[last updated : Jan 2006]
5. converting raw files to jpg :
At this point I should have all my images corrected for white balance and exposure and even some of them cropped. I will now make another back-up of the raw files – but this time of the corrected and edited raw files.
Conversion from raw to jpg is done via batch processing.
If you’re using Adobe Camera Raw, you could use actions to convert to jpg, but saving directly from ACR is much faster, and it works in the background.
Batch processing the raw files to jpgs can take long, depending on how many images you are processing and your computer’s spec. The time taken to convert to jpg shouldn’t be a problem, since this is run overnight.
Then I will burn a DVD of these jpgs, and also keep copies of the converted jpgs on one of the external hard drives.
I don’t bother converting to tiff, because all the potentially destructive correction and editing work was done on the RAW files already. So quality is still very high, and even then there is still the option of going back to a specific raw file should there be a quality problem.
At this point the initial raw workflow is complete, and the jpgs can be sent off to the lab for proofs, or web galleries can be created.
Excluding the time the software took to generate the previews, I’m usually able to finish editing a wedding within 3 hours. Even though all that sounds like a lot of effort, with some practice it becomes a fast, yet completely reliable way of working with digital images. And in shooting raw, I have the flexibility in changing most of the settings again.
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