Eye-Fi Workflow in the Studio
*Updated 6/1/2010
Part two of this “first-impressions” review of the Eye-Fi card, describes the workflow I envisage using for portraits and product photography in the studio.
You will recall that the intention is to wirelessly upload only the Jpegs, from the Nikon’s Raw+Jpeg pairs, for the sole purpose of reviewing the pictures on-screen, a matter of seconds after the shots are taken. And I can tell you, even after just one day’s testing, this is going to be so beneficial during portrait/beauty/fashion shoots.
The much larger (and slower to upload) Raw files will be transferred conventionally to the computer at the end of the shoot. And that is the reason I opted for the ‘Jpeg only’ version of this card for this purpose.
Lightroom is set up to move these Jpegs out of the “watched folder” into my 2010/previews folder renaming them in the process to “date-filenum”. With Lightroom in Loupe mode, the images appear full screen the instant they upload.
Whilst reviewing these shots, all the keepers are flagged as “picks” and we will use these to isolate the Raw “keepers” ready for post-processing after the shoot.
If there are a lot of them, it would be easy to miss one or two, so here is the workflow I’ve devised. It might seem long-winded, but it actually takes longer to explain than to do.
All the Jpegs, flagged and unflagged, are moved from the previews folder into the Raws folder. Right-clicking one of the images, choose “Auto Stack by Capture Time” from the stacking menu with “Time Between Stacks” set to 1 second. This causes the Raws and Jpegs to stack in their respective pairs. Choosing “Collapse All Stacks” from the same menu effectively hides the raw files behind the Jpegs.
Next set the Library filter to show “Unflagged Photos Only”. Then choose “Expand all Stacks”, “Select All”, and hit “X” to set all the previously unflagged Raws and Jpegs as “Rejected” for deleting or hiding as required.
Setting the Library Filter back to “Flagged” and “Unflagged” will reveal the Keepers. Having served their purpose, the Jpeg “Picks” can now be deleted leaving the RAW files for processing. To do this: “Select All” then “Expand all Stacks” and hit “X” to set the flagged Jpegs as Rejected.
However convoluted this might sound, it really is quick to implement.
To sum up: I always used to like shooting tethered, but gave it up because cables dangling from your camera are not ideal – especially when photographing children. The Eye-Fi card has made it all possible again.
