This morning I got an invitation on LinkedIn to be part of a group called Women in Photography. There, a question was posted on the group about our Photography Workflows. After posting it there, I decided to post the same answer here!
I use Lightroom. In my book it really doesn’t matter what brand of camera is the one that takes the pics, since I don’t use the branded apps to download the pictures. I’m also on Mac, using Leopard, so I use Image Capture, a native OS app from Leopard that just downloads the pictures.
I do it like that so it’s easier to work and I’m not dealing with slow apps that don’t let me move around freely. I download the pictures with a card reader to the mac, I rarely plug the camera to the mac – Let’s say I’m on location taking pics so taking the card reader does take away space, then I do plug the camera to the mac.
After downloading, I make a backup DVD of the masters.
Once the DVD is burned, I go to Lightroom and import to the catalog I’m working on the pictures that just got downloaded. I use separate Catalogs, that way I can have more control over what pictures go to each client and client project. Also, helps to keep separate the clients. I did have just one HUGE catalogue, but what happened was that the application was slow on startup and sometimes the tags got messed up… You name it, I lived it!
So, after importing the pics into Lightroom, I go through the entire repertoire and rate the pictures that will need post processing. Then when the pictures are chosen, I go and post process them in Lightroom and if needed, in Photoshop. Since both apps are Adobe’s, the integration is tight and they work very well together. When the Post Processing is done, I check once again the entire collection, to see if another pic needs post processing. If needed, that is done.
When all the post processing is over with, I burn another DVD of the post processed RAW files. If a client needs to go through the pics, I upload them to my server with the Web functions of Lightroom. If you have MobileMe (.Mac) you can also upload photo sites directly to MobileMe.
In an upcoming post, I’ll explain how to upload to MobileMe you Lightroom generated website.