Work Flow

MattSepeta said:

So, my current work flow is.... Non existent.

I learned my lesson the hardway, now that I am trying to organize my photos for a more serious website.

I thought that putting them all in iPhoto would be optimal, because it let me "Event organize" them, but it seems that when I am trying to access them out of iphoto, all the folders are named random dates. I am at my wits end, and I am well aware it is my own fault for hodge-podging along for so many years.

Question: What is your typical photo workflow? From camera to website/blog, including backup, organization, programs used/preferred, etc.

I know it is a lot to ask, so dont feel obligated to elaborate too heavily. I would appreciate one sentence steps sooo much.


Also, how often DO you guys update your portfolio/site/blog?

I am building a wordpress blog with the sliding doors theme, if anyone has any comments on that. Thanks guys.

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1. Import to Lightroom directly; keywords and metadata added during import.
2. Eliminate obvious crappy shots
3. Keyword as necessary
4. Do 90% of edits in LR (including sharpening); export (via LR) to CS4 for Layer work and noise reduction only if required
5. Export to Smugmug or Wordpress via LR export module

MattSepeta said:

Also, how often DO you guys update your portfolio/site/blog?

I am building a wordpress blog with the sliding doors theme, if anyone has any comments on that. Thanks guys.

Click to expand...

1) Download all the images into Aperture (iPhoto could work as well)
2) Trash the obvious junk right away
3) Add keywords and tags and star ratings to each photo or group of photos.
4) Make backups. (notice the "s")

Next I make "smart folders" based on the keywords and organize those into folders But remember that a photo may get selected into many smart folders. This is the key. You don't have to remember of the filed the photo by data, city, subject's last name or whatever. It is filed by EVERY one those and more.

If I ever want to export a group on images I first make an smart album that will select for thr image I want like say "Smith, date=1/1/1, rating 4 or 5 stars" Then I tell Aperture to create "web sized" or whatever versions of those images from the RAW files.

Bottom line is, and this applies to all the good photo managers, is that you depend on meta-data and search, not on a filing system.

1) backups
2) import to iphoto
3) look at all of them
4) post prod work
5) flag the best one
6) export

Try flagging the photos you like and then when you go to export they're all together.

One comment on culling the bad photos when importing. At a presentation I attended the photographer suggested keeping everything unless it is truly trash (blurry, black, white, etc.). He used Aperture, I suspect LR could be used similarly. Instead of deleting the bad pictures he marks them as Rejected. This pretty much keeps them out of the way but doesn't delete them.

He gave an example (which I can't recall exactly) of a photo that he rejected of a crowd scene. Maybe some politician shaking hands with people. Unknown to him at the time was one of the faces in in the crowd was significant. This was the only photo of that event. Even though it wasn't composed well and the exposure wasn't perfect the information was unique. If had deleted it he would have been out of luck.

So if you do a wedding or Christmas party or such it is probably a good idea to use some scheme to reject the bad pictures rather than delete them.

Edge100 said:

1. Import to Lightroom directly; keywords and metadata added during import.
2. Eliminate obvious crappy shots
3. Keyword as necessary
4. Do 90% of edits in LR (including sharpening); export (via LR) to CS4 for Layer work and noise reduction only if required
5. Export to Smugmug or Wordpress via LR export module

Click to expand...

+ backups

I don't know of any other better/faster methods of managing hundreds or even thousands of photos

osin said:

+ backups

I don't know of any other better/faster methods of managing hundreds or even thousands of photos

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Damn, forgot to include that. I backup automatically to an external FW drive during import. I also backup my main drive every couple of days so I never have fewer than three copies of everything (main drive with photos + FW drive with photos + backup drive with main drive backed up).

neutrino23 said:

One comment on culling the bad photos when importing. At a presentation I attended the photographer suggested keeping everything unless it is truly trash (blurry, black, white, etc.). He used Aperture, I suspect LR could be used similarly. Instead of deleting the bad pictures he marks them as Rejected. This pretty much keeps them out of the way but doesn't delete them.

Click to expand...

Agree. I delete fairly conservatively; only if the shot is completely botched. Otherwise I do reject in my second round of keywording and flagging.

Edge100 said:

Damn, forgot to include that. I backup automatically to an external FW drive during import. I also backup my main drive every couple of days so I never have fewer than three copies of everything (main drive with photos + FW drive with photos + backup drive with main drive backed up).

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I make sure not to erase the memory card until I actually need to use it again. If you have several cards this means you keep the shoots ion the card for weeks. This is my first level of "backup". If I make a mistake it is mostly within a hour or two of downloading the images.

I use Time Machine. It will copy the entire library. But in addition to that, Aperture has a nice backup system built-in. You can make a "vault" and periodically sync it to your on-line library and then put the "vault" back in the fire safe or take a copy to the office or whatever. Vaults can be a stack of DVDs, CDs or an external hard drive or a raid box. Vaults contain not just the raw imaged files but all your edits and meta data too.

1. Import all images from camera into Aperture 2 (RAW images)
2. delete crappy images
3. keyword all photos (location, subject(s)/people, event)
4. backup using the Aperture Vault onto external hard drive
5. edit photos
6. then i'll backup the edits in the Aperture Vault

then i'll either upload to flickr or export images into jpg for other reasons etc.