Thanks for sharing. This was one of the many questions I would have asked you had we sat down for a coffee in Starbucks. And if we ever do... I'm buying. - Kevin C. Tofel

Thanks for sharing this! - Mack D. Male

Been waiting for this post TH. Thanks. - Chris Nixon

I am one of the ones that asked for workflow detail -- thanks for the post and info. It would be great to see a Scoble video of this -- I have no doubt that the discussion would enhance the information - Brian Sullivan

Great post! You only shoot with prime lenses? Do you switch them out often? - lisa-k

@Thomas Hawk - I believe you have mentioned it before, but I cannot put my finger on it...why the use of Bridge over Lightroom and/or Aperture. Sorry if it's a repeat question; feel free to point to link if you have previously answered this elsewhere. Thanks! - JA Castillo (جاسون)

Fantastic of you to share this Thomas! - Parth Awasthi via twhirl

JA - I use Lightroom and as I was reading TH post it occurred to me that LR would do all of these steps except Geotag. - Russellreno

JA Castillo, from what I've seen and read, he just hasn't gotten around to converting to Lightroom. - Mark Trapp

Thanks for this article, I like the use of "finished" A and B folders. I'd be curious to see how you worked the sliders in Camera Raw and in what order. Exposure, Recovery etc. Great content for a future PhotoCycle? - Andrew Smith

@Russellreno & Mark Trapp - Thanks! I have been contemplating Lightroom and was curious as to why he's still with Bridge as there are more "creative" opportunities via Lightroom over Bridge. - JA Castillo (جاسون)

Thanks all. Lisa, yes, I shoot 96% with prime lenses. I do have a Canon f/4 70-200 zoom that gets used sometimes, but mostly all primes. I used to shoot with zooms but I feel like I get better, sharper images with prime lenses. - Thomas Hawk

I can't believe how much I've learned about photography just from reading friendfeed. Now, if I can just get myself a tripod (or less caffeine) and a decent camera. :) - Ha3rvey

JA Castillo. I tried Aperture a few years back. It didn't handle vignette processing back then so I uninstalled it. I'm sure Aperture is a perfectly fine photo editing software package but at this point I'm just more used to Adobe products and I can see no compelling reason to switch to Aperture. I'm sure Aperture is perfectly fine though and sort of view the Aperture/Adobe debate like the Canon/Nikon debate. Both are fine, depends on your preference. - Thomas Hawk

Muahaha, now I will be like Thomas Hawk. My plans for world domination are coming along nicely. - Bwana

some time ago i decided to learn how to use a set of tools and stick with them. I use Dowloader Pro / Bridge / Photoshop. - Mário Pires

In terms of Lightroom, I tried the last beta a few years back out but it was still buggy. I need to spend more time with it though as the best photo processors I know are using it. I'm hoping to spend some time learning it and plan on doing a review of the new upcoming version of it in conjunction with the upcoming version's release. - Thomas Hawk

Seems like my process is quit similar except I started using LightRoom recently. What I don't understand is how you go through 500 pictures in one evening with this process. It took me about 2hrs last night to go through 50 pictures taken and 18 that I processed. Anyway, thanks for sharing! - Justin Korn

Aperture does have vignette sliders now (both gamma and exposure, gamma produces lovely vignetting imo). Check my flickr for examples, I use Aperture exclusively. - Benjamin Golub via fftogo

Very useful Thomas, thanks for sharing :) - Shey

@Justin Kom: I can run through about 250 photos in a few hours in LR. It depends on what everyone means by 'processing,' I guess. A lot of them just get quick adjustments, and I end up copying and pasting adjustments a lot too, with a few tweaks after. This really speeds things up. - donato via twhirl

@Justin Korn. Redbull. - Thomas Hawk

Nice. Also, oops, Korn, not Kom. With the font I'm using in Twhirl it looks like "m" instead of "rn." - donato via twhirl

The Beta of Lightroom 2.0 has better vignetting control (an option to add vignette after cropping) and the software is pretty stable overall. I've been a Lightroom user since the very beginning, and I switched to 2.0 as soon as the beta came out. (I've run about 2,500 images through it with no problems.) It plays well with the other Adobe tools, so if you still want to open up in Bridge or ACR, all your settings will be shared across the applications. - Brian Johns

