This is my complete photography workflow. I show you all the steps I go through after I finish a shoot. From importing to organising, from folder and file structure to editing all the way to backing up locally and to the cloud. This process ensures that things stay organised and backed up at all stages and that you can work through your photos in an efficient and fast manner without losing oversight of over your work.
STAGES
My photography workflow can be divided into 3 separate stages, with each stage happening in a different application.
STAGE 1: Import and Culling with Photo Mechanic
STAGE 2: Organising and Editing with Lightroom
STAGE 3: Backing Up with Carbon Copy Cloner & BackBlaze
HARDWARE
SOFTWARE
THE CHART
My Complete 10-Step Photography Workflow
1 – Import and Rename with Photo Mechanic
2 – Organise By Date and Location
3 – Have minimum 2 copies at All Times
4 – Cull in Photo Mechanic
5 – Add Photos to Lightroom Catalog
6 – Create Collections in Lightroom
7 – Edit Photos
8 – Duplicate Drives
9 – Backup To The Cloud
10 – Backup Lightroom Catalog
I use Photo Mechanic to import my photos from the SD card to my Macbook. Photo Mechanic is great for importing and culling (checking and sorting) photos. It helps me structure my files and file names in a logical way by using variables.
I will go into more detail on Photo Mechanic in an upcoming video and blog post. So stay tuned for that.
As an adventure. travel and outdoor photographer my photos are being shot at different times in various locations. So these form he pillars of my filing structure.
My main folder structure goes like this:
YEAR/YEAR-MONTH-DAY – COUNTRY – LOCATION
Example: 2018 / 2018-01-18 – Croatia – Zagreb
This will sort the folders alphabetically and chronologically and makes it easier to find them back once the year moves on and more and more folders are added to it.
As for file naming:
EYREWALKER _ Year Month Day _ Country ISO Code _ Random Sequence
Example: EYREWALKER_20180128_HRV_158624
It’s always good to have some sort of easy way to recognise that the photo is yours. So by adding my name into the file the client will always be able to tell where it came from.
The date helps me figure out the when, and the country code the where the photo was captured. And finally the random sequence prevents duplicate file naming. With these points organised into the right order, they are always going to be sorted in a chronological way. Meaning, my first photo I shot will be at the top and the last one at the bottom of the folder list.
All this can be done automatically and without any effort at all using variables in Photo Mechanic. Be sure to read more about that in the upcoming blog posts.
This is a rule I live by. At ALL TIMES my RAW files will exist in a minimum of two locations. So after import to my computer I make sure to not immediately format my SD cards just in case something goes wrong on the computer.
Most professional cameras can record to two SD (or CF) cards at once, meaning the files will be written to 2 cards simultaneously, hence, creating an instant backup the moment they are created. I will always keep at least one SD card with the images until they are backed up to the cloud.
Once imported and renamed I start culling my photos, meaning I work my way through them in Photo Mechanic one by one.
In general I keep all my RAW files. Only the blurry, out of focus or error shots are tagged to be deleted.
My rule is: If no one on this world can use or buy this photo, then delete it.
All the photos I feel are worth a second look and should be edited I rate with 1 Star.
I do this process by ‘gut feeling’.
Why do this in Photo Mechanic you ask?
Photo Mechanic outperforms Lightroom.
It is much much faster at loading the RAW file previews and allows me to immediately start working through the files the moment I start importing them.
Lightroom is a resource hungry application. I try to minimise my time by reducing the tasks I do in Lightroom to as few tasks as possible. By culling the images before they even get to Lightroom I can ensure that Lightroom will only generate Smart Previews for the files that are worth it. Saves a ton of time! Photo Mechanic can also perform much more advanced tasks and auto-fill options using Variables.
Again, more on Photo Mechanic in an upcoming video and blog post. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to not miss out.
DON’T MISS:
Why Every Photographer Should Use Smart Previews
Once I’ve removed the bad images and starred the ones I like, I open up Lightroom.
I import the photos to Lightroom by adding them from their current location.
This can simply be done by selecting all RAW files in Photo Mechanic and then dragging them onto the Lightroom icon.
Here I make sure they are added (not moved) to the Lightroom Catalog, Smart Previews are built and that no other settings are applied during import. My Lightroom Catalog sits on an external SSD which is attached to my computer via USB-C / USB 3.1 allowing me to read and write at around 450MB/s. That’s plenty fast enough!
The advantage of this keeping the Catalog in a separate location to the RAW files, is, that with Smart Previews I can now attach my Catalog SSD to any computer I want and access ALL my +100,000 files, edit them and export them (up to 2540px). That’s pretty awesome!
Once they have been added and Lightroom has built the Smart Previews I will attach my external HDD to my Laptop and move the folder from my internal drive to the external HDD.
Extra Tip: Always move your RAW files from within Lightroom itself. That way Lightroom will never lose the connection to them.
The reason for moving the RAW files off the internal drive is to be able to detach them from the catalog and to work with only the smaller, less resource intensive Smart Preview files. This will make editing and managing the images faster.
