ASSIGNMENT 1: Workflow

For this first Assignment, we were required to construct and use a 'sensible workflow' to produce a final selection of between 6 and 12 photographs from a much larger number.


I decided to use, as my theme, the new Museum of Liverpool and its setting at the Pier Head alongside the famous 'Three Graces' - the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool building. When the museum was opened in July of this year, its design and location were heavily criticised so I wanted to see it for myself and make my own judgement. 


This is certainly no Bilbao Guggenheim. The museum website, www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk , states that the design concept was developed in conjunction with a Danish architect and that "Manchester based architect AEW were later commissioned to deliver the detailed design". Could this be an example of Manchester putting one over on its Merseyside rivals?


Externally, I endeavoured to take a number of photographs which juxtaposed the new museum with one, or more, of the 3 Graces and other waterside structures around the Albert Dock area in order to demonstrate the complete difference in style. I wanted a few 'establishing' shots to show the museum in its wider setting and then some detail shots with various angles and particular features.


Internally, it was quite a challenge to find suitable shots as there seemed to be very little of architectural merit. The exhibits were closely packed and it didn't help that there were a lot of people there when I visited.


I spent about an hour taking shots both externally and internally using my 50mm Canon prime lens. All shots were taken in Raw, in aperture priority mode, at f/11 and ISO 400. I did not use a tripod on this occasion.




 In all, I took 54 photographs. Having downloaded them from my card reader into Lightroom 3 as .dng files, I then proceeded to edit them as follows.


Step 1 - Technical Edit


Using the Loupe view within Lightroom, I rejected only two of the shots for purely technical reasons (out of focus). Some of the remaining shots were under/over exposed but I felt they could be retrieved during the Raw processing procedure, if chosen at a later stage.


Step 2 - the selects


Again using the Loupe view, I reviewed the remaining 52 photographs and discarded   
16 of them, generally because the composition was unsatisfactory or I had taken several different shots of the same aspect and decided on those that I preferred at this stage. The 36 remaining were flagged as 'picks'.




Step 3 - the first selects


Again using the Loupe view, I worked within the 'selects' and reduced the 36 down to a more manageable 17 'first selects'. This selection was done by trying to obtain the best (or potentially best) compositions and by choosing my preferred of almost identical images in a sequence.


Step 4 - group and review


Having arrived at the 17 'first selects', I reviewed my choice in Lightroom using both the Loupe view and Grid view, and was satisfied with my decisions.


Step 5 - the final triage


In order to arrive at the final selection of photographs to submit for this Assignment, I carried out a stage in the editing process which is a variation, and addition, to that suggested in the course materials. As discussed in an earlier blog entry in relation to Exercise 1 of this course, as I shoot in Raw, I would make my final choice only after I had processed the candidate shots, as the Raw processing itself can significantly affect this choice. This wouldn't be so much of the case if I shot in jpeg although, even here, certain processing decisions e.g. cropping, can make a big difference to the final image.


Therefore, each of my 17 'first selects' was processed, first in Lightroom and then edited in Photoshop CS5. In Lightroom, I cropped and straightened the images where necessary/appropriate and then moved to the 'Basic' section to make adjustments to exposure, contrast, recovery, fill-light, clarity etc. as required. After sharpening, the image was then edited in CS5 for levels adjustments, removing extraneous detail, converting to sRGB from Adobe RGB before saving as jpegs. 


Only after this processing was I able to compare the 17 jpegs and choose 9 photographs for my depiction of the Museum of Liverpool, as shown below.

 An establishing shot

 Front entrance

 Liverbirds and Cunard Building

Overlooking the Pier Head

 Corners

 Reflections of the Mersey

Liverbirds from within

 Atrium Dome

Foyer Carpet and Customer from above

Conclusions

The above work flow worked well for me, especially with the adaptation of processing the Raw 'first select' images before the final triage. An enjoyable assignment.