Need tips on professional workflow

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

Hey guys,

I'm an enthusiast photographer who until now has sold photos only occasionally, for fun, and without any intention of making a huge profit.

Tonight I was approached out of the blue with a proposal to shoot professionally for three weeks, on the road, in Australia (I'm a New Zealander living in Malaysia), with a journalist companion, for a very large sum of money (five figures).

I'm confident about my ability to take photos that will satisfy the client but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to a professional workflow in terms of sorting, processing and filing large numbers of shots for an overseas client on a daily basis.

I tend to process my shots individually and rather painstakingly, and when I do sell shots for publication it takes me ages to do stuff like type in ITPC data individually to each photo.

I have a Macbook Pro and usually process my shots in Photoshop CS6. I do have Lightroom, but I'm a novice with that programme and don't like using it.

I'll mostly be shooting portraits and environmental portraits. I'm thinking of taking my Olympus E-P3, M. Zuiko 17/1.8, M. Zuiko 45/1.8 and Panasonic 12-35.

I'd be grateful if anybody could give tips on professional workflow or provide links to sites that offer guidance on that subject.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Scott

Bob657 · Oct 19, 2014

Scott, you might try the Pro Talk forum, I think you'd get better ideas there. FWIW, my daughter is a wedding prhotographer and she uses Photo Mechanic for a very fast sorting process before LR or PS. I've started using it as well, it is much faster than the others.--
Bob G

Paulmorgan · Oct 19, 2014

NZ Scott said:
Hey guys,

I'm an enthusiast photographer who until now has sold photos only occasionally, for fun, and without any intention of making a huge profit.

Tonight I was approached out of the blue with a proposal to shoot professionally for three weeks, on the road, in Australia (I'm a New Zealander living in Malaysia), with a journalist companion, for a very large sum of money (five figures).

I'm confident about my ability to take photos that will satisfy the client but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to a professional workflow in terms of sorting, processing and filing large numbers of shots for an overseas client on a daily basis.

I tend to process my shots individually and rather painstakingly, and when I do sell shots for publication it takes me ages to do stuff like type in ITPC data individually to each photo.

I have a Macbook Pro and usually process my shots in Photoshop CS6. I do have Lightroom, but I'm a novice with that programme and don't like using it.

I'll mostly be shooting portraits and environmental portraits. I'm thinking of taking my Olympus E-P3, M. Zuiko 17/1.8, M. Zuiko 45/1.8 and Panasonic 12-35.

I'd be grateful if anybody could give tips on professional workflow or provide links to sites that offer guidance on that subject.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Scott

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

Bob657 said:
Scott, you might try the Pro Talk forum, I think you'd get better ideas there. FWIW, my daughter is a wedding prhotographer and she uses Photo Mechanic for a very fast sorting process before LR or PS. I've started using it as well, it is much faster than the others.--
Bob G

Thanks Bob - I didn't even know there was a pro forum. I'll go and check it out.

S

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

Paulmorgan said:
Paulmorgan said:

I tend to process my shots individually and rather painstakingly, and when I do sell shots for publication it takes me ages to do stuff like type in ITPC data individually to each photo.

Click to expand...

I have a Macbook Pro and usually process my shots in Photoshop CS6. I do have Lightroom, but I'm a novice with that programme and don't like using it.

If your serious about workflow your going to need Lr or something else that does a similar job.

In what sense? What kind of job?

Paulmorgan said:
Not an essential item but for a modest outlay a color checker passport would be good and these smoothly integrate well into workflow, handy if you needing color profiles or you are using a mix of different camera`s and all your images need to mesh well.

Demo here.

Hen3ry · Oct 19, 2014

It's the middle of the night here -- I just woke up for some unknown reason so am not at my best and brightest to work through the scenario. I'll get back later in the day if I feel I have anything to add to the generous advice which I am sure will be forthcoming.

A couple of things BEFORE the workflow drawn from half a century of experience working in journalism and photojournalism.

