Workflow!

CFPhotography

So, I started a thread about mass storage, which has lead to more questions, more importantly what to do with all these photos that one takes. :rofl

Currently, I have two main directories. One is called "backup" and the other called "processed". Under each of these direcotries, I create folders for each event, with event name and date.

From CS5 Bridge, I use the "Get Photos" to retrieve all photos. I copy the files to it's proper directory in each the backup and the processed. During the copy, the files get renamed and Metadata added.

From here, I leave the backup directory alone. In the processed folder I go through all the pics, edit the good ones and export them as JPG to a "Finished" directory under the event. I delete the rest of the photos in the processed directory.

That's a basic run down of what I currently do, its no way near perfect and probably way off, but I am looking for ways to improve this and cut down on the needed space.

Should I just keep a backup of the photos I processed and not worry about the rest of the images? I only hate to do this as for some reason, I feel like once I delete that photo, somewhere down the line I might be able to use it in some way.

But anyway, would love to hear thoughts and what you guys do!

Thanks!

BradfordBenn

I understand the desire to keep every image. I am doing the same thing. I have a longer post about it at http://bradfordbenn.com/2007/10/photography-work-flow/ however since I am using a SmugMug account with no limits on storage size, I am not needing to worry about the space really.

But here is my basic flow:

1. Go out and take pictures.
Sometimes I use multiple cameras at the same location, a point and shoot, a DSLR, and even heavens no – a cellphone camera
2. Return to the computer with flash cards full of images.
3. Load images into Adobe Lightroom, keeping the same file names the camera assigned.
However the images are grouped into directories by year – month – day. More about that later.
4. Take the original JPG files and upload them to my SmugMug account in a non-public area of my site.
5. Convert RAW images to JPG with no processing and upload to SmugMug at high resolution.
6. Go through and start culling images in Lightroom. Do any needed processing, captioning, and keywording.
7. The keeper JPG images get published to SmugMug in the appropriate location using the service built into Lightroom typically.
8. The keeper RAW images are exported to SmugMug in the appropriate location using the service built into Lightroom typically.
9. The RAW images are exported to DNG files.
10. The DNG files are loaded onto my JungleDisk location