One man, one opinion. Thank you for sending in your questions and if you have another then send that one in as well. Love these as I can speak to you as if you were sitting here with me.
1. 1:39, What is your learning methodology for learning motion?
2. 5:30, Is shooting double exposures asking the audience to do more than viewing simple, straight images?
3. 9:40, Do you have any suggestions for software or books that will help with DAM (digital asset management.)
4. 16:19, If you are using analog exclusively, what is the best way of working with Blurb?
5. 18:03, Any advice for using small screens outside while capturing motion outdoors. And do you use a tripod?
6. 21:28, What is the biggest change to your photography from 10-20 years ago. What worked and what didn’t?
7. 28:40, What part of your daily life does photography serve? Do you always have a camera with you?
Comments 13
On the road dragging pelican boxes through airports so, I haven’t listened to the full thing. Just read the questions. If you mentioned this book, ignore me. The best resource for asset management for photographers/videographers/general creatives is ‘The DAM Book’ by Peter Krogh. Just remember, it isn’t rocket science. Create a system, stick to the system and make it redundant. Obviously redundancy needs change if you’re doing it for a hobby or as your job.
Btw, need to call you for a life update. Probably next week. Working in NY this week, back to Denver Thursday afternoon then out again Friday morning…
Hope you’re well.
Author
Sean,
Oh ya, he’s the man. I did mention him and I reached out to him to see if I can do a bit more to spread his knowledge. I’d love to podcast him. I’m on the road, let’s shoot for week after next. I’ll be home finally.
I’ve been on the road every week for the last 8. United loves me again. Camera gear not so much. As of right now, I’m home for the next three weeks. Let me know when you’re around.
Author
Sean,
I’m home….finally. NO plans to travel in coming weeks.
Hey Shifter Community- sorry if I’m repeating myself. Do any of you use Photo Mechanic or something similar to handle your initial ingest of images before moving selects to Lightroom or another editing tool? I know people swear by Lightroom, but here’s my problem – if I don’t immediately move the images to Lightroom, I’ll probably never look at them again. And if I waa too hasty on the cull? Again, I’ll probably never go back into the folders.
Author
Scott,
Photo Mechanic is awesome. I don’t use it anymore but my image needs aren’t that impressive.
Scott, don’t over complicate. Make a system that works for you. But, you have to stick with it. I’ve used nothing but Lr for 15 years. The less pieces of software I have to touch, the better.
Here’s my workflow for stills.
I have two storage arrays, Originals and Originals Backup. Originals is broken up into folders with the following naming: Raw_yymmdd_XXXX. XXXX started at 0001, 15 years later, I just hit 0800. The date is the date I created the folder. Many moons ago, I kept the folder limit to 4tb so each one could be burned to a DVD as a tertiary backup. I no longer burn DVDs because drives are cheap now but I still keep to the 4tb limit.
Once the card(s) is/are downloaded, I move to Lr and make an import. As soon as that import is done, I cull and I’m ruthless.
First pass, I tag images with an X and those get deleted. Permanently. Off the disk. Gone forever. After that, the imports get moved to collections in the catalog.
Organize your collections whatever way works for you. I have top level sets them subsets inside. For example. Top level sets of Personal, Clients, Landcape, Street, Travel. Within Clients, I organize by client name/tag then by date. Everything else goes by date except Travel which goes by location then date.
Once in the collection, I do a mass file rename then star rating. I very rarely get beyond 3 stars. File naming is Slavin_yymmdd_XXXX. XXXX is the file number generated by the camera and comes from the exif data. You can create that automation directly in LR. Client work sometimes gets color labeled as well. Then it’s time to keyword. Everything gets keywords. It’s the fastest way to find something.
After that is done, and only after it’s done, I start processing.
After processing, I have some automation in place to handle posting client galleries and/or sending to labs.
Once a week, Originals gear backed up in its entirety to Originals Backup. This is automated.
Once per month, Originals gets backed up to another set of external drives. These drives live in a fire proof safe. This is not automated but I have a calendar reminder in place.
My video work follows a similar process but the organization under Originals is a bit different.
I never go back into the folders on the Originals drive. All images are managed directly through Lr. I create a new catalog every year. Occasionally, I have a client/job that requests their own catalog as it makes it easier to share stuff. But, even then, the process is the same.
Much of this process is in Peter’s book. I’ve adapted it to fit my own work and skill set (past and present). Every now and then that computer science degree comes in handy.
If you have questions, feel free to reach out. More than happy to help elk you through any of this.
Again, the most important thing is to set a process then stick to it.
Author
Sean,
you are my hero. My techinique is mostly “select all, delete.”
your hero? all my goals in life are now fulfilled.
Author
Sean,
You=hero.
Author
Sean,
Done.
Sounds like a great documentary to shoot how those printers make books!
Author
Joe,
I’ve been mentally scheming since my visit.