Your kit is too small.

For a start, this is the time to buy that EM1. You MUST have two cameras. You MUST deliver. They are paying you serious money but more than that, they are paying serious money to put both you and the journalist on the ground in different places. With just one camera, the slightest malfunction or accident dumps you right into the nasty stuff. You MUST have a back up. AND your kit MUST look professional.
More lenses. Take the UWA, take one longer lens too. When you are shooting many pix on an extended job, it is all too easy to fall into a groove aka RUT!!! And have picture after picture looking the same. Your client might use a UWA shot once and a longer zoom pic twice, but if these lenses help you provide that touch of spice to your assortment of pix, then carrying the weight will have been worth it and the editors will appreciate it.
Take a good flash with a diffuser and a folding reflector (a circular one you twist into a much smaller circle). You never know!
You will need a tripod (even if you don't use the damned thing!).
Have two bags, one larger and one smaller, for all the gear and today's stuff respectively.
The MacBook Pro PLUS a back-up HD that is twice the capacity of the computer's HD so you can back-up the whole computer HD DAILY and also have a back-up of just the pix -- ALL the pix (not just the edited library -- this is to guard against accidentally deleting a swathe of pix).
Have at least two methods of transferring the pix to the computer.
Carry your gear on to the plane!

ON THE JOB

Talk with the journalist beforehand about how s/he sees the subject and the picture(s). Your pix must complement and illustrate the words. You need to give editors a variety of pictures to work with so they don't get in a rut.
You take the "standard" shot for insurance, then start exploring the possibilities -- with both photographic AND journalist considerations in mind. Take plenty of pix.
As you go, keep taking notes on paper (for me, paper is best) of the subjects and whatever about the locations.
At the end of the day, transfer your pix to the computer and do the donkey work of adding comments/captions to pix. It is very uncreative but your pix might be useless without it. Bear in mind that you or some distant editor or archivist might need this information again in two years time or ten years time, for purposes quite different from the initial purpose for which the pix are shot, so it needs to be quite extensive. Who, what, when, where, why, how. Identification of the pix and subjects needs to be certain whenever and wherever it is required.

I hope this helps and doesn't sound too much like trying to teach granny how to suck eggs! (Yeck!)

Cheers, geoff

--
Geoffrey Heard
Down and out in Rabaul in the South Pacific
http://rabaulpng.com/we-are-all-traveling-throug/i-waited-51-years-for-tavur.html

mb shaffer · Oct 19, 2014

Ps & Bridge can be used for labeling, scoring and tagging your choice images, but I think you'll find that Lightroom provides better tools for separating the chaff from your best images, working with GPS, working with multiple cameras and managing keyword tags.

I'm also not to sure if I'd trust your laptop display's color calibration. It may be up to the task of post processing, but judging color is just as important. I understand your situation of being away from a workstation type of workflow, but working with Lr is important in that all its processing is catalogued instead of permanently applied. This will allow you to process in the field without altering the original files.

HTH

Paulmorgan · Oct 19, 2014

NZ Scott said:
Paulmorgan said:

NZ Scott said:

I tend to process my shots individually and rather painstakingly, and when I do sell shots for publication it takes me ages to do stuff like type in ITPC data individually to each photo.

Click to expand...

I have a Macbook Pro and usually process my shots in Photoshop CS6. I do have Lightroom, but I'm a novice with that programme and don't like using it.

If your serious about workflow your going to need Lr or something else that does a similar job.

Click to expand...

In what sense? What kind of job?

NZ Scott said:

Not an essential item but for a modest outlay a color checker passport would be good and these smoothly integrate well into workflow, handy if you needing color profiles or you are using a mix of different camera`s and all your images need to mesh well.

Demo here.

Click to expand...

--
-------------------------------
My Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottkmacleod/
My latest work of fiction:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444160
My kit: E-P3, 12/2.0, 17/1.8, 45/1.8, 60/2.8 Macro, 7.5 Fisheye, 7-14, 12-35 f2.8, 14-42 IIR, 40-150 ED, 75-300 II

In what sense? What kind of job?

