Digital photography workflow

Matt Stratton | Dec 9, 2005 min read

I know quite a few of you are into this whole “pictures” thing, and maybe have some insight into this.

What do you do with your pictures, and how?

Here’s what I do (currently), but it really needs some fixing:

  1. Take pictures

  2. Import pictures to Mac into folder named after current date, inside folder called “imported”

  3. Burn said folder (the date one) to CD-R for backup of “digital negatives”

  4. Open new folder in Adobe Bridge, and rate images (one star means “no good, delete, this is awful” and other ratings going up, etc)

  5. Open top-rated photos one at a time in Photoshop and color-correct, or play with them further (if I am feeling especially creatively inspired)

  6. Save PSD of image into another folder in Pictures folder named after current date

  7. Save JPEG of image into same date folder inside Pictures folder

  8. After done with all pictures, import JPEG files into iPhoto and place in appropriate albums, etc

  9. Export new photos from iPhoto into Flickr

As you can see, there’s something missing from this workflow – mostly the organization of the files. The steps I take are all fine (although there’s some batching I could probably do in the Photoshop stages, but that’s not my main concern right now).

I keep the iPhoto step in there for several reasons: first, I like the Flickr export tool better than the Uploadr. Secondly, there are quite a few things I do on my Mac that tie into iPhoto, so I want my “good” pictures in there. Third, your mom.

What I really want to hear about is how you guys organize your actual files, etc. What do you do for your workflow?