Photographic Workflow
Derek Smith • 11 May 2022
For a photographer, I feel that it’s important to have an efficient, and smooth workflow for editing, and storing images.
Quite often I will return home from a shoot, or weekend away, with several hundred images. I don’t want to be spending days in front of a computer, so my workflow consists of taking the SD card out of the camera, and using a card reader, copy all the images, then pasting them into an external hard drive.
Opening the photo editor, I edit the RAW images that I’ve just saved to the external hard drive, and a lot of this process involves “culling” images (sorry dear reader not all my images are just as I want them!!) probably only keeping about a quarter of the images taken on that session.
In the photo editor I will quite often use a template, or a pre-set to apply to the image, this is for consistency, as well as speed, one example of this is where I have been on a portrait shoot and want the images to have the same “style” to present to the model following the shoot. After applying the template, or pre-set, I will crop the image if required, then save the edited finished image to a temporary folder on the computer hard drive, I have named my folder “Upload”.
With all my edited images in the temporary “Upload” folder, I upload all these images to a personal photographic website powered by SmugMug, (it costs about £50 annually) the folders on the website are organised by “Year” and “Month” for my personal images, “Glamour” and “Model” for my portrait work, as well as a folder for “Competitions”, these photos can be viewed on a mobile phone or tablet. I also import the photos from the “Upload” folder to my Apple Photos, and these are backed up again to Google Photos, and Amazon Prime Photos. After uploading all my images, I delete all the images from the temporary “Upload” folder ready for the next photo editing session.
I truly believe in safeguarding photographic images by storing them away from the computer, I have found Google Photos very useful for locating images for competitions as the search facility is very good. Recently while selecting an image for the “Derelict Buildings” competition I remembered a photo I had taken in Grimsby, but a couple of years ago, Google Photos found the image within minutes.
Quite often I will return home from a shoot, or weekend away, with several hundred images. I don’t want to be spending days in front of a computer, so my workflow consists of taking the SD card out of the camera, and using a card reader, copy all the images, then pasting them into an external hard drive.
Opening the photo editor, I edit the RAW images that I’ve just saved to the external hard drive, and a lot of this process involves “culling” images (sorry dear reader not all my images are just as I want them!!) probably only keeping about a quarter of the images taken on that session.
In the photo editor I will quite often use a template, or a pre-set to apply to the image, this is for consistency, as well as speed, one example of this is where I have been on a portrait shoot and want the images to have the same “style” to present to the model following the shoot. After applying the template, or pre-set, I will crop the image if required, then save the edited finished image to a temporary folder on the computer hard drive, I have named my folder “Upload”.
With all my edited images in the temporary “Upload” folder, I upload all these images to a personal photographic website powered by SmugMug, (it costs about £50 annually) the folders on the website are organised by “Year” and “Month” for my personal images, “Glamour” and “Model” for my portrait work, as well as a folder for “Competitions”, these photos can be viewed on a mobile phone or tablet. I also import the photos from the “Upload” folder to my Apple Photos, and these are backed up again to Google Photos, and Amazon Prime Photos. After uploading all my images, I delete all the images from the temporary “Upload” folder ready for the next photo editing session.
I truly believe in safeguarding photographic images by storing them away from the computer, I have found Google Photos very useful for locating images for competitions as the search facility is very good. Recently while selecting an image for the “Derelict Buildings” competition I remembered a photo I had taken in Grimsby, but a couple of years ago, Google Photos found the image within minutes.
Louth Photographic Society
Good Morning All Last week's outing was re-scheduled due to a clash with a certain world cup match, the good news was a victory for England, however we intend to still hold the outing on Wednesday 22 nd July. I did go to the Festival of Flight at the Shuttleworth collection, Old Warden last weekend. It was too windy for some of the old Biplanes, but we were treated to a four-and-a-half-hour display featuring many planes that I had never seen fly before. The De Havilland Comet was built to compete in the 1934 race from Britain to Australia, only three were built and it's good to see it flying, the aircraft design was quite advanced for 1934. This week, Wednesday 8th July, we have another camera club outing to the Swaby Valley, meeting at 6pm. Swaby is just off the A16 heading from Louth to Skegness. Regards Graham
Last night’s Louth Photographic Societies outing to Kirkby gravel pits nature reserve was cancelled as some members preferred to watch some sporting gentleman by the name of Harry Kane. (Congratulations to the England team) The reserve is small, and simply laid out, a public footpath leads along a tree lined avenue to the river Bain at the back of the reserve. Historic sand and gravel extraction has left a large lake in the centre of the reserve, several ducks and waterfowl inhabit the lake and there is a bird hide on the shoreline. Returning to the road, there is a path running parallel to the road bounded by a hedge, insects of various types can be found in this area, damselflies, butterflies, and hover-flies are often prolific. Our outing to Kirkby Gravel pits is now scheduled for Wednesday 22nd July. Parking is on the verge by the roadside. Kirkby Gravel pits are fairly close to where I live, and it’s reserve that I often visit, these are some photos from a visit in July last year.
