Workflow for saving all your wildlife images.

[Seajay]

Can I ask how do you go about saving your wildlife/bird images in order from the original card.
I have year folder and under that make a folder of where I have been on that day and inside three folders an Original,Edit,Social.

As I am looking to save bird images would it be better to have folders for each bird or is there an easier way that I could try. I know i could use keyword which I have not been doing but will now. Just wondering how you would do it so that your images are easy to find.
Cathy

 

[Nawty]

The typical approach is to import to LR in the default way (year/day) and then tag the photos with keywords and then export those you keep to the appropriate new folder (for example I have a folder called Exports/2018/Allotment 2018, but you can organise how you like).

If you don't have Lightroom then...

 

[Jelster]

I move the files from the card to a hard drive, using the location & date as the folder name e.g. Barnes 19-05-18. I then import them into LR. From there I go through and work out my "keepers" and delete the rest from the drive. I then back up the RAW files to a 2nd remote drive.

I PP the images in LR, saving the changes to a sub-folder, JPG's go in a JPG folder, and any TIFF's go in a folder called "TIF".

 

[Box Brownie]

I move the files from the card to a hard drive, using the location & date as the folder name e.g. Barnes 19-05-18. I then import them into LR. From there I go through and work out my "keepers" and delete the rest from the drive. I then back up the RAW files to a 2nd remote drive.

I PP the images in LR, saving the changes to a sub-folder, JPG's go in a JPG folder, and any TIFF's go in a folder called "TIF".

Broadly what I do,.........but also try to diligently keyword them.

Oh, and once filled and primary ones identified I set up a Collection to 'copy' them to for ease of processing as required!

 

[john.margetts]

I let Lightroom worry about organisation. I change file names to the general location - yesterday's photos are Rutland Water 1, Rutland Water 2, etc - and I keyword anything else significant - species, activity, season, - I do not worry about filing according to date as all files are date stamped anyway.

 

[Nostromo]

A lot is to do with your general preference.
For me, dates don't mean much, so i important into a file with a title e.g. Jane, then in that file I'll have sub folders with location and date. It works for me, but may seem a weird way to do it for others.

 

[myotis]

The best way depends on how you work.

Like some others, I use a year- date hierarchy for storage of raw files. so all files end up in folder identified by date. I then manually add a couple of key words to the folder name e.g.

2018-05-17 Somerset Levels glossy ibis

This doesn't mean all the photographs are of a glossy ibis, its just a reminder of what that dated folder contains, to help me remember the day.

I have found this to be the most flexible approach, and it means that I have used the same file storage approach since I began using digital cameras 15-16 years ago.

All files have an XMP sidecar file, where I store key words and other information. I use very broad keywords like "coastal" or "freshwater" to describe the habitat and then equally broad key words just saying "bird" or 'mammal" etc .

I am rigorous about doing these broad keywords, they take very little effort and I seem to be able to get them done. In the past, when I tried to be cleverer with keywords, I just didn't do them.

I also automatically add location information into the XMP on import.

What I do after that is a bit more complicated, but "ideally" I will then go back and add the common name and scientific name of each species into the Caption and Title field of the XMP file, and I have this set up to autofill using the BTO species codes so if I type "BLAGR", Black Grouse Tetrao tetrix will be typed into the caption (this is using PhotoMechanic, but there are other options that will autofill text). My subsequent file management is also a bit more complicated, but that is peculiar to the way I work, with different folder structure for Finals, and using Sessions in Capture One, but that is separate to my core cataloguing set up.

For reasons that are difficult to explain, I keep four duplicate catalogues (Capture One, Media Pro, Neofinder and Lightroom) and because I am using the XMP files to store metadata (available to any program that can read XMP files) its easy to the set up smart folders in any of these programs to only show "Black Grouse" images, or only show "Freshwater Birds" or indeed only show "Somerset Levels".

I have found that maintaining a date based system and then relying on some form of catalogue program based on XMP sidecar files, is the most future proof and flexible approach.

Not everyone use a catalogue program, especially on a Mac, as you can associate keywords (Tags) and comments with any file on a Mac, which are automatically indexed by the Mac (using Spotlight, which will also index XMP files, but unreliably,) which can then be read by browsers such as Graphic Converter. I prefer a proper catalogue as they work faster for me, but discussions in "another place" has indicated there is some support for a simple browser approach.

 

[soupdragon]

Can I ask how do you go about saving your wildlife/bird images in order from the original card.
I have year folder and under that make a folder of where I have been on that day and inside three folders an Original,Edit,Social.

As I am looking to save bird images would it be better to have folders for each bird or is there an easier way that I could try. I know i could use keyword which I have not been doing but will now. Just wondering how you would do it so that your images are easy to find.
Cathy

Do you have a MAC or a PC?

Also, have you been firing your 7D2 off at 10 fps? Naughty.

