Real World Adobe Photoshop CS2: Industrial-strength Production Techniques
| Preproduction generally means doing the minimum number of things to the maximum number of images so that you can quickly get to the point where you can pick the "hero" images that are truly deserving of your time, while leaving the rejects ready for revisiting. Because the order in which you perform preproduction taskssuch as selecting, sorting, renaming, keywording, and so onisn't critical, the order in which we'll discuss them is arbitrary. In those cases where the result of one task depends on the prior completion of another, we'll point that out. We do, however, offer one golden rule: Start with the operations required by the largest number of images, and complete these before you start handling individual images on a case-by-case basis. For example, the first thing we always do with a folder full of new raw images is to select all the images and enter our copyright notice by applying a metadata template. Similarly, if you know that you want to add the same keyword or keywords to all the images in a shoot, do it now (see "Applying Keywords and Metadata," later in this chapter). But if you don't care about copyrighting or keywording your rejects, you can make your initial selects first. Selecting and Editing
Some photographers like to do a rough application of Camera Raw settings on all the images before they start making selects by flagging or ranking. Then they look at a large preview for each image and apply a flag or rank accordingly. Others may take a quick scan of the thumbnails and weed out any obvious junk before proceeding. Bridge can accommodate all these different styles. Start out by loading a Bridge workspace that works for the task you want to start withif you need to refresh your memory on configuring Bridge's layout for different tasks and saving those layouts as workspaces, see "The Window Menu and Bridge Configuration" earlier in this chapter. Selecting by thumbnail
If the thumbnail view lets you see enough detail to make initial selects, choose an all-thumbnail view, then click-select the keepers or the rejects, whichever is easier. Shift-clicking selects all contiguous files between the last-selected image and the one on which you click; Command-clicking selects noncontiguous images one at a time. You can apply a label or rating as you go (see "Rating and Labeling," a bit later). Selecting by preview
To see more detail, you can look at each image's preview. Bridge's Filmstrip view lets you see a large preview with a single row of thumbnails. The left and right arrow keys let you navigate from one thumbnail to the next and display the corresponding preview (see Figure 11-73). With this method, it's easier to apply a label or rating as you go than to rely on selecting thumbnails. Figure 11-73. Selects by preview
Selecting in Slide Show
Bridge's Slide Show view lets you review images one at a time at up to full-screen resolution. Slide Show offers the largest preview you can get without opening the image in Camera Raw and zooming. Plus, it lets you apply labels or ratings. Comparing images
When you're making selects, you often need to compare images. In Slide Show view you can see before-and-afters, but we offer two techniques for comparing images side by side.
If you use this technique, remember that the settings that get applied to the image are those written by the last copy of Camera Raw to touch it. We suggest making all your edits in one copy of Camera Raw, and closing the other copy first. Rating and Labeling
Physically selecting thumbnails is one way to distinguish keepers from rejects, but it's ephemeral (you lose the selection as soon as you click on any other image). The better method is to assign ratings or labels. Ratings and labels become part of the image's metadata that you can use to search and to filter which images get displayed. One-star rating for binary sorts
If you've become accustomed to using the old File Browser's flagging mechanism for binary, yes/no sorting and selecting, you'll be happy to find that the old keyboard shortcut, Command-' (apostrophe), lets you toggle a one-star rating on and off. If you've selected a mixture of images, some with a one-star rating and some unrated, pressing Command-' first adds one star to the unrated images, preserving the one-star rating for those that already have it. If all the selected images have the same attribute (all rated with one star, or all unrated), the command acts as an off/on toggle instead. However, if the selection also contains images rated with more than one star, pressing Command-' will apply a one-star rating to these images, so you need to be a little careful with your selections. Command-1 applies a one-star rating to all selected images, and Command-0 removes the rating for all selected images. You can apply the rating to one image at a time (the most convenient method in Filmstrip view, and the only possible one in Slide Show view), or to multiple images (which is convenient in Thumbnails view). Once you've applied the one-star rating, you can segregate the rated and unrated images in any of three ways.
One-star is great for making quick, yes/no, binary decisionskeep or rejectbut for more nuanced choices, you can add stars to the rating. Multistar Ratings
The techniques for applying multistar ratings are the same as those for applying a single star. Command-0 removes the rating, and Command-1 through Command-5 apply one to five stars. Command-. (period) adds a star to the current rating, and Command-, (comma) reduces it by one star. There are basically two ways to approach rating your images.