Lr is not just an editor it is also good for cataloging.

You could probably get by using just Photoshop and Bridge but it is not quite as user friendly and it is not quite so good for editing in batches.

If your in need of advice with the basics, it probably means you are not ready to take this job on.

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

Hen3ry said:
It's the middle of the night here -- I just woke up for some unknown reason so am not at my best and brightest to work through the scenario. I'll get back later in the day if I feel I have anything to add to the generous advice which I am sure will be forthcoming.

A couple of things BEFORE the workflow drawn from half a century of experience working in journalism and photojournalism.

Your kit is too small.

For a start, this is the time to buy that EM1. You MUST have two cameras. You MUST deliver. They are paying you serious money but more than that, they are paying serious money to put both you and the journalist on the ground in different places. With just one camera, the slightest malfunction or accident dumps you right into the nasty stuff. You MUST have a back up. AND your kit MUST look professional.

Yes, it did occur to me that my usual habit of winging it with just the E-P3 won't cut it professionally. I'm thinking the GM5 might be a good backup camera. The assignment won't start until late November, so it should be on the market by then.

Hen3ry said:
More lenses. Take the UWA, take one longer lens too. When you are shooting many pix on an extended job, it is all too easy to fall into a groove aka RUT!!! And have picture after picture looking the same. Your client might use a UWA shot once and a longer zoom pic twice, but if these lenses help you provide that touch of spice to your assortment of pix, then carrying the weight will have been worth it and the editors will appreciate it.

Another good point, thanks.

Hen3ry said:
Take a good flash with a diffuser and a folding reflector (a circular one you twist into a much smaller circle). You never know!

You will need a tripod (even if you don't use the damned thing!).

Have two bags, one larger and one smaller, for all the gear and today's stuff respectively.

The MacBook Pro PLUS a back-up HD that is twice the capacity of the computer's HD so you can back-up the whole computer HD DAILY and also have a back-up of just the pix -- ALL the pix (not just the edited library -- this is to guard against accidentally deleting a swathe of pix).

Have at least two methods of transferring the pix to the computer.

Carry your gear on to the plane!

All good tips, thanks Geoff.

Hen3ry said:
ON THE JOB

Talk with the journalist beforehand about how s/he sees the subject and the picture(s). Your pix must complement and illustrate the words. You need to give editors a variety of pictures to work with so they don't get in a rut.

You take the "standard" shot for insurance, then start exploring the possibilities -- with both photographic AND journalist considerations in mind. Take plenty of pix.

As you go, keep taking notes on paper (for me, paper is best) of the subjects and whatever about the locations.

I'm aware of these points from having previously been a news reporter myself (strange to now find myself coming full circle ...), but useful to have these old maxims reinforced.

Hen3ry said:
At the end of the day, transfer your pix to the computer and do the donkey work of adding comments/captions to pix. It is very uncreative but your pix might be useless without it. Bear in mind that you or some distant editor or archivist might need this information again in two years time or ten years time, for purposes quite different from the initial purpose for which the pix are shot, so it needs to be quite extensive. Who, what, when, where, why, how. Identification of the pix and subjects needs to be certain whenever and wherever it is required.

I hope this helps and doesn't sound too much like trying to teach granny how to suck eggs! (Yeck!)

No, these were helpful tips, Geoff.

It's pretty late here too - 2am Monday morning. Get some sleep you old bugga!

Thanks again.

S

Hen3ry said:
Cheers, geoff

--
Geoffrey Heard
Down and out in Rabaul in the South Pacific
http://rabaulpng.com/we-are-all-traveling-throug/i-waited-51-years-for-tavur.html

--
-------------------------------
My Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottkmacleod/
My latest work of fiction:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444160
My kit: E-P3, 12/2.0, 17/1.8, 45/1.8, 60/2.8 Macro, 7.5 Fisheye, 7-14, 12-35 f2.8, 14-42 IIR, 40-150 ED, 75-300 II

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

Paulmorgan said:
NZ Scott said:

Paulmorgan said:

Paulmorgan said:

I tend to process my shots individually and rather painstakingly, and when I do sell shots for publication it takes me ages to do stuff like type in ITPC data individually to each photo.