Good morning, All, Last week at the club we had our monthly print competition, Trees and Open. There was a very good entry with a high standard of photography on show. Tony Gaskins was first in the Open and I managed a first in the trees, all the results are on our website and there is also a blog on the evening. This week, Wednesday 1st July, we are having an outing to Kirkby Gravel Pits, if we meet at 6.30 at the reserve, though you can arrive earlier as there are usually dragonflies etc around the entrance. If we walk straight ahead first, then anyone who arrives late can find us. I have struggled to find a map, but you can see the location on the Lincolnshire wildlife Trust website. Kirkby Grave Pits is also a good reserve for birds. Tattershall Road 1 mile south of Kirkby-on-Bain Woodhall Spa Nearest postcode LN10 6YN. Please note - postcodes are for the nearest registered address as we are unable to get postcodes for nature reserves.
A print competition was held last night with the categories of "Trees" as the subject, and "Open". Our judge for the evening was Gail Wrigg from Barton who did an expert job. The first category to be judged was the "Open" with the high standard of prints making the choice of top placement difficult, and Gail held back 9 prints for further evaluation. There were some chuckles from members around one of Richard Hildred's prints of wooden electricity poles titled "In my previous life I used to be one of them" an "in" joke from Richard, which totally baffled Gail. After the break Gail judged the "Trees" category, with 7 prints held back this time for awarding of higher marks, the beautiful colours of some trees, especially the autumnal images contrasting with the stunning monochrome infrared prints from Richard Hildred. It was a great evening, with excellent prints on display, and the website Competition page has been updated with the full results.
Good Morning All Last week we visited the nature reserves at Fir Hill quarry and Muckton wood. I have written a blog report on the evening which is on our website. You can always try something a little different like I did using camera movement. This week, Wednesday 24th June, a print competition will be held, with the categories of "Trees" and "Open" and is to be judged by Gail Wrigg. The following week we have an outing to Kirkby Gravel pits. If you want advice on camera settings etc the outings are the perfect opportunity to ask other members while we all have our cameras. Regards Graham
Each year Louth Photographic Society begins a new project, one photo taken each month on a specific subject, that's 12 photos presented on "Project Night" in January. Last year the subject was "Prime Time" one photo each month taken with the same fixed focal length lens. This year the subject is water, the subject sounds easy enough, and I've completed 5 photos already, but I'm struggling a little with a photo for June. I'm currently on holiday in Corfu, an island surrounded by water which should be easy, but I'm yet to find the "definitive" photo for the project. These are my photos so far this month: Best regards Derek
Good Evening All
Summer is here at last, maybe?
Last night a few of our members had an outing to Old Bolingbroke village. Initially visiting the Lincolnshire Wildlife Reserve of Sow Dale, off Spilsby Hill at the village entrance, I was a little hesitant at first at entering the reserve because of the grazing cattle. When the cattle herd moved up the hill we climbed over the stile and entered the reserve, as we began to take some photos around the reserve though, the herd returned, but seemed quite docile. Later in the evening we moved on to Bolingbroke castle, and took several photos of the castle, fauna, and flora. It was a lovely evening, good to get out with cameras, and socialise with others.
Good Morning All Last week I went to the Lincoln cathedral to see Queen by candlelight, a great night of music and some different lighting in the cathedral. Last week at the club we held our 1 st round of the LPA Battles against Grimsby and Scunthorpe. Members from the two other clubs attended making it a very full room with some excellent photography on show. Scunthorpe won on 255 points, Louth 2 nd with 250 points and Grimsby 3 rd with 245 points. This week there is a 2 nd round LPA Battle at Grantham on Tuesday evening, if any member wants to attend, please contact me for more details. We did decide to have an outing on Wednesday 10th June, I had thought of Donna Nook, but Derek has come up with another idea, Sow Dale and if time permits Bolingbroke Castle both out Horncastle way. Derek is going to see if it's worth visiting Sow Dale and will let us know. Don't forget to send your print titles to Dave Turner. Regards Graham
