Many folks have asked me about how I manage my workflow.  From shooting, to editing, to renaming into my stock library, to processing images - there is a lot of time involved.  In the February 2009 Newsletter I talked about the need to carefully, even ferociously edit images so that your stock library isn't cluttered with unpublishable or worthless images.  Once your images have been transferred to your desktop computer - editing them is your first order of business.  I recommend that you edit your images on a desktop computer and not on a laptop.  While some state of the art Laptops would be fine - most people have far better and more powerful desktop computers with higher end graphics cards that present the colors and sharpness better than a laptop will - and on a larger monitor.

RENAMING IMAGES

     Once edited, your images need to be renamed into your stock library of images.  I've seen this done a dozen different ways and it just needs to make sense to you.  Clearly, finding one image among hundreds of thousands has got to be a quick, efficient, obvious process.  Some photographers file images by date, then keyword those digital images so they can be pulled up in a search.  Lightroom, I-photo, and other programs can be set up to do this.  Some use the words "Gallery" or "Catalog" to describe the library of images.  This has some advantages in that you can search by several criteria, or keywords, to find appropriate images.  I don't use this method of keyword searching because it could pull up thousands of images I'm not looking for.

Stock Library

     This is how I have set up my stock library.  It's simple, quick, and especially easy to backup.  Lets say I just got back from a Yellowstone National Park shoot and I have edited my images ferociously down to the very best, most publishable images.  In the directory that holds those images I create sub-directories and file the images by subject.  Coyotes go in one sub-directory, Grizzlies go in another, Yellowstone scenic images go in another, Spruce Grouse yet another - you see where I'm headed here.  Once categorized like this I rename the files.  Most programs have a "batch rename" function - like the one in ACDSee Pro 2.5 - to rename, quickly, all the images in a directory. 

     My digital files start with D, starting with D-00001.  If the image is a scan of a 35mm slide, then it starts with F-00001.  Medium Format Slide scans start with MF-00001.  Ok, that's pretty simple - but why?  When it comes time to account for images, image sales, or image submissions - you want a distinctive name attached to each image so you know where they are, who has them, how much you have made from a particular image, etc.  So the names of each image are a distinctive number.  Thus, image D-19138 is a digital image of a Marbled Godwit in flight.  Image F-10099 is a 35mm Slide Scan of a Beaver Dam and Pond.  Image MF-00523 is Autumn Aspen Tree trunks.  Each image gets it's own number, in consecutive order.  So I batch rename each sub-directory, that way all the grizzly images from that trip are in consecutive order in my filing system.

     Once renamed I copy the files into my stock library - which is set up by subject, with sub-directories as the subject gets more specific.

          STOCK LIBRARY is the name of my main directory.  I don't put family images, vacations, or personal images in my business stock library.  Right now I have 11 Main Sub-directories within the Stock Library directory: they are Agriculture, Birds, Game Animals, Insects, Locations, Nature, Non-Game Animals, People, Plants, Predators, and Reptiles.

          Each Sub-directory has more sub-directories that get more specific.  So the Birds Sub-directory has four main sub-directories:  they are Game Birds, Raptors and Owls, Songbirds and others, Water and Wading Birds.

          Thus, Mallard Ducks is a sub-directory of Game Birds.  You could break this sub-directory down even more if you wanted, say to Drakes, Hens, Ducklings and Nests, Flight, etc.  Each possible sub-directory becomes more specific.  It takes me about 4 seconds to find all my drake Mallard images in ACDSee Pro 2.5:

                click on STOCK LIBRARY>>Birds>>Game Birds>>Mallards>>Drakes,  then select the image I'm looking for. 

     That's pretty quick considering I've got 70,000 plus numbered images in my Stock Library.  Over 13,000 Bird Images, over 7,000 Game Bird images, and 222 Mallard images.

     After copying the images into their respective sub-directory I need only drag/copy that directory into my back-up Stock Library on an external hard-drive that is only attached to my computer when I'm backing up images.  Since I will sometimes work on images in a directory (say old Mallard images) I copy the entire sub-directory to my back-up Stock Library, this means all the changes I've made and new images I've added are all copied to the back-up Stock Library.  Simple.  It's simple because it works for me.

     The last time I upgraded external hard-drives (to a 1 Terra-byte drive) I just dragged the Stock Library folder over to the new drive - it took 18 hours to copy the entire directory over and create my newest back-up Stock Library on the hard-drive.

PROCESSING IMAGES

     This is slow, tedious stuff.  Editing, renaming files, backing up your images - all takes time.  But the killer time hog is processing your images.  Whether you shoot JPG's or RAW files - images have to be processed to be used.  E-mailed, submitted, put online, for shows, or seminars - or printed, etc etc etc - they have to be processed.  I talked about RAW Image Processing in the July 2009 Newsletter.

     My key step to saving time is to process the files WHEN I need them for something and not get bogged down for days processing hundreds, if not thousands, of files I may seldom use.  However, in processing, I do have one caveat: process all the similar images at the same time.  

     One possible blessing to waiting to process your images is that tomorrow's software will be better at processing those images than the software today.  I only process what I need, when I need it ... unless you have a talented employee or Photoshop/Lightroom/Aperture savvy assistant (i.e. son or daughter) ... then turn them loose.