Workflow!

The learning curve was rather steep this week and I find myself time poor as a result.

So why am I time poor? I have been doing a lot of research and driving to locations to scout for shoots and the dog ate my homework and all the other lame excuses I can come up with for the simple fact that I have been slacking off. The result is that I have well over 500 images on my system that haven’t been processed, haven’t had keywords applied and haven’t been put into collections in Lightroom.

Now, my processing workflow is simple, easy, basic and other words meaning not hard. It is:

1.      Take photos

2.      Transfer images to computer using Lightroom

3.      Filter out the bad ones

a.       Pass 1 = Obviously messed up (out of focus, chopped up subject, etc)

b.      Pass 2 =             Shots that don’t grab me

c.       Pass 3 = Shots that don’t grab me after processing

4.      Keyword images

5.      Move images into relevant collections

6.      Process images

7.      Grab a snack!

And I have been fastidious about maintaining my workflow, completing the process every time I shoot. Then I decided it was time to get my photos online, to show folk what I was doing and see what the world thought of my stuff. Since then my processing has been step 1, step 2, step 3a, find a couple of shots to go online, surf the social media wave, grab a snack. So now I have all these photos on my system that have to be processed, collated, collected and blah blah blah... I am not enthused by the prospect.

But there is a positive to take away from this. I have learned something! Yay!

What I have learned is this; it is important to stay on top of your workflow, not matter what you do. Every time you go out to shoot, plan for your processing, allow time in your day to get the whole job done and don’t let yourself get distracted.

I mean, look at my workflow (keep in mind I am not making a living off my photography so I don’t get 1000 images on a shoot, but I also have other stuff to do with my day). When I’m in the zone I can get to the processing point in under an hour (confession time: the reason it takes so long is that I do the snack step early... and more than once). After pass 1 and pass 2 of the bad-photo-filtering I am down to about 50 or 60 images to process. Pass 3 happens during basic processing and then what is left over gets some tweaks, refinements, maybe a bit of cloning and content aware action in Photoshop. Job done!

Simple system, right? And quick if you stay on top of it! But I didn’t stay on top of it, did I? And now there’s a backlog to deal with, there are more images coming in every day and I can’t help but think I’ll never catch up!

Well, cry me a river, Bobby-boy! You do the job when the job is there or you deal with the consequences of your inaction. LESSON LEARNED!!

You know, I thought I was done with this post. It was going to be a little shorter than the others (and none of my posts have been huge) but that was fine. I got my message across and I could get on with my catch-ups! I stepped away from the keyboard, made myself a coffee and took some time out. I always do that so I can come back for a quick reread and edit before I post. But this time I came back and, while I was reading back over the post I came to a realisation; my workflow is remarkably inefficient!

Look at it:

               It starts out alright – take photos, transfer to computer, go through and ditch the crap and the ones I don’t like. Up to this point I am fast and efficient. But then I step out of culling mode and into administrative processes. I apply relevant keywords and make sure all the images are in the relevant collections. Then I start the processing, during which a large number of the images I have just spent a whole lot of time on get deleted because I don’t like the way they look after I tweak them. It’s like filling a bucket with a teaspoon then emptying the bucket into a cup; it’s a whole lot of work on a whole lot of stuff that you just won’t keep.

So I’m making some changes:

1.      Take photos

2.      Transfer images to computer using Lightroom (grab snack while waiting)

3.      Filter out the bad ones

a.       Pass 1 = Obviously messed up (out of focus, chopped up subject, etc)

b.      Pass 2 = Shots that don’t grab me

4.      Basic processing on images

a.       Pass 3 = Shots that don’t grab me after processing

5.      Keyword images

6.      Move images into relevant collections

7.      Grab a snack!

What do you think?

Is my new process more efficient? Is there anything you would do differently? And most importantly, did you get anything out of this? I’m hoping so. I’m hoping that my learning the lesson the hard way (as usual – it seems to be my thing!) means you won’t.

Let me know your thoughts, share your experiences and, for the love of whatever you believe in, don’t learn my way!

Oh, yeah! The photos had nothing to do with this post, I just like ‘em. Isn't my dog cute?