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Ask DN: What's your photography setup/workflow?

9 years ago from , UI Designer

For the amateur/pro photographer and photography enthusiasts in DN, how does your setup and workflow look like?

I just received my new Fuji X-T1 yesterday and I've been looking at what the ideal place to post collections of pictures (maybe along with text) would be. Instagram is still my fav place to post single picture at a time but I also want to post albums of pictures and maybe have the option to kinda use text and create - for the lack of a better word - "stories".

There are couple of really good options these days like Exposure, Storehouse, Flickr, 500px, Tumblr, Personal blogs, etc. They all look like great options but like we all know, too many choices sometimes make it hard to pick one.

What do you guys use and why do you like it (in terms of design, simplicity, import/export, pricing, community, etc.)

Thanks and have a great weekend guys!

P.S. - Would also love hearing about your editing and backup processes as well.

12 comments

  • Jeff ShinJeff Shin, 9 years ago

    Chase Jarvis's workflow, although pretty hardcore, is awesome.

    2 points
  • Prasanna Kumar Ramar, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    I have two workflows depending on what i use to shoot.

    1. For Pictures - iPhone 5 -> VSCO -> Instagram

    2.For Videos - iPhone 5 -> SparkApp( by Ideo) -> Instagram

    1. iPhone5 - Dropbox - Lightroom - Photoshop -> Blog

    2. Nikon -> Lightroom -> Photoshop -> Blog

    I use Lightroom, 1. To add VSCO presets

    2.To automatically add custom metadata to all the pictures ( all my pictures are free to use under CC 0.1.0)

    1. To add keywords and Ratings that helps me to search and filter pictures.

    I use Photoshop:

    1. Mostly to crop and align.

    2. Save pictures for web.

    My blog - prasannakumarr.in it runs of Squarespace.

    On Instagram - prasannsnap

    0 points
  • Jodi WarrenJodi Warren, 9 years ago

    Not got a good option for online, as I use custom-rolled stuff (which needs an update badly), but for casual lifestyle photography - aka anything that's not a specific job/project - I will:

    1. Open this year's Lightroom catalog
    2. Import photos, automatically adding my metadata, plus a few general tags if appropriate.
    3. The import process also automatically makes a copy of the RAW files on an external hard drive.
    4. I don't wipe a card until I've confirmed the files are in 2 other places, so I'll quickly skim through the pictures.
    5. As I'm quickly skimming through, I might select blocks of photos and add a simple general tag. I might also mark a few possibilities and reject a few technically poor shots.
    6. I make a very quick pass through, giving possible selects a single star. All I'm looking for at this stage is if they're possibly useful. I don't care about duplicates at this point - if they're not obviously technically flawed and they're not obviously awful, they make it through.
    7. I make a second (2 star) pass, and simply decide more strongly on the same aspects as the first pass. If it's only a few photos, I might actually select a chosen image from a few duplicates.
    8. At this point, it depends on the amount of photos I have left, and how many I want. I may just do similar refinements to what I've done earlier, or I might now render them at 100%. If so, I'd pick selects from sets of duplicates, check for critical focus and perhaps do some very quick processing. The selects get marked as 3 star.
    9. Occasionally I'll do a fourth pass, or even a fifth. Whichever pass I decide is final gets marked as 5 stars, even if it's only the second one.
    10. I'll process the photos, perhaps popping into Photoshop if I need to.
    11. I'll review them again, and mark the final round of selects with a Red label. No idea why red, but that's what I do.
    12. Export!

    That sounds like a lot of work, but with experience you'll become much more decisive and much more cavalier about throwing away poor shots. I'm not going to lie though, it can be quite time-consuming.

    I can find the editing process quite enjoyable though. Processing can be really satisfying - revealing the potential of an image definitely gives you a little buzz. It's just like darkroom work in that way, except without the smell.

    0 points
  • Ugur KanerUgur Kaner, 9 years ago

    Mobile: iPhone -> Instagram Mac: iPhone -> Dropbox -> Pixelmator

    http://www.instagram.com/ukaner

    Stopped using a DSLR since I figured out it's not a sustainable for me personally. Using iPhone as my main gear for the past 4 years.

    0 points
  • Jeff HorschJeff Horsch, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    Call this a shameless plug if you want, but I created Luminoto with the idea of the professional cityscape or landscape photographer in mind.

    My father has been a Chicago photographer for 30 years and I helped him sell photos online at www.horschgallery.com after he closed his retail shop on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. That site was built by a company overseas 10 years ago.

    I knew there had to be other photographers out there like him, so I quit my job to learn web development and I created Luminoto.

    https://www.luminoto.com/

    Most photography sites are overly saturated with all kinds of photographs and talented photographers are not getting noticed because of the insane amount of lackluster photographs to browse through.

    In my opinion, great photographs need more than just an upvote or star rating. They should be hanging on the walls in people's homes who appreciate your work. If someone genuinely likes your photograph and connect with it, they will pay for it.

    I want to help a select group of cityscape and landscape photographers sell more of their photographs online.

    https://www.luminoto.com/helping-you-sell-more-photos-online

    The photographer maintains complete ownership of the images and you can set your own prices if you wish. However I have found that our current pricing is reasonable and affordable for most customers. Price it too high and no one will buy.

    We do the marketing, framing, shipping, and everything else for you. And because I run the site with just my father, I can afford to give photographers a much larger percentage of sales than most other sites.

    The site is just getting started, but I am extremely passionate about this business and want to make it a success for not only myself, but for other photographers as well.

    If anyone is interested in this idea, I would be thrilled to chat some more with you. Shoot me an email at jhorsch@gmail.com

    0 points
  • Benjamin DautonBenjamin Dauton, 9 years ago

    Hi,

    I post all my photos (iPhone & Canon) on my personal photo blog : http://photos.dauton.net (which is a Tumblr).

    I use Lightroom for edition & iPhoto for cataloging them.

    0 points
  • Jeffrey KamJeffrey Kam, 9 years ago

    iPhone 6, VSCO, Instagram.

    0 points
  • Yakim van ZuijlenYakim van Zuijlen, 9 years ago

    Hi Bardan,

    I post a selection of my pictures to my Tumblr blog. But I have the same problem as you. I don't know where to post bigger albums.

    0 points