Several months ago I was retouching late at night and uploaded a snapshot of my computer workspace to facebook and it generated a long discussion and a lot of interest in how it was setup. I’m always interested in other peoples’ creative spaces and how they work, so thought I would post some more detailed photos of my computer work area.
This is the main workstation setup. There are two other computer work areas in the studio for the studio manager, specialists, assistants, and interns depending on what’s going on. But this is the main workstation where I always create images or do video editing / color grading (and increasingly visual effects and graphic design).
Also included below are some screenshots of how I have the palettes setup in Photoshop. Will do the same for Final Cut soon. And some hard drive data storage shots too since that’s always a big issue these days.
I would love to see other your creative work areas too, send links or photos if you have them. Never know where one might get a useful idea.
Some time I’ll post shots of the rest of the studio — from the prep area to the conference room to the shooting cove.
Click for larger view…
The comments on this post have taken off on the Facebook post if you want to follow…
http://www.facebook.com/augustbradley/posts/180152152001571
Hi august, thanks for posting. Interesting to see how it’s organized in your studio. I’m even more curious about all you did in the adjustment layers, I can’t see it very well.
Regards, Robert
Robert, here is a higher res larger image of the layers:
http://ow.ly/3in0j
Keep in mind this is a composite, so each of the separate images are treated independently in the layers.
Porting some questions over from facebook so the other feeds coming in here have them answered:
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Peter asks: “I was wondering … how many times and where an important file is back uped by you?”
I keep three hard drive copies of all files, plus important files uploaded to redundant remote server storage system called mozy.com ($5 per month for unlimited).
What I really want is a hardware Raid 5 from CalDigit or MaxxDigital. But tres $$$. Almost did it last time, but punted with a set of 2TB drives one more time (using automatic cloning software for two backups + Mozy cloud storage for the most important files). I think Raid 5 is coming when the latest 2TB drive is full.
I’ll do a data storage blog post some time.
thnkx August for the honest and clear explanation of this whole workin station issue …. very interesting to me to see and hear how your work isxorganised … again great that you share these things… very well appreciated!
thnkx for the tip of the remote server storage …recently lost a external hard disk waaaaaaa
this is a great solution
About the calibration of your screens… are you working with any specific spiders you use to get the right and constant colors your pics?>
cheers peter
Matt asks: “On your desk, I am curious about the trackball and the white item in front of the trackball. Thanks again for your insights. Really enjoying following your page”
The trackball is a Kensington Expert mouse (http://is.gd/i3Kfl), which is a bit old school but still the industry standard among video and audio pros. It was recommended to me not long ago, I tried it and loved it. Use it extensively now. Not that expensive. Even in this super decked out audio panel, you still see this exact trackball embedded:
http://www.auguststudio.com/news/670/the-sound-studio
The round white thing is a Logitech NuLooq Navigator (http://is.gd/i3KXC). Basically it has two rotating dials set to custom functions and a lot of customizable buttons. I’m off-and-on with this, but tend to use it more for video work than for photo work.