Workflow headache. Can I see examples of your workflow bullet style?

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Thanks Steve and Alan. I guess what I wanted to hear and see was that there is indeed no "one right way" to do this. I will have to look at that plug in. I don't do professional work so my images don't anywhere near 8-16 hours. Perhaps I don't even have the eye for that much detail

I am sure you are quite good. I just find it relaxing and when I am working I shut out the rest of the world and it is no longer work, but way to create something, I may be remembered for in the future. A way to be immortal. Don't think you need to spend that much time to create a great image. You may find you need to spend very little time to produce an excellent image. Especially the more "right" the image is when you expose the film.

[Laminarman]

I am sure you are quite good. I just find it relaxing and when I am working I shut out the rest of the world and it is no longer work, but way to create something, I may be remembered for in the future. A way to be immortal. Don't think you need to spend that much time to create a great image. You may find you need to spend very little time to produce an excellent image. Especially the more "right" the image is when you expose the film.

Thank you Steve. I do it for me. But it's a great feeling when someone says "YOU took that?" I'm working my way through a layers book now, I'm just not utilizing them enough right now and it seems a waste not to use the most fundamental tool at my disposal.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Very true on layers. If you need help with PS or LR let me know. I am no expert, but I know a bit or know where to find the info. When you have something, post it up!

[Laminarman]

Will do Steve and thank you for the offer of help!

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Np...

[jnantz]

*Load film into holders
*Judge light and expose film
*Process film
*Turn on Epson Perfection 4870 Photo
*Preview/"reset" values scan at around 1200 or 2400 TIFF @4x5
*Open in PS do dusting, minimal levels burning and dodging
*Convert to JPG, discard TIFF and Save
*Resize to 72dpi and canvas to 6x8 and "save for web"

repeat.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

*Load film into holders
*Judge light and expose film
*Process film
*Turn on Epson Perfection 4870 Photo
*Preview/"reset" values scan at around 1200 or 2400 TIFF @4x5
*Open in PS do dusting, minimal levels burning and dodging
*Convert to JPG, discard TIFF and Save
*Resize to 72dpi and canvas to 6x8 and "save for web"

repeat.

Do you print?

[Corran]

For b&w all I do is isolate the green channel and dump the rest, saving the original tiff file as a single grayscale image to save on file space. This is done with a single click in Photoshop using an "Action" I made. I also do a quick pass with the Spot Healing Brush to get any big dust or hairs off the image. For the "finished" JPEG I have another one-click "Action" to duotone the image to roughly match my normal darkroom prints and do a quick curve, levels, and dodge/burn to the image as needed to get it looking right.

5-10 minutes tops. For color I might spend some more time with color / HSL layers to dial in the colors but other than that, not much.

You don't need LR. I love LR for digital imaging but I don't really understand the use of LR for film scans, unless you use their cataloging system, which I HATE and definitely do not use.

Some have very elaborate editing workflow. I don't really get it personally.

PS: I used to teach Photoshop courses. It's really not hard. Just practice, and anything you want to do that you do not know, just Google it, and someone will have a written or video tutorial. I've taught myself enough Photoshop that I surprise veterans and professionals with techniques that they haven't seen or used.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

For b&w all I do is isolate the green channel and dump the rest, saving the original tiff file as a single grayscale image to save on file space. This is done with a single click in Photoshop using an "Action" I made. I also do a quick pass with the Spot Healing Brush to get any big dust or hairs off the image. For the "finished" JPEG I have another one-click "Action" to duotone the image to roughly match my normal darkroom prints and do a quick curve, levels, and dodge/burn to the image as needed to get it looking right.

5-10 minutes tops. For color I might spend some more time with color / HSL layers to dial in the colors but other than that, not much.

You don't need LR. I love LR for digital imaging but I don't really understand the use of LR for film scans, unless you use their cataloging system, which I HATE and definitely do not use.

Some have very elaborate editing workflow. I don't really get it personally.

PS: I used to teach Photoshop courses. It's really not hard. Just practice, and anything you want to do that you do not know, just Google it, and someone will have a written or video tutorial. I've taught myself enough Photoshop that I surprise veterans and professionals with techniques that they haven't seen or used.

I agree for the most part. I think the amount of time spent on a photo is much a personal preference as choosing what to eat for dinner. Also on what you are trying to achieve. If I add up actual PS time, it is probably an hour total. I just spend time contemplating my image and trying things to achieve what I see in my minds eye. Which as you know, doesn't always work the first time!

[rdeloe]

When I transitioned to digital from film I chose Lightroom. I barely know Photoshop because in the digital world I can do anything I want to do in Lightroom. I'm shooting film again alongside digital, but instead of optical printing I print on the same printer I use for my digital work. I still do all my photo editing in Lightroom. A digital file is a digital file as far as editing goes. But there are some things I have to do in Photoshop. I'm camera scanning my 4x5 negatives. Lightroom is not set up to do inversions easily. You can invert by switching up the tone curve, but then all the sliders are backwards (a real pain). So I invert in Lightroom, export as a TIF, and then import the TIF back into Lightroom. Photoshop comes in at the spotting stage. Lightroom is OK with smaller files for spotting, but it's impossible to use for my camera scanned files (which are around 125 MP after cropping the borders away from the full scan). So I spot the TIFF in Photoshop before bringing it back into Lightroom for final processing and printing.

There are lots of workflows. Some are more efficient than others. But many are simply different. Once you find one that works, it's only worth changing it up if you find a demonstrably better way to work. Of course if you're shooting and processing for a living then the rules are different. A faster workflow is money in your pocket.