Click to expand...

I have a Macbook Pro and usually process my shots in Photoshop CS6. I do have Lightroom, but I'm a novice with that programme and don't like using it.

If your serious about workflow your going to need Lr or something else that does a similar job.

Click to expand...

In what sense? What kind of job?

Paulmorgan said:

Not an essential item but for a modest outlay a color checker passport would be good and these smoothly integrate well into workflow, handy if you needing color profiles or you are using a mix of different camera`s and all your images need to mesh well.

Demo here.

Click to expand...

--
-------------------------------
My Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottkmacleod/
My latest work of fiction:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444160
My kit: E-P3, 12/2.0, 17/1.8, 45/1.8, 60/2.8 Macro, 7.5 Fisheye, 7-14, 12-35 f2.8, 14-42 IIR, 40-150 ED, 75-300 II

Click to expand...

In what sense? What kind of job?

Lr is not just an editor it is also good for cataloging.

You could probably get by using just Photoshop and Bridge but it is not quite as user friendly and it is not quite so good for editing in batches.

If your in need of advice with the basics, it probably means you are not ready to take this job on.

Photoshop CS6 is very advanced software - hardly basic.

I'm not going to pass up on an opportunity like this just because I'm not au fait with Lightroom.

S

--
-------------------------------
My Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottkmacleod/
My latest work of fiction:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444160
My kit: E-P3, 12/2.0, 17/1.8, 45/1.8, 60/2.8 Macro, 7.5 Fisheye, 7-14, 12-35 f2.8, 14-42 IIR, 40-150 ED, 75-300 II

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

mb shaffer said:
Ps & Bridge can be used for labeling, scoring and tagging your choice images, but I think you'll find that Lightroom provides better tools for separating the chaff from your best images, working with GPS, working with multiple cameras and managing keyword tags.

Okay. I might have to do a crash-course on this aspect of LR.

mb shaffer said:
I'm also not to sure if I'd trust your laptop display's color calibration. It may be up to the task of post processing, but judging color is just as important. I understand your situation of being away from a workstation type of workflow, but working with Lr is important in that all its processing is catalogued instead of permanently applied. This will allow you to process in the field without altering the original files.

Cool, thanks.

I normally shoot in Raw and convert to Jpeg in CS6, keeping the original Raw file, so the non-destructive aspect of LR is not so important for me.

I've heard that it is very difficult to calibrate Macbook Pro monitors. Photos that I post to Flickr and view on other computers look pretty much as I intended, so hopefully this won't be a major issue.

S

mb shaffer said:
HTH

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

Bob657 said:
Scott, you might try the Pro Talk forum, I think you'd get better ideas there. FWIW, my daughter is a wedding prhotographer and she uses Photo Mechanic for a very fast sorting process before LR or PS. I've started using it as well, it is much faster than the others.--
Bob G

Thanks for the tip about Photo Mechanic. I checked it out and it looks pretty cool. Probably a shorter learning curve than Lightroom, too. It has a free one-month trial so if I time it right ...

Cheers again.

S

Paulmorgan · Oct 19, 2014

NZ Scott said:
Paulmorgan said:

NZ Scott said:

Paulmorgan said:

NZ Scott said:

I tend to process my shots individually and rather painstakingly, and when I do sell shots for publication it takes me ages to do stuff like type in ITPC data individually to each photo.

Click to expand...

I have a Macbook Pro and usually process my shots in Photoshop CS6. I do have Lightroom, but I'm a novice with that programme and don't like using it.

If your serious about workflow your going to need Lr or something else that does a similar job.

Click to expand...

In what sense? What kind of job?