I really like the LR 2.0 improvements, especially the multi-monitor support and the better vignette controls. I stay out of 2.0 most of the time, though, because: "Develop settings applied in Lightroom 2.0 beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to the final version of 2.0. This is particularly true for localized corrections." - donato via twhirl

@Donato - I think I need to learn to find pictures with similar lighting and batch process them like you mentioned. @Thomas - I need to learn to like Redbull... - Justin Korn

Thanks for sharing this Thomas! I'd be especially interested to see a follow-up post detailing what you do in steps 4 & 5 to process your images. That is, take an example raw image from the camera, and take us through each of the processing steps until you are happy with it. - John Keyes

Justin, I've gotten pretty good actually at processing images very quickly. I have to as I'm trying to publish 1 million photographs before I die and there's just not the time to spend too much time on any one image -- so I process fast. The jump from CS2 to CS3 was a *huge* breakthrough in my own photo processing productivity. Eventually technology should make the sole limiting factor your ability to mentally process what you want to do. - Thomas Hawk

There are, by the way, some *amazing* photographers who probably spend a lot more time than I do processing their images. merkley, Cole Rise, Kelly Castro all come to mind. - Thomas Hawk

"Typically less than 10% of my photos need additional work beyond camera RAW." -- Wow. This speaks volumes to your enviable talent behind the lens as well as your skillful use of Adobe Camera Raw. Thanks very much for sharing. - Taylor

I got lazy and stopped shooting in RAW....now it looks like I'm going to have to start again... - Snay Trivedi

Making the leap to Lightroom probably cut my processing time in at least half. I think I've used Photoshop about 5 times since I've started using LightRoom 6 months ago! But even so, I feel like I spend just as much time (if not more) processing as taking the pictures. I agree though, some of the most amazing photographers spend WAY more time processing their photos. - Justin Korn

I started using Lightroom about 6 weeks ago, and it has actually encouraged me to shoot more because the workflow is simpler than what I was doing before. I'm glad to hear that vignetting is going to be improved in 2.0. That's my major qualm with the software right now. There are, however, definitely instances where Photoshop is highly beneficial. - Matt

Take away - Use prime lens, compose in camera, shoot raw, process. I need to invest in some prime lenses. - Russellreno

LR processing - On first pass I view all photos in slide room and quickly rate 1 or 4. I delete the 1's and then view and continue to process. If I don't like a 4 on second pass it becomes a 3. Eventually I can say i am finished. - Russellreno

Really brilliant post Thomas thanks v much and I agree with the person who suggested that a Scoble video would help to record the mastery. I've been trying to work this stuff out for ages but never quite applied myself to it the way you have. Now I just have to use the Hawk methodology on about 10000 photos already in iPhoto....oh and learn how to take better pictures...that might be harder! - Anne McCrossan

thanks for sharing! - Tom

@Russellreno: I do almost the same thing. I never delete anything, though. @Thomas, do you ever delete your RAWs? - donato via twhirl

While I don't do any processing to any of my pics I found this a good read and really liked the other links in the blog. I am surprised that your everyday bag contains primes and no longer telephotos. - Becca

Donato, I rarely delete any RAW originals, even technically horrible shots or mistakes. These always could be converted into abstracts later on -- and then there is always the case where what seems like a throw away might later turn out to be significant. This was the case in a famous photo taken of Clinton and Lewinsky. I save everything. Storage is cheap. - Thomas Hawk

@Thomas, that's always been my take on it too. I don't delete anything for the same reasons. I'd rather keep them and know that they are there if I ever need them or find a use for them, instead of just deleting them forever. I've very rarely ever said "Oh, I'll never use this." and deleted it, because you really never know. - donato via twhirl

Fantastic article. I really enjoyed reading your links to the older articles also. My process is rapidly envolving, and your article helps immensely. I've got a backlog of 90,000 pics from the past 2 years, and anything that speeds the process is wonderful. - Mitchell Tsai

I posted my comment on Thomas's blog as it is too long to post here. http://thomashawk.com/2008... - Jeff P. Henderson

Great comment Jeff. I think more people need to at least try out LR. They just don't know what they're missing. - donato via twhirl

Thomas I'm curious why you chose to go with Lightroom over Aperture? - bill Streeter