My Photo Workflow
My Photo Workflow – everyone has one, here is mine. I thought I’d write a blog post about how I go about sorting out images. It’s come to mind because I’ve just been back from a trip. Essentially the idea is to do a brief scan of all the images up-front, and then refine as you go after that. And just to add to the fun games for this trip I came back with many, many, more images than I needed. Duplicates upon duplicates. More duplicates in fact than at the annual twins convention held in your capital city. Doing landscape photography, there is sometimes a tendency to overshoot. I know for sunset photography, I will shoot/bracket/try different compositions based on where the sky elements are positioned in the frame (which move very quickly). For day time, generally I shoot less frames, and get the composition right up-front.
Import to Computer
So how do I progress, and how do I start. Quickly! – Best get those pesky images backed up ASAP in case the SD card dies. You always need two versions (at least) of your images. My first task is to import all the images from the card and I do that into a folder in my ARCHIVE directory named ‘YYYYMM Holidayname Card1’. An example is 202410 HOLJAPAN CARD1. That acts as my backup in the first instance. It doesn’t take much working out (Really, Captain Obvious?) what I named my second card directory, if there had been one, from a longer shoot/trip.
OK so we now have one (or more) backup folders and I now wish to get a little bit more granular in how I catalogue my images. Short term pain, long term gain.
Set up Folders
Next on my photo workflow I will set up a folder which will be called ‘YYYYMM Chattanooga Sunset’. Into this I now copy the RAW files and JPEGs that I have taken on the trip. When that sunset went off in, well, you again guessed it! This tells me ‘when-and-where’ in Plain English. After I’ve done this, which can take a good few minutes, I first check any ‘personal snaps’ I have taken. Family members etc. I MOVE both the RAW AND the Jpeg to a personal directory, for processing later. So now I have only core landscapes/cityscapes etc left in the folder..
Rate Images
I now rate all the images in that called YYYYMM Chattanooga Sunset folder with two stars.
OK, so I can hear you saying why TWO stars? Loud and clear in fact. Bear with me.
And now in Adobe Bridge, because I don’t use Lightroom, I choose Filmstrip mode. To see the images larger. I then go through each of the images, and if there are any obvious duds or duplicates, I rate them with ONE star. One star will be candidates for deletion.
CAUTION – do not delete too much in one go…
Right – so we now have a whole lot of two-star images, and a few one-star. Hit that delete button on the one-stars after a second check. Now time to re-star.
FIVE – likely straight to web site for sales, well, once they have been carefully edited with a view to being printed to 50 / 60 inch prints.
FOUR – good enough for social media
THREE – to consider – likely keep. Revisit in a while. Sometimes a second look will reveal something you never saw the first time.
TWO – I will likely keep these for a while, maybe a year. Then, in the interests of disk space, they will likely be deleted
ONE – A final check … A varied bunch get 1-star. A clear duplicate shot, or maybe one that isn’t quite as well framed. Anything that is out of focus/camera shake etc. I don’t generally hit the delete button just yet, but these wil be the first to go on a second viewing.
And you know what? If I do all the above with in a week of getting home, I give myself a Gold Star. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my photo workflow. Well, the start of it anyhow. The key to it all, for me, is that I rate everything slightly differently. This may, or may not work for you.
Note how few images in a large-ish folder have four stars. And no five-star images. I will likely re-assign the two-star images at a later date. Normally when it is raining! In this case I have chosen one gondola image for four-star, as the gondola is in the best location, composition wise.
I hope this has given you a basis for your filing.
More to follow.
Andrew Barnes
The Travel Photographer.