NZ Scott said:

Not an essential item but for a modest outlay a color checker passport would be good and these smoothly integrate well into workflow, handy if you needing color profiles or you are using a mix of different camera`s and all your images need to mesh well.

Demo here.

Click to expand...

--
-------------------------------
My Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottkmacleod/
My latest work of fiction:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444160
My kit: E-P3, 12/2.0, 17/1.8, 45/1.8, 60/2.8 Macro, 7.5 Fisheye, 7-14, 12-35 f2.8, 14-42 IIR, 40-150 ED, 75-300 II

Click to expand...

In what sense? What kind of job?

Lr is not just an editor it is also good for cataloging.

You could probably get by using just Photoshop and Bridge but it is not quite as user friendly and it is not quite so good for editing in batches.

If your in need of advice with the basics, it probably means you are not ready to take this job on.

Click to expand...

Photoshop CS6 is very advanced software - hardly basic.

I was talking about the workflow Scot not the software.

NZ Scott said:
I'm not going to pass up on an opportunity like this just because I'm not au fait with Lightroom.

Your both a capable photographer and writer, I`m sure you will get on fine, its not as if you have just bought your first camera and are thinking of covering a wedding

I do most of my final editing in Photoshop but initially every picture I take is imported into Lr, here every image is cataloged and the basic editing takes place, its also very handy if your needing to batch process and it also saves a lot of time.

If you already have Lr your all sorted really.

Check out Adobe TV for tips and info for getting to grips with Lr.

http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-lightroom-5

Sample

Loading…

tv.adobe.com

NZ Scott said:
S

--
-------------------------------
My Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottkmacleod/
My latest work of fiction:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444160
My kit: E-P3, 12/2.0, 17/1.8, 45/1.8, 60/2.8 Macro, 7.5 Fisheye, 7-14, 12-35 f2.8, 14-42 IIR, 40-150 ED, 75-300 II

Paul Amyes · Oct 19, 2014

http://paulamyes.com/2014/09/14/workflow

This piece is basically a combination of a couple of articles I wrote for magazines and a summary of oneof the subject I used to teach in college. I hope it is of some use to you.

JamieTux · Oct 19, 2014

Hi Scott,
How many images do they need?
Personally I always used Lightroom for paid work for the following reasons:
Great cataloguing
Simple comparisons between images (and versions)
Simple workflow that you can apply in batches
Camera calibration (with a colour checker passport)
Batch workflow
Easy integration back out to Photoshop and other apps if required
Oh and did I mention batch workflow?

On most shoots I would be required to produce a few hundred shots in a day (3 different angles of a hundred outfit combinations, All 100 classic cards on a track in a day, etc) and I found it much easier to have my own presets as starting points. I could do 905 of the work in Lightroom quickly and then there are round trip workflows with applications like Photoshop for the final tweaking on specific images.
It is a great viewer for cataloguing too and also gives you and your client a great way to review images.
If you have to deliver a few dozen pictures or so of the whole trip then workflow is irrelevant as long as you back everything up (I always take lots of cards, copy to laptop regularly and then also back up to external drives every night).

I would definitely recommend a second camera - and multiple ways of covering your favourite focal lengths. Camera failures don't happen often but when my E-M5 decided that it didn't want to play during the vows in a wedding ceremony I was happy to just stick to my other camera and then clean the contacts on the battery grip when I had more time and space later.

Also spare batteries, memory cards, disks, chargers and a good cleaning kit are probably as essential as clothing!

The important thing to remember is that you are shooting to someone else's brief, you will not love all of your images all of the time, but don't worry!

Good luck!

--
James
http://www.outdoorsphotography.co.uk
http://www.jamestux.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamestux/
http://blog.jamestux.com

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

Paul Amyes said:
http://paulamyes.com/2014/09/14/workflow

This piece is basically a combination of a couple of articles I wrote for magazines and a summary of oneof the subject I used to teach in college. I hope it is of some use to you.

