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 Adobe Bridge and Camera RAW to convert from RAW mode to TIFF (image grows from approximately 20MB in RAW mode to either 64 MB in 8 bit TIFF or 124 MB in 16 bit TIFF during the RAW to TIFF conversion)
a. 16 bit gives maximum ability to adjust colors, levels, etc.
b. Camera RAW 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 some photos I then do touchups (in the physical art world it would be “air brushing”). In the Photoshop world I remove 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 300 MB (for 8 bit, over 700 MB for 16 bit) in size, the flattened image is still in the 64 or 124 MB range
5) Open directory of images in Finder and select which images to import into iPhoto (or now Aperture, both can share the same library)
6) Select images to output to web
7) Use iPhoto to build an album of selected images
8) Drag the new album into iWeb onto one of my main album pages as appropriate
9) Use iWeb to push changes to my web site