Editing Photographing Natural World Thumbnails

[[Category:The Natural World]] [[Category:Comics]] [[Category:Lightroom]] [[Category:Photography]] [[Category:Production]]

== Overview ==

Steps for photographing thumbnail artwork, importing it into Lightroom, and placing into Photoshop documents.

== Photography ==

=== Setup ===

# Shoot each thumbnailed page separately. Not each sheet on which the thumbnails are drawn.
# Lens: Tamron 90mm / 200 ISO / 1/125 sec @ f/8 / metering set to <strike>aperture-priority</strike> manual<br />''(It has to be a macro lens.)''
# Flash: SB-900, bounced off <strike>umbrella</strike> ceiling in the N Rose studio. 1/4 power. Focal length set to 50mm, although not sure if this makes a difference here.
# Camera mounted on Gitzo GT2331 tripod. (see photo)
## Camera pointed straight down.
## Front legs not extended, set at middle notch. Resting on table.
## Back leg on lowest notch, extended a little bit. Resting on step ladder.
## The blue line at the end of the Tamron 90mm lens will be 14-⅛ inches from the artwork. (The blue line is only visible when the lens is set to manual focus.)

[[File:Nw5-thumbnail-setup-120428-01.jpg|320px|thumb|none|table top set up with camera and flash]]
[[File:Nw5-thumbnail-setup-120428-02.jpg|320px|thumb|none|tripod leg settings; back leg set to lowest notch, front two legs in middle notch]]
[[File:Nw5-thumbnail-setup-120428-03.jpg|320px|thumb|none|flash and umbrella]]
[[File:Nw5-thumbnail-setup-120428-04.jpg|320px|thumb|none|artwork relative to the camera]]
[[File:Nw5-thumbnail-setup-120428-05.jpg|320px|thumb|none|tripod legs and position of flash relative to the artwork]]
[[File:Nw5-thumbnail-setup-120803-01.jpg|320px|thumb|none|Blue line on the lens is 14-⅛” above artwork. (The blue line is only visible when the lens is set to manual focus.)]]

=== Importing the images into Adobe Lightroom ===

* USB cable from camera to laptop.

[[File:Nw5-thumbnail-setup-120802-09.jpg|320px|thumb|none|Cable for tethered capture. <strike>5-pin Mini-B (D90)</strike> “High-speed USB” (D7100, not pictured) to USB.]]
[[File:Nw5-thumbnail-setup-120802-10.jpg|320px|thumb|none|Female-to-male USB 6′ extension.]]

* Turn on camera (and flash).

[[File:D7100-flash-settings-130930-01.jpg|320px|frameless|none]]


[[File:D7100-flash-settings-130930-02.jpg|320px|frameless|none]]


[[File:D7100-flash-settings-130930-03.jpg|320px|frameless|none]]


[[File:D7100-flash-settings-130930-04.jpg|320px|frameless|none]]

* <strike>On laptop mount DAMIEN-MG drive with “lightroom_drives.bat”.</strike> With desktop in the same room as the camera, connect the camera directly to the desktop computer.
* Open Adobe Lightroom on <strike>laptop</strike> desktop.
* Open the “comics” Lightroom catalog <strike>that resides on “//damien-mg/d_drive/Adobe Lightroom”</strike>.
(<strike>This will be located at “d:/Adobe Lightroom/comics” after running the batch file above.</strike> Again, location isn’t an issue when the camera can be connected directly to the desktop.)
* File > Tethered Capture > Start Tethered Capture…

[[File:Nw5-lightroom-tethered-capture.jpg|565px|frameless|none]]

* Naming: <strike>“nw5 s2 p03 v1”</strike> “nw5 s2 v1 p03″
** title and issue | scene | version | page
** Update: Put version after scene and before page so that the pages for each version are grouped together when viewing the files alphabetically.
** This applies to both the the EXIF title and the image filename.

== Photoshop ==

=== Adding panel borders and text ===

* It’s not necessary to erase pencil lines before photographing the thumbnails. The curves adjustments in Photoshop will remove them.
* No corrections in Lightroom.
* Create a Photoshop document with one layer containing the panel borders, and two additional blank layers for the text and shading. * Make a copy to create a file for the new page.
* Edit LR file (using Photoshop)
* Adjust LR prefs so it doesn’t append “-Edit” to the Photoshop filename.
** Adjust LR prefs to edit photo at 500 dpi. With the photos at 500 dpi, the thumbnails will come out  4.75″ wide in InDesign without any further adjustments.
** For files originating from the Nikon D7100, once the file is open in Photoshop, change the DPI to 684, without resampling so the actual raster data is unchanged.
*** With images captured with a Nikon D7100 resampling at 684 dpi yields an image that will be 4.75″ wide when imported into InDesign.
*** Lightroom preference for setting the dpi of an image in the image editor tops out at 600 for some stupid reason. This adjustment must be made in Photoshop.
** Artwork should have at least 3/8″ margins in InDesign, but the top and bottom margins are slightly larger.
* Apply threshold to line art with Threshold Level at ~210.
* Copy this layer into the thumbnail page document and set the new layer’s blend mode to “multiply”.
* Close the NEF file without saving.

== InDesign (<strike>CS5.5</strike> CSS) booklet ==

=== Document setup ===

TK: specifications for page headers and footers.

=== Printing a booklet for review ===

InDesign remembers the last print configuration for the document. Once a book has been printed out, the only adjustment in the print dialogs that should be necessary would be to change the page range being printed out.

* File > Print Booklet
* In the “Print Booklet” dialog click the “Print Settings…” button at the bottom to get to the settings for the printer itself. Printer: '''Brother HL-2270DW'''.

[[File:Indesign-print-booklet-01.png|716px|frameless|none]]

* In the “Print” dialog, click the “Setup…” button at the bottom to continue to the settings for the printer itself. (In order to set up the printer for duplex printing.)

[[File:Indesign-print-booklet-02.png|586px|frameless|none]]

* Ignore InDesign’s warning.

[[File:Indesign-print-booklet-03.png|473px|frameless|none]]

* In the Brother HL-2270DW dialog, click the “Properties” button.

[[File:Indesign-print-booklet-04.png|474px|frameless|none]]

* Duplex / Booklet: Duplex<br />Duplex Settings > Duplex Type: Sort Edge (Right)

[[File:Indesign-print-booklet-05.png|684px|frameless|none]]


[[File:Indesign-print-booklet-06.png|541px|frameless|none]]

* Close all the dialogs by clicking either “OK” or “Print” until only the original InDesign “Print Booklet” dialog is open. Click “Preview” to confirm that the pages are arranged correctly.

[[File:Indesign-print-booklet-07.png|716px|frameless|none]]

=== Printing out for pencils ===

* Create another Photoshop action:
** Flatten image.
** Adjust DPI to 269, which will result in artwork being printed out @ 6¼ x 9-3/8″.
** Save copy of PS file in another folder.
* I have to use Staples this time around for printing (because I was in LA and didn’t have access to a printer):
** Create another InDesign doc.
** 8½ x 11″ sheets; no spreads; 1-1/8″ (1.125″) side margins; 13/16″ (0.8125″) top & bottom margins.
** Drop the copies into this doc.
** Create a PDF to take to Staples.