NZ Scott · Oct 19, 2014

JamieTux said:
Hi Scott,
How many images do they need?
Personally I always used Lightroom for paid work for the following reasons:
Great cataloguing
Simple comparisons between images (and versions)
Simple workflow that you can apply in batches
Camera calibration (with a colour checker passport)
Batch workflow
Easy integration back out to Photoshop and other apps if required
Oh and did I mention batch workflow?

On most shoots I would be required to produce a few hundred shots in a day (3 different angles of a hundred outfit combinations, All 100 classic cards on a track in a day, etc) and I found it much easier to have my own presets as starting points. I could do 905 of the work in Lightroom quickly and then there are round trip workflows with applications like Photoshop for the final tweaking on specific images.
It is a great viewer for cataloguing too and also gives you and your client a great way to review images.
If you have to deliver a few dozen pictures or so of the whole trip then workflow is irrelevant as long as you back everything up (I always take lots of cards, copy to laptop regularly and then also back up to external drives every night).

Thanks for the tips, Jamie.

It's not clear yet exactly what the requirements will be, but I'm anticipating having to file fewer than 50 shots a day. This isn't much, but it would normally take me 2-3 hours to process only this many.

JamieTux said:
I would definitely recommend a second camera - and multiple ways of covering your favourite focal lengths. Camera failures don't happen often but when my E-M5 decided that it didn't want to play during the vows in a wedding ceremony I was happy to just stick to my other camera and then clean the contacts on the battery grip when I had more time and space later.

Also spare batteries, memory cards, disks, chargers and a good cleaning kit are probably as essential as clothing!

The important thing to remember is that you are shooting to someone else's brief, you will not love all of your images all of the time, but don't worry!

Good luck!

Cheers

Hen3ry · Oct 20, 2014

What a difference a day makes. I am awake! Was stinking hot through until early afternoon, then it clouded over and cooled a little, now the rain is absolutely pelting down and the sun has set but it is no darker now than it was an hour ago (except at random lightning moments!).

NZ Scott said:
Hen3ry said:

It's the middle of the night here -- I just woke up for some unknown reason so am not at my best and brightest to work through the scenario. I'll get back later in the day if I feel I have anything to add to the generous advice which I am sure will be forthcoming.

A couple of things BEFORE the workflow drawn from half a century of experience working in journalism and photojournalism.

Your kit is too small.

For a start, this is the time to buy that EM1. You MUST have two cameras. You MUST deliver. They are paying you serious money but more than that, they are paying serious money to put both you and the journalist on the ground in different places. With just one camera, the slightest malfunction or accident dumps you right into the nasty stuff. You MUST have a back up. AND your kit MUST look professional.

Click to expand...

Yes, it did occur to me that my usual habit of winging it with just the E-P3 won't cut it professionally. I'm thinking the GM5 might be a good backup camera. The assignment won't start until late November, so it should be on the market by then.

In fact, I will always take two identical cameras if I possibly can. You don't want to be searching for a feature in the heat of picture taking. I found that a problem having the GM1 as my walk-around camera to my G6 as main camera. I abandoned the GM1 and currently keep my fingers crossed with just the G6 (but I can take a risk; I don't work to deadlines).

Also, of course, as has been mentioned by others, lots of batteries, SD cards, and what not.

Table top tripod in addition to the big tripod.

NZ Scott said:
NZ Scott said:

ON THE JOB

Talk with the journalist beforehand about how s/he sees the subject and the picture(s). Your pix must complement and illustrate the words. You need to give editors a variety of pictures to work with so they don't get in a rut.

You take the "standard" shot for insurance, then start exploring the possibilities -- with both photographic AND journalist considerations in mind. Take plenty of pix.

As you go, keep taking notes on paper (for me, paper is best) of the subjects and whatever about the locations.

Click to expand...

I'm aware of these points from having previously been a news reporter myself (strange to now find myself coming full circle ...), but useful to have these old maxims reinforced.

