Acquisition and Capture (as part of a Digital Workflow)
There is a little more than just point and shoot... when talking about acquisition and capture. There are a number of aspects that one must consider and take in consideration when capturing an image with a digital camera. So lets get started with some of the basics and I will be really be skipping quickly on what I think its basic information.
The purpose of the acquisition and capture phase of the workflow, is to provide you with the best possible capture. This might be a very obvious concept and step - but they are critical. At the end of the day, we all want to manage our digital assets, but only if they are worth managing...
Well, this should not even be debatable, and in fact - I'm just going to get to the point. If your digital camera is capable of storing and delivering a RAW file, then - there is really no reason why you should be shooting JPEG. There are no reasons to shoot JPEG over RAW.
RAW+JPEG is something I have heard and read many photojournalists (PJ) do, but more often I hear PJ shoot RAW and then submit a converted JPEG to the periodical they work for. Its just a waste of extra-space. Other sites, photographers as well as magazines have covered the reasons why and the differences in file format. If you can't shoot RAW, then shoot TIFF - and if your camera can't shoot RAW nor TIFF -then shoot JPEG.
It might seem basic, but garbage-in, garbage-out... It does not matter if you are shooting RAW, it does not matter if you are shooting with the most expensive DSLR. If the image is not exposed properly, all you are doing at this point is recover the image. Exposure continues to be one of the basic steps of your workflow. It becomes even more critical when creating extended-dynamic-range images, but it still applies to all forms. There are many sources and magazines that explain the process (and how-to's) of exposing RAW images. This technique is typically called "Exposing To The Right" ETTR. This was technique that was explained and coined by Michael Reichmann. I don't have the patience nor the inclination to use the technique as while the technique is correct, and can be used quite well - the histogram presented by the camera is not by any means accurate. The camera bases the histogram on the smaller JPEG image embedded in the RAW file. It does not (for the sake of processing time) use the data in the RAW content to generate the histogram, and that is why the histogram presented at the computer is different to the one presented by the camera. So I use a light meter. A Sekonic L-758DR to be precise. I have profiled my camera to the light -meter and use if most of the time. The point is - know when to use a light meter. Expose to the right when possible and do not let your development or post processing be the fallback to your workflow as this is now a very common practice.
Since we are trying to get the best input image possible - get a reference frame for white-balance and colour correction. I personally use the x-rite Macbeth Colour Chart. There are other methods, other charts. The point is - if you can, when you can - take a reference image that will then help you calculate the colour shifts and balance that the camera and lighting typically introduces. This is obviously not an option for my film/travel work. Its also not possible when covering an event (although I do take the time to take one frame to get a white balance reference). But when I shoot fashion - the first frame is always a reference image.
Yes, I can hear the jokes now... "what is that?" - As of September 2007 75% of all professional photographers still use film. Given the opportunity to use film vs digital, (apparently) professional photographers like film better. So while no one asked for my opinion nor it got counted on this bit of statistic, here it goes anyways: I use E6 (slides, for those of you who have never seen a camera without an LDC in the back) for my travel work. Why? I like it. Since I'm the king of my own studio and I happen to know that I rule - I still use it. So Exposure counts here more than ever. In my case, I use a Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED to scan my slides. I get 14 bits TIFF files from the Nikon Scan software (I have tries a number of them and the Nikon Scan is the one I'm the happiest with). The file is then named with the country code, sheet number and slot number that matches the location of the slide. THat way it makes it easy to reference back to the slide and each file is given a unique name.
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