After post processing do you?

Just interested in what you folks do with your final images, I seem to be making all my adjustments, And then converting them to jpeg, And never seem to go back to them again.

I know the sensible option would be is to keep a external hard drive, with all images in raw format as a back up.

I keep the RAW with the edits in Lightroom (cataloge) and when it does go through Photoshop I use what comes out but don't keep it since I don't see the point of saving it since I still learn a lot in photoshop and most of the time I can get something better out of it when I need a photo again, then I just start over again.

I open the RAW file in ACR in Elements and once I have done any adjustment to the file I open it as a copy so the original is untouched. I then edit further in Elements and save as jpeg or PSD depending on the amount of work and what I intend to do with the end result. Not enough room to save things as Tiffs.
I do an incremental back-up to an external drive once a week. The originals are not deleted from the SD card until that has happened.

Pretty much the same as Gwynn but I have a 1TB Western Digital network drive which backs up constantly. It is also a media server and can be accessed from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection without a computer being switched on. I also have Carbonite online backup.

I keep all raws and all edits in Aperture. My laptop's hard drive is incrementally backed up every hour via WiFi to some network drives. I also rate all my photos, and the 3+ star stuff gets uploaded as a full size JPEG to Flickr for a further backup.

... that's what I use 23hq for, too.

Bret

Never use RAW. Tried it a few times but it's so long-winded to process and, to be honest, like Ken Rockwell, I can't for the life of me see any difference beyond a little extra head-room in the highlights. I keep the JPEGS far too long on my hard drive then burn the best to CD (lap-top is too old for DVDs!)

Philistine!

Andrew

I keep all the RAW files untouched (Lightroom does that automatically anyway). In Lightroom the edits are saved as small sidebar files and so there is no need to keep multiple copies. I only have multiple versions when I have dropped into Photoshop for something Lightroom cannot do. In that case I edit a copy. Jpegs are exported on a "as needed" basis, small ones for the web, full size for printing.

Currently backed up from my mobile hard disk to a desk top one every so often. I'll soon be getting two 1tb external disks which will mirror each other.

Andrew: most of the time you won't see a difference. I was interested to note, however, that when I had two big prints made (one A3 one A2 recently) the person doing it could see a difference between the photo shot as a jpg and the one as a RAW. In lightroom there is pretty much no difference in how you would treat either format most of the time so "being long-winded" is not the case.

K.

Kris
That's interesting to hear, particularly about the large print differences, something I've never tried as a direct comparison.

I've often wondered whether having Lightroom would speed the workflow. I've only got the (admittedly pretty comprehensive) RAW processing software that came with the camera (another good reason to buy Pentax. Apparently other camera makers are not so generous and bend you over with the need for an extra processing package). The Pentax stuff works fine but when you take as many photographs as I do (albeit mostly pretty average ones) the time spent in front of a computer gets a bit wearisome.

Perhaps I should adopt your Horseman approach on occasions: a considered approach, quality not quantity and a tripod! But no towel.

Best wishes,

Andrew

well, I have to say I argued the point Saturday at a christening.
Then was told on Sunday that the church pics from the K100D aren't usable due to WB / dark. Uh-huh: Mine need a lot of work (noise, shadows, some sharpening) but they're saveable. The initial process is also pretty rapid these days and would be even faster with a real machine (working on getting one of those sorted).

It was very cool being in a house with a K100d and a K10D with a bunch of lenses and three flashes "lying" around for one of us to pick up and use.

Lots of decent pics and the 10-24 is manic for indoor stuff.

Bret

1# Upload raw files which are simultaneously backed up to a external drive and to a on-line server.
2# Adding meta data and keywords to raw files
3# Process raw files
4# Converting processed raw files to Tiff's and Jpeg Web.
5# Return back sometimes to re-process or change the look of a picture, depending on mood.
6# Best of the bunch gets printed big, using a pro-lab.

Martin which print pro-lab do you use?

I use Lightroom for my RAW processing, so once I've fiddled with presets to my heart's content I use Lightroom in much the same role as Picasa used to perform for my digital compact JPEGs.

I shoot in RAW, develop in Lightroom and keep the RAWs + sidecar files on a couple of external hard drives. Don't use PS much since I got Lightroom.

Printing I either do myself on an Epson 1290 or for larger than A3 I've used Peak Imaging in Sheffield, which I'm very pleased with.

I've just bought an NEC spectraview LCD which I calibrate with an X Rite and I'm very pleased with that.

These boys. They are in your neighbourhood. Very good, flexible and outstanding quality for a more than reasonable price.
Highly recommended.