DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
Photographic Workflow
 Kathy Buckalew Comments
You can visit Kathy's website at www.buckalewphotography.com. Portrait by Carson Zullinger.
Hi, Danny:
Usually I make sure everything is on various external hard drives. But since I had my first crash of an external hard drive, just yesterday, I am re-thinking that, wondering if I need to have files on various kinds of back-ups: DVD, hard drive, thumb drive. The burning of DVDs seems to take an immense amount of time. I have done that some of the time, but don't have anything consistent. That may change!
Do you keep any kind of master list of where everything is, and what is on each DVD or CD? I'm starting to think that I should keep a spread sheet that lists everything, including if it's been printed or shown, or published, or what I've sent in to shows.
And do you keep everything on more than one external hard drive? Or is it just the one external drive, and then the multiple copies of DVDs?
I, too, mostly depend on my memory to help me to be able to find stuff, and for the most part, that works. But it does concern me going forward! Considering how forgetful I am about everything else in my life, I am impressed that I do tend to remember my photos.
I have started re-naming photos and putting in copyright and keywords as soon as I download them from my card. Want to do that on all the past photos, too. That will take some time.
I wasn't clear on what you did with your processed photos. Do you keep them separate from the original files? Or do you keep them with the originals? And when you burn your DVDs, you're just doing the original files, right? You haven't done any editing yet? And do you at some point make a DVD of your adjusted photos?
I've been labeling my photos by what they are, with date included somewhere: my "farmers" folder, for instance, has an immense amount of sub-folders, listed by last name of that farm or farmer. I try not to have any sub-sub-folders after that, unless I've made a bunch of jpgs, or have selected some out to print. If I have several different times that I've photographed at "Fifer's", I will list them separately. And I'm doing keywords to the entire folder, not to each individual photo.
I've just been using Bridge, but may look into the Aperture program -- I've heard several people say how much they liked it. I have LightRoom here, and at home, but am mostly confused by it.
I do like how much work you have on your website -- I love going through it! I've realized that I am not keeping up with mine and need to figure out how to add photos and words that I can do myself, easily. I shoot alot, and would love to have it there, and send links to people when I have something new. I happened to look at my site last week, and saw that I only had my announcement for my show in six months ago! That's really bad! And I didn't even have my newspaper article up there, from two months ago! So, I gotta get better about this!
I do agree with you about shooting alot and editing ruthlessly. I delete almost 1/3 to 1/2 of whatever I shoot. Takes alot of time, but I think it's worth it, to not have to go through all those outtakes to find the photo you want to print, or submit to a show.
Thanks again, Danny.
Danny Responds
Kathy,
Thanks for your long response!
My Lightroom catalog serves as my master list; that is, it creates thumbnails of all the images so that, even if the images themselves are on DVD, I can still search for them and browse them, and all the keywords and rankings are part of the catalog. Keeping a spreadsheet is extra work you don't need. Information about an adjusted photo, whether it has been printed or exhibited, can go in your metadata (same place as your keywords and rankings). You can do this using Aperture software as well.
All my images are on one external drive PLUS on multiple DVDs, including one set of DVDs stored away from my studio.
Of course, there are always photos I have not burned to DVD. Sometimes I go for months without backing up to DVD (it does take time). For example, as of yesterday, nothing of mine had been burned to DVD for the last six months. That doesn't mean it wasn't backed up! I had duplicates on my computer. But, as I burn backups to DVD, I delete the backup images on my computer. That's what I've been doing yesterday and today. I have already burned DVDs for January through May. Now I can delete those months from my computer's memory, since they are on both external drive and DVD. (Actually, I have good backups as well of everything that's been on my computer.)
So, I always have dupes, either on my computer or on DVD. Ditto adjusted photos, which I keep separate from the original files. They, too, get backed up.
Yes, keeping a website up to date is difficult, so don't be like me, overly ambitious!
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