A Guide To Workflow

Workflow is a popular term for establishing a series of steps to achieve a final finished product, in your case a final print.


1. Capture - 
This is what most people think photography is all about, searching, shooting, camera work, lighting, film or digital. 


2. Downloading - 
Downloading or importing gets your captured images from the camera and puts them into your computer so that you can complete the rest of the steps.    The computer is the command centre for all your workflow. Downloading images onto your hard drive also frees the cameras memory card so it can be reused. Scanned images are sent directly to the computer.


3. Organise your images - 
You may soon have thousands of images stored onto your hard drive and you will need to locate them easily.  Sometimes it can be like finding a needle in a haystack, if you are in business you need to find a systematic method of storing images.   Essential information can slip from your memory if there are delays between shooting and organising work. Try and make time to put your files in order a the end of every day of shooting and label files accurately. 


4. Editing - 
The traditional meaning is letting the 'good' images rise to the top of the pile.


Digital image editing, or post processing, opens up a can of worms, as it encompasses a wide range of alterations that go way beyond the choices that can be made when printing in most of the standard image adjustments - cropping, rotating, changing size, modifying hue, value and saturation.  


Image editing is used to prepare an image for the next step, output. Image editing has its own workflow.




5. Output - 
Output is not limited to printing, although this may be your primary focus. You might want to show a prospective client work on your laptop or email images to a gallery or website. To create the best file for each use will require several editing strategies.


6. Archiving -
This means keeping your work in an organised way so that it is preserved against damage and loss and so that individual items can be retrieved and found when necessary.


Digital files present unique challenges for long-term storage but they have a big advantage over most materials in that they can be duplicated. A copy of a file or an entire drive is called a back up.    All media on which files can be kept are vulnerable to theft, dust, magnetism, heat, shock, fire, flood etc. Your best defence is to make multiple copies of everything you do. The best thing is to create two identical archives stored in different locations. A digital can vanish in an instant and once its gone, its gone forever.