What is your typical digital workflow for an image such as a head shot?

My workflow is as follows:

1) Shoot image in RAW mode in camera, (RAW mode = no compression and other than white balance and color space no processing of the image is done in camera)

2) The monitors on my working systems are all color calibrated to 5000K use Gretag-MacBeth EyeOne

3) Use PhaseOne Capture One DSLR to convert from RAW mode to TIFF (image grows from approximately 11MB in RAW mode to either 32 MB in 8 bit TIFF or 64 MB in 16 bit TIFF during the Capture One conversion)

a. 16 bit gives maximum ability to adjust colors, levels, etc., but makes for huge working files, and not all functions in Photoshop v7 work on 16 bit images (the just announced Photoshop CS (nee v8) allows 16 bit operations for most if not all of the workflow)

b. Capture One lets me set gray balance, exposure compensation, contrast, first level sharpening, color balance, etc.

4) Open image in Photoshop

a. Adjust levels

b. Adjust curves

c. Adjust brightness/contrast if required

d. Apply second level sharpening if required

e. In the case of the photos of Angela Melini I then did touchups (in the physical art world it would be “air brushing”). In the Photoshop world I removed frowns caused by sun squint, de-specked the velour top she was wearing, etc.

f. Convert to Black and White if desired and apply any toning if desired (this is all done with filters in Photoshop)

g. Apply final sharpening based on output (print, web, etc.)

h. Save Photoshop work in two images, one with all layers used during the adjustments, one flattened to a single layer, both in full TIFF format

i. The image with layers can be over 160 MB (for 8 bit, over 320 MB for 16 bit) in size, the flattened image is still in the 32 or 64 MB range

5) Open directory of images in BreezeBrowser

6) Select images to output to web

7) Start BreezeBrowser HTML conversion dialog and select my custom HTML template that I built to use the frame elements, capture data, thumbnail index page, button design, etc.

8) On the HTML conversion dialog I selected the output size (constrained to 600 pixels max in whichever direction is largest, portrait or landscape, 2048 pixels x 800 max for the panoramas)

9) Set JPEG quality to 80 (100 being best) and add watermarks

10) Run the batch to create the output directory with all images, index.htm, etc.

11) Select one image from original directory to use as the main gallery page index image and run the Proof output option in BreezeBrowser to create the 200x134 pixel images

12) Manually add any new galleries to the main gallery page

13) Use WS FTP to push all updates to my hosting provider