DPP: Exercise 2: Your Own Workflow (time unlimited)

Exercise 2 requires developing a workflow for a project unlimited in time. Exercise 3 requires nine specific images intended for examining histograms.  I plan to complete these two exercises in one shoot.

I have since May been photographing within a 2-block / 3-station radius of my home on Sheikh Zayed Road.  The intention has been to capture everyday objects in an everyday documentary / vernacular style. This ongoing project includes over 375 flagged images among a total collection of over 700.  Most have been collected in the area immediately around my residence.  Areas farther away are less well represented.  It is in one of these I shot for my last exercise, and it is to this area I will return for this. The subject will be the Dubai Trade Centre Hotel Apartments.  I have bicycled around the apartments and seen what might make some interesting images.

I will shoot at Friday dawn, the first morning of the weekend and a quiet time of week.  I will shoot for perhaps 1 hour and take as many images as possible, including at least one of each of the following for Exercise 3:

• high contrast:  shooting the new sun on the facade of the building, or on a corner of the building where one side is in shadow;  backlit building with new sun in the sky
• average contrast:  facade on the other side of the rising sun
• low contrast:  detail of a gray wall

I will be using my SonyRX100 with built-in lens.  Shooting mode will be hand-held in AP to manually bracket for Exercise 3 (the RX100 features auto-bracketing only for HDR, combining multiple images into a jpg). I will work around the outside of the structures - the complex consists of three buildings - looking for interesting objects, angles and lighting.   Images will be reviewed as they are taken.  Key areas of concern in composition are background elements and after sunrise excessively bright light.  .



Files will be copied to a folder containing all images from my ongoing shoot.  My plan is to continue adding to this folder until year end, then start another folder under the same name for 2014.   A backup copy of the 2013 folder exists on an external hard drive.


Preshoot checklist

1. Charge battery
2. Format memory card
3. Clean lens and lcd monitor
4. Set to AP, center focus, center metering, auto WB, auto ISO, live histogram

Shooting day

1. Once outside take camera out of bag to allow it to warm to outside conditions (air conditioned interiors often result in lens condensation)
2. Cycle to location, park bicycle, and walk the area
3. Review images as they are shot, particularly histograms to capture the three required images

Editing

1. Insert metadata and keywords
2. Copy images from memory card to LR catalog and computer hard drive
3. Delete obviously unusable images (eg, out of focus, misfire)
4. Flag images of interest
5. Process and keyword flagged
6. Color code best processed images
7. Choose 2-3 for exercise presentation

Post Shoot/Edit Reflection

Approximately 100 images were taken in one hour.  Perhaps because it's been so long since I've been out like this, I noticed  that once I began wandering with camera in hand, I dropped into a state of mind in which I was no longer looking at things, but at shapes and colors.  It's like chanting a phrase and loosing track of where the words are parsed - the form is lost in the sound.  With the requirement for specific types of images for Exercise 3 in the back of mind, though, I had to revert to more mindful practice in order to look for specific kinds of images and then again to shoot them in triplicate.

This was my first time to use a live histogram, a wonderful tool when paired with exposure compensation.  The only problem is in being able to view the full frame while composing. You either have to switch off the histogram, or wait to check the image once its been taken.

Perhaps the only difficultly I encountered this morning was finding my bike trapped by a parked car when I got back to it after completing my shoot.

On being uploaded eight images were found to be unusable or duplicates and deleted. 23 were flagged and four were color coded.  Three have been included in this post as perhaps the better representations of the buildings.  Other color coded images are not suggestive of a particular place.

After not having looked at this folder of images for some weeks, I think it's it need of a trim. Regular reviews of catalogs this large are probably necessary.  It is also a reminder to be more ruthless in editing.


The results

Other color-coded images

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