Workflow Musings

I have been thinking more about workflow. I am a DAM and a DNG convert, and have been slowly trying to turn these approaches and tools into an efficient system. There are several workflow solutions, and it would appear that one of the most popular is the Bridge / iView Media Pro (now Expression Media) combination.

This approach seems to work well, particularly when used in conjunction with dng files. So far, so good. You can rate and tag all your files, and process them in Camera Raw, and then convert them to dng’s with its built in full size jpg preview, and then you have a very useful catalog. The way I see it is that you have an excellent workflow, but one that is of primary benefit to your raw files. But what about the work that’s done in Photoshop? You really need to have a secondary catalog for your master files, but can you get the same benefits from iview or Expression Media from tifs or psd files as you can with dngs? Obviously it makes sense to keep a master file for files where you have cloned stuff out or used layer masks or adjustment layers to improve the image. But master files take up a lot of room. 16bit layered files can fill more than 200MB each. What about taking the dng / camera raw approach a step further and somehow writing all the adjustment layers into the dng in a non destructive way? That way, you wouldn’t have this separation between a raw file catalog and a master file one. Is anyone following? I must admit this is just something I woke up with in my head this morning, so it’s not exactly really well considered, but there are not a lot of photographers whose work can be completely done in camera raw. If you can, well great. But for those who have a collection of raw files (or better, a collection of finely tuned dng files), as well as a collection of master files incorporating lots of adjustment layers and other corrections, then there is this issue of integration. I can’t see how the Bridge / iView Media Pro workflow really incorporates the master files. I suppose you just need a second catalog for them, and that catalogue might be just as useful as the raw one. I’m thinking here of the automated processes that you can get from Bridge or iView / EM, like web galleries, slideshows etc. Efficiency is very important for digital photographers. Understanding how to implement a good and efficient workflow is critical to that goal. These musings are just a way for me to work through the issues as I see them. Maybe I’m just not seeing clearly enough yet. I find the whole DAM thing to be a tad complicated. Hmmm…