As photographers, we tend to focus on the art of photography more than anything else especially when it comes to storing our photos. With the advent of digital photography, it is easy to create hundreds of photos during a session. We no longer have the act of changing a roll of film and calculating the cost of developing it to remind us how many images we are capturing. And along with that, it is easier for the files we create when transferring them to our computers to get lost. It can be a daunting, almost impossible task of finding an image that wasn’t labeled and stored correctly.
Every photographer who has an actual data storage routine will have different ideas on how to best store images and the best programs used. There really is no wrong process, unless there is no process! With that being said, this blog-series details the best digital asset management routine that works for me. I have made Adobe Lightroom (Lr) the main component in my digital asset management. It is a great program for both cataloging and post-editing. Most people will import their images directly from their SD cards into Lr. And while that may work in the short term, there may be some problems down the road if any of your images are moved from one location to another in the future. Since Lr, unlike Adobe Photoshop (Ps), is a non-destructive editing program, it depends on finding the original file and if the file is moved, you can’t edit it until it is located which can be a pain. Some photographers will have an either/or relationship with Lr and Ps. Both are very powerful and some things Lr is better at and others Ps is better at. They are meant to work in tandem and I always start out in Lr because of it’s cataloging capabilities.
Tune in next week for Part II of this four-part series…
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