Ah yes, I had forgotten that. Sorry! (I don't think there is an emoticon for a sh*t eating grin!)

. . .

It looks to me as though the work flow matters have been pretty well dealt with.

Whatever you are thinking of implementing, though, I would counsel consulting your employer first about what they want . It might be pretty simple.

This is for print, primarily?

I would be surprised if they want highly processed pix; unless things have changed dramatically (and I know they have in some organizations) they will have their own people who will produce the required photos to the publication's specifications from your files.

I would expect they will want every image you take, perhaps minus the ones that are technical disasters, because they will be using the pix for stock and in other publication modes in addition to the primary one(s).

Or they might just want a selection of however many each day chosen by you and the journalist.

Or they might want to look sa proofs to make a selection of full sized files to be sent to them (iPhoto, see below, has facilities for doing this).

Again, you need to be pretty clear what they want in terms of processing.

I work for myself and use my pix in websites I build, so I can have an idiosyncratic workflow. I have never used Lightroom; I did use Aperture v.2 and then v.3, both for a short time; I found both versions to be useless for my purposes; under-developed and treacle slow on my 2010 15" MacBook Pro.

I work in JPEG (as noted by another poster, most newspapers, etc., work in JPEG).

I actually use iPhoto v.8.1.2 as my archives, operating through iPhoto Library Manager which allows me to have multiple libraries (I currently have 10; I have had as many as 16) and includes facilities for moving photos and groups of photos from library to library while retaining comments, information and the iPhoto attribute of both original and edited images.

iPhoto looks bullet proof. I have never had a problem with it.

When I add a new bunch of photos, I (usually) break them up into separate events, then go through them chucking out the technical no-hopers. Then I go through again reducing redundancies to the best three (or so) (I often have quite a lot due to burst shooting). Then I go through putting the best of the best into Albums for ready access. Of course, all this is fluid; I might drop something out of an album and replace it with something else later.

In this process, I not only look for the best but I look for making the best set.

And then there is all the boring stuff of adding info. Far too often, I fail at this! Sigh!

I do very little editing in iPhoto. I use PhotoLine as my external editor and save the completed image as JPEG back to iPhoto. If I wish to keep a full version with all changes made, I save the PhotoLine PLD file to an event folder. (PLD files are very useful; PhotoLine is built on layers, so even minor adjustments, such as darkening and lightening, can be made as layers leaving the original (background layer) untouched.)

I have several "Actions" (macros) in PhotoLine for applying to individual photos or to many photos using the batch processing facility.

When out and about taking pix, I back-up the photo libraries and folders daily.

I doubt if this is much use to you, but there you go. That's my workflow. As I said, idiosyncratic.

BUT my first admonition remains: ask what they want and develop your workflow to suit.

Cheers, geoff

NZ Scott · Oct 20, 2014

Hen3ry said:
What a difference a day makes. I am awake! Was stinking hot through until early afternoon, then it clouded over and cooled a little, now the rain is absolutely pelting down and the sun has set but it is no darker now than it was an hour ago (except at random lightning moments!).

Hen3ry said:

Yes, it did occur to me that my usual habit of winging it with just the E-P3 won't cut it professionally. I'm thinking the GM5 might be a good backup camera. The assignment won't start until late November, so it should be on the market by then.

Click to expand...

In fact, I will always take two identical cameras if I possibly can. You don't want to be searching for a feature in the heat of picture taking. I found that a problem having the GM1 as my walk-around camera to my G6 as main camera. I abandoned the GM1 and currently keep my fingers crossed with just the G6 (but I can take a risk; I don't work to deadlines).

Yeah, but the problem is that the E-P3 is a bit long in the tooth and I'd like to try a 16mp sensor. I'd also like a Panasonic, if possible, because my 12-35 and especially the 7-14 don't perform as well as they should on Oly bodies.

Hen3ry said:
Also, of course, as has been mentioned by others, lots of batteries, SD cards, and what not.

Table top tripod in addition to the big tripod.

Two tripods!!!

