The fotoMuses exhibit “Who Am I?” has now opened at the Schaumburg Prairie Center for the Arts in the Herb Aigner Gallery. The exhibit runs from August 27 through September 28, 2012, with a complimentary Artists’ Reception on Friday September 7 from 6:30 - 8:30. The fotoMuses was established in 1997 as a supportive group of women photographers from the Chicago metropolitan area. I joined the fotoMuses earlier this spring, and this is my second exhibit with the group. Curator Judy Kinal, one of the co-founders, challenged us explore our inner selves through our individual photographic styles. In addition to Joanne Barsanti and Judy Kinal from Roselle, exhibitors also include Marita Blanken, Noriko Buckles, and Linda Markese of Downers Grove; Diane Bruno and Delta Greene of Chicago; Janice Henry and Jackye Revely of Bloomingdale; Aichen Ho of Naperville; Joan Kalmenek from Lisle; and Elizabeth Smartt of Elmurst. The exhibit is a true reflection of our diverse interests and styles. It is personal, far-reaching, fun, silly, serious, elegant, and thoughtful. I invite all in the area to join us on Friday, September 7 from 6:30 - 8:30 to experience the exhibit first-hand, talk to the artists, and enjoy some wonderful food. For more information about the fotoMuses, go to www.fotoMuses.com. For directions and more information about the Schaumburg Prairie Center for the Arts, go to www. prairiecenter.org.
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Workflow: Organizing and Managing Images in Lightroom Using file folders and naming conventions to keep track of images is a good start. In my July 17, 2012 blog post, I mentioned that I like to organize my images by year, month, and camera. That is just one way to think about storing images - hopefully I can remember that I went to Alaska in September of 2009, so that is the first place to look for images of mountains, glaciers, icy-blue waters, and certain types of wildlife. But what if I have images of mountains (or wildlife, flowers, architecture, etc) from other trips and I want to combine them into a collection of themed images? This is where software packages like Lightroom come into play. The accompanying screen shot of the Lightroom Library module illustrates the power of keyword tagging and rating, as well as a feature called Collections. Towards the middle of the screen on the right hand side, there is a list of all the keywords that have been assigned to the 10 images that are highlighted. An asterisk following a word means that one or more, but not all, of the images have been tagged with that keyword. In this example, the unifying words are wcproj and aroundtown. “Wcproj” stands for “West Chicago Project” a photo-documentary project covering a far west suburb of Chicago. West Chicago has a great history, and I purposefully captured a variety of images to illustrate how the suburb looks today. Each of the images may be used in one or more other collections, for example the water fountain could be combined with other images of water or with other images of fountains. Sometimes I use keywords as reminders of where I took the photo, such as on Washington Street or Turner Court. Assigning keywords helps me track locations, subject matter, themes, people, and other categories. Through keywords, I can easily filter a large number of images to pull out a narrow subset. Obviously, the better I am at applying keywords, the easier my job will be in the future to find and organize images that meet my filter criteria. If I neglected to tag images with keywords “sky” or “clouds,” then they will not show up in my search for images with clouds or sky. Using filters is a great way to find images, but it is temporary. The Smart Collections feature provides a way to make the filter permanent, at least until you change it. Going back to the screen print, towards the middle of the left hand side you will see a section called Collections, with the first entry underneath it called Smart Collections. The full hierarchy of Collections, not shown in the screen shot, looks something like this: Smart Collections Smart Collection Set 1 Smart Collection subset 1 image 1 image 2 etc. Smart Collection subset 2 etc. Smart Collection Set 2 etc. Collection 1 Collection 2 etc. where you assign your own name to the collection set, collections, and collection subsets. Back to Smart Collections... “WC Proj Set” is just a name, a virtual folder for holding one or more actual collections. I have about a dozen such smart collections in the WC Proj set. Some of the images, because of the keyword assignment, may appear in more than one smart collection. This is okay and intentional. Examples When I created this smart collection, I assigned it to the WC Proj Set. Then I added the following filter criteria:
Similarly, the smart collection “WCProj around town” was built using the following filter criteria:
Currently, there are 43 images in the “WCProj St Mary’s Church” Smart Collection and 10 images in the “WCProj Around Town” Smart Collection. This is probably a good time to mention that the West Chicago Photo Documentary project was organized by the College of DuPage Photography Department, and has been going on for several years. There are quite a few COD students and alumni involved in the project. Typically, each photographer selects the areas and subject matter to photograph, and then concentrates on one theme. I selected churches as my theme, with emphasis on St Mary’s church and congregation. Collections vs Smart Collections The Smart Collections are dynamic, subject to change based on the rules you specify and the addition or removal of attributes from images in the catalog. As you add images to the catalog and tag them with attributes or keywords, they are candidates for automatically being added to a smart collection. You can change the criteria for a smart collection, and that will either increase or decrease the number of images that appear in that collection. The collections are ‘smart’ because the system automatically adjusts the contents of the smart collections based upon the criteria you specify and the attributes of your images in the catalog. You, the Lightroom owner, control what is in regular (some people call them ‘dumb’) Collections by simply dragging and dropping to add images or by deleting images from the collection. When images are deleted from a Collection (smart or otherwise), they are still in Lightroom, still in your Library, still on your storage media. They just no longer show up in that Lightroom collection. There is another collection, called Quick Collections, found under the Catalog panel. This is useful as a work area, to try out selections of images. You can drag and drop an image to the Quick Collections folder, or you can click on the little circle that appears in the upper right corner when your cursor hovers over an image. A few other factoids about collections:
This just scratches the surface. There are plenty of tutorials on the internet about Lightroom Collections. Also, there is no substitute for just getting the product and trying it out. I use Lightroom 3, and all of my comments pertain to that version. Lightroom 4 is the most current version, and it is possible that some aspects of managing and organizing images have been changed. Picking up where I left off last week, and now that the images are in their respective work folders, it is time to start reviewing, rating, and applying keywords. My favorite program for this is Lightroom, by Adobe. It does a whole lot more, but even if it didn’t, it would be well worth the price tag. One of these days I will upgrade to Lightroom 4, but for now Lightroom 3 is more than sufficient.
As I import groups of images, especially if the images are from the same event or location, or if they have the same subject matter, I will enter keywords that will apply to most or all of the images to be imported. Even if there are differences, it is easier to apply the keywords globally to the batch being imported, and then go back and edit the few that are different. In addition to the location, an event, project name, I will sometimes enter the person’s name or an attribute of the image, such as color or style (panoramic, HDR, texture and others). Lightroom keeps track of keywords that you have used in the past, so it is easy to apply them to new images. Once import is complete, I use the grid view in Library to quickly scan and rate the batch of images that I just imported. On the first pass, the rating is either one star, no stars, or flag as a reject. Rejects are obvious things like severe under or overexposure, blurred images, flash didn’t fire, or some other reason that the image will never be usable. Once the first pass is complete, I will filter to show only the 1-stars. Then I will go through those and select ones I really like, and bump them up to 2-stars. I used to go through this multiple times until I got to 5-stars; but now I am more picky, and usually 2-stars indicates ones for further work. An exceptional image might get 3-stars. The only drawback is that now I have to remember that a 5-star from a couple of years ago is equivalent to a 3-star rating for more current images. Lightroom also lets you color-code images or groups of images, or set a white flag to keep the image or note it for the future. I mentioned earlier that there are some holes in my system, and the area of ‘rejects’ is one of them. Although I mark some images as rejects, I normally don’t take the next step and actually tell Lightroom to delete them. I realize that this is like organizing your closet, putting all the clothes that are no longer needed in a separate pile, but then not going the final step of throwing them out or donating them to one of the many charities out there. They are still there, and I might change my mind... There are other excuses, but they start breaking down when space gets tight. Space limitations and the resultant system degradation are powerful motivators for reviewing old images and getting rid of ones that you now realize will never be used. Lightroom has many powerful features that I have not touched on here, including organizing, managing, and editing images. It also has its downside(s), and is not for everyone. In future blog posts, I will touch on those points and more as I continue exploring issues related to workflow. ~ Joanne Last week I talked about different styles of work flow depending on the camera and purpose of the images. Where my iPhone and Point-and-Shoot images are concerned, ‘Work flow for Fun’ rules the day: simple, low-risk, minimal post-processing. The goal is to get the images out there where they can be shared, and move on to the next thing. If the images get lost or deleted afterwards, it is no big deal. They have served their purpose. Sometimes I am asked to retrieve an image or a series, but that doesn’t happen often. Yes, I still save these images, but if they were lost, it would not be a big deal.
