Photo processing workflow: prepare photos to use on the web using open-source software

The hardest part of cutting the cloudy subscription cord was finding a photo processing workflow. One that both worked and flowed. I experimented with several options, both paid and open source. After experimenting a lot, I developed a simple process to get my photos ready to upload onto my blog, and other platforms, using open-source software.

Here are the details:

Step 1: Upload photos from camera to computer

Each day I take photos I create a folder for the day and copy the day’s “catch” from the SD card on my camera. Then I move the uploaded pictures on the SD card into a monthly folder, the SD card becomes a back up (I do not reuse them).

As you can see, this usually takes less than a minute!

After that, I use RAW Therapee and the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) to edit the photos and format them for upload. I find that RawTherapee works better than other options, because it works smoothly with both my file structure and the GIMP.

Step 2: Use RawTherapee to view and select photo(s) for the post

RawTherapee reads the folders as they are on my hard drive. You do not import files, as you do in many other programs (Lightroom, DarkTable, Luminar, to name a few). The previews you see upon opening a folder in RawTherape are the jpgs contained within the RAW files. This has two advantages: One is that it is light on computer resources. The second is that you can change the folder names, for example adding a keyword without the program losing track.

In RawTherapee’s file browser I choose the image or images I want to use in the post. If I am putting together a gallery I use star or color labels, as I sort the photos. This is convenient if there are a lot of photos in the folder, and speeds up the photo processing workflow for editing. That way I can easily see just the photos I’ve chosen for each post. Once the photo I want to edit is selected (click on its preview to select). Move into Raw Therapee’s Editor by hitting return, or double clicking on the preview.

Step 3: Use RawTherapee to do global editing of the image

RawTherapee uses what it calls Processing Profiles. When you move into the editor it applies a processing profile, using Preferences you can tell it which one to use. It comes with a few bundled profiles: Neutral, which does only the bare minimum to change the raw data into an image: white balance and Amaze demosaicing; and some more specific standard profiles for different situations. When I first started using RawTherapee I tended to use the “auto-matched tone curve for low ISO”. I found myself changing certain settings all the time, so I created a custom profile that I use now. The post Create a RawTherapee Processing Profile explains how to do this.

RawTherapee has some powerful editing tools. Including sophisticated options for demosaicing (the algorithms used to create an image from the data created in the raw file). When I am preparing a photo to post on the internet, I mostly use the exposure tab and the RAW tab. This is because I have already turned on the other items I usually use in the custom profile. The corrections made in RawTherapee are, generally, applied to the overall image.

Step 4: Use the GIMP to finish editing the image

After getting the photo into good shape in RawTherapee, I move into the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) to make final edits. I have set up the GIMP as the external editor for Raw Therapee and can do this with one click, the post Get going with the GIMP tells you how to set this up.

The GIMP allows you to make localized adjustments by using layers and masks. It also has a plethora of artistic effects that you can apply. If I plan to reuse the image I save it into my Projects folder. My naming convention is to give each project a folder with the day I start it. Then, within that folder, I name the .xmp (GIMP) file with the year-month-day and original filename, so I can easily find the original, plus a keyword or two.

Step 5: Use the GIMP to format the image for uploading

I created templates in the GIMP for each platform where I post. Each template has a background layer that is sized for the platform and a transparent layer with the .png that has my site id and copyright mark.

First I open the template. Then, in the main photo, I use the rectangle select tool with the appropriate aspect ratio to compose the picture I want to post.

After that I copy the selection and paste it as a layer into the template, between the background and watermark layers. If necessary, scale the new layer to the correct size. Then do final tweaks (if it has been scaled it often needs a bit of sharpening).

When creating a gallery, I put several layers into the one template to speed up exporting, just turn off the visibility as I move down the stack.

That’s it. In my folder organization system I have an Xports folder where each platform has its own sub-folder.

First, I create a folder for each post, named for the date I post it. Then, within that folder I have the files for upload named by the date and original filename, plus a keyword, to make it easy to find the original. I didn’t used to do that and have driven myself crazy a couple of times trying to find the exact photo I used.

So that’s my photo processing workflow

It really speeds things up over the other methods that I tried. The combination of RawTherapee and the GIMP has a lot of excellent tools and artistic effects.