Photography Workflow, Libraries, Storage, and Backup
Led by Bob Becker and Karen Campbell
We all share enjoyment of creating, sharing and viewing photographic images. Many of us enjoy processing our images to creatively elevate them too. But what about finding and selecting your images to keep and “like”, putting together slide shows to show friends (that aren’t every image!), and finding an image years later? Do you efficiently and quickly catalog your images? Do you use the Lightroom Library module (or other non-destructive cataloging software) to its fullest? If you answered no to any of these questions, consider joining us for this workshop.
We’ve all heard of natural disasters and fires which result in the irreplaceable loss of cherished family photographs. With digital images it doesn’t take a flood, fire or tornado to take away a lifetime work and memories. Our digital images come from multiple sources including our digital cameras, photo processing on desktops, laptops and tablets, and from cellular phones. Hard drives fail. It’s just a matter of time! Phones break, get lost or are stolen. Digital programs change. So how do you back up your library of personal photographic work, our fine art images, and our families’ cherished photographs? How do you ensure that your cherished images will remain available for you and your families’ work, enjoyment and long-term memories?
Workshop Content
This workshop will cover workflow approaches for image management, review and selection, file folders, metadata creation, collections, presets, and export. It will also cover strategies for storage location, cataloging, keywording your library and backup automation. The workshop will include considerations for customizing to meet your needs, because to be useful and efficient, your workflow and backup should be custom to your type of photography and what is important to you.
The workflow principles that will be covered have relevance to non-destructive cataloging software in general, but this workshop will focus on the Lightroom Library module (Classic or older desktop versions). You may find this workshop useful if you are considering improvements to your workflow whether you use Lightroom or not. Note: This is not a workshop to learn Lightroom. Discussion will be focused on the Library module, not the Develop module. We will not be covering editing or processing in this workshop.
We will devote much of the workshop time to discussion. Please log into the Membership Forum to share questions or issues you would like covered.
Discussion Leaders
Karen has been developing and improving her workflow since 2009 including a recent tag redesign to capture her ever expanding subject interests. Her primary catalog, which she shares with her creator husband, includes 80,000 photos and videos using 4700 tags.
Bob had been shooting digital photography and using Adobe photo processing since 2001. He has also digitized his family’s collection of prints from his family’s days when shooting film. He organizes and stores his ever-growing collections of 80,000+ images in Adobe Lightroom libraries. Over the years, he has developed backup strategies based on his loses, near misses, and the instruction he has received from others. His backup strategies were adapted as his library grew and new options in technologies and products became available. Today he updates and backs up his library locally and offsite in an automated daily basis.