Workflow

The following post applies to all that love photography...amateurs or professionals all photographers tend to stock up tons of photos and with the growing number of people following the RAW format we now stock up a lot of Hard Drives to store our work.

So how does keeping a professional workflow helps us? First of all it is a way of organizing our database which will prove super usefull once you exceed some thousands pictures on your computer. Apart from that it is way of minimizing the working hours spent on searching, storing, retouching your pictures.

This is my own workflow and it's not the perfect one but since i try to follow it strictly it has saved me many times.

1. Copy cards :

After the shooting i take the cards and copy everything on a hard drive (1TB) where i keep my work in folders eith the name of job/client and the date. Ths is my first back up and it's usefull for keeiping evereything in one place.

2. Import  :

After that i import the folder into Lightroom creating it's catalogue.

3.Sort out/Metadata :

Inside Lightroom now, i erase alla useless pictures (test shots, badly under/over exposed, random pics i happened to shoot and don't want them etc. The second step is to apply some metatags to help find the pictures in the future. I tend to keep it simple giving only the nae of the job, the date and 1 -2 generic tags  (ie people, landscpae, portrait etc)

4. Flags! :

After i sort out the pictures i flag the final results, the best photos and the ones i will be using in the end. In a wedding this could be the clients choice for the album. After they are flagged i filter the flagged pictures and export them as original (RAW) to a hard drive where i keep only the final product.

Other photographers use stars instead of flags...it's a matter of taste i suppose.

5.Retouch :

Inside the final folder with the flagged pictures i do all the retouching that  a RAW file can take and then export the RAW files as JPGs inside a subfolder named JPG-Full. The creation of this folder is done by lightroom on export,

6.Post/Publish/Further Retouch :

Once i have the jpg files i usually create a contact sheet or web gallery for the client to see. If further post-production is required i use Photoshop and save the files in the same folder (Since i keep the changes in the RAW file i can always go back)

These steps made my life as a professional easier and less time consuming. Hope it will help you too

DM-Photo