The next step is organising the photos in Lightroom.
Usually I’ll create a Collection Set based on Country and Sub-Location and will add all photos into that a Collection based on the project or sub location.
In general I will browse and look at my photos from inside Lightroom Collections, and not the actual RAW folder structure. This is because many projects stretch over multiple days and I’d have to be very careful to have all folders covering the project selected, if I wanted to browse the whole project.
Copying them into a single big collection makes things a lot easier.
I will usually create multiple ‘Sub-Collections’ next to the bigger, multi day collection where I filter my photos into (portraits, best-of, client selections, social media selection, etc.) depending on the project or job.
DON’T MISS:
10 Lightroom Hacks You Probably Didn’t Know
Next I filter my photos by 1 Star and work my way through them in the Develop Module in Lightroom. Every photo I decide to edit get’s 2 stars.
My rating system is very simple:
1 Star: Worth Editing
2 Stars: Edited in Lightroom
done.
From here I then export and deliver my photos. If they need to be delivered in a larger than 2540px resolution (on the long end), then I will re-attach the external drive PHOTO 1A back to the computer so that Lightroom is able to export from the RAW files (and isn’t limited to the Smart Previews)
Once the RAW files are on the external HDD I will make use of Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac Only) to synchronise the PHOTO 1A drive with PHOTO 1A BACKUP.
Carbon Copy Cloner is the best application for this process. It will spot the files that have been changed since the last synchronisation and will only copy over these to the backup drive. It’s fast, reliable and easy to use. Highly recommend it!
Once the RAW files are on the external HDD I will make use of Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac Only) to synchronise the PHOTO 1A drive with PHOTO 1A BACKUP.
Carbon Copy Cloner is the best application for this process. It will spot the files that have been changed since the last synchronisation and will only copy over these to the backup drive. It’s fast, reliable and easy to use. Highly recommend it!
While having everything in two physical locations is a pretty safe way to make sure that you can’t lose any data, there’s still the chance that all your drives get stolen, lost etc. in one.
To avoid this I always try to split up the 2 synchronised drives. Additionally I use a Cloud Backup to make my workflow bullet proof.
I use BackBlaze to backup my computer, catalog & external HDDs. It’s the cheapest Cloud Backup solution out there at time of publishing this in early 2018. Again, it’s super easy to use and reliable.
Additionally my Lightroom Catalog is backed up to the PHOTO 1A drive. Which is synchronised to the PHOTO 1A BACKUP drive, which is also backed up to the cloud.
Damn, this is great Chris! – very meticulous and thorough…I admit I don’t do half of these processes but will certainly start to rethink the way i organise my workflow.
Cheers!
Thanks Casper.
Hope it helps you out too 😉
Chris
Hi Chris,
I am wondering something about your set up with the two external drives.
What size are these ?
And what do you do when your reach the size limit of these ? Are you buying two new drive and store the two old one ? If so do you tag these in case you need to get stuff back ?
Or maybe this is your workflow during a project, and you have a NAS or something bigger to store your old stuff/archive without buying new external drive every couple of month ?
Thank you for your article it may me really want to test Photo Mechanic, and the trick with lightroom to be force to use smart preview instead of raw when disconnecting the drive.
Have a good day !
Hi,
Since I don’t really have a ‘base’ or ‘home’ I basically carry everything with me. Which is why the cloud backup is important for me.
Whenever drives get full I will leave one copy of them in a safe place + carry the other with me. As I need more storage I just keep buying more drives. At this stage I carry around 2x 8TB of storage with me.
Thanks for the details 🙂
excellent Chris, many thanks. V similar to what I do, but I will tweak my process now to align with this. Love Carbon Copy tip and will jump on that. cheers
Thanks David. Glad you found it useful.
Hi Chris! After editing, how do you store the exported files? What folder do you use to keep the files? When you shoot photos and videos, how do you use to store them?
I really liked your workflow and I’m organizing my files to make it a little bit similar to your structure, great article and great video!
Hi,
After editing I will usually only export the files I need for publishing or for the client. Those go on a temporary folder on my computer or directly to Dropbox from where I deliver them.
I don’t usually export images out of Lightroom if I don’t have to. There’s no real reason to…
Hope that answers your questions.
Chris
Thank you so much for this detailed explanation and the diagram! I just had a few questions and wondering if you could help and see if this passes the common sense test.
I currently have a 1TB macbook pro and travel from time to time.
Based on your workflow technique should I just import my photos straight to a portable hard drive (2TB) through light room but back up the catalog on my portable SSD (500GB)?
I assume anytime I want to see my old photos I have have my portable hard drive in hand.
Hi Sylvio,
Not quite.
I have my LR Catalog on my 1TB SSD. And with that catalog I also store the Smart Previews, which allow me to access all my photos and even edit them (and export in up to 2500px).
My RAW files I keep on an external HDD. So, when I plug in my SSD + HDD then I can launch my LR Catalog and access all the RAW files.
This way you can always see your old photos as soon as the SSD is attached. But when you need to export high-resolution version of them you’ll need to attach the HDD as well.
