Workflows are essential for any project, and the number of steps included in each depends on the complexity of the project. In general, each photography process will include pre-production, shooting, and post-production, with plenty of detailed steps in each stage. Each photographer can develop their own photography workflow chart to keep them organized.
My Photography Workflow
A digital photography workflow is an end-to-end system of working with digital images, from capture to delivery. It is comprised of a series of inter-connected steps developed by photographers to simplify and standardize their work. Simplification and standardization are the two key words here, because a well-established workflow process will not only help you in simplifying and speeding up the process of working with images, but will also allow you to stay organized, improving your efficiency and bringing consistency to your work. The number of steps involved in the workflow process varies, but generally consists of the following:
The workflow process starts with your camera, so your camera settings and how you take pictures will definitely impact your workflow process. For example, if you take pictures in RAW format, your workflow process will be a little more complicated than if you were to shoot in JPEG. Why? Because RAW images require you to process them before they become usable for print or publishing. RAW files also take up a lot of space, which will certainly slow down your import, export and backup processes. If you shoot in JPEG format, you need to decide what color profile to use, what compression and image size to use, what white balance settings to use and more. Both have their advantages and disadvantages (see my JPEG vs RAW article), but you will have to decide what works best for you.
In addition, if you decide to shoot HDR or panoramas, you will have to shoot in brackets/sequences, which will add another step in your workflow process to process HDR images or stitch panoramas. Therefore, you should decide in advance what settings you want to use in your camera and how you want to capture images.
The second part is the actual process of copying files from your card/camera to your computer. This is where you have many different options to do this. You could use your operating system to copy the files to a particular folder on your machine, or you could use software like Adobe Bridge, Lightroom or Capture One to handle this process. I personally prefer to use the latter method for importing my images. I heavily rely on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for transferring images and this application has simplified my workflow significantly, because many of the steps described in this article are now done within this single software package.
The nice thing about using such software, is that you can customize/fine-tune the import process and tag images with certain keywords / metadata and even push some image-processing presets to each image upon import, which will save you even more time in your workflow. Check out our detailed guide on how to import images in Lightroom, where we show how to properly manage this process.
I am not going to go through the process of post-processing an image, because this step can be a quick one second change to fix an exposure problem or an extensive process that might take hours to perfect. I normally post-process 95%+ of my images within Lightroom and only use Photoshop when I cannot fix something in Lightroom. Therefore, my workflow depends on whether an image needs further work in Photoshop or not. If you are looking for some post-processing articles and techniques, check out our post-processing tips page, where we keep all related articles we have published so far.
Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life, based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops, producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography Life. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim here.
Dec, if I were you, I would just use the 35mm you have instead of thinking of other lenses. It is a great lens for everyday photography and you can take lots of great pictures with it. When the right time comes, you can then buy the 85mm f/1.8D (which is a great lens, btw) or some other lens.
When it comes to an efficient workflow for photographers, Photo Mechanic is a time saver when it comes to culling images. Before you begin editing, go through and cull your images in Photo Mechanic to remove photos that are out of focus, include awkward expressions, are duplicates, or are test shots.
Knowing which images to keep can be a tedious task at first, especially if the shoot produced thousands of photos. To improve your photography workflow, think of a way to fast track your selection process.
If you have hundreds or thousands of images, when you import photos into Lightroom it may take a while for the images to render. To save time, choose to work on the Smart Previews rather than the full size image. This will help speed up your workflow.
Computers are great at automating things, so why not have them do that? The best photography applications out there can automate the download process. They can create a folder structure, name the folder(s), rename the images, and add important metadata (like copyright, location, and caption information).
The biggest problem of workflow and backing up images is that we over-hoard. We keep too many photos. We need to make a practice of letting certain photos go. Either by deleting them, or just forgetting about them.
Creating a workflow forces you to think about all the tasks required to run your business and provide great work for clients. From online booking to photo delivery, routine tasks, such as digital asset management, plays a role.
Whatever your workflow looks like, having a single point of truth and technology to manage it can help you stay focused. On monday.com, you can bring all of these elements together and create a smooth work process for client-facing projects from beginning to end.
Build a customized board to manage all your photography projects, or create boards for specific types of projects. Add columns for updates on workflow and automatically employ time tracking to ensure your rates help you generate a profit and pay for the time you put into photos.
View your workflow in a way that makes sense for you and your team. Options include spreadsheet-like boards with color-coding and automations, Kanban boards for visual task management, and Gantt charts that help you ensure work is done on time.
A CRM, or customer relationship management, solution is software that automates the capture and storage of contact information and other data related to client relationships. Photographers might use a CRM to capture client names, phone numbers, email addresses, and addresses and track the status of work ordered or done for a client. Most CRMs also support tracking leads, which are potential clients who might be interested in photography services. For an all-in-one solution to run your business, build a customizable software that includes both a CRM and workflow management strategy with monday sales CRM.
You know that the right tools, such as high-quality cameras and the ideal lenses, make a huge difference in the photographs you take. The same is true for your business. The right tools for your workflow can increase client satisfaction, save you time and money, and help you drive increased revenues.
I create custom color profiles for my camera to produce consistent, accurate colors and to speed up my workflow. I do this by taking pictures of a color target in different lighting conditions and using ArgyllCMS to generate an icc color profile. This is all done on the command line.
If you are interested in learning how I use these programs, I created The Open Source Photography Course. The course contains over 5 hours of video tutorials that teach you a RAW photography workflow using only free, open source software (FOSS).
Hi Rye, I use Fedora to manage all my photos and tried to set my own workflow to edit RAW pictures under linux.I have tried both RAWTherapee and Darkroom and really enjoyed the endless possibility these applications offer.
The photography industry is very competitive and continuously evolving. As a professional photographer, you got to stay updated with the current trends. Just as mirrorless cameras took over the DSLR, these smart tools are taking over old ones.
At some point, most photographers develop a series of routines for capturing, copying, and processing their digital photographs. These routines can be sloppy and unorganized or they can develop into a consistent workflow that speeds up the entire editing process. Consistency in how you handle your images after they are shot is nearly as important as the techniques you employ to compose and shoot your images in the field.
In this paper, I am going to describe my own digital workflow, from the time my shots leave the camera, to the basic editing adjustments I make to nearly all my final photographs in Photoshop, to finally saving and backing them up on my computer. My hope is to provide you with some ideas that might help improve your own digital workflow.
With all of the RAW images safely backed up to DVD, I now open the originals in Adobe Bridge to sort through them. First I delete the ones that are obviously no good. This includes images that are out of focus, poorly composed, or seriously defective in some way. After deleting the ones that are clearly not going to make the cut, I rate the top tier shots. Adobe Bridge allows you to rate your images either by color or by assigning a one through five star rating. I usually give the images that I am happy with and plan to move further along into the workflow process a five star rating. Oftentimes this is where I stop. I tend to be all or nothing with my shots; either they are good enough to move forward in the workflow or they are not. Occasionally I will assign images a four or three star rating if I like them for some reason but know that I will not likely use them right away. You can assign star ratings by clicking on one of the stars just below the thumbnail of the image. To select only the photographs you rated, click on the Unfiltered button located near the top right corner of the screen in Adobe Bridge. Rating your images will help you quickly identify the shots that you may want to take into Photoshop to fully process later on. Apply a star rating by clicking below the thumbnail of the image. 2ff7e9595c
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