 

[Seajay]

Do you have a MAC or a PC?

Also, have you been firing your 7D2 off at 10 fps? Naughty.

Sure have but still getting to grips with the 7dmark 2 . A lot of my images were full of noise so just had to go back out again and again to see why Haha! I have Mac I edit on both the Mac and my MacBookAir.

 

[StewartR]

I'm certainly not an expert, but.... an alarm bell went off in my head when I saw you asking about saving "all" your wildlife images.

I think the most important part if your workflow is a rapid and decisive cull, to quickly home in on the relatively small number of images that might be worth keeping. Have you got that covered?

 

[EightBitTony]

Can I ask how do you go about saving your wildlife/bird images in order from the original card.
I have year folder and under that make a folder of where I have been on that day and inside three folders an Original,Edit,Social.

As I am looking to save bird images would it be better to have folders for each bird or is there an easier way that I could try. I know i could use keyword which I have not been doing but will now. Just wondering how you would do it so that your images are easy to find.
Cathy

I use Lightroom. What works for me (doesn't work for everyone, and I don't shoot a lot of wildlife), is one directory per year, and inside that, one directory per event / location and inside those, directories by date. I do this, so that if I ever move away from Lightroom, I can have a non-Lightroom basic structure that survives.

Then within Lightroom, I don't use folders like social, edit, etc. I keep everything in the original date folder. I cull the stuff I'm never going to look at again. Then post-process the best of what is left, and often keep a few other RAWs around which don't inspire me on the day, but aren't immediate losses (sometimes I go back and cull those, or find them worth processing).

I use keywords and collections to impose additional structure. So you could easily have a collection per bird species for example, or you could use keywording. Collections make it easier to export those as a single bunch if you want to use them. I use the tight link between Lightroom and Flickr to post images to Flickr, so I don't export them and upload them. This has pros and cons, so far for me, the pros outweigh the cons.

What really matters most however, is finding a consistent approach that you are comfortable with and suits your style. If you don't like it you won't sustain it, if it's not easy to do, you don't sustain it, and if it's not consistent it won't help.

Edit: Just remembered the "so that your images are easy to find" - keywords are the answer to that. If you keyword your images, you can easily search for them in Lightroom, and it'll include those keywords in any JPGs you export. Lightroom's keywording is really rich with synonyms, aliases, and hierarchies.

 

[Seajay]

I'm certainly not an expert, but.... an alarm bell went off in my head when I saw you asking about saving "all" your wildlife images.

I think the most important part if your workflow is a rapid and decisive cull, to quickly home in on the relatively small number of images that might be worth keeping. Have you got that covered?

Oh dear! No would be the answer to that Stewart. I am still at that new stage where I go out and take 300 images sometimes 50 of the one bird in the same pose lol So as you can imagine I leave myself with too many to choose from after I get rid of all the bad ones. I do go back and try to delete but then I think No! I might learn a new way to edit that etc. However with this new camera I will be taking way too many to do that anymore and now looking for the best way to get them in order.

 

[Seajay]

I use Lightroom.
Edit: Just remembered the "so that your images are easy to find" - keywords are the answer to that. If you keyword your images, you can easily search for them in Lightroom, and it'll include those keywords in any JPGs you export. Lightroom's keywording is really rich with synonyms, aliases, and hierarchies.

Tony thank you for taking the time to explain how you do your workflow. I will have a look at that and give it a try. Keywords seem to be what I have been missing out on. I stopped doing it the first time i tried because they came up under my images in Flickr .Will do them in future though as I need my images to be easy to find. Cathy

 

[soupdragon]

Sure have but still getting to grips with the 7dmark 2 . A lot of my images were full of noise so just had to go back out again and again to see why Haha! I have Mac I edit on both the Mac and my MacBookAir.

Regards cataloging, I do pretty much the same as everyone else.

Copy the files from the card to an arbitrary folder on the computer.
I make adjustments in Canon DPP but leave the files as raw.
I use the Photos app in the mac to import them as it automatically sorts them by date.
I like MAC Photos as it's easy to scroll through the files using a large preview size.

The canon software can do batch processing and add keywords to your files if you prefer to save them in JPG format.

 

[soupdragon]

On the subject of noisy images, are you using auto ISO?
For outdoor use I don't allow my camera to exceed ISO 800.

 

[Seajay]

On the subject of noisy images, are you using auto ISO?
For outdoor use I don't allow my camera to exceed ISO 800.

We had beautiful warm weather in Ayrshire but there is lots of mist around especially out at sea where I was trying some flight shots of Gannets. All were awful as I had turned up the ISO and this in turn gave so much noise and the birds were really too far out the images were all deleted. Have learned from it and went back last night to practice on gulls with different settings and just played with the camera. I can see it is going to be really good but maybe not in poor light.