How are you organizing the photos into the specific [YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD Location] directories? I don’t think Photo Mechanic can do this automatically, do you do this manually?
I use the Variable to do this automatically with Photo Mechanic.
hi what do you use for sharing photos with clients, friends and family? backblaze will not have a nice gallery for that.
Hi Linda,
For clients I usually share a low-res version via Dropbox. Or a .zip file via WeTransfer and then ask them to email me a list of the photos they want by name.
Most jobs don’t really call for more than 20-30 images for the client to pick their top 5-10 from. So it’s not such a big deal that there isn’t a fancy platform for them to pick from.
Thanks for the walkthrough of your workflow! I am just curious, why do you store your catalog and smart previews on an external SSD and not on your internal drive?
My Pleasure.
I store it externally, so I can attach it to any computer I want and launch, manage and edit my files. This also keeps my computer from filling up with image/lightroom data and helps to run it at maximum speed. All I keep internally installed are applications and some documents. The rest is always external.
The USB 3.1 type connection between my MacBook Pro and the Samsung SSD is more than fast enough to handle the data flow for external editing.
I’ve been using PhotoMechanic for years and still learned a lot from your post. In particular, I’ve adopted your file naming scheme and process for pulling name components from the ITPC Stationary Pad.
I do have one question… do you have a way to accommodate imports from multiple cameras such that the images get named so they still sort in order shot using the generated filenames? I wouldn’t think so and figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.
Thanks Bob. I think the best way to sort images from multiple cameras is by creation date/time. Regardless of the file name.
Hey Chris, thanks for the guide. Very helpful!
How exactly do you backup the lightroom catalog? Do you just create it, put it on one external SSD and then just copy+paste it onto another external SSD? Or does Carbon Copy Cloner do that for you?
If you generate Smart Previews on the SSD, do you not need the RAW images on the same SSD?
And just to confirm,
You have the LR Catalog and the RAW Images on PHOTO 1A, which is synchronized to PHOTO BACKUP 1A via Carbon Copy Cloner, and also backed up online via BackBlaze?
I apologize if I didn’t read properly! I want to make sure I fully understand the process so no images are ever lost!
Hi Tasin,
My Catalog always sits on an SSD. (Samsung T3). Since the Smart Previews are inside the Catalog, they are also on the SSD. This SSD I backup separately from all other Photo drives to another Drive using Carbon Copy Cloner.
The RAW images are on PHOTO 1A, 2A, 3A etc. and are backed up to PHOTO BACKUP 1A, 2A, 3A etc. with Carbon Copy Cloner.
Hope this clarifies it for you.
Chris
Hi Chris,
I admire your way of managing the workflow from start to finish and then store them.
My biggest challenge has been managing the huge collection spanning over 5 years and trying to sort it out has been a brain drain and struggle. Your work process just seem to be the best way for me and I just love it as it clicked in my head instantly. Thank you.
I do have few queries
1) While importing using Photo mechanic – I see you are doing it first on the MacBook and later moving it to the Photo 1A as I correct and what is the reason for same?
2) What is the reason for having the naming structure as PHOTO 1A then PHOTO 2A and so on, What could be your thoughts as to not have PHOTO 1B. Why do you consider having a Number and Alphabet linked to the naming structure ?
3) The Catalog and the Photos gets backup together on PHOTO 1A BACKUP, what happens when you are full on PHOTO 1 A Disk and started to use PHOTO 2A, do you continue to backup the catalog using PHOTO 2A BACKUP to back up PHOTO 2A HDD and catalog on it or do you always keep the Catalog backup on PHOTO 1A BACKUP only and the Photos on the respective backup disk?
Thanks! Glad out got something out of it.
As to your questions:
1) I actually import to an SSD nowadays. Keep the MacBook clean from data and use the fastest possible external device for processing, editing and working on my photos. Once done, they get moved to an HDD.
2) No particular reason. The idea was, that I’d use one letter per year. So if in 2019 I need multiple drives, I’d go from 2A to 2B… or possibly: 2019 – A and 2019 – B… never needed it. Obviously, once I reach Z the extra number gives me more options.
3) Nowadays, I actually back up the catalog to a second, identlical SSD + Cloud.
Hope that answers your questions.
Chris
Dear Chris,
Thank you. Well clarified and appreciate your promptness.
Regards
Sri
Thanks Chris for sharing your workflow and how to manage your photo library. It seems very well focused to me. I have a question to comment. On the random sequence, you start it when you start one year or continue with the sequence the next year. Thank you, light and health for these times.
Thanks Chris for sharing your workflow. It’s clear, efficient and easily done.
I wondered if you’d share your video workflow? I know it might be globally similar, but I’d be interested in the details, the softwares you use.
Again, thank you.
Hi Chris, thanks for sharing your workflow.
I have a couple of questions.
Is the RAW + CATALOG BACKUP on an HHD or a RAID system?
Does it make sense to keep RAW files in a RAID system?
Of course your setup is specific because you travel a lot, but what do you recommend for an office setup?
I have 5TB of archive
Thank you