Photo Crush Day Four. dayfour

Transcription

1 Photo Crush Day Four. dayfour

2 So now you have an ideal photo library in mind - and perhaps underway. You have a single home for your photos and a structure for them. You also have a camera and likely more than one. How do we get photos from camera to computer with ease?

3 + PROCESS (IM)PERFECTION Today we ll discuss how to get future photos into your ideal structure in easy, repeatable ways. This lesson will also include various options for automating steps in the process.

4 You can find photo zen. I want you to look at today s lesson as an opportunity to find a bit of peace with your photos. Maybe dealing with your entire photo library has left you a little more frazzled than you expected. You felt OK in the beginning and then ACK, SO MANY PHOTOS! When you pair an effective process with a solid - even if still disorganized - structure, it all comes together.

5 Start here. Today s efforts help return you to a happy place because they offer so much hope for the future. Even if you do nothing else with your existing photos, you can be more organized going forward.

6 Where Things Can Go Wrong You forget the process. You rush. You don t know what your computer is doing. To begin, let s identify the common ways in which your process falls apart, creating disorganization and those dreaded duplicates. Forgetting exactly how to get your photos off of your camera is quite common, especially since our devices can hold so many images today. You can address this by creating a written procedure that s easy to follow and repeat. Next, we have rushing. Your camera is full and you needed to leave for the picnic 10 minutes ago. You quickly dump your photos into a folder and head out the door. Instead, you can create habits and routines that will ensure you can always do it right. And finally, there is the uncertainty. I have a lot of faith that software will do what it s programmed to do, but do you know what that is? Understanding what happens to your photos when using any application on your computer can give you the confidence to keep importing and reduce the likelihood of creating duplicate files.

7 Attributes of a Solid Workflow Easy, repeatable, and written procedure Addresses photo import as well as processing Awareness to avoid creating duplicate files System for backing up So what makes a photo workflow work? You need an easy, repeatable procedure. And if you write it down you won t ever forget what to do. You need to address photo processing as well as the action of importing photos. Processing can include deleting images, renaming files, editing, and export. You need to stay mindful and aware of your actions, with a keen eye for avoiding duplicate file creation. Those duplicates often arise out of fear, so you also need a system for automatically backing up your images. We ll cover that tomorrow.

8 Camera to Computer Now, let s look at the very first step in a workflow, getting your photos from your photo-taking device (your camera, phone, or tablet) to your computer.

9 Transfer with USB Cable Using a standard cable is an easy and reliable method. In fact, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using this method every time you need to import photos. Most connection issues can be troubleshooted and this approach does not require an Internet connection. All that said, there are a variety of methods that can one-up the traditional USB cable by automatically copying or moving your files.

10 Automation with EyeFi SD Card Camera memory card with WiFi built-in Automatically transfer photos Use Pro card for RAW files What if your camera had a built-in WiFi signal? That s exactly what the EyeFi card does, helping you to automatically copy photos to your computer or your mobile devices. I use the Pro card because it can transfer my Canon camera s RAW file format.

11 Automation with Dropbox or Carousel Automation for phone or tablet Just one feature of Dropbox Carousel for photos only Dropbox and it s kid sister app Carousel are popular options for automatically importing photos from your mobile devices to your computer. Dropbox as an app works with all files, but it has a special Camera Upload feature that watches for photos on your device and automatically copies them to a folder in your Dropbox. Carousel is a standalone app from the makers of Dropbox that works with Dropbox to perform the same function as Camera Upload. But, it is also a gallery, making it easy to view and share any photos in your Dropbox.

12 If you have a very large hard drive. Keep your folder structure in Dropbox (and even your Lightroom catalog) Use Carousel to view all of your photos on mobile devices If that sounds intriguing, let me blow your mind with this more advanced idea. If you had a very large hard drive, you could keep your master photo library inside of Dropbox. If you use Lightroom, your catalog could live there too. Then you could use Carousel to view and share all of your photos, eliminating the need to upload to services like Flickr. Now of course there are some caveats - You would need a paid Dropbox account for $120 per year. - While you can recover changes, deleting a file from Dropbox deletes it everywhere. This makes this not reliable as cloud backup. - Carousel doesn t yet support display for RAW file formats nor does it see your existing folder structure. Still, just thinking about this possibility makes it clear that the Internet will change how we manage photos! Just some food for thought!

13 Automation with icloud Photo Library For users of iphone/ipad + Photos app Needs a paid icloud storage plan Automation & backup in one Finally, I want to mention icloud Photo Library. icloud Photo Library is a new service designed to automatically sync photos from your iphone or ipad to your Photos app AND back them up to the cloud. If enabled, it will replace Photo Stream. You get 5GB of free storage with icloud, so you ll likely need a paid storage plan of $3.99 to $19.99 per month to use this. For an all-mac user, this is a simple all-in-one solution. Note, icloud Photo Library is different from Photo Stream. Photo Stream automatically syncs images between devices that have Photo Stream turned on. Photo Stream does not use any of your icloud storage, but only displays the most recent 1000 photos and syncs low-resolution copies.

14 On the Computer OK, so your photos are now on your computer. Then what? Ideally you imported the images to your desired destination, but sometimes that s just not possible. In these cases, you might have a certain folder that acts as a temporary staging area for new photos. From there you can move images to their desired location.

15 Automation with Watched Folders You can also do something really cool with software like Lightroom, PSE Organizer, and Picasa. The generic term for this is watched folders. You can designate an incoming folder that these applications will monitor for new photos. The specific behavior will vary, but the concept is similar and can help you easily get new photos into your software.

