Workflow

This is how I manage my workflow from shoot to final destination, whether it is online, print, or submission to the newspaper photo editor. I have honed this through trial and error, and have found what works best for me. I manage my workflow exclusively through Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, so if you don't have this software my workflow will not work for you step by step, although many elements will apply to any software. The most important thing in your workflow is to understand exactly were everything is stored so you can find it, and more importantly, consistency throughout.

When I go out to shoot, I go with a fully charged battery, a freshly formatted Sandisk Extreme III 2 gig SD card, and a Kingston 4 gig SD card for backup. I have my camera set to keep sequentially numbering my photos, so at the start of the shoot my original files would start at for example DSC_4567.  I do not delete any photos on camera, I just concentrate on shooting and save that for when I return.

After the shoot, I plug my camera into the computer via USB and tell lightroom to import photos from device.  I leave the "do not import suspected duplicates" box checked just in case, but there should not be any since I start from a freshly formatted card. I have lightroom organize the files by date (from EXIF) and import them into folders on the disk by date. For instance, a picture shot today would be in a folder called 2009 -->09 --> 18. I am very picky about this, as I like to know exactly were my files are going each time. Lightroom makes this a breeze by doing it automatically on import. Notice how I do not rename them on import, this will come later.

Import Dialog Box

Now that all the photos are on my hard drive, I go ahead and eject the camera and begin the next step of my workflow. I go into the library and begin selecting photos as rejected. Any photos used to test light, determine exposure, or otherwise get black flagged unless I retain them for reference. To black flag, just hit "X" on the keyboard. For a multi-day shoot, you can select multiple days by holding CTRL + clicking on the day. After all of my rejected photos are flagged as such, I tell lightroom to delete them (Ctrl + backspace). I then rename all photos as YYMMDD_0001, _0002, etc. starting with _0001 for the first picture of each day. This is as easy as selecting the folder for that day, hitting Ctrl + a, and then F2  to rename.

After all photos are renamed, I begin my editing and selecting. Editing is as simple as moving to the Develop module as editing the photo does not change the file name. To select a photo, I just hit "P" on the keyboard to "Pick" the photo with a white flag.

Flagging photos. Note the white flags in the upper left of the photos I have chosen.

I also use the color labels on occasion, when sending photos to multiple locations. You can use for example, red labels for one client, blue for another, and green for a third. Again, it is trivial to filter photos from a shoot by color labels. To select white flagged photos for export, I just use Ctrl + Alt + A and hit the export button

On export, I have multiple presets saved for different requirements. I have one preset that exports full size Jpeg photos for newspaper use and others for web and email that resize and compress photos. To make a Flash or HTML web gallery like the ones in my gallery, it is simply a matter of selecting the photos you want in your gallery, moving to the Web module, and exporting the gallery.

When I am done for the day, I plug in my external hard drive and run SyncToy, which synchronizes all of the files in My Documents. Every month, I burn a CD or DVD with that month's photos and the entire lightroom catalog file, and store them at a separate location.

This is about it for my workflow. It may look complicated and long here, but I can move through it extraordinarily quickly compared to every other workflow I have attempted. Once you get the hang of this type of workflow, it becomes very streamlined for daily use.