I love digital photography. In fact, I enjoy all aspects of the digital process. It reminds me of the days I spent in college behind the camera’s viewfinder on an assignment, in the darkroom developing the film and printing my enlargements, and mounting the photos on matte boards.
Lightroom is my software of choice for most of my workflow procedures. My good friend and photo colleague, Dick McCreight, was the one who showed me firsthand the power of Lightroom. It doesn’t hurt that it is also easy to use, too.
Once back from a photo shoot, I hook up my card reader to my laptop and upoad the photos. I rename the files with the date of the shoot & a sequential number for each photograph. This provides a unique filename for each one. I also make sure to add the metadata with my information on the upload.
Then in Lightroom I go through the photos and tag the keepers. I don’t worry about tagging the rejects; just the keepers, because I will only be working with the keepers. I also tag any photos I think might need some editing with a red colored tag. Once my keepers have been established, I go back through them and mark the ones I want to put up on my website with a green tag. At this point I try to remember to create a collection of these photos. Then I go into the Web module and create the web page gallery. All that’s left to do is upload the gallery to my website.
When I receive print orders, the process continues with me using the Print module to crop and then export the file to send to my photo lab. I have also started creating photo books, so in this case I will create another collection of the photos I want included in the book and then export them for the printer.
I am learning to streamline the process and I enjoy each step along the way. It is so enjoyable to see the photograph I made come to life step by step!
What is your workflow? Are there some tips you have to share? Leave a comment so we can all learn together how to perfect our workflow strategies.