Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Other Raw Converters => Topic started by: JB Rasor on June 12, 2016, 01:47:39 am
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Hey everyone,
I need some advice on a really fast workflow. This is my third official day as a sports photographer and I’m treading in new water.
I shoot about 500-600 images per game (MLB Baseball). The photos have to go out in almost real time. So far I’ve been using my usual Lightroom workflow, but that will definitely not cut it. By the 6th or 7th import it’s taking almost 20 minutes to ingest a handful of files and export them as .jpgs.
I know Photo Mechanic is the industry standard in this field, but does it have any color correction built in? I was thinking I’d try either Capture One or just do a workflow via Adobe Bridge.
Essentially I need to ingest about 20-60 RAW files every 15-20 minutes, perform a quick color correction (I’ve developed a few presets in Lightroom for this) and export as .jpg.
If you guys have any suggestions or advice I’d really appreciate it! I’m totally new to the concept of speed in delivery, so like I mentioned, this is new ground for me. Thanks so much guys!
JB
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aren't they mostly shoot OOC JPGs for speed ?
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aren't they mostly shoot OOC JPGs for speed ?
My thoughts exactly. If there is a later time to improve (some of) the quickly submitted images, one can choose to shoot Raw+JPEG, submit the JPEGs first, and if needed (and the amount justifies the revenues and available time) use the Raws to improve quality.
Cheers,
Bart
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That may be the best solution. Sad to admit I hadn't thought about that. This is my first sports job, so up until now the idea of shooting in jpg was blasphemous haha. Thanks a lot guys. I think that's my answer.
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Hi,
I worked for many years in a large newspaper (not as a photographer) and all news-related photography was jpeg + Photo Mechanic. Raw file size + extra processing time are serious drawbacks where speed is essential
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Francisco. I think you all are spot on. My mind set as a photographer has always been to shoot raw, edit, adjust and output. JPG is definitely the way to go here. I think I may go ahead and add photo mechanic to my computer as well. Thanks again!
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cameras like the Nikon D5 are well suited for OOC JPG shooting, even to the point that it is not so easy to match that (@ high ISO/low light) from their own raws with 3rd party raw converter like LR/ACR (as least that's my impression from reading some topics)...
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The key is to figure out your WB in advance, shoot JPEG and use a fast browser like PhotoMechanic, which is also very efficient at adding metadata - which is also usually a requirement for a sports shooter.
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I agree with Rory and Bart- Nail your white balance and exposure. Shoot jpeg and raw. Save jpeg images to one card and raw to the other. Pull your jpeg card to upload and leave the raw card in camera as a back-up. Use PM to import and add a custom IPTC metadata upon import.
I am not aware of any color correction other than adding or changing an embedded color profile in PM but you can crop and rotate before sending.
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Have a look here
http://scottkelby.com/my-sports-photography-workflow-so-far/
Ray
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Thanks Ray! That's a great article by Kelby. Definitely helpful information.
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Thanks Ray! That's a great article by Kelby. Definitely helpful information.
except again they (in the article) don't do _raw_ workflow that you wanted ("...ingest about 20-60 RAW files every 15-20 minutes, perform a quick color correction (I’ve developed a few presets in Lightroom for this) and export as .jpg...")... did you give up on the raw part ?
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except again they (in the article) don't do _raw_ workflow that you wanted ("...ingest about 20-60 RAW files every 15-20 minutes, perform a quick color correction (I’ve developed a few presets in Lightroom for this) and export as .jpg...")... did you give up on the raw part ?
So I've actually got a combination of both going on now.
I picked up a Canon 1DX II, and with the Cfast read and write times, plus the smaller file size of 20mp, working in RAW hasn't been much of an issue.
This is my first sport's job. I mainly shoot documentary work and I was relying on my Sony A7R II and Pentax 645Z in that field. The Sony actually held on pretty well for ML Baseball, but compared to the 1DX II there is no comparison. The file size is less than half so Lightroom doesn't come to a crashing hault on me when editing.
Still, RAW is certainly slower than a .jpg workflow, which I use quite a bit as well, but with presets loaded, and tailored for the lighting (which is consistent every game), I work pretty quickly in RAW. The 1DX II .jpg files are really nice though, so I go back and forth.
The biggest issue is dynamic range...stadium lights hitting white uniforms and dark shadows on player's faces. That's where RAW really helps. All the Pros alongside me are, of course, using Photo Mechanic. My photos don't go to wires though, so metadata is a nonissue.
I had a hard time liking Photo Mechanic...due in large part to working with LR, PS, C1 for so long. When the time comes, hopefully, that a wire service wants me to work for them I'm sure I'll be back here asking if LR can add metadata as effectively as Photo Mechanic, or if there is a workaround to make it work. It sucks not being able to do any post editing, which Photo Mechanic doesn't allow.
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I had a hard time liking Photo Mechanic...due in large part to working with LR, PS, C1 for so long. When the time comes, hopefully, that a wire service wants me to work for them I'm sure I'll be back here asking if LR can add metadata as effectively as Photo Mechanic, or if there is a workaround to make it work. It sucks not being able to do any post editing, which Photo Mechanic doesn't allow.
I use Photo Mechanic in conjunction with Lightroom. I use PM to Ingest (download) my cards, then add all the metadata -- full captions, keywords, filenames, etc. Then I do the first edit to keep anything usable, then a second edit for what I want to send. If I'm shooting JPEG and in a hurry, PM will upload my files from within the application (either FTP or to someplace like Photoshelter). If I'm shooting raw, I can import my raw files to Lightroom, then process and export them as jpegs. Lightroom recognizes the Stars tags in Photo Mechanic, so my 5-star ratings transfer.
PM is significantly faster at the whole edit-and-metadata thing than anything else I've tried. The use of variables, presets, and the Structured Keywords panel all make my life a lot faster and easier, and I don't have to give up shooting a raw workflow unless I am in a real hurry.
Who are you shooting for that doesn't want captions in sports photos?
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The biggest issue is dynamic range...stadium lights hitting white uniforms and dark shadows on player's faces. That's where RAW really helps.
FRV (fastrawviewer) can show your the true raw clipping in place where it happens in the frame
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Please hire an assistant people need jobs, you shoot, they edit life is beautiful!
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aren't they mostly shoot OOC JPGs for speed ?
Less and less so
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2133531&seqNum=2
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Less and less so
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2133531&seqNum=2
so, OOC JPG processing becomes more and more "good" (or call it "robust"), but D* and 1D* users use it "Less and less so"... :o
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so, OOC JPG processing becomes more and more "good" (or call it "robust"), but D* and 1D* users use it "Less and less so"... :o
The D5, D500 and 1DX have huge buffers allowing for virtually indefinite shooting in raw so that advantage of JPEG is not as important.
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When I use to do motorsport photography I built a very fast workflow around Corel Aftershot (the old Bibble).
It was the fastest software to process from RAW, by a long margin. Occasionally it could be unstable, but version 3 makes that rare. The picture IQ is not as good as LR, but the speed gains outweigh the small loss in IQ in my opinion.
LR, Photo Ninja, PS6, Capture One do not come close for speed. On1 Photo Raw is about to come out and it may be as fast as Aftershot (judging from demo videos).