x zoom(24-120mm), Stereo audio recording, built-in Wi-Fi, 16MP	Screen 3.0″, 12x zoom(28-336mm), Stereo audio recording, 10MP	Touch Screen at 3.2″, 12x zoom(28-336mm),   Stereo audio recording, built-in Wi-Fi, 10MP
Buy from Amazon $279	Buy from Amazon $299	Buy from Amazon $349

Physically they are all very similar in size, the 520 is the slimmest at 0.75″ thick, the 320 at 0.83″ is the thickest. I put the number of megapixels last in the list, I don’t want you to focus on that – each of these cameras is going to take excellent images and in lower light the 520 and the 530 with less megapixels will give better results (less noise in the images).  They all offer 1080p video.  It mostly comes down to zoom and the Wi-Fi- what interests you? The 320 and 530 with the built-in Wi-Fi allow you to upload images as you shoot and share straight to Facebook and other social networks. Canon will be releasing apps for iOS and Android soon that will let you send and manage the images from your smartphone.   Or go for the 530 which has both.  One nice feature of all three – Face ID – You take a photo of faces you want the camera to remember and it will give those faces priority focus and in a group will take multiple photos, choosing the best as the one where the priority face was smiling and not blinking.   You can then search those faces by name. None of these come with a memory card so I recommend this SD Card 8GB. Get the 16GB version if you are going to be traveling and shooting more video.  

Back of the Canon Elph 520 HS	Back of the Canon Elph 530 HS
No Touch Screen	Touch Screen
Buy from Amazon $299	Buy from Amazon $349

The big difference between the 520 and the 530 as seen from the rear. The back of these cameras is domniated by the screen with the touch functionality of the 530 replacing several physical buttons. As Always find me on twitter or Facebook if you have any questions.