If you're collaborating with others in determining the hero shots, the first approach is probably the more suitable. The second approach lends itself better to situations where you're the only person making the call. Labels
The Label mechanism is less well suited to rating images than is the star-based ratings system. It's intuitively obvious that a five-star rating is either better or worse than one star, while there's no clear comparison between, say, yellow and green. The stars are incremental, but the labels are notthey're simply arbitrary labels. You can apply any of the first four labels using Command-6 through Command-9, but there's no concept of promoting or demoting images from one label to another. Labels are also less portable than ratings. Your labels will show up as white on any machine that uses a different label definition than yours, which is almost certain to happen if you use something other than the default label definitions (red, yellow, green, blue, and purple), and reasonably likely to happen even if you do use the default definitions, since the recipient may not. They can always search for your label text, but it's probably simpler just to use ratings. Applying Camera Raw Settings
To work efficiently, look for and select images that require approximately the same edit. Once you've done so, you can apply the edits in any of the following three ways (or mix and match the techniques as required). Remember, at this stage in the workflow, you're simply aiming for good, not perfect. (Perfect comes later, when you've whittled the images down to the few you'll actually deliver.) Edit by example in Bridge
Select the first of the images that need the same edit, then open it in Camera Raw. The choice of host applicationBridge or Photoshopdepends on what else is going on. If Photoshop is busy batch-processing files, host Camera Raw in Bridge. If Bridge is busy building the cache, host Camera Raw in Photoshop. If they're both busy, host Camera Raw in BridgeBridge's multithreading lets you work in Camera Raw even while Bridge itself is busy doing other tasks. Make your editswhite balance, exposure, whatever the image needsand then dismiss the Camera Raw dialog box by clicking Done (it's the default option in Camera Raw hosted by Bridge, but not in Camera Raw hosted by Photoshop). Now, from the Apply Camera Raw Settings submenu (in Bridge's Edit menu), choose Copy Camera Raw Settings, or press Command-Option-C. Then select all the other images that need the same edit and choose Paste Camera Raw Settings (or press Command-Option-V). If necessary, select the combination of subsets or settings you want to apply from the Paste Camera Raw Settings dialog box first (see "Select, Find, and Edit with the Edit Menu," earlier in this chapter). This approach works well when you need to apply the same settings to a large number of images that are identifiable by relatively small thumbnails, because you can select them quickly. But if you need to make small changes to the settings for each image, the following two approaches are better suited. Edit by presets
If you've saved presets for Camera Raw in Camera Raw's Settings folder (see "Loading and Saving Settings" earlier in this chapter) you can apply them to all the selected images by choosing Apply Camera Raw Settings from Bridge's Edit menu, then choosing the settings or settings subsets from the submenu. Saving Settings Subsets as presets is particularly powerful, because you can simply choose them in succession. Each one affects only the parameters recorded when you saved it, so you can load a preset for white balance, followed by one for Exposure, for Brightness, for Contrast, for Calibrate settings, and so on. Edit in Camera Raw
The method that offers the most flexibility is to open multiple images in Camera Raw. There's probably a limit to the number of images you can open simultaneously in Camera Raw, but we haven't yet found itwe've been able to open 1,500 images simultaneously in Camera Raw and while it took a couple of minutes to launch, it worked perfectly. That said, it's more practical to work with smaller sets of images. If you open 10 or more images, you'll get a dialog box asking if you really want to open 10 files. We recommend clicking the Don't show again checkbox, and cheerfully opening as many images as your machine can reasonably handle without bogging downif the hardware is at all recent, it's almost certainly a considerably larger number than 10. When you open multiple images, Camera Raw works in filmstrip mode. The current image is always the one whose preview shows in the preview window. Camera Raw in filmstrip mode offers two basic methods for editing multiple images besides editing them one by one.
You can mix and match both of these approaches, while enjoying the benefits of zoomable previews, and Undo. (And if you simply can't resist the temptation, you can fine-tune individual images too.) Sorting and Renaming
By default, Bridge sorts images by filename, so new raw images appear in the order in which they were shot, because the camera applies consecutive numbering to each image. However, as we noted earlier, you can vary the sort order by choosing any of the options on Bridge's Sort submenu (in the View menu). You can also create a custom sort order by dragging the thumbnails around, just as you would with chromes on a light table. When you do so, the Manually item on the Sort menu is checked. Your custom sorting order is stored only in the Bridge cache for the folder. If you use distributed caches, you can move or rename the folder and Bridge will still remember the sort order. But if you combine images from several folders into a different folder, you have in effect created a new sort order, and it may well not be the one you wanted. So a simple way to preserve that order is to use Batch Rename to rename the images including a numbering scheme that reflects your custom sort order (see "Automation, the Cache, and the Tools Menu," earlier in this chapter). Applying Keywords and Metadata
The key to being efficient with keywords and metadata is the same as that for being efficient with applying Camera Raw edits: Look for and select images that need the same treatment, and deal with them all at once. IPTC metadata
The only metadata that is editable in Bridge (or in Photoshop, for that matter) is the IPTC metadata. For recurring metadata such as copyright notices, metadata templates provide a very convenient way to make the edits (see "File Info and the File Menu," earlier in this chapter). Alternatively, you can select multiple images and then edit the metadata directly in the Metadata palette. Click in the first field you want to edit, and type in your entry. Then press Tab to advance to the next field. Continue until you've entered all the metadata shared by the selected images, and then click the checkmark icon at the lower right of the palette, or press Enter or Return, to confirm the entries. Keywords
Keywords show up in the IPTC section of the Metadata palette, but you can't enter or edit them thereyou have to use the Keywords palette. The Keywords palette contains individual keywords grouped into sets (represented by the folder icons). The default keywords and sets are pretty useless unless you know a lot of people called Julius and Michael, but you can easily replace them with ones that are more useful for your purposes. To apply a keyword, select one or more images and then click in the column to the left of the keyword. A checkmark appears in the column, and Bridge writes the keyword to each file's sidecar.xmp file. To remove a keyword, select the images and then turn off the checkmark. Deleting a keyword from the Keywords palette doesn't delete the keyword from any images to which it has been applied; it only deletes it from the palette. So it makes sense to keep only keywords you know you'll use a lot stored in the palette. For keywords that apply only to the current session, we create them in a set called Temp and delete them when we're done, to keep the palette manageable. Keyword sets let you organize keywords, but they also offer a very useful functionality: You can apply all the keywords in the set to selected images by clicking next to the set name rather than the keyword names. This is better than assigning keywords one at a time because when you click next to a single keyword to apply it, Bridge starts writing it to the selected images. If you then add another keyword, Bridge will write both keywords to the images it hasn't yet touched, but then it has to go back and add the second keyword to the images it had already processed. Tip: Drag to Sets Create one keyword set that serves to add multiple keywords. When you want to apply multiple keywords to a set of images, drag the keywords you want to use into this set, or create any new ones you want to apply inside this set. Now you can apply the entire set at once to all your selected images. |
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