What's your workflow?

[md2008]

Just curious what the majority of people here are using in terms of workflow for their photography? Is it determined mainly by quality or convenience? With the state of the art as it is, does one provide a better output than another in your opinion? If you use a film but output digitally, does it defeat the purpose of using film to begin with (if you only consider image quality and not the camera)?

 

[bolohead]

Shoot (35mm & MF) -> develop (b&w myself, color to the lab) -> scan (Epson v500 w/ better scanning film holders and SilverfastAI) -> Analog archive (negs in sleeves in binders) -> Lightroom (import mostly for cataloging) -> Photoshop (touchup, crop, etc) -> Share (online Flickr, Facebook, etc) -> Printed proofs (Epson R1800 here at home) -> Prints (Millers Lab for prints to hang, give as gifts, and also for albums) -> Digital archive (backup process is run all the time with incremental backups daily and full backups weekly. I also archive all of my "final" images at Flickr)

I think it is extremely important to print your images regardless of whether they are digital or film. As a society, we are producing billions of images with the threat of not being able to pass them along to our descendants. I don't think my kids will inherit my hard drives, but will probably be interested in the prints hanging on the wall and what they find in albums. I would love for my great great grandchildren to have my images hanging on their walls.

 

[dshfoto]

I just started a topic on sources for digital silver prints.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96546
While I mostly shoot film, digitize, and then print, I want to stop using inkjet printers and use digital silver prints for my B&W work.

 

[martin s]

Over the past months I've been fairly comfortable with:

Shoot C41 film, wait for six full rolls -> process in one tank with Fuji chemicals with Jobo CPE / CPA -> Scan, edit, maybe print.

martin

 

[wolfpeterson]

Shoot B&W and Color negs
Develop B&W at home, color at the lab
Scanned in Epson V700 (at 3200dpi) at home then put in print files and binder.
Digital files cleaned for dust in photoshop. Saved to target folder.
Open lightroom which automatically imports files from target folder.
Adjust exposure, color, crop.
Export with longest side at 2000 pixels
Upload to flickr

THE END

 

[Darshan]

Film camera, get it developed/printed/scanned by a lab (pro or walgreens). Photos that I like, I get them reprinted at a larger size from the negative.

Digital camera, adjust in photoshop and save it in a hard drive. Very occasional print. :bang::bang::bang:

I have used digital a lot more than film, yet I see that I have more photos on my walls/desks from film than digital. It's not that digital photos are crap, I just don't print them enough, I don't know why.

BTW, I chose "other"

 

[wgerrard]

So far, I haven't been interested in prints. I develop my own b&w and use a local lab for C-41. I've finally figured out how to squeeze a makeshift darkroom into spare bathroom (I think) so when I get around to that I will see if wet printing appeals to me.

But...

I think the real future of photography will be based on the digital display of images. I want to see more technique and more technology leveraged to improve the quality of those images.

 

[nolasafari]

I have no workflow, I am so confused I never do anything the same way twice. I am not kidding I never do anything the same-way twice.

 

[Ronald M]

order film, pick up film, clean some brass cassettes or std cartriges, got to darkroom, turn out the lights, locate bench winder, load film, store in refrig/freezer reserving some for current use, expose, develope, fix, wash, hang to dry, cut up, make contact sheet ( analog or digital, put film in enlarger, make a print.

Pretty standard really. If I want a toned print, I scan it, convert to black & white, add tone with PS using my brown or blue colors, maybe add a texture, use the blend if sliders to keep tones off the deepest blacks and brightest whites.

Send file to AiProlab.com and have them make a print. Frame/hang.

Digi file sare backed up on two new LaCie terabite external drives.

Original film is in mylar sleeves in archival boxes from Light Impressions.

 

[MRohlfing]

Film camera - slide film - slide projector!

 

[Calzone]

All analog, almost always B&W.

Currently just developing negatives and shooting lots of film. Not uncommon to develope 20-30 rolls of 120 and 135 on a weekend day.

Decades ago I was a good printer. Seen so many negatives that I don't need a contact sheet to visualize a print. More important to me is to shoot a lot than making prints.

I spend a lot of time analizing my work in a critical manner to process images into different bodies of work. In other words rough editing from looking at negatives.

When I wet print it will be on a large scale, but first I want to concentrate on just the image and the negative. Over the past year my photography/work has grown beyond my expectations. For me this concentration borders on obsession, but it is paying off.