 

[Jelster]

Oh dear! No would be the answer to that Stewart. I am still at that new stage where I go out and take 300 images sometimes 50 of the one bird in the same pose lol So as you can imagine I leave myself with too many to choose from after I get rid of all the bad ones. I do go back and try to delete but then I think No! I might learn a new way to edit that etc. However with this new camera I will be taking way too many to do that anymore and now looking for the best way to get them in order.

Cathy, this is a key part of the whole workflow (believe me I know!!!) You must be disciplined enough to cull some of your images, until you get to the point where you shoot less. Why take a 2 second burst @ 10 FPS of a stationary bird? 2 or 3 frames will be enough. I hardly ever use the 13 fps setting on my camera unless I'm shooting action (landing/take off/fight etc) as I ended up binning most of them. Processing 300 images will take ages. I find I go through all my shots, first weeding out the ones that are OOF or not framed correctly, then do a 2nd pass to narrow that down into my "keepers", about half of which I will process. all the discarded images are deleted from the drive. These are then backed up.

The actual PP process doesn't start until I have gone through this phase.

 

[Seajay]

Cathy, this is a key part of the whole workflow (believe me I know!!!) You must be disciplined enough to cull some of your images, until you get to the point where you shoot less. Why take a 2 second burst @ 10 FPS of a stationary bird? 2 or 3 frames will be enough. I hardly ever use the 13 fps setting on my camera unless I'm shooting action (landing/take off/fight etc) as I ended up binning most of them. Processing 300 images will take ages. I find I go through all my shots, first weeding out the ones that are OOF or not framed correctly, then do a 2nd pass to narrow that down into my "keepers", about half of which I will process. all the discarded images are deleted from the drive. These are then backed up.

The actual PP process doesn't start until I have gone through this phase.

This is good information and one I need to practice daily from now on Thank you and next day I am out it will only be to learn to take the shots I need .

 

[RichardC27]

I import into Lightroom in the default year / date way, and create a collection at the import stage, usually with some information about the event I'm shooting in the title (e.g my latest one is 2018_13_ClassicMotorcycleClub_OultonPark). So this is the 13th event I've shot this year and the title lets me know the event I was shooting. These are then grouped into collection sets by year. This is handy way of grouping together multi-day events too. Then I import, and choose to generate standard previews and smart previews, and sync with Lightroom Mobile. Then I go and do something else for a bit while Lightroom does the import and generates all the previews. Using Smart Previews for editing greatly speeds up the development module in Lightroom.

I do my PP and culling at the same time. I go through the images one by one, any that I like are PP'ed at that point, and any that I don't I just hit the X key to flag the photo as rejected. Once I've gone through all my images I go back to the Library module, filter the collection by the Rejected flag and then delete all of those images from the drive. I only export the jpegs I want to use in my web post, and the rest of the files just sit in Lightroom. The RAWs are backed up to an external hard drive, and because I've synced with Lightroom Mobile, I can view all my keepers on my phone or in a web browser, share to social media etc without doing any exports. It also allows me to pick images to update my personal website as this links directly into my sycned Lightroom photos.

 

[gramps]

I'm certainly not an expert, but.... an alarm bell went off in my head when I saw you asking about saving "all" your wildlife images.

I think the most important part if your workflow is a rapid and decisive cull, to quickly home in on the relatively small number of images that might be worth keeping. Have you got that covered?

Whilst there is certainly more than an element of truth in that, I would caution against a "rapid and decisive" cull of images ... it is often the case that a later re-look/re-work can prevent a missed opportunity, especially where one is at the early stages of an aspect of photography ... fairly cheap external drives can be put to good use.
It is not unusual for amateur wildlife/bird photographers to take 300 or many, many more shots per day but "50 of the one bird in the same pose" is probably excessive.

 

[Seajay]

Whilst there is certainly more than an element of truth in that, I would caution against a "rapid and decisive" cull of images ... it is often the case that a later re-look/re-work can prevent a missed opportunity, especially where one is at the early stages of an aspect of photography ... fairly cheap external drives can be put to good use.
It is not unusual for amateur wildlife/bird photographers to take 300 or many, many more shots per day but "50 of the one bird in the same pose" is probably excessive.

Haha!! Yes but was so desperate to click that 10 frame a second button

 

[Seajay]

Regards cataloging, I do pretty much the same as everyone else.

Copy the files from the card to an arbitrary folder on the computer.
I make adjustments in Canon DPP but leave the files as raw.
I use the Photos app in the mac to import them as it automatically sorts them by date.
I like MAC Photos as it's easy to scroll through the files using a large preview size.

The canon software can do batch processing and add keywords to your files if you prefer to save them in JPG format.

Never used Macs Photo. I have my main folder in my external drive then import into Lightroom then edit in Photoshop. Now I have something else to explore .