Digital Asset Management Workflow

[Andrew Lawrence]

Going from CF Card, to DNG, to retouching, all the way through to backing up can get really confusing.

So I'm trying to get an official standard down that I can follow for everything and all of it ends up organized efficiently.

After I actually wrote out a plan, it was obvious how it could get confusing
Here's an example my workflow that I plan on sticking with: http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs51/i/20..._isuandrew.jpg

Let me know what you think and if I could improve on it somehow.

I was wondering how all of you organize your files and what your workflow is from import to export and backup.

(I used http://bubbl.us/ to make the mindmap thing you see)

[Andrew Lawrence]

Really?

Does anyone have a comment on how they do their own organizing process. I consider this to be a very important part of anyone and everyone's workflow and find it weird that there is so little information on this.

Anyone a digital asset manager out there?

[Flashtones]

I struggle with this issue mightily. I'm not good at it and it's maddening. As a photographer, some shots might get an exposure bracket and a focus stack. Keeping track of that alone is a nuisance. Then as the image selections and retouching progresses I end up with multiple iterations of files (each round of revisions gets a new file) plus the jpegs and PDFs I send for client review. It really gets tiresome keeping things straight.

Here are a couple of articles I've collected based around Lightroom. Truth be told, I've only skimmed them so far, but I hope to come to terms with this issue soon. If you dig up any useful leads please pass them along.

http://blog.ericscouten.com/2009/09/...-2009-edition/

http://dlinderyd.blogspot.com/2009/0...rting-and.html

http://x-equals.com/blog/?p=863

[Andrew Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Flashtones

I struggle with this issue mightily. I'm not good at it and it's maddening. As a photographer, some shots might get an exposure bracket and a focus stack. Keeping track of that alone is a nuisance. Then as the image selections and retouching progresses I end up with multiple iterations of files (each round of revisions gets a new file) plus the jpegs and PDFs I send for client review. It really gets tiresome keeping things straight.

Here are a couple of articles I've collected based around Lightroom. Truth be told, I've only skimmed them so far, but I hope to come to terms with this issue soon. If you dig up any useful leads please pass them along.

http://blog.ericscouten.com/2009/09/...-2009-edition/

http://dlinderyd.blogspot.com/2009/0...rting-and.html

http://x-equals.com/blog/?p=863

The best thing I've done so far is a simple adding of the word "temp" onto folders such as the one I create to make the DVD for a client (if I see a folder with "temp" a month later and have no idea what it is, I know I can delete it without messing up.) Not dealing with things at the front end seems to be a huge pitfall for me, you can get so busy rushing things through and saying to yourself "I'll go back and sort things out after I'm through with the this stuff that's more urgent." Then 2 weeks later I'm looking at a mess of stuff and wondering what the hell I was doing and why the hell are there 3 duplicates of each file all with different names, and why do I name folders obscure names thinking "I'll remember why I named this one for sure."

Thanks for the links, I'm familiar with x-equals.
This one has looked really promising but same here as far as just skimmed it: http://thelightroomlab.com/category/workflow/ but they seem to have a lot of videos accompanying things and a lot of knowledge.

Yeah lightroom is an amazing program. One of the problems I struggle with is the sheer number of options on how to do things. I'm an indecisive person enough as it is, trying to find a final workflow that works for everything and is customizable on the fly is very difficult. Doing something that helps here complicates over there.

It seems that every time I get into a groove and find my workflow, something pops up and alters it because it wont work for a certain area. I've probably had 3 complete overhauls on how I'm organizing things.

I'll tell you what's really fun is focus stacking with a camera and lens combo that unknowingly has a major back focus/shift focusing issue and later trying to figure out what I was focusing on and why....