This is something that I get asked about often. Hey J, how do you go from camera to delivered? It will sound like a ton of steps but it is pretty simple. I am positive some of you will read this and think “hmmm… there is a simpler way.” I agree, I am sure there is. None the less here is my process.
First off set up your external hard drive. You can have any set up you want to organize your images. Here is an example of my layout:
Year: 2023 -> Quarter: Q1 -> Month: Jan -> Week: 1
With in Week 1 folder I will have folders for each photoshoot with the artists name. I will also have a catch all folder that I use for my street photography. I will have all four quarters with their own folders. Each with the months of that quarter. And each of those with each week. I know this is a lot but in 5 years it will be much easier to find a shoot from 2023! This set up is just the first time set up.
Now that we have the hard drive set up. My first real step after a shoot is to create the needed folder for the artists in the proper week. Now transfer your images from the sd card to this folder. Depending on your laptop, card, external, and file sizes this could take a few minutes.
Next I open Adobe Bridge and Adobe Lightroom. In Lightroom I have the same folder structure set up. I will then create the artist folder in the proper week. By now the images should all be transferred. Safely eject the sd card and remove it.
Now go to Bridge and navigate your external to the folder with your new images. I personally use film strip viewing in Bridge. Click the first image and then the space bar(on Mac) to enlarge the image. Now you can use the left and right arrow keys to navigate through your images. I study each image for sharpness, out of focus areas, and composition. When I come across an image I like I press command 1(on Mac). This will give the image a 1* rating. Once you have gone through all your images and have all your selected images rated with 1* you can filter the images by that 1*. Now only your selected images will show. Select all images and export to Lightroom. Select your created folder in Lightroom and add all files. The 1* rating will still be present.
Now you begin editing. Here is the link to how I edit: https://uncommonsight.com/2023/04/14/what-is-ccf-editing/
Once I finish editing an image I give it a new 2* rating. I do not always edit every image. This narrows down my selection. After all the images that I end up wanting to edit are done I filter to only show 2* images. Hopefully it is a less amount than before! Now I go through each of the 2* images and further narrow down my images. Giving the selected images a 3* rating. Filter to only show 3* images and start your final touches on each image. Give them a 4* rating once final touches are done. Again you probably won’t touch all the images. You guessed it, filter to only show 4* images. Narrow your selection one more time with 5* rating. Me personally I only deliver 8-12 images to an artist. For me I want to have 15ish images showing that 5* rating or less. Filter to only show 5* images. Go through these images make any small detail fixes you wish as well as narrowing down to final selections. Give your final images a Flag rating. Filter your images to only show Flag images. Here is your deliverables.
I know this is a long process with a lot of redundancy. It is what works for me. For now!
At this point I create a “Deliver” folder INSIDE the artist folder on my external. I export my images from Lightroom at the highest quality settings to this folder. Now you will always be able to find your final images with ease.
The last step is giving the client their images. I personally only give the 8-12 edited images and a 8×10 print of their favorite image. I DO NOT give raw images to clients.
That’s it! My personal workflow from camera to deliver! Shoot me an email if you have questions about my process or just want to say hi!
