I’ve said many times that I want to be a photographer, not a re-toucher. Some photographers really enjoy the image editing process, but I’m not one of them. I like to shoot it and share it with as few steps in between as possible. This means that I utilize the in camera custom settings and film simulations for pretty much every shot, even commissioned work.
Here’s little walk through of my current workflow:
1Select one of my in camera custom settings and shoot jpeg. I developed these after years of shooting and an understanding of what I wanted my final images to look like. It may take some time for you to develop your own, but if you are committed to doing so, you can shave a ton of time off of post processing by producing final images sooc. This is the single most important step in my workflow. (UPDATE 1/19/2021: I have since discovered the awesome work of Richie from http://www.fujixweekly.com and have been having a lot of fun trying out a variety of his film simulation recipes).
2Shoot to my heart’s content. I enjoy the creative process of shooting and can better visualize my shots knowing which custom settings I’m utilizing. Depending on the lighting situation, it’s very simple to use the quick menu to temporarily change an element of the custom setting if needed. For instance, if the scene is darker and I need to bring up the shadows some.
3Insert memory card and load images to my hard drive. I use an older MacBook Air from 2017 because I just hate how the newer ones don’t have an integrated SD reader or USB connection. All the needed adapters and whatnot just add more complication (and time) and I’m all about keeping it as simple as possible. I plan on keeping this computer until it dies.
4Open Capture One Express for Fujifilm (free software!), load any favorites that I need to resize for web use. I really don’t enjoy the editing process, but ultimately, I have a vision for the image and if I didn’t get it perfect in camera, then I’ll go ahead and make basic adjustments at this point – contrast, highlight correction, straightening/cropping, etc. Honestly though, my images are edited after the fact probably less than 20% of the time.
5Export to Dropbox at a smaller file size so I can share online easily. From here, it’s simple to save the images to my iPhone or iPad, depending on which one I’m sharing from. I prefer to write up blog posts via MacBook or iPad while I share on Instagram via my iPhone. Dropbox makes it easy to access the images from any device.
That’s it. On the rare occasion I shoot RAW, I follow the same steps, taking a bit more time with image processing. I love my simple, quick workflow and knowing that I don’t have to spend hours hunched over my computer to process the photos I made keeps me motivated to shoot more.
Lea & Lens 