I was asked what software I use for my photo work flow, or more specifically what part of Wordpress I used for publishing images. I thought I would expand it a bit and give a quick run through of the whole work flow process.
My choice of software for the work flow is largely based on arbitrary decisions and what I heard was good. Two key elements that I knew I wanted to use is Adobe Lightroom for library and post processing purposes and Flickr for sharing and showing images. The second constraint about making a work flow is that I am lazy, so the less work I have to do the better.
First thing is of course that I take the picture, and then they are stored in the memory card in the camera. From there I need to move them onto the computer. I usually use the USB cable, since I don’t have a card reader that can read compact flash cards. Either way, I get the compact flash card to register as a removable device on the computer, so I can access the pictures.
I then use Digital Image Mover (DIM) which is a small java program that allows for a very flexible folder/file structure. Some would say I should discard it, and use Lightroom for import as well. But I have decided on a file structure that looks like \<year>\<month>\<Day> – <Description>\Raw for the raw files. I haven’t managed to get Lightroom to give me that description afterwards, but it does help me a great deal when trying to locate the photos later on. The description is very short eg. “Odense Zoo” just to take one example, but it helps me pinpoint what I am looking for if I know the month and year of the photos.
Well DIM, lets me do that, so I keep using it. Even if I have a to mash a button or two more, which is against my lazy policy. DIM is free, though the author has set up a donation option if you like it.
Since I usually shoot in RAW copying the files might take a while, so I usually open up Adobe Lightroom and grab a cup of coffee while the computer thinks.
Once the files are copied I disconnect the camera, but I don’t format the memory card just yet. I usually wait till I have successfully imported them into Lightroom, which is the next step.
I use Lightroom for two things. I use it for keeping track of my images, so I use it for naming, comments, keywords, scoring and so on. All part of trying to locate the photos later on. Which is yet easy for me, but the more images I take the harder it gets. The second part is of course post processing of the images.
I then choose the import option in the lower left corner of Lightroom when it is in library mode, and since I already moved the files to the final location, I choose to import without moving. First organisation with in Lightroom comes in the import process. Usually there are a few keywords that can be added to the whole batch, it could be the location, event or person. Add them as soon as possible, that means less work later on.
/Kristian