Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [72]
Image ingestion
The first thing we should look at is how to get the images from the camera on to the computer, ready to be worked on, such as when shooting in the studio with a setup like the one shown in Figure 3.4 . This process is sometimes referred to as ‘image ingestion’, which is not a particularly elegant phrase, but is how some people like to describe this process.
Figure 3.4 Here is a typical studio setup where I have an iMac computer stationed close to the actual shooting area, ready to process the captured images from the shoot. With the setup shown here I am ready to either import camera card images via a FireWire card reader or shoot tethered.
Bridge features a Photo Downloader utility program that makes the downloading process much easier to carry out than was the case in earlier versions of Bridge. Over the next few pages I have outlined all the steps that are required when working with the Photo Downloader. For comparison purposes I have followed this up with an example of how to use the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom program, because this is the method I normally use when bringing photographs into the computer for Photoshop editing.
Importing images via Photo Downloader
1.
To begin with I inserted a camera card into the computer via a FireWire or USB 2.0 card reader. The card should mount on the desktop or appear in the My Computer window as a new mounted volume.
2.
The next thing was to launch Bridge CS5 and choose File Get Photos from Camera… This opened the Photo Downloader dialog shown here, where I could start by selecting where to download the files from (in this instance, the EOS_Digital camera card). Next, I chose a location to download the photos to. Here, I selected the Pictures folder. I then selected ‘Custom Name’ from the Create Subfolder(s) menu (see Figure 3.5 ) and typed in a name for the shoot import (this name is appended to the Location setting to complete the file path). If the ‘Delete Original Files’ option is checked, Photo Downloader gives you the option to delete the files from the camera card once they have been successfully downloaded to the computer. I then checked the ‘Save Copies to:’ option and clicked on the Choose… button to locate a backup folder to save the files to.
3.
Lets review the Photo Downloader settings that have been applied so far. The camera card contained the images I wished to import and the Photo Downloader settings had so far been configured to copy these files to the primary disk location (which in this instance would be the computer hard drive), and at the same time make a backup copy of all the images to a secondary location (in this case, a backup hard drive). With the setup shown here, I was able to use Photo Downloader to make renamed copies of the files to the principal drive/folder location and, if desired, convert the files to DNG as I did so. With this type of configuration I would end up with two copies of each image: one on the main computer and one on the backup drive.
Backup insurance
Your camera files are vulnerable to loss for as long as they remain in one location only, especially when they only exist on the camera card, which can easily get lost or the data might be corrupted. This is why it is always a good idea to get the camera files off the card and safely stored on a computer hard drive as soon as possible. Not only that, it is also a good idea to make a backup of the camera files as you do so. Note that Bridge will apply the settings setup in the Photo Downloader to the files that are copied to the main folder location. But, the files that are copied to the backup location will be plain clone copies