MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: yhbae01 on January 08, 2009, 18:18
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I just started getting into photography and microstocks.
I've been taking many pictures of isolated objects and I've been importing them into LR2. I "picked" few good ones by dragging them into "Candidates" collection which I created but I also had to rate it to 1 star so that I know which ones are candidates from the original imported directories when I view them. This is probably not the most optimal way to handle this.
Then I edit the candidate photos from Photoshop by spawning it from within LR2 and once updated and saved, I "unrate" the original version so that when I filter it with 1 star they don't show up, but the photoshop-touched update still shows up.
Now I am trying to figure out how to keep track of which images have been uploaded to which site without making copies all over the place. So far, I haven't thought of a nice way to do this.
Before I collect massive amount of photos, I'd like to stick to a good workflow so that I don't have to do this again. What I've done so far is far from good...
So for you experts who use LR2 ;D, can you explain to me how you keep track of all images and what was uploaded to which sites?
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I have different workflows with Lightroom, depending for what I shoot. But for every workflow I start with importing the photos to the library by date.
For small events (non-microstock I simply flag the images I like and make small changes at them at the same time in the development mode.) Then I export them, mostly directly on smugmug, thats also the way I share the photos, if it is not necessary to give them to someone on DVD or CD.
For weddings I flag the images which I instantly like and stand out and rate the images between 3 and 5 stars which I might take. 3 stars have mostly a small technical flaw, 4 stars are ok images and 5 stars good images which I strongly consider to include for the client. Normaly the client never sees 3 star images. After making changes to the images I finally choose (flagging also some of the 3,4,5 star images), I upload the flagged images to smugmug and export them to my wedding folder on my harddisc. From there I burn a dvd and sent the images to the client.
For microstock I export them to a folder by date (E.g. this months folder is January. From there I open them in Photoshop (also possible from Lightroom). Almost every image for microstock is extensively photoshopped. So I do my work and then save them again in the date folder. Import them to lightroom, do the keywording,description and then I export them to the date folder, to smugmug and to a subject folder. From the date folder the image goes to the agencies.
I hope that was not too confusing. I do not do high volume microstock so that workflow works for me.
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I'm using Aperture but as for workflow, it could be the same in LR. When I first review my phtos, I tagged them as Potential (keyword) so they go directely in my smart album (smart collection in LR). I then go to my Potential album and select some for post-processing (done in Aperture and/or PS) and after that, put them in my Keywording album. When they are there, I removed the Potential keyword and keyword them for microstock. I export them from there and upload them to the sites. After the exporting, I taged them with the keyword Submitted. After they are reviewed by the different agencies, I go to my Submitted smart album and tagged them as Accepted or Rejected to the different agencies (ex: Dreamstime - Accepted). I have smart albums for each agencies showing me what photos are accepted and rejected there. When I sell a photo, I add the keyword Sold and, as you can guess by now, I have a smart album for the sold photo as well.
It is a bit complicated but it's usefull, I might change it a bit this year since I'm switching to LR so I'll see if I can reorganize or simplify this a bit.
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I use color labels - yellow is edited, but not exported yet. Green is done, edited and exported. I also make a subfolder named "done" usually and drag all of the green ones into that once I'm done with a batch. When backing up to dvd I always burn it first before removing it from Lightroom.
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As you evolve and your agencies change your workflow will likely change as well. I have one area where the original RAWs reside and another where the finished TIFs reside. I keep the TIFs at native resolution then either export or upsize or downsize depending where the image is going. As for editing and all that its fairly straight forward. I still believe there are nearly as many workflows as there are photographers.
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Have any of you figured out how to sort keywords other than alpha in Lightroom?