On the organization of the workflow of the photographer. (Comparing with the opinion of the magazine What Digital Camera)

Several times I have already written in my blog about various aspects of workflow organization, which leads an amateur who is passionate about digital photography from shooting to a finished photo picture, a network album or a home collection. Recently, the same question was decided by the authoritative English magazine What Digital Camera, which published the article “Speed ​​Up Your Workflow” with brief recommendations regarding the optimization of all steps of the digital photographer’s workflow.



For obvious reasons, it is not possible to bring this article entirely here; You can find it in the May issue of the magazine (What Digital Camera, 05/2015). I will try to briefly retell its content and highlight the essential aspects of each paragraph of the article, giving my personal comments on the applicability of this or that advice in practice where necessary.



Stage 1. Shooting, preparation for shooting and safety

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It would seem that reasonable can be advised on the technique of digital photography in our time? Everyone already knows what to shoot as much as possible in RAW, and what it takes to not raise the ISO, and that you need to hold your breath before pressing the shutter ... But no, there are still undervalued tips.



Use your smartphone!



The smartphone will give you many useful features in addition to using it as a remote control (many modern cameras have this feature). For example, you can calculate the coordinates of a shooting point via the Maps application, or quickly upload data to the network, before reaching the nearest Wi-Fi point. In short, keep up with progress! (I personally have a tablet, but I completely agree with this advice.)



Buy a good wardrobe trunk



There is nothing more useful for a photographer with any camera than a convenient bag for wearing this particular set of optics and the "carcass". If you have a full-frame DSLR, then it makes sense for you to purchase the whole set: a photo backpack, a convenient shoulder bag, a case and a holster-triangle for real-time shooting. If you are wearing a compact or mirrorless one or two lenses, these bags are not an option for you at all: your entire photo kit will simply be lost! Invest in your bag without hesitation, and do not forget to check that it is equipped with good protection from rain! (You will definitely get wet. Be sure!)



Dress appropriately for the occasion.



In most situations, this means "dress warmer." You can always undress (if there is no place to put clothes on, take a backpack or at least a large package), but to dress warmly in a terrible chill, if you forget warm clothes, it will be more difficult. In many cases, for example, when shooting a wedding or a Buddhist temple, we should not forget about the dress code.



The author of the original article recommends that photographers traveling by car carry a sleeping bag in the trunk at the same time. This is perhaps not meaningful in all situations, but a good tourist mat (or at least a clean tarpaulin to lie on the belly without fear of getting wet and dirty) has not prevented any car owner yet. Recommend!



About the flash do not forget ...



Usually a flash is considered an “absolute evil”; at best, it is suggested to direct it to the ceiling in order to "puff" with diffused light. In fact, a flash is a great helper in all situations, even when photographing architecture and landscapes. To use the flash correctly, buy the most powerful unit you can afford, and for it a tripod and a pair of diffusers. Highlight everything: portraits against the sun, grass in the foreground of images, the corners of buildings in too harsh light ... Feel free to shine, photography loves light.



Insure against surprises



The author of the article proposes to understand this advice quite literally. A set of a professional camera and three standard high-end zoom, plus all the necessary trivia, costs a little more than a domestic car. Of course, where the author lives, it is easier to get insurance, and insurance insurance frauds are not so frequent, but you can get confidence in life if you try to find decent conditions in a proven insurance company.



It is possible to insure against troubles in other ways: for example, putting protective filters on all types of optics, buying a good photo bag (see above) or not forgetting to clean the matrix of your camera from dust and dirt in a specialized service in time. I will add from myself that a good “insurance” from wasted frames is a backup compact camera, lying in a pocket or a special case, away from the main set of photo equipment.



Stage 2. Handling and storage



At this stage, a photograph, whether it is a digital negative RAW or a camera-taken JPEG image, should be literally “brought to mind” using various computer tools. Let us dwell on the tips from this group.



Upgrade your hard drive to SSD



Not very helpful advice, unless you are an operative reporter or are not working with a laptop that is constantly on your lap. Files become "fatter", occupy epic volumes, and you quickly begin to grieve rapidly ending disc space. A typical 128 gigabyte SSD is already comparable in size with the results of 2-3 photo shoots in a busy mode, and large solid-state drives are so expensive that you can wait for that kind of money.