It is a different story with my ‘serious’ work - all the elements of work flow come into play when it comes to images produced on my DSLRs. The images are much larger, there is more post-processing, and the risk-reward dynamics of losing something become more significant. I may never go back to images that I took two or three years ago, but I still want the comfort of knowing they are there and that I can find and retrieve them easily. In theory, a work flow should look something like this:
I follow most of those steps, and for the ones that I don’t follow, I am keenly aware of the risks. After putting down my thoughts, I will be re-visiting the areas that are lacking, and coming up with new ways to fill in those gaps. As I examine my workflow, I find myself asking the questions “Why am I (still) doing that?” or “Why am I NOT doing something?” and “Is there a better way at this point?” In practice, here is what my workflow looks like: 1. Download images from camera Since I use a MAC (MacBook Pro) and I like to have control, I use the Finder Utility to drag and drop from the memory card to computer. I have folders set up by year, month, and camera. I do not rename the image files. The folder structure gives me a mental tracking device for the images, and it insures that files do not get overlaid if two cameras happen to create images with the same name. This could happen because each camera manufacturer has its own in-camera naming schemes. If you own two Canon cameras or two Nikon cameras, it is possible that you will duplicate names across the two cameras. 2. Make backup copies (take offsite) Here is where things start to fall apart. I do make copies, but I do not make an offsite backup. Originally, my scheme was to copy images to my Mac and to an external hard drive, and do my work on the images on the internal drive. Later, I switched to doing work on the external drive because I needed portability for school work. As long as I had plenty of room on my internal drive, this worked fairly well as a backup location. Now (“Why am I still doing that?”), I keep bumping up against the limits of my internal drive. So, I started deleting old images off the internal drive, and then started moving them to another networked computer. Soon I will be bumping up against the limits of that computer’s storage. And it does not address the issue of having offsite backup. My other backup scheme is to keep the memory cards. While this has a number of flaws, it gives me a small measure of security. Is there a better way at this point? Of course there is. It requires some time, discipline, and newer technologies. Time and discipline to clean out the old baggage and get rid of lots of old very bad and useless images. As time goes on and I add new images, the older ones become increasingly unattractive. Next time, I will pick up with the following steps: 3. Review, rate, and keyword images 4. Discard the ‘rejects’ 5. Apply post-processing changes as required 6. Save and backup the ‘keepers’ In the meantime, Apple used to have “Mobile Me” - I never used that service, and I believe it has been discontinued. The point is, it provided a ‘cloud’ solution for backup. I think I am ready for the cloud, so if anyone has suggestions or favorites or places to avoid, please drop me a line and share your thoughts. ~ Joanne In previous posts about camera gear, I have mentioned different cameras that I own and some of the different ways that I use them. As the number and type of cameras have increased, and as the number, type, and purpose of the photographs themselves have increased, it has become more important to create and follow a disciplined work flow.
