I have spent many hours reading blogs and websites, going to seminars and generally reading as much as I can about Lightroom and Photoshop. I still do. Working as a photographer is as much about seeing and taking the photograph as it is about how you work with the image file afterwards. The software evolves continuously, and upgrading to the latest version often means re-learning tried and trusted methods.
So I thought I’d write about my current method of working, almost in real time, as I shot a wedding last Saturday, and I can write as I work through the various stages. I hope you find it useful – there is no right or wrong way, just your way.
Downloading files
It would be odd to admit to being superstitious, but much as I love computers, I don’t entirely trust them. I’ve heard that occasionally they break…
So, after any shoot, I download the cards. I do this in the old-fashioned way – no software involved. I create a new folder and call it ‘Jane and John ALL’. Then I open this folder and create about twenty (however meny cards you’ve shot) new folders, each called ‘Jane and John 1′ ‘Jane and John 2′ etc. I put each card into the card reader and simply copy (drag and drop) the images into each folder – each card has it’s own folder. I have numbered my cards, so I also add the card number to the folder title ‘Jane and John 1 (12)’ ‘Jane and John 2 (15)’ ‘Jane and John 3(25)’ etc. It doesn’t matter what order the cards are downloaded. The point of recording the card numbers is to identify a faulty card should you develop one – you’ll know if there is a problem reading a card, or later opening images from it.
I do this process without opening any files. I want to keep the transfer path from the card to the hard drive as straight as possible. You could download cards into Lightroom or Aperture and look at them as they appear, but I prefer to simplify the process and eliminate the possibility of any software corrupting the files.
You end up with a folder containing all your cards’ contents separated out. This is also useful if like me you use a second photographer, and you need to identify their images. I will add her name to her folders, thus ‘Jane and John 4 (17)Dana’. Also useful if you use more than one camera body.
Finally, again without looking at anything, I copy the whole ‘Jane and John ALL’ folder onto a second hard drive as a back-up. Only then (following the ‘always have two copies’ principle) will I format the cards, although it’s more likely to be left until I need them again for the next shoot.
In the next post I’ll go through my editing process using Lightroom.