I can squeeze in a small one, but I won't be able to travel solely with hand luggage if I carry the big boy.

Hen3ry said:
Hen3ry said:

Hen3ry said:

ON THE JOB

Talk with the journalist beforehand about how s/he sees the subject and the picture(s). Your pix must complement and illustrate the words. You need to give editors a variety of pictures to work with so they don't get in a rut.

You take the "standard" shot for insurance, then start exploring the possibilities -- with both photographic AND journalist considerations in mind. Take plenty of pix.

As you go, keep taking notes on paper (for me, paper is best) of the subjects and whatever about the locations.

Click to expand...

I'm aware of these points from having previously been a news reporter myself (strange to now find myself coming full circle ...), but useful to have these old maxims reinforced.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, I had forgotten that. Sorry! (I don't think there is an emoticon for a sh*t eating grin!)

. . .

It looks to me as though the work flow matters have been pretty well dealt with.

Whatever you are thinking of implementing, though, I would counsel consulting your employer first about what they want . It might be pretty simple.

This is for print, primarily?

I would be surprised if they want highly processed pix; unless things have changed dramatically (and I know they have in some organizations) they will have their own people who will produce the required photos to the publication's specifications from your files.

I would expect they will want every image you take, perhaps minus the ones that are technical disasters, because they will be using the pix for stock and in other publication modes in addition to the primary one(s).

Or they might just want a selection of however many each day chosen by you and the journalist.

Or they might want to look sa proofs to make a selection of full sized files to be sent to them (iPhoto, see below, has facilities for doing this).

Again, you need to be pretty clear what they want in terms of processing.

I work for myself and use my pix in websites I build, so I can have an idiosyncratic workflow. I have never used Lightroom; I did use Aperture v.2 and then v.3, both for a short time; I found both versions to be useless for my purposes; under-developed and treacle slow on my 2010 15" MacBook Pro.

I work in JPEG (as noted by another poster, most newspapers, etc., work in JPEG).

I actually use iPhoto v.8.1.2 as my archives, operating through iPhoto Library Manager which allows me to have multiple libraries (I currently have 10; I have had as many as 16) and includes facilities for moving photos and groups of photos from library to library while retaining comments, information and the iPhoto attribute of both original and edited images.

iPhoto looks bullet proof. I have never had a problem with it.

When I add a new bunch of photos, I (usually) break them up into separate events, then go through them chucking out the technical no-hopers. Then I go through again reducing redundancies to the best three (or so) (I often have quite a lot due to burst shooting). Then I go through putting the best of the best into Albums for ready access. Of course, all this is fluid; I might drop something out of an album and replace it with something else later.

In this process, I not only look for the best but I look for making the best set.

And then there is all the boring stuff of adding info. Far too often, I fail at this! Sigh!

I do very little editing in iPhoto. I use PhotoLine as my external editor and save the completed image as JPEG back to iPhoto. If I wish to keep a full version with all changes made, I save the PhotoLine PLD file to an event folder. (PLD files are very useful; PhotoLine is built on layers, so even minor adjustments, such as darkening and lightening, can be made as layers leaving the original (background layer) untouched.)

I have several "Actions" (macros) in PhotoLine for applying to individual photos or to many photos using the batch processing facility.

When out and about taking pix, I back-up the photo libraries and folders daily.

I doubt if this is much use to you, but there you go. That's my workflow. As I said, idiosyncratic.

BUT my first admonition remains: ask what they want and develop your workflow to suit.

Yep, and at this stage I have only a hazy idea of what they want.

Thanks for the rundown on your workflow. I've actually had some pretty good advice on this here and in the pro forum. I've downloaded a programme that looks like it's going to save me a lot of time with sorting, tagging and metadata and works well with CS6. So I should be sweet.

Thanks again.

S

Hen3ry said:
Cheers, geoff

FrankS009 · Oct 20, 2014

Which programme did you download for sorting etc?

thanks

F.

Need tips on professional workflow

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