Building my ultimate workflow - 1: Introduction
One of the greatest challenges I have faced once I transitioned into digital photography, is dealing with the issues of work flow. When I used film it was rather easy, I shot film, someone else did all the work, and I got back images. I catalogued them in albums and if I wanted bigger prints or more copes, I went back to the neg and, once again, it was someone else’s problem to make that into a print!
Now of course I have thousands of digital files, far more than I ever produced negs because it’s “free”. Of course the true cost of all these images, and of the ability we have to edit and manipulate them, is that you have to employ some techniques to manage them or else, like I have been lately, you become paralysed under the weight of a pile of images that you just can’t turn into quality output.
I’ve found my lack of decent work flow has slowed my shooting as I get less satisfaction from shoots when I wind up not getting the final product I should have, usually because I lack the skills and system to process the images I have to their full potential. It’s also meant that I have a massive collection of files, but no clue as to where many of my great shots are, so going back for them is a pain. This frustration has held me back.
I have recently decided to fix all of this, and create a decent work flow, file management system and editing station at home. It isn’t going to be cheap or easy but I am determined to immerse myself in my photography again and see what I can do with it and this is the first and most important step. I have come to realise that without the right work flow, the right editing tools and the right workstation that no amount of shutter clicks will get me the output I want.
As I write this my new PC has just arrived, and I am fresh out of my first class on some new software last night. Over the next few days I will be starting on this journey building the platform, work flow and image library from scratch and I’ll share each step along the way. I’d love to hear any questions or ideas from people going through the same thing, even if you bump into these posts in 2011!
Hopefully by sharing this process I can help someone else out there avoid the mess I have made, or dig their way out of it if they have made it already.
Biggzie
Its strange how nearly every photographer I know struggles with this (me included)
Im going through a similar process myself.
Jon Dawes replied
It’s a discussion I have had many times, and I have been thinking about starting this journey for a long time now. As my instructor said last night a about a couple of ideas he shared with us “This is absolutely the best way to do this – unless you do it differently”.
There are so many ways to tackle this and I hope that by sharing the reasoning behind my decisions, it will help others make their own even if they differ from mine.
Good luck with your own attempt at this daunting task!
James Godber
I’m absolutely with you Jon. Scares me half to death. Files in different places. Different software for different systems. Mac and PC. External drives. Very easy for everything to end up in a right muddle! Good luck.