Last week, I wrote about the importance of digital asset management, if you missed Part I, you can find it here.
The digital asset management process starts at the moment of capturing the image. Most DSLRs use microSD, SD, or CF cards. Each time you insert your card in your camera, the first thing you should do is format your card. Never get in the habit of keeping your images on a card and using that same card for another shoot. When you format your card you will lose all the data on that card.
After your session, it’s time to transfer the images to your computer. It is great practice to create a new folder with every session you have. It’s an efficient way to keep your files organized and easily searchable. And because sometimes you will photograph the same people or location more than once it, it is extremely important to date each folder. After some time, you will create many folders and the way you format your folder names can make a huge difference in the ease in which you will be able to locate an image. Most folders are arranged in order; first numerically then alphabetically. In order to narrow down the ways your computer will organize your files, it is important to start your folder name with the date of your session. Because every year has the same number of months and every month has the same number of days, you should format your date starting with the year, then month, then day. It is also important to use all four digits in the year so your computer will truly organize your folders chronologically and not get confused with two-digit months and days. So your date should be in a YYYYMMDD format.
Once you’ve entered your date, you should use the underscore (_) as your separator and then type either the person’s name and/or location using the underscore instead of spaces to separate each word. So your file name should look like this: 20160301_Smith_Family_Botanical_Gardens. Once you’ve named your folder, then transfer your images from the SD/CF card to the newly created folder.
Tune in next week for part III of this four-part series…
If you are looking for one-on-one training in Digital Asset Management, contact us.