My Digital Workflow Nightmare

J

jedimonkey

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Edit My Images
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Hello, this is my first post.... I have been reading lots of threads and answered lots of my own questions..... now Im looking for advice on my digital nightmare (workflow). I read the workflow threat already and got some good ideas from there....

I have a Canon 400d and shoot in RAW. I use Adobe Bridge and CS3

All photos are downloaded to PC onto my photos drive and put into a folder (J:/RAW/2008/<shootdate>). I then tag images and delete the crap.

I then make alternations if necessary and export as jpg to a jpg folder with the same format as before but replace RAW with JPG (J:/JPG/2008/<shootdate>) - should I do this or should I just keep them in the same RAW folder as the original RAW file???

I want to upload photos to Flickr - but Im not sure how to keep track of what images Ive put into what sets/collections...... should I use tags in Bridge to keep track of these also??? (portugal2007 etc) - how do you do it?

Backups - Synctoy updates the whole photos drive to my NAS drive on my network. This is also backed up again the my online Mozy storage. So I think that is sorted ok.

Any help / advice is appreciated - my head is spinning :thinking::bonk:
I have never previously even tagged my photos and now Im paying for it as I try to sort out all my photos....... has taken 3 weeks so far - getting there!
 
It doesn't sound that much of a nightmare to me!

The two important things are covered, you have a method which you follow, so you know which stage you are at and they are suitably backed up.

I tend to add a tag if I have uploaded something to Flickr, but if you aren't already using the colour labels, that would be another option.

I use Lightroom, so don't bother with exporting jpegs, but really, it doesn't matter where you keep them, as long as it is consistent and it works for you!
 
I put my Jpegs in a Folder with the shootdate and a couple of words that relate to the shoot. That way I know which sets I have uploaded :)
 
thanks guys....

I use colours for folders and files. red = still to do, amber= in progress, green= done.

I have decided to create a keyword set called 'Flickr' with a list of keywords for the names of each set i create. Work in progress.

I guess the key to it all is getting the tags done correctly in the first instance..... sadly i failed with this and have tonnes of untagged images which I am currently in the process of tagging. All my new images are fine - so I can almost see light at the end of the tunnel. :help:

Thanks for the replies.
 
The great thing about joining a new forum is going through the old posts and picking up gems. I have been going throught the evaluation period for a couple of DAM programs (PhotoMechanic and IDImager) - that is addressing the problem rather than understanding what my problem was.

Rather than chucking money at this, I think I just need to get my workflow right. PhotoMechanic did look good though!

Chris
 
Your work flow seems OK . I'd keep your RAW and processed images separate. All you need is to identify a hierarchy that works well and you can understand. Usually the simpler the better. I think what you have is a good starting point and doesn't need much tweaking.

I'd leave the RAW and processed jpegs separate. That way you know what's happening. Also by keeping the structure similar you can easily relate one to the other. If you want to put one image into more than one collection that should be fine, In fact using Lightroom it allows you to do this. You could always use the search function in bridge to locate these multiple images
 
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