Difference between revisions of "Photo-editing-topics"

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(On Site Backup)
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In addition, I keep an a different copy of Camera-buf that gets populated by running a batch script whenever the computer is idle for ten minutes using the Windows task scheduling facility.  I also occasionally force this script to run during long editing sessions.  The script uses robocopy, an advanced Windows command available from microsoft as part of the [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en|Windows Resource Kit ].  I did not have to do this download for Windows 7 Home Premium, but I did for Windows XP Pro.  I have two versions of the script, one that just adds new files (automatic scheduled script uses this one) and leave old ones alone, and one that makes an exact copy (run manually periodically to clean things up):
 
In addition, I keep an a different copy of Camera-buf that gets populated by running a batch script whenever the computer is idle for ten minutes using the Windows task scheduling facility.  I also occasionally force this script to run during long editing sessions.  The script uses robocopy, an advanced Windows command available from microsoft as part of the [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en|Windows Resource Kit ].  I did not have to do this download for Windows 7 Home Premium, but I did for Windows XP Pro.  I have two versions of the script, one that just adds new files (automatic scheduled script uses this one) and leave old ones alone, and one that makes an exact copy (run manually periodically to clean things up):
 
*Keep old files
 
*Keep old files
**robocopy V:\Camera-buf X:\Camera-buf  /E
+
**robocopy V:\Camera-buf M:\Camera-buf  /E
 
*Exact copy
 
*Exact copy
**robocopy V:\Camera-buf X:\Camera-buf  /E /PURGE
+
**robocopy V:\Camera-buf M:\Camera-buf  /E /PURGE
 
The key thing that makes robocopy attractive is that it only copies files it needs to, so it can go through the 300GB pretty fast when only a few files have been added or changed.
 
The key thing that makes robocopy attractive is that it only copies files it needs to, so it can go through the 300GB pretty fast when only a few files have been added or changed.

Revision as of 16:34, 22 April 2011

Home

How I organize my photos

All of my photos are on one drive (V:) and they are backed up in multiple ways (discussed later.) The directory tree is organized like this:

  • Camera-buf top directory
    • cannon-elph jpeg files from Andrea's point and shoot camera
      • Exact copies of flash memory
        • 2010 06 21 ...example directory: pictures copied from the camera on June 21, 2010
    • fuji-m7000 jpeg files from my fuji camera
      • same structure as cannon-elph directory
    • nikon-d200 jpeg and raw files from my Nikon D200. I normally shoot both NEF raw files and jpg files
      • same structure as other camera directories above
    • Edit_work top level directory for editing
      • 2008c-antigua example edit area directory. One for each trip, event, season, etc, named to display in chronological order. To start, I copy pictures from the camera directories to here. As I go through pictures, they get deleted from here and edited versions go to done, below, or rejects. For my Nikon D200, I start only with NEF raw files and save both NEF and JPG
        • done complete edits get saved here
        • rejects pictures I don't use go here and eventually get deleted. The original camera versions never get deleted
        • other_pictures any event pictures from a source other than one of our cameras
        • print_groups copies or shortcuts to record pictures that got printed
        • sitesource (optional) working directory for generating an event web site using my old PERL tool. Not using this any more
        • batchsource (optional) used as temporary area for doing batch editing. Example is setting white balance and saturation enhancement on a bunch of outdoor shots
        • video (optional) used for video files from the same event, including originals and edited versions
      • 2009a-winter-spring another example event
    • nx2-settings-files place to store settings for the Capture NX2 editing software
    • Other Picures pictures from various sources, including web sites, friends and family, etc
      • Russia trip ship pics example. Pictures taken by crew members on our Volga cruise
    • rename work working directory for renaming camera picture files. Pictures get renamed with a timestamp in the form yyyymmdd-hhmmss_originalname. Example: img_2094.jpg got renamed 20071122-201712 because it was shot November 22, 2007 at 8:17:12 PM. This renaming happens as soon as possible after copying from the camera, and virtually eliminates duplicate file names across all of our pictures
    • jalbum top of the directory tree used by JAlbum, which I use for generating event web sites. This replaces my own Makesite.pl tool I used to use.
    • My Albums the real top of the JAlbum directory tree, generated by the program. Everything from here down is managed by JAlbum.
    • advantix-cds cd images from Andrea's old film camera
    • New Epson Scans scanned images from our Epson scanner
    • New HP Scans scanned images from our HP scanner. Not much here because that scanner was exchanged for the Epson."
    • Poloroid scans scans from our very old photo albums."
    • Program Sources sources for programs I have written for photography work"

Methods and Tools

Camera to computer

When I copy files to the computer, they go into a directory corresponding the the camera and a subdirectory named after the date of the copy. If more than one is one the same day, I add a, b, c, etc to distinguish them. This never happens anymore because of the size of the camera memory cards.

Renaming with timestamp

When I copy files from a camera, they get renamed with a prefix time stamp in the form yyyymmdd-hhmmss_originalname and set in the time zone where the picture was taken. Strictly speaking, it should probably be in UTC, but it is easier to keep track of things in the local time zone with any daylight time in force at the time. This renaming applies to all copies of the files, including the originals.