I didn't vote in the poll BTW.

Cal

 

[robbeiflex]

I now have access to a darkroom and will try my first wet prints this winter, but I have to admit that until now there have been more digital prints from scans then actual prints from negs. (I use a dark bag and develop at home then scan.) When you count photo books for family and friends the statistics are highly skewed towards digital prints of scanned negs. However, for the few large prints that I have done I've taken the negative to a professional lab.

Regards,
Rob

 

[clayne]

Over the past year my photography/work has grown beyond my expectations. For me this concentration borders on obsession, but it is paying off.

I didn't vote in the poll BTW.

Cal

Link to your work?

 

[icemendicant]

Digital images in RAW go straight to Lightroom.
Film camera, ship to NCPS for develop & scan, Lightroom.
Really good images I rescan with Epson V750 and Better Scanning holder + Silverfast, Lightroom. Then archive negatives.
Automatic backup to duplicate Drobo drive arrays and Flickr.
Share on Facebook, Flickr, forums, family blog etc.
Keep promising wife I really will get round to getting some prints done.
Really, I will, this week darling.... ;-)

 

[icemendicant]

I think it is extremely important to print your images regardless of whether they are digital or film. As a society, we are producing billions of images with the threat of not being able to pass them along to our descendants. I don't think my kids will inherit my hard drives, but will probably be interested in the prints hanging on the wall and what they find in albums. I would love for my great great grandchildren to have my images hanging on their walls.

I've often thought about this - and I really do love well made prints. I keep meaning to spend the time to teach myself to print really well, with a decent calibrated printer etc. I even got as far as clearing space in the loft to set up a printing station, but so far other demands on my time have prevented me going further with this. One day...

I was interested to hear your point about your kids inheriting your hard drives, because actually I think that's exactly what will happen. While well made prints and albums are undoubtedly family treasures that will be loved, the passing on of 'family data' is something we need to consider now as well. We are the first generation of parents to deal with this.

I already keep all our family photographs, video clips and audio clips, scanned childrens' drawings in an archive. Lightroom helps with the organisation, and I try to use metadata to add descriptions and additional information where I can. My role now is to add to and curate this family data trove, copying it to whatever new format or storage media technology brings our way. As my five sons get old enough to leave home, I envisage giving them a copy of all this data on a large storage drive in whatever format the current technology allows.

My boys (aged from 9 to 6 months at the moment) have grown up with the internet, and to them data is as real as the water that comes out of the taps. I think the debate of 'real' versus 'digital' storage will seem rather quaint to them as they get older, even though I'm sure they will also love the old prints I do eventually get round to making 🙂

I would anticipate this being something the large data storage companies will have to deal with properly over the next 10-20 years. Once enough of the net-savvy generation reach late middle age and start to consider inheritance of their digital assets, it will become a mainstream issue. I expect you'll be able to pay a one-time 'legacy charge' to Flickr to keep your images online in perpetuity for your descendants to view.

 

[clayne]

I remember once coming back from Indonesia and Malaysia with around 80 exposed rolls. I developed about 30 and left the other 50 untouched for about 8 months.

It helps to kill expectation - and trust me, expectations are probably one of the more insidious problems facing photographers and "artists" in general.

 

[Schlapp]

Shoot, develop, wet-print, chuck it in the bin

 

[clayne]

Shoot, develop, wet-print, chuck it in the bin

Ah, but said bin is never truly thrown out, is it? 😉

 

[Ezzie]

Two processes, both ending up with a digital image. One is digital through and through, the other starts off with film. The latter gets more use for fun these days. The former for those pictures you feel you need to take, family occasions et al. And where lugging an MF or LF camera around just isn´t practical.

 

[Steve M.]

I've gone full circle on this one. From shooting LF and MF and doing my own developing and enlarger prints (I started w/ scanned 35mm film and inkjet printing), I now shoot that C41 Kodak B&W film, send it out for developing and often CD scans, then after editing send the files to Winkflash, MPIX or Snapfish for prints. Somehow I've grown fond of the C41 B&W, and really like it's sharpness and smoothness. The prints look good to me.

The MF stuff I still shoot w/ Tri-X because 120 has a totally different tonality than 35mm, scan it at home, and send those files out for prints too.

In my experience, a well made inkjet print of a B&W neg can be made to look wonderful, but you have to put up w/ a lot of tedious stuff that I am not that interested in doing anymore.