I am not saying that my work flow is the best; although it follows a certain logic, it is somewhat convoluted, embarrassingly lacking in the backup area, continually bumps up against the limits of my hardware, and probably has other flaws that will make themselves evident in an unhappy way at some point in the future. For now, it works for me; at least most of the time. My top Work Flow Characteristics include Discipline, Hardware, Software, Budget, Risk-Reward, Ease of Use, Adaptability, and Flexibility. This week’s post deals with Discipline. Future posts will cover the remaining characteristics, and any other ones I come up with between now and then. 1. Discipline - a system of rules governing conduct or activity (Webster’s Dictionary) The most important part of a work flow is to have one, and to follow it. In addition to the above, Webster’s Dictionary also defines discipline as an “orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior.” The best part is that you can make up your own rules, decide what is important to you, and find a balance between time, money, and security. There are risk/reward trade-offs in what rules you create for yourself, how closely you follow them, and how much time and money are you willing and able to invest. At a minimum, you should be aware of the risks of not having a workflow, or of having a workflow that does not adequately cover all essential elements. In the ideal world, the orderly pattern of behavior that makes up your work flow would include the timing of offloading images from your camera to your computer, location of primary and backup media, the timing of backups, file naming schemes, and tagging and cataloging of the images, as well as the processing of the images. For example, is your work load time-based or project-based or something else? Do you process images on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis? Or do you process them on a project basis, as photographic events conclude or as clients require? On a scale of 1 to 10, I think my work flow is about a 6. I give myself Plus Points for having a work flow and following it; but then there are Minus Points for not having it written down, for missing some key elements, and for being rather casual about timing issues. I actually follow multiple work flows, depending on the camera and the nature and purpose of the images. For example, iPhone images are the simplest and least risky. Mostly I use them for sharing on Facebook directly from my iPhone. Occasionally I will offload them to a uniquely named folder on my computer, and send them to friends via e-mail. If I lost any of them, it would not be a big deal. Sometimes I use iPhone apps for special effects. I have a couple of different apps including Instagram, Snapseed, and Photosynth, but the one I use the most is Camera+. Next up the scale of risk is my Lumix Point-and-Shoot. The images are relatively small JPEGs, around 3 - 5 MB. They are sometimes just for fun, or to capture something that is pretty or interesting. This is my ‘go to’ camera for Lions Club events, most Legion events, and other day-to-day activities. Because of its small size and unobtrusiveness, I have used this camera at family weddings and other gatherings. The Lumix uses the SD cards, which easily upload to my MacBook Pro via the built-in card reader slot. Other than tagging and rating in LightRoom, there is minimal or no post-processing of these. When I do make changes, it will be to correct exposure, do color balancing or to apply cropping. I use Picasa online for image sharing: these images have appeared in our club newsletters and magazines, on our display boards, in YouTube videos, and for sharing with friends and family. Occasionally I am asked to go back in my archives and produce images for special requests, but normally these images are in the low-risk category. The serious work flow issues come in to play with my DSLR cameras. The images are in my personal ‘high risk’ category - I would be very unhappy to lose these, so the backup considerations are more important. All of the other workflow characteristics that I mentioned above really come into play with these images, so I will use continue my thoughts in future blogs on work flow to illustrate how hardware, software, and other characteristics come into play. In my second of a series on camera gear, it is time to talk about my “big cameras.” There are some really large cameras out there, like the one shown here, which was created by George R. Lawrence in 1900. But for me, a “big camera” refers to a 35mm DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex). Since everything is relative, this size is compared to my point and shoot and smart phone camera. My introduction to the DSLR world was a Canon EOS Rebel XTi, also known as a 400D. Just as a side bar, I have never understood the Canon numbering system. You would think that the bigger the number, the larger and more sophisticated the camera. But that is not the case - the XTi (400D) is Canon’s entry level DSLR, a relatively low-priced, light-weight, crop-sensor digital camera with a fairly simple to use dial for the manual and semi-manual modes. For the first four years, I used the fully automatic mode for 99% of my shots. I probably experimented with Aperture Priority mode a few times, but it was mostly the little green square of the Auto Mode that caught my fancy. I had no idea about f-stops or the relation between aperture, shutter speed and ISO. I really didn’t care; I was just happy to have pictures that came out looking relatively decent, and I was happy to have the camera figure that out for me. Then my local high school had a class in photography, just enough to whet my appetite. Before I knew it, I was hooked, and started taking classes at the local community college, COD (College of DuPage). The instructors wanted us to shoot in manual mode, so I learned how to do that. They wanted us to shoot in RAW format, so I switched from JPEG to JPEG+RAW and finally to RAW, with a few glitches encountered along the way. I discovered that I liked having full control over all those combinations that had so mystified me before. The