I normally color correct in camera raw in bridge export psd’s and then apply a colorshift action but I’m ending up with HUGE files. I’d love to be able to apply a colorshift action to a jpg, but not sure if that’s the greatest idea… do you apply your colorshift actions to psd’s or jpgs? I have a 5d and part of me wants to take it off raw and use small raw just to avoid the ginormous file size!
I’ve been playing around as of late with the way I process files, so here’s a little insight on where I was and what I’m trying out now. For the past year or so, my workflow included shooting entirely in RAW, bringing in the images to Lightroom and making any basic adjustments if needed, and then exporting the images I would be showing my client as JPGs to then artistically enhance in Photoshop (colorshift actions, textures, etc.). While having those RAW files in Lightroom were extremely handy if I needed to toy with my white balance settings or make other batch adjustments, I was finding that nearly all of my images were just as I like them straight out of the camera (you can search through old posts to read how I nail WB & exposure with confidence). On top of that, I was now spending more time working on images than when I had been shooting entirely in JPG, as well as munching up a lot more of my sacred hard drive space.
Of course, sometimes I get careless or forgetful and change locations/lighting during a shoot without pulling out my calibration target for updated settings. In these situations, having that RAW file is a Godsend. It has certainly saved me a few times when I’d blown-out some whites or had a series of images with a strong blue-cast, etc. And that’s what got me thinking. In my personal workflow I really just use RAW files as an insurance policy. I’m much more efficient with my time when working with JPGs, even though I have much more quality control with RAW.
Starting just a few weeks ago, I’ve been shooting in RAW+JPG mode. My plan is to have both files on hand. If I need to make basic color adjustments to a series of images, I’ll pull up those few RAW files. Otherwise, I’ll work on the JPG. When it comes time to archive my session, I’ll get rid of the RAW files to save space and keep only the JPGS. I’m still finding my groove with this new method, so we’ll see how it goes!
Now, I don’t know if this fully answers your question. It sounds like your issue isn’t quality or control, but just massive file sizes. I’m not sure if this is most bothersome for you in terms of taking too much time while you edit, or taking up too much space after your sessions are over. If it’s the latter, I keep all of my files as those massive, layered PSDs for as long as our clients’ galleries are active (about a month). This way, if I edited an image and showed it in black and white, but then that client requested the image in color for their print order, I can easily click on and off various layers without having to redo other editing such as adding vignettes, cropping, minor retouching, etc. After the gallery has expired for our clients, we “archive” the session by flattening all of those files and shrinking them down. At that point, our clients are only able to order from images that they have already ordered, as I keep these on a separate hard drive, fully retouched and ready for printing. This gives us more storage space and helps keep our time management & budgeting in-check by ensuring that most images are ordered within the gallery period, while still giving clients the confidence that if a print that they ordered is ever destroyed (fire, water, etc.), we’ve done our best to maintain a backup of that for replacement down the road. I think I can see an “archiving” post in the future!
And just to wrap up, if the issue has to do with the time that you’re spending waiting on those large files to load, I just watched a snippet on this month’s Photovision DVD where Gary Box was sharing some of his workflow insight. His studio works on smaller files for pre-touching (still large enough to be acceptable for printing 8×10′s and smaller), and then only works on full resolution files for images that are ordered as wall portraits. There were lots of other great tips in that segment, so I highly suggest you check it out!
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