Organization/Work Flow -Can Someone Help A Beginner?

lhenkinlhenkin Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
edited February 21, 2009 in SmugMug Support
Hi all! I have been using smug mug for awhile, but I am new to digital photography. I am trying to figure out an organizational structure/workflow that will work for me. I am wondering if someone can help.

Here is what I would like to do: Upload Pics from my camera. Create a monthly (?) folder with all my pics, highlight/tag the best pics to go into a separate seasonal highlight folder for printing and future use. Can I do all this in SMUGMUG?

I have also played with PICASA and Adobe Album starter, but am not sure how to work them into the work flow.

Does anyone have anything to offer me?

Thanks so much,
Leora

Comments

  • SteveMSteveM Registered Users Posts: 482 Major grins
    edited February 19, 2009
    lhenkin wrote:
    Hi all! I have been using smug mug for awhile, but I am new to digital photography. I am trying to figure out an organizational structure/workflow that will work for me. I am wondering if someone can help.

    Here is what I would like to do: Upload Pics from my camera. Create a monthly (?) folder with all my pics, highlight/tag the best pics to go into a separate seasonal highlight folder for printing and future use. Can I do all this in SMUGMUG?

    I have also played with PICASA and Adobe Album starter, but am not sure how to work them into the work flow.

    Does anyone have anything to offer me?

    Thanks so much,
    Leora
    Hi Leora,

    I'm Steve, one of the support heroes, a working pro photographer, and one of the image specialists here at SmugMug. I don't want to sound like a walking advertisement for Adobe here, but it sounds like Lightroom2 would be the ideal workflow solution for you.

    In Lightroom2, you just plug in your camera (or a card into a card reader, or any device really) and it'll automatically bring up a dialog asking if you want to import the photos from the device. It can structure your new imports by dated folders. You can then make virtual copies, rate them with stars, tag them with colors, mark them as rejects, add keywords, the works! Then you can crossreference all of the above to get to just the image(s) you want and need. You can even save your favorites to a new quick collection.

    Then, through Jeffery Friedl's amazing plugin, you can export and upload those photos directly to SmugMug, all right within Lightroom2, even creating the new gallery where they'll live on SmugMug!

    I haven't found another workflow solution that's as professional and all-in-one as Lightroom2 for importing, organizing, finding what you need, and uploading. Warning though, it's a professional industry application and it's not cheap, so look for it on sale (someone recently had it for 50% off!). Of course, Lightroom2 is also an extremely powerful image editing tool as well.

    Are there other alternatives? Can you make due without anything and just use SmugMug? Sure, but most of what you want to do should be done on your computer, not online, including deciding how you want your images organized and structured. By organizing and refining what you want to upload to SmugMug on your computer first, you'll save yourself LOTS of upload time, and lots of time moving, deleting, keywording and shuffling on SmugMug.

    I hope this helps, Leora!
    Steve Mills
    BizDev Account Manager
    Image Specialist & Pro Concierge

    http://www.downriverphotography.com
  • PBolchoverPBolchover Registered Users Posts: 909 Major grins
    edited February 19, 2009
    The way I organise photos is as follows:
    * Each gallery is a single "event" / "trip". (In your case, each gallery could be for a single month.)
    * I have a category for each year. (However, this might become unwieldy with lots of years of photos)
    * I use keywords to create a highlight gallery. For example, add the keyword "best" to all of the photos that you want in your highlight gallery. The page yoursite.smugmug.com/keywords/best will then automatically contain a highlight gallery.
  • lhenkinlhenkin Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
    edited February 19, 2009
    PBolchover wrote:
    The way I organise photos is as follows:
    * Each gallery is a single "event" / "trip". (In your case, each gallery could be for a single month.)
    * I have a category for each year. (However, this might become unwieldy with lots of years of photos)
    * I use keywords to create a highlight gallery. For example, add the keyword "best" to all of the photos that you want in your highlight gallery. The page yoursite.smugmug.com/keywords/best will then automatically contain a highlight gallery.

    Thanks. That could work for me. Can you then do something with all the "best photos"--like download just those into a folder on your hardrive...

    Thanks,
    Leora
  • PBolchoverPBolchover Registered Users Posts: 909 Major grins
    edited February 20, 2009
    Smugmug doesn't provide an automatic way for you to download all of the photos from a keyword gallery, but it's possible to do it via the following steps:

    1) View the keyword gallery in "All Thumbs" style
    2) Save the page, selecting "html only" mode.
    3) Edit the saved html using notepad, and globally replace "-Ti" with "-O"
    4) View the saved page (this will take a while, since it will have to download all of your originals. If you have zoomed in your thumbnails, or have square thumbs, then the photos might be stretched, but don't worry about it...)
    5) Save the page again, selection "Complete" mode.

