good book on digital workflow

[adrian tyler]

hi,

i just got hold of a nikon d3 with a 24mm pc (shift and tilt lens) with a view to producing a commercial assignment with it, however i have to say that it's pretty damned good and i'm sure i'll be using it for a whole lot more.

the thing is, i need to get to grips with this new workflow. i am up to speed on scanning negs and producing exhibition prints, and have the "real world" photoshop, scanning and halftones and colour management books, all excellent.

what i'm lacking is a grounding in digital "negative" workflow, bridge (lightroom?) and especially camera raw conversion, any suggestions for good books would be very appreciated.

thanks as always!

adrian

[darr]

Adrian,

I have been using Lightroom for my D200 and Canon G9 shots since January and find it to be extremely useful. I went through the book: DOP Guide to Adobe Lightroom (http://www.outbackphoto.com/booklets/dop3701/DOP3701.html) first, but found the best info via a video at lynda.com: Photoshop Lightroom Essential Training (http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=364) with Chris Orwig. I received a free 30 day membership with lynda.com from Adobe when I purchased Lightroom and glad I did as I have referred back to the site for other learning videos for other softwares since then.

Lightroom needs to be used to see how well it functions for many tasks. I visit the following forums and blogs regularly to keep updated and for assistance with questions :
http://www.lightroomforums.net/
http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/
http://lightroom-blog.com/

I am glad I made the switch to Lightroom from Extensis Portfolio and found it a simple task to import all of my previous portfolio files.

--
Best,
Darr

[Doug Fisher]

Real World Camera Raw is good for the raw part of your question.

Doug
---
www.BetterScanning.com

[adrian tyler]

doug, it looks like the latest "real world camera raw" is for cs2, it seems that the program up-grade in cs3 is so substantial that i am not sure how it would fare, anyone know is a new edition of the book is in the pipeline?

cheers

[Frank Petronio]

I think the blogosphere, starting with Rob Galbraith, bythom.com, our own Jack Flescher's forum getdpi.com, etc... are always going to have the latest information and techniques -- you have to be an active participant. Nobody can write an up to date book anymore.

[Walter Calahan]

Get Scott Kelby's book on Photoshop CS3 for digital photography.

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Digital-Photographers-Voices-Matter/dp/0321501918/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212675290&sr=1-4

and for Lightroom, if you use it,

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Lightroom-Digital-Photographers-Voices/dp/0321492161/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Kelby will break it all down for you in easy to follow lessons.

[Michael Gordon]

I entered the digital camera realm a little over a year ago for a commercial assignment, and felt challenged by the different process compared to film > scan > print. Martin Evening's 'Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers' answered all my questions.

[Brian Ellis]

If you've studied and absorbed the books you already have, and if you're up to speed on scanning and producing exhibition quality prints, it seems to me that it's mostly a matter of your starting to apply what you've learned and in a short time you should be able to develop your own workflow. I've read other people's workflows in different places, mostly on line, and they're seldom all that useful to me. I think a workflow is something that anyone needs to develop for themselves after they've learned the basics of scanning, editing, and printing, which it sounds like you already have. Maybe a book on Lightroom would be useful since you don't mention having one but there's only so much anyone can absorb from books. The Real World Photoshop book by itself that you already have is about 700 pages of information to absorb.

[Kirk Gittings]

If you have specific questions you might want to ask those here or on LL. For instance for architecture one would use different capture sharpening settings in ACR than if one shoots portraits etc. These settings can be saved in ACR so that one doesn't have to reinvent the wheel each time. For commercial architectural photography, since clients only want files these days, I love a pure digital workflow and find it very profitable.

[adrian tyler]

thanks guys, although we don't use all these features it's very helpfull to know what's there, and ACR has some very interesting stuff, batch sharpenig, curves... however it is a whole lot simpler just handing over a stack of transparencies along with an invoice...

personally i try to keep things as simple as possible, so i'll stick with bridge-ACR for now unless i'm seriously missing something about lightroom (i don't have a huge archive or turnaround), thanks!

http://www.adriantyler.net/