Managing Digital Photography Workflow: Doug Plummer's Data on assignment
One of the less sexy but equally important aspects of digital photography that I spend a lot of time thinking about is digital workflow. Shooting digitally gives us great flexibility but it also gives us great challenges in maintaining and staying on top of the mountain of images and information we amass. I don't think I've found the best or most useful workflow for my shooting style so over the next few weeks I'm going to be examining my process and the processes others use to compare, contrast and look for ways to improve.
First up is Doug Plummer's notes on his data management while on a week long assignment. While shooting at Yeshiva University he captured over 6,000 shots (plus approximately 10% more that he deemed as junk and trashed early on is his process). I find a couple things very interesting and potentially valuable to me about Doug's workflow:
- Numbering and Using Media Cards in Sequence After a card is full he flips it face down in his storage wallet. This helps him quickly and easily see how many cards he's filled and how much storage he still has available.
- Burning and Shipping DVDs Home Though he'd backed up all his data to his main hard drive and portable hard drives this step protected his images from any potential problems his luggage might come across in travel. This is a lot of work if your images aren't of highest importance but if it's a large assignment or the most important vacation of your life this extra, cautionary step makes a lot of sense.