    This will put a folder on your computer, containing all of the photos in your keyword gallery (unfortunately, using the smugmug number for the photo, not your own number).


    Another possible solution might be to tag the photos as "best" on your hard drive _before_ uploading (smugmug will read the tags, and assign the keywords automatically). You could then use your tagging program to automatically select the tagged photos from your local disk - no downloading required!
  • lhenkinlhenkin Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
    edited February 20, 2009
    Steve,

    Thanks for your help. I am thinking about Lightrom2. It sounds great. If I start with Lightroom2 on a PC and switch to a MAC down the road (new software, I know), will my data (organization, tagging, etc) be maintained?

    Thanks so much,
    Leora
    SteveM wrote:
    Hi Leora,

    I'm Steve, one of the support heroes, a working pro photographer, and one of the image specialists here at SmugMug. I don't want to sound like a walking advertisement for Adobe here, but it sounds like Lightroom2 would be the ideal workflow solution for you.

    In Lightroom2, you just plug in your camera (or a card into a card reader, or any device really) and it'll automatically bring up a dialog asking if you want to import the photos from the device. It can structure your new imports by dated folders. You can then make virtual copies, rate them with stars, tag them with colors, mark them as rejects, add keywords, the works! Then you can crossreference all of the above to get to just the image(s) you want and need. You can even save your favorites to a new quick collection.

    Then, through Jeffery Friedl's amazing plugin, you can export and upload those photos directly to SmugMug, all right within Lightroom2, even creating the new gallery where they'll live on SmugMug!

    I haven't found another workflow solution that's as professional and all-in-one as Lightroom2 for importing, organizing, finding what you need, and uploading. Warning though, it's a professional industry application and it's not cheap, so look for it on sale (someone recently had it for 50% off!). Of course, Lightroom2 is also an extremely powerful image editing tool as well.

    Are there other alternatives? Can you make due without anything and just use SmugMug? Sure, but most of what you want to do should be done on your computer, not online, including deciding how you want your images organized and structured. By organizing and refining what you want to upload to SmugMug on your computer first, you'll save yourself LOTS of upload time, and lots of time moving, deleting, keywording and shuffling on SmugMug.

    I hope this helps, Leora!
  • SteveMSteveM Registered Users Posts: 482 Major grins
    edited February 20, 2009
    lhenkin wrote:
    Steve,

    Thanks for your help. I am thinking about Lightrom2. It sounds great. If I start with Lightroom2 on a PC and switch to a MAC down the road (new software, I know), will my data (organization, tagging, etc) be maintained?

    Thanks so much,
    Leora
    Hi Leora,

    I have some good news. First, on my retail copy of Lightroom2, it has installs for BOTH Mac and PC on the same disk. Next, the Adobe license allows you, as the licensed owner, to install TWO copies of the software, so you could install it on both the PC and Mac simultaneously, as long as they're solely for your use, and you only use one at a time. Check out http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/eula/lightroom.html and see #2.2 and 2.4

    As for migration, I've never done this, but it sounds fully possible. I know you can export catalogs and such, but don't know what that all includes. There are also a few posts talking about migrating everything over. Here's some of them: http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?t=5331
    http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b7e7a9

    There's lots more info, so visit http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshoplightroom/ and do a search for 'lightroom mac migrate' to start. It seems that it's a popular topic and that lots of PC users migrate to Mac when photography is concerned. ;)

    I hope this helps!
    Steve Mills
    BizDev Account Manager
    Image Specialist & Pro Concierge

    http://www.downriverphotography.com
  • lhenkinlhenkin Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
    edited February 21, 2009
    SteveM wrote:
    Hi Leora,

    I have some good news. First, on my retail copy of Lightroom2, it has installs for BOTH Mac and PC on the same disk. Next, the Adobe license allows you, as the licensed owner, to install TWO copies of the software, so you could install it on both the PC and Mac simultaneously, as long as they're solely for your use, and you only use one at a time. Check out http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/eula/lightroom.html and see #2.2 and 2.4

    As for migration, I've never done this, but it sounds fully possible. I know you can export catalogs and such, but don't know what that all includes. There are also a few posts talking about migrating everything over. Here's some of them: http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?t=5331
    http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b7e7a9

    Thanks Steve. I responded via email, but thought I should do so here as well. I will download the trial version and give it a go...

    Thanks again,
    Leora

    There's lots more info, so visit http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshoplightroom/ and do a search for 'lightroom mac migrate' to start. It seems that it's a popular topic and that lots of PC users migrate to Mac when photography is concerned. ;)

    I hope this helps!

    Thanks Steve. I replied by email, but thought I should do it here as well. I will download the trial version and give it a go.

    Thanks for your help,
    Leora
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