Back in the days of film, before going on an assignment, I would stop at a camera store and buy enough film for the shoot. Of course, I would estimate this from a shot list provided by my client and added extra to it, based on some WAG (Wild-Ass Guessing) factor.
In most cases, I would buy the film in "blocks" of twenty, as 20 roll boxes of either 35mm 24 or 36 exposure film came cello-wrapped that way. I'd buy these blocks because they had the same emulsion number, therefore expecting consistent results. Anything left over went into my refrigerator for those one-off, quickie assignments or for fun and testing.
After the assignment, I'd drop off the film, often E-6 chrome, in two batches—odd number rolls in on one day and even number when I picked up the first batch the next day. If there were any lab accidents, only half of my film was at risk at any one time.
Once back at my office with the developed chrome images, I'd lay them out on a light table to view them. No matter what size film I used, 35mm, 120/220 or 4x5, I needed to view them with a magnifier. I'd go through each one, putting aside, in two batches, definite keepers and the garbage shots.
It's all so much easier with digital, including the last bit about culling the images. Instead of using a magnifier, I can look at each image full screen and even magnify it 800 times to see critical areas. Now, that I'm not restricted by a finite number of images (memory cards notwithstanding), I tend to shoot more pictures than necessary, even some grab shots along the way or some, I call experimental.
Working through large batches of exposures requires a tool that can do a number of tasks quickly. Recently, I had the good fortune to use Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits (version 4.6.3).
My workflow may not necessarily be right for you, but Photo Mechanic can accommodate most anyone's. The workflow incorporates everything from getting the image files off of the memory cards to "output." Photo Mechanic describes output as saving images, printing contact sheets or full images, creating a web gallery, and so forth.
Photo Mechanic's robust ingest feature determines when you have attached a memory card to a card reader and offers to copy/move the image files to your hard drive. While ingesting the files, Photo Mechanic can also apply the data from the IPTC Stationary Pad (Figure 2) to all the images. The data, once applied to your images, is available for any other IPTC aware applications.
Figure 2: IPTC Stationary Pad w/ MetaData
The images appear inside Photo Mechanic as a contact sheet (see Figure 1) with either the original file names or those applied while ingesting (batch renaming). While you can have a number of contact sheets in Photo Mechanic's tabbed interface, usually, you are working with only one at a time. A small annoyance, for me, was how I had to close a tab. I had expected to be able to close a tab with either a double click or right-click and select close, but, in Photo Mechanic, I had to use the keyboard combination of “Ctrl-w” or go into the “File” menu and select “Close.”
One of the first and, in my opinion, more important actions is to cull the collection for keepers. Photo Mechanic is set up to help you do this swiftly. Start by double-clicking the first image at the top-left of the contact sheet to open the preview window (Figure 3).
Figure 2: Preview for Tagging Images
To quickly go through your images, keep your hands totally on the keyboard and press “T” to tag the image (keeper) and the right arrow key to go to the next image. If in doubt about the quality of an image, press the “Z” key to toggle the zoom (can be set at various magnifications) and look at the image closer. When you've gone through the entire collection, press the “ESC” key to leave the preview screen and go back to the main Photo Mechanic interface (Figure 1).
Now, press the “F3” key and the images not (T)agged disappear (they not deleted), leaving you with only the keepers. Select all of them, “Ctrl-A” and use the “File >> Copy/Move photos...” command to copy them in a new folder, labeled as keepers.
In a few minutes, you can go through scores of images and whittle down the entire shoot to the few you need for presentation or editing or output. The beauty of working like this is you quickly narrow the collection to a manageable number and the unwanted images are removed (not deleted) and you are free from their distraction.
Figure 3: Single Image (Contact Sheet) Showing Additional Features w/ Mouse Over
Besides working the images as a batch, you can also address each image individually. As you hover the mouse over each image in the contact sheet, icons in the frame appear which allow you to tag, rotate, edit the IPTC data and "star" the image. The stars, at the bottom of the frame, allow assigning images 0 to 5 stars to designate a "value" for consideration.
In the editing mode, you can do all of the following:
- Selecting photos
- Rotating photos
- Tagging photos (e.g. the "keepers")
- Previewing photos
- Running a Slide Show to tag photos
- Sorting photos
- Adding IPTC (e.g. Caption) info to photos either individually or as a batch
- Renaming photos
- Sending photos to an external editor for detailed inspection
The design of Photo Mechanic allows you to speed through the normally time-consuming process of moving files from your memory cards, applying IPTC data and deciding which images are worth keeping. When done culling you can:
- Copy photos
- Save photos as a new photo (applying rotation, crop, resize, etc)
- Print photos as contact sheets or individually
- Export HTML web pages of photos
- Send photos as email attachments
- Present a slide show of your photos
Initially, I was reluctant to add another software application to my workflow as I had thought importing the files into Adobe Lightroom and working with them there was enough. However, I can definitely see the efficacy of using Photo Mechanic on the front end to speedily get to a stage where I can do any necessary editing. Photo Mechanic displays JPG, TIFF and RAW (also JPG + RAW) files quicker than most any application I have used.
I don't know about you, but frankly, I really don't like the grunt work—I'd rather be shooting or drooling over new gear. Photo Mechanic is quite efficient at what it does and for what it does, it leads the pack.
Visit the Photo Mechanic web site for additional information
Demo Available - http://www.camerabits.com/pages/demoreg.cgi
License: Electronic $150.00 / Media $160.00 / Upgrade $90.00
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