Nature Photography Photo Workshop

9.1. THE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY WORKFLOW

Creative people like to be spontaneous, and nature photographers are no exception. You want the freedom to react instinctively and work intuitively with your pictures. Ironically, to accomplish this you benefit greatly by operating within some kind of framework. Random action produces random results — as explained in other chapters, working in a methodical way and allowing your process to flow along a sequence of clearly defined steps provides greater creative freedom because you don't have to think as much about the technical details.

Post-processing refers to the work you do to your digital photos using a computer. In recent years, the term workflow has become widely used (and maybe overused) in all areas of business, and photography in particular. For digital nature photographers, the post-processing workflow you follow can make your work tedious and labor intensive or fast and easy. A workflow is simply a standard sequence of steps that you use to produce a specific result. A good workflow saves you lots of time by consistently following the same steps and automating the process wherever possible.

The typical digital photography workflow (see 9-1) is really comprised of many smaller workflows, each related to a specific task. For example, you can use one workflow to make sure you have the right camera settings, another workflow can help you get your photos onto the computer, and others can help you pick your favorites and process them ...