Rename tools

The main tool I use for renaming is a command line program called exiftool, available from this site. This tool works on all files of the target type in a given directory, so I use a work area called __rename work__ for this. A key point is that this tool works not only on jpeg files, but also on Nikon NEF raw files. Camera files to be processed are copied here and the appropriate batch file is run on them, then they are moved to the appropriate camera file area. exiftool has a bunch of features, but the ones I use are:

  • To add N hours to the files' EXIF time stamps
    • exiftool -overwrite_original_in_place -AllDates+=N .
  • To subtract N hours from the files' EXIF time stamps
    • exiftool -overwrite_original_in_place -AllDates-=N .
  • To rename the files based on the EXIF time stamps in the specified format
    • exiftool "-filemodifydate<createdate" "-filename<${CreateDate}_$filename" -d %%Y%%m%%d-%%H%%M%%S .

Because I post these files to my LINUX-based web site, I want all of the files to have lower case names, so I use a simple windows shell command to rename them:

  • For /F "tokens=*" %%F In ('Dir /B /L') Do Move "%%F" "%%F"

My rename work directory is populated with batch files that use combinations of the above commands to correct timestamps and rename files. I could get more fancy and use command line arguments, but instead, I have a batch file for each operation, which allows me to just move the files to the work area and double click on the appropriate script.

One script just lower cases the names. I often copy this to an event directory and run it there.

Editing

I use Nikon Capture NX2 for most of my editing, and occasionally supplement it with Photoshop Elements 5. There are later versions of Photoshop Elements, but I use it so infrequently that I have not upgraded.

Basic Editing Flow

As shown above, each event, trip, etc, has its own directory tree, and generally includes a done subdirectory and a reject subdirectory. To start editing for an event, I add a new directory named appropriately. At this writing, my working directory is 2009r-egypt-trip. For each travel day, I copy the renamed NEF files from the camera directories to the working directory, and edit with NX2 in chronological order. Each time I complete a file, I save it to ...\done directory both in NEF form and in JPG form. Then I delete the original from the working directory. The camera original is never deleted. For some pictures, there may be multiple crops, and the names are appended with -crop1, -crop2, etc. NEF enables keeping all of the crops in the same file as versions, and I may experiment with that, but up to now, I have saved a different NEF for each crop. Any picture I decide I do not want to edit or publish gets moved to ...\rejects just to keep track of them. Later, I empty out the rejects directory. If any of the pictures get edited by photoshop, say to remove an object, remove distortion, etc, the flow is to save them from NX2 in TIFF format, edit with photoshop, and save the file in photoshop format and jpg format with a -ps appended at the end of the name.

Typical NX2 edits

  • Camera settings

These are basic camera settings that control how the raw image is converted to JPG.

    • White Balance. I normally shoot with automatic white balance, but when I edit, I like to set it to a fixed value. NX2 has a wide range of pre-defined values, including fine tuning. It is also possible to set white balance by picking reference gray points on the picture.
    • Saturation enhancement. For most of my outdoor scenery pictures, I enhance saturation, but only at edit time. I leave this off on the camera.
    • Color Mode. Rather that fool with this at the time I take the shots, I leave the camera set for Mode III, which is good for general shots. At edit time, if the picture's main subject includes people's faces, I will often switch to Mode I or Ia, which has a lot more flesh tones in the gamut.
    • Sharpening. In some instances, I will turn on some level of sharpening in camera settings, but I generally like to do sharpening more selectively later in the flow.
    • Tone Compensation. This is a pre-defined set of light response curves mostly for adding and reducing contrast. I generally don't use this, but instead manipulate the curves further along in the adjustment phase, where I can get much more complete control.

Backup

I'm pretty paranoid about backup of my photos and the work I have done on them, so I have multiple backup methods.

Off Site Backup

I use CrashPlan backup for my entire computer, which includes 300+ GB of photo files, the size of the Camera-buf directory tree. Mozy worked well, but the prices went out of sight at the beginning of 2011.

On Site Backup

CrashPlan provides a way to make a copy of their backup on a local disk. I have a dedicated external drive (X) for this.

In addition, I keep an a different copy of Camera-buf that gets populated by running a batch script whenever the computer is idle for ten minutes using the Windows task scheduling facility. I also occasionally force this script to run during long editing sessions. The script uses robocopy, an advanced Windows command available from microsoft as part of the Resource Kit . I did not have to do this download for Windows 7 Home Premium, but I did for Windows XP Pro. I have two versions of the script, one that just adds new files (automatic scheduled script uses this one) and leave old ones alone, and one that makes an exact copy (run manually periodically to clean things up):

  • Keep old files
    • robocopy V:\Camera-buf M:\Camera-buf /E
  • Exact copy
    • robocopy V:\Camera-buf M:\Camera-buf /E /PURGE

The key thing that makes robocopy attractive is that it only copies files it needs to, so it can go through the 300GB pretty fast when only a few files have been added or changed.