MY CURRENT HARDWARE:
MacBook Pro (model: MacBookPro2,2) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 500 GB int. HDD
Epson Perfection 2400 Photo scanner, USB 2 connection
Canon Digital Rebel T3 SLR camera, 18-55mm kit lens, 75-300mm telephoto lens, 4 GB SDHC card
Canon Vixia HV40 HDV tape-based camcorder
MY CURRENT SOFTWARE:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, with Adobe Bridge CS4
Apple Final Cut Studio 3 (includes Final Cut Pro 7)
Apple iLife 2009 (includes iPhoto)
Recently, people in my hometown began planning an event of local historic significance. A group of elderly men who worked on a major industrial project (steel fabrication in a local shop) here are about to go on a bus trip to see some of their work. Most have never journeyed the hundreds of miles to see what became of their efforts. Some of these men are veterans of WW II and Korea, just to give you an idea of their age. The bus tour is expected to happen in mid-November.
Typically, I shoot photos in JPEG format and catalogue all photos in iPhoto 2009. However, for this occasion, given it is a once-in-a-lifetime event, I am seriously thinking about switching my Rebel over to RAW format. I want to approach this trip as a project with the end-product being archival quality storage of the images I capture. To catalogue the photos, I was seriously thinking about borrowing a few pages from Peter Krogh's book "Digital Asset Management for Photographers" (2009, 2nd Edition, O'Reilly Press). I recently had a chance to skim the book over, and noticed a chapter on how to structure a workflow using RAW-format photos using Adobe Bridge. I have briefly thought of purchasing Lightroom, but that's too rich for my bank account. Since I have the Rebel (given to me as a gift about 13 months ago), the MacBook Pro and Photoshop Elements with Bridge, some questions came to mind:
(1: I am considering either using Photoshop Elements 8 with bundled Bridge CS4 to handle the RAW files (and to possibly store them as DNG files) or upgrading to Photoshop Elements 11 to do the same. This would stretch my budget. Does Photoshop Elements 11 come bundled with Bridge anymore? If so, is it functional for what I want to do with it?
(2: Does anyone on this forum use Bridge to handle RAW files? If so, are there any online tutorials/demonstrations you would recommend?
(3: I assume it would be fairly easy to take all RAW files of photos shot on the trip, transfer them into Bridge CS4, and then convert them into JPEGs so they could be imported into a iPhoto library (now standing at over 46,000 photos). Are there any obstacles/possible problems in this transfer process I should look out for? (I would be worried about what would happen to the metadata)
(4: If I store the RAW photos from this trip as DNG files using Bridge, and if I subsequently purchase newer software such as the latest Lightroom or CS6, will I be able to open up this trip's archive in the newer software without loosing any metadata or organization?
(5: I have been viewing the photography tutorials on Lynda.com, including the titles taught by photographer Ben Long. Mr. Long did a title on the Digital Rebel T3i, which is very similar to my Rebel T3, as well as his "Shooting on the Road, from Gear to Workflow". Are there any other Lynda titles I should review while my account is still active?
(6: What's up with this Photoshop Elements / Premiere Elements bundle? Does anyone here use it? If so, what are the advantages over the Photoshop Elements upgrade?