We’ve discussed the importance of developing a workflow for dealing with our image files once we venture into digital photography. Let us now discuss the basic sequence to get started in developing a workflow that will suit our personal needs.

Note that the steps below are general guidelines and you should be able to customize your own workflow based on they types of photographs you work with. It is assumed that you’ve already captured the images into your digital cameras and already own a computer and associated hardware to transfer images from your memory card to the computer. Organizing Folders Before we even begin transferring files, we must plan how we are going to arrange our folder structure in our computer.

By default, most computers will have a “Pictures” folder created by the operating system. While this is often convenient for most users, it is not the recommended place to store your images in the long run. It’s preferred to have another drive available separate from where your operation system is installed, whether it is another physical hard drive installed in your computer, an external hard drive, or a partition. The reason for this is if you need to reformat your hard drive that contains the operating system, upgrading operating systems, or the inevitable crash of your operating system, your data files will not be affected if they are stored in a different drive. In your separate hard drive, think of a “structure” you want to store your images in. For example, if you’re a portrait photographer, you may want to start off with a “year” folder, then “month” folder, then the name of your subject/client. If you shoot birthdays often, it might be good to have the same year/month folder categories, separated by the name of the celebrants. If you travel very often, then a year >> country >> city folder structure might be best for you. The important point to remember is to store your files in a way where you will have an idea on what the content of that folder is without opening any of the files.

Once you establish a structure you’re comfortable with, it’s time to transfer the files.

File Transfer

You can simply drag and drop your files from your memory card (assuming it’s already connected to your computer using a card reader) into the folders you’ve created or you can use a cataloging software to import your images into your computer.

Renaming files

Files should be renamed with the same reasoning as the folder naming structure. The filename of your image should at least tell you a little about the image before you open the file. In addition, by using a set of filename format, your files will be stored in a sequentially sortable format, which facilitates easier file searching even before using keywords and search strings.

There are many applications available in the market that enable you to rename your files after being transferred to your computer. Some can be downloaded for free such as Google Picasa (http://picasa.google.com), and FastStone Image Viewer (http://www.faststone.org), you can also purchase stand-alone, dedicated workflow products such as ACDSee (http://www.acdsee.com) and Adobe Lightroom (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom) that are designed to help you develop your entire workflow along with other features, or you can use supplementary software that is packaged with your image editing software such as Adobe Bridge (which is included with Adobe Photoshop). You can rename your files just like you did with your folders.

Instead of working with the typical IMG_1234.jpg file name that your camera created, you can have your application rename it to year_month_date_event_location_0001.jpg, year_month_date_event_location_0002.jpg, and so forth. You’ll reap the benefits of organizing and renaming your files once you need to find one specific photo in your vast collection of images the future.

Backup Copies

Before even thinking of editing or opening your photographs, create duplicate copies of your images immediately. As mentioned in our previous article, files can get damaged or altered quite easily, and without a back-up, the affected file will be gone forever with no easy way to recover the file. Creating a backup copy is rather simple, and as mentioned previously, you can backup your photos using another hard drive, online, or with optical media such as DVDs, preferably all three. Storage cost is getting more and more affordable and it’s prudent to have more than one backup and having one backup being stored off-site in case fire/flood/theft occurs in your main work location.

Adding Keywords and Metadata

After securing your file copies, it’s time to organize and sort your files using a cataloging software. There are many ways to add data into your photograph to help searching and archiving, and there are many small details that can add value to your image file’s embedded information, but before dwelling into specifics, we can quickly and easily add general keywords and metadata to our images at this stage of our workflow.

General keywords such as copyright information, photographer’s details, business details, and location of shoot are generic but important details to include in each photograph. Using these “catch-all” metadata allow you to label your photographs as your property as well as provide all the necessary details in case you decide to distribute or sell your images to a client. It will also save your client a lot of time adding your information in their database in case they want to search and archive your photograph for future usage.

Evaluating Images

Now that we have added detailed information about our files and have backed them up safely, it’s time to sort and rate your images. This is a crucial step in your workflow as well as developing your skill to edit and scrutinize your captured images towards picking the best of your images to keep and present.

With most cataloging software, you can view your images on a “filmstrip” or “thumbnail” view where you can view several pictures at the same time. You can scroll through the images and apply ratings (often between one to five stars) and delete images that are unusable. This is a good time to add customized keywords to similar images. Most software allow you to select multiple files and enter keywords as a batch. For example, adding specific road names (i.e. 3rd Street) or venue details (i.e. Joe’s Restaurant) to a specific group of photographs during your recent travel, to the more global keywords you’ve added earlier (i.e. USA >> New York >> Manhattan). It is best to add as much useful keywords as possible at this stage. Details such as time of capture, camera model, lens model, and capture settings (EXIF data) are often supplied by your camera automatically, there’s no need to enter such details manually.

Finally, create sets or collections for your images. This is similar to grouping your files in folders but without physically transferring your images or creating duplicates to facilitate grouping.

Let’s say you traveled to New York recently and want to group all your photographs by cities you’ve visited, you can easily do so because of your previous keyword entries to differentiate one photograph from another. You simply search for a city, for example, “Brooklyn” and your cataloging software will pull out all your images tagged with the “Brooklyn” keyword, just select all the resulting photographs and add them to a collection or a set. All your future pictures that you may capture and tagged as “Brooklyn” will belong to this newly created set automatically, if your software can update in real-time. While the process of following a structured workflow may seem tedious compared to just dumping all files into a “My Pictures” folder, there are countless of distinct advantages for developing and using a structured workflow. A proper digital workflow allows you to work faster, get organized, be more critical to your images, and makes it simple to retrieve files at any point in time.

So try to create your own digital workflow today and incorporate it every time you transfer your images from your camera to your PC. You’ll reap the benefits of being organized and structured whether you’re an amateur or a professional.

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