XTi is relatively easy to use, and so it became second nature to spin the dial to get the right shutter speed or push in what I call the ‘alt’ button and spin the dial to change the aperture setting. I learned how to blur the background, otherwise known as shallow depth of field. I figured out how to take group shots and include myself in them. I learned how to selectively focus, and how to use many other features and techniques to achieve the exact effect I was looking for. Even after several years with my XTi, I am still learning new things about it, still going back to my dog-eared manual to see what other capabilities it has. After six years with this camera, there are many settings that I have never used and may never use; and there are some features and instructions that still mystify me. So, my DSLR is my camera of choice for “serious” work, for my personal projects, for class work, for images I exhibit and hope to sell. The point and shoot and cellphone cameras are for everyday and documentary shots that may live their life on my computer, or may find their way to social media, newsletters, and other means of sharing captured experiences with friends. For comparison purposes, the XTi is a 10 megapixel camera. Actual file sizes vary, but my RAW images normally range between 8 and 9 MB, and are in a 3:2 aspect ratio, with dimensions of 3888 x 2592 pixels. I am happy with the print quality for both 8x10 and 11x14 inch prints. On a couple of occasions, I have made large-sized canvas prints, and been happy with the results. The Lumix DMC-ZS3 is a 10 megapixel point-and-shoot camera that can take images in either a 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratio. I use the 4:3 aspect ratio, and the JPEG file sizes are generally between 3 and 5MB, with dimensions of 3684 x 2736 pixels. The camera on the iPhone 4S is an 8 megapixel camera. I have printed exhibition quality images as large as 11x14 inches. Most of my iPhone and point-and-shoot images are used for sharing and social media, and are quite suitable for internet use as well as print in newsletters. Next time: limitations of the XTi, and moving up to the next level. Flowers from the French Market Have you ever been told that you have really nice photographic images, followed by the dreaded comment “you must have a really nice camera?” Or worse yet, admired another photographer’s work and thought “if I only had a nice camera like he/she must have.” Perhaps you have admired those photographers whose websites list all the camera gear that they used in a particular photo shoot, or maybe there was some envy involved, or just a feeling of being turned off. Those are just a few examples of why camera gear really isn’t all that important. Some of the greatest images have been made with a home-made pinhole camera, or a smart phone, or without a camera or lens of any sort at all. There is so much more to creating great images than spinning a few dials and clicking the shutter button. So why IS camera gear important? To illustrate, let me say that my own camera collection includes both film and digital cameras, point-and-shoots, and SLRs. Some of them spend most of the time in the drawer or closet, and others are with me or close at hand all the time. I seem to have compartmentalized what cameras I use for which purposes. This blog-post deals with the informal, every-day snapshots and the camera gear I use most often for those. Later on, I will continue this thread with my “big” cameras. My iPhone (which has 2 cameras), and point-and-shoot are always with me - either in a pocket, purse, or on my belt. These are my “walking around” cameras, my security blanket in case I see something great that I need/want to capture. Their main advantage is small size and unobtrusiveness. The images are mostly documentary - I was at a Lions Club meeting or American Legion event, or with a friend or family member, or in the forest preserve walking the dogs. You get the idea. The relatively small image size and file type (jpeg) are suitable for sharing on social media and via e-mail, as well as useful for creating collage-type display boards. They are great publicity for the Lions Clubs, and appear frequently in Club, District, and State newsletters and magazines. The iPhone photos are particularly well-suited for sharing on the Roselle Lions Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RoselleLionsClub and website http://www.e-clubhouse.org/sites/roselle/index.php. So, my everyday camera gear is light-weight, easy to carry around, and most suitable for snapshots of everyday life. Digital technology for the point-and-shoots and smart-camera phones has come a long way since they first appeared on the scene. They are not my only camera gear, but they are a very important part of my life as a photographer. This was the front-windshield view on our way to the January 20 Opening of "A Moment in Time." A rare (for 2011-2012 winter) but ill-timed snowstorm snarled rush-hour traffic, and put a damper on what promised to be a busy and lively gathering. Thank you to those who were able to make it; for those who stopped by at a later date, and for those who were kind enough to send regards. If you have not seen the exhibit, you still have time. Gallery hours are Wednesdays, 4-8pm; Thursdays and Fridays 10 am - 4 pm; and Saturdays 12 - 4 pm; through February 18. Welcome to my website and my first blog. I am having a great time exploring the world through digital imaging, and I am very excited to share my work with the you.
Speaking of excitement, Mother Nature has put on a spectacular display this year - the colors are amazing, and I have had a great adventure capturing the colors, the changes, the beauty. It has been the perfect palette for creativity, expressiveness, and fun. That is important, because I see photography and fun as two sides of the same coin. Whether it is trying out new techniques with the camera, combining existing images together, or experimenting in post-production, it feeds my soul and brings me happiness. I hope that my images will strike a similar cord with you. |
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