Getting Behind

I made the decision before I even bought my camera that I would shoot in RAW+JPEG mode. I want the most flexibility in getting the best possible image out of my camera. There is a trade-off in shooting RAW though. It requires a bit of work in processing the image before you can use it.

I knew it would take some time to figure out RAW so I'm capturing the JPEG images as well. I can use those, but I find that they come out a little flat, no matter what I do. Perhaps it's my lack of experience with my camera or just a limitation in the technology.

This weekend, as I was processing images, I came to the conclusion that my workflow wasn't very productive. I was opening each RAW file in UFRaw, setting the white balance, exposure and curves then saving them. I find that the settings for one image in a set can be used with minor tweaks in other images from the same set. UFRaw doesn't allow you to copy & paste settings, so I was finding myself tweaking each photo. That method is not very productive.

Knowing I needed something a little more efficient, I gave RawStudio another try. I was able to get some nice results from a few of my images, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot get good portraits out of RawStudio. I haven't figured out why yet. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out RawStudio and how to get good images from it. The images look better from RawStudio than UFRaw, in my opinion, when I can get them to come out right, but I haven't quite figured that out.

This leaves me to where I'm at right now.... I have a handful of photos that I want to upload and post to this blog, but I'm way behind in my processing. I left my camera at home today so I wouldn't be tempted to take any more pictures until I'm caught up. I've only been at this for a few weeks and I'm already overhauling my workflow.

I'm having fun learning though! As frustrating as things can be, it's still fun. Here are a few shots I took Friday after work.

I don't include all my photos in this blog. I pick out a few from each set I take. There are more images in my Flickr Stream. Take a look around and always feel free to critique my photos.

Thanks for looking!