• I always take images in RAW/NEF. I shoot mostly landscape, therefore large prints may come into play and a larger file is needed for best results. This does take up more memory in my card. However, with an extra card or two, I'm in good shape on storage. The RAW/NEF file has a JPEG embedded that the preview on the camera back uses. PhotoMechanic™ can use the embedded JPEGs with sharpening applied for initial sorting. If image content is great but the quality of exposure isn't, you can easily fix it as a RAW file by changing the White Balance or Exposure.
  
  
• I create a directory under the TimeWindowImages directory a new directory of the year 2007. I then create a new folder for each shoot as follows: 2007_08_12_Name; (Year_Month_Day_Name). Using the underscore makes the file name a single word and will automatically be sorted by your computer in chronological order. With the year first it is easier to scroll to the images when searching. Using the month or date first will give you a whole bunch of folders out of order.
  
  
• Using PhotoMechanic™ I Ingest, that's what they call it when you down load with this software, to a folder I called SortThese under my yyyy_mm_dd directory. By putting them in this folder I can come back later if time is tight. The files are renamed matching the folder name (yyyy_mm_dd_Name{Sequence}).
  
  
• With PhotoMechanic™, the first thing I do when working the SortThese is look for the "Worst of the Worst" or WOW shots. This could be exposure, composition, focus, ex-spouse, anything that makes it not worth keeping. These are deleted as I say "WOW, what was I thinking with this one".
  
  
• The next thing I do is look for the "Best" shots. These are the ones I want to keep for editing. The "Best" shots get one star. This allows me use the filters to find those images in each folder without having to scroll though them by deselecting the '0' star leaving only the one stars to view. I do not try to rate each image as this will eventually require me to return to each folder and re-rank them as my needs change. Just mark the good ones. The images of Uncle Bill bent over getting a cold one out of the cooler most likely will only be enjoyed 20 years from now so do not waste time on it.
  
  
• If I have files that are similar, different f/stops or exposures, I compare them side by side in PhotoMechanic™ to find the ONE that I will use, deleting the rest.
  
  
• While finding the "Best", I delete the other images that are not needed. Then I rename all the files left with the same name as the folder "yyyy_mm_dd_Name" and add the "Sequence" action after resetting it to start at Zero. Now when I need to find an image, I know exactly where to go. I have the year, month, day, event and sequence number starting with 1 and ending with the last image. . This will give the RAW images new sequence numbers eliminating the skips from the deleted files.
  
  
• The RAW files are moved to the Process These folder by selecting, drag and drop in PhotoMechanic™.
  
  
• With Capture NX™, on the RAW files, I perform a Batch setting operation. This removes the sharpening from in camera and adds an UnsharpMask of 55-5-4 (D200). This will offset the Anti Aliasing filter in front of the CCD in the camera.
  
  
• The first step is to adjust the White Balance. First I look at the histogram. If there is room at the top and bottom, Black, White and Neutral points are set with the eye dropper tool. This will extend the colors to the full 256 spread. It is very easy to find the FIRST BLACK or WHITE pixel. Turn on the Threshold option on the histogram, the screen will turn gray. Slide the black adjuster arrow, lower left under histogram, to the right until you just see the BLACK pixels start to show up. Zoom in on the area where this happens and slide the arrow left or right to find the FIRST BLACK pixel. Using the BLACK eye dropper, click on that pixel. You have now reset what black is. Do the same for WHITE by using the white adjuster arrow on the right side.
  
  After these are set, the neutral point is set. Select the NUETRAL eye dropper and click on something in the picture that is supposed to be gray. If you use the WATCH point scale to the lower right in the histogram window, a value of R=128, G=128, B=128 is gray. You may not have a perfect 128-128-128 neutral. Any combination of three colors that are close will work as well. Example: R=72, G= 76, B=70. Just find something as close as you can. After clicking on a neutral spot you can drag it around to change the overall color of the image if you are unsatisfied.
  
  If the Histogram is clipped at the bottom, I'll use Neutral and White point only. If the WHITE is clipped, I'll use the BLACK and NEUTRAL. If the BLACK and WHITE are both clipped, just a NEUTRAL is used. You may not see a big difference at first if the color was good to start with. So if you like the color and histogram is good, move on to the next step.
  
  
• I then crop if required. By cropping now, the histogram reflects only the area that I will be using for output.
  
  
• Next I look at the image for any adjustments with the exposure. Hopefully the shot is within 1/2 stop already. I check the histogram in camera after my first shots to verify this.
  
  
• Next, Levels and Curves is used to check RGB channel black balance. If an adjustment is made to any channel, the Gamma slider (Middle Slider) is returned back to the center of the histogram. This will bring the colors back to where they should be.
  
  
• If an area is too dark, the D-Lighting or Color Control Point is used for bringing out detail. Use the Color Control Point for specific areas and/or colors. D-Lighting will adjust the image globally. Do not add more than 15% brightness to the dark areas. If you do, NOISE will be obvious and ugly.
  
  
• Apply another Unsharp Mask (USM) at 55-2-2 as output sharpening. The intensity may need to be adjusted, this is just a starting point. If the image is a portrait, I use the Add / + paint brush to only add the extra sharpening to the eyes, lips, hair and maybe jewelry. This will effectively soften the skin somewhat while letting the important details pop.
  
  
• The files are saved and moved to Finished - NEF.
  
  
• I then sort again one final time looking for the BOBs or the very "BEST OF THE BEST" images. These are copied into the BOB folder. It is important to do this. As your skills become more refined, what you thought was a BOB image may end up back in the NEF folder. If you copy it to BOB, a simple delete will effectively relegate it to the NEF.
  
  

This sounds like a long process, at first it is, with practice and doing it the same way EVERY time, it speeds up. Most of my images only take me one to two minutes. Sorting becomes much faster as well.