16 Working with Photos Delete photos you don t need Name folders (and files) consistently Simple editing for exposure, as desired So in this class we don t have sufficient time to get into the nitty gritty of working with photos on your computer. We could spend days, if not weeks, on editing alone. For now I want to share three basic parts of working with photos once they are already in your system. First, I believe it s important to delete photos you don t need. Yes, storage space is cheap but time is not. Deleting now will save you time later. Next, I m going to mention naming conventions again. I promise you it s worth the time to name your folders consistently and even your files, if you like. I will say that I don t personally spend a lot of time on file names for new images, because the metadata has everything I need. And of course, editing your images so they look like what you saw with your eye can be a a small or large part of your process. Like everything else, I recommend keeping it as simple as you can to reduce the amount of time you spend on individual files. Over time I ve had to loosen my expectations in this domain. Above all, the key here is to find the simplest process that works for you and do it the same way every time.

17 Computer to Cloud In tomorrow s lesson I ll share a little bit more on cloud-based options for backing up, but I wanted to introduce some of the options here that are specific to photos and would be part of your overall workflow if used.

18 Free, unlimited storage Manual upload For sharing, prints, books, gifts Apps for ios and Android Shutterfly is a popular service that offers free, unlimited storage. There s currently no way to automatically upload, but there are few different ways to upload from your computer. Shutterfly is more than just storage. It makes it easy to share, order prints, make books, or create gift products. There are also mobile apps for sharing on the go.

19 1TB of free storage Can manually upload from Lightroom to Flickr Auto-upload watched folders with new Flickr Uploadr Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo, offers a huge 1 TB of free storage for your photos. You can manually upload from various apps, including Lightroom, directly into Flickr. But as an even-better option, the new Flickr Uploadr can watch folders for new files.

20 Unlimited storage Free for Prime customers Promising, but Amazon Prime Photos, which is division of Amazon Cloud Drive, offers unlimited storage for Prime customers. There is also the option of paying a nominal fee of $12/year for the photos service if you don t have an Amazon Prime membership. This service looks promising, and I am a big fan of Amazon storage in general, but it s still really new. I d like to see a solid syncing app that works more like Dropbox before fully recommending this.

21 Ideal Workflow Automatic transfer from camera to computer Automatic import from computer to software Standard operating procedure for handling Automatic backup Taking all of these ideas together, what would an ideal workflow look like? How about we start with automatic transfer from camera to computer. Then, let s add automatic import from computer to software. Next, use a standard operating procedure for handing of photos in the software. And finally, let s back it all up, automatically of course. While this sounds like the epitome of zen, you don t have to build it all at once. As with everything else we ve done here, you can take it one step at a time.

22 The Simplest Workflow Routinely transfer photos from camera to computer Name folders consistently Be vigilant about avoiding duplicates Automatic backup The simplest workflow might include Regularly transferring photos from camera to computer, Naming folders consistently, Vigilantly avoiding duplicates, and an automatic backup system. Whether you re closer to this end of the spectrum to nearer to the ideal, here s what I want you to take away:

23 dayfour Takeaway A sustainable photo WORKFLOW ensures that your photos are READY when you need them. A sustainable photo workflow ensures that your photos are ready when you need them. No matter how many bells and whistles that you add, what matters most is that you create a process that you know how to use and helps you enjoy your photos.

24 dayfour Assignment Beginning with your most-used camera, document the FLOW of a single photo from capture to storage. Circle each STEP in this workflow that needs to be fixed, simplified, or improved. For each circle, jot down the PROBLEM and the NEXT STEP towards addressing it. Today s assignment has several parts. First, document the flow of a single photo from capture to storage on the diagram provided in your workbook. Start with your mostused camera, and if desired, repeat the exercise for other cameras. Just list what you do, step-by-step. Then, circle each step in this workflow that needs to be fixed, simplified, or improved. You may have already had ideas about what s not working, but hopefully this lesson added some new insights for you. Finally, use the chart in the workbook to summarize each workflow problem, along with the next step towards addressing that problem. Next steps can include asking questions, doing research, or taking a certain action.

25 Case Study: Jennifer We ve done a lot of talking in words today, so for today s case studies I m going to illustrate two different problems and solutions. In previous lessons we discussed that my husband s photos weren t making it into my photo library. He was transferring them to his own computer with a USB cable, but his workflow ended there. Our temporary solution is to set up my Dropbox account on his phone so that all of his photos are automatically sent to my Camera Uploads folder. We ve done this before and it works even better on his Android phone than it does on my iphone. I m not considering this a long-term solution because there duplicates in the mix. I need to continue refining my own workflow to get photos into Flickr faster (or do something completely different) so that he has access to our master library and doesn t feel the need to keep his own copies.

26 Case Study: Jennifer s Mom My mom had two different problems. First, she couldn t remember how to get photos off of her phone. We decided that using the USB cable was the easiest method. But this led to the second problem, her phone was full but she didn t want to remove any photos. She wanted to be able to easily share her library with friends so she just kept adding and adding. To solve this, we brought Shutterfly into the mix, a service she was already using for back up and ordering prints. She will continue to upload her photos there via the web, but now she also has the Shutterfly app on her iphone and her ipad. This lets her view all of her albums from the cloud and use far less space on her phone. It was a total win-win.

27 I value self-discipline, but creating systems that make it next to impossible to misbehave is more reliable than self-control. Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week To conclude today s presentation, I d like to leave you some words from life hacker Tim Ferriss. He says: I value self-discipline, but creating systems that make it next to impossible to misbehave is more reliable than self-control. We ve talked a lot about automation today because you don t want to be the weak link in your own system. We get busy. We get lazy. It s all normal. The more you can create a system that fits your lifestyle and works *for* you, the easier it will be to have a photo library you love.