In addition, the problem of degradation of information on SSD carriers has not yet been completely solved. Three years ago, I was very upset by the speed with which my favorite MacBook's drive is decreasing in total. Of course, technology does not stand still, but to see how your favorite storage medium is decomposed, you can quite well now.



Indisputable plus SSD - download speed programs and files. If you have a disk of 256 GB or more, install a system on it and use the rest of the space to work with fresh images. The rest is in backup, on a regular HDD array.



Backup, backup, backup!



So in the original, and the author does not prevail. The other day I needed a snapshot taken 11 years ago in the Utrish Dolphinarium with my first digital camera, and I easily and naturally found it in a cataloged archive of long-term backups. On the other hand, a sudden unpleasant knock at the hard disk bearing or the already mentioned degradation of SSD can easily deprive you of all your photo achievements for several years. The only salvation here is a good backup!



I will not disclose this topic again. Back up at least a double scheme: to a working, easily accessible disk and to occasionally plug-in storage media stored in a safe place. Additional backup backup, for example, on a commercial cloud like Amazon S3, also did not interfere with anyone. Good programs for automatic backup, for example, Handy Backup or Acronis, will do most of the organizational work for you.



Show discipline in workflow organization



Allocate your "working time" for processing and uploading images, for example, once a week on Saturdays from 19 to 21 hours. You will not believe it, but this action really increases at times both your efficiency and your final professional level. Do not eat, do not drink coffee and do not watch "Game of Thrones" when you work with pictures!



Try also to ensure that there are no unnecessary items on your desktop. Nothing distracts from the analysis of color color of a photo or framing a composition so much as a yellow rubber duck intrudingly in sight at the edge of the table, forgotten the day before yesterday by your daughter. Leave only a minimum: a laptop, a monitor, a tablet, a backup disk, perhaps a proof printer and a paper note book.



Break away from the Internet!



“Turn off your Wi-Fi” is original. The moral is simple: when you pick your files in an attempt to create a masterpiece, there’s nothing to be distracted by stupid things like posts on social networks or calls to Skype. You are busy with important business, you are a creator. A familiar, social networks and pictures with nyashnymi cats wait a bit.



To this advice neither subtract nor add. Being on the Internet can brighten up the boring everyday life of the office proletariat, but for a specialist at work such a distraction factor is an indisputable evil. It is not necessary to disable WiFi, just set up notifications of your communication tools for silent mode and work. When you have a break, you can always immediately return to your favorite network activity.



Stage 3. Publication



Photography becomes art only when it finds a viewer. In modern conditions, many options are available for publishing your photo: from the usual print to the creation of a personal site with a virtual gallery of your masterpieces. What exactly suits you best, and how to handle this correctly is the topic of the third part of this article.



Social networks



The most popular place to publish. Each social network has its advantages and disadvantages from the point of view of the photographer; in the article mentioned, they are all disassembled in detail, and we will focus on them briefly.



• Instagram. Everyone knows Instagram. Publishing on it is simple and somewhat vulgar, but a more convenient platform for instant publication (and sometimes additional processing) of pictures has not yet been invented by mankind.



• Facebook. Great place to advertise yourself and share a gallery of fresh photos. Unfortunately, the brainchild of Zuckerberg allows you to upload pictures only in a limited size, which is reflected in the detail of the photo.



• Flickr. By posting pictures on Flickr, you will immediately be taken to the community of anxious photographers, some of whom are like-minded people, as well as strict critics. Decide for yourself if you need it.



• VKontakte. For obvious reasons, the original article is not mentioned. Not worse than Facebook within the Russian-speaking audience, it allows you to store pictures of any size, but sometimes the photo engine does something terrible with pictures.



I also note from myself that many photographers, both our and imported, have their own accounts in LiveJournal or similar services, as well as on Facebook functional clones, such as MySpace or HumbleVoice, popular with foreign authors in the past. These places usually contain services for hosting and commenting on photos, so they can also be used as a kind of virtual gallery in social networks.



Amateur photo sites



They are very, very much. In addition to the Flickr mentioned earlier in the article, I want to mention our Russian photoblocks, first of all Yandex.Fotki (by the way, a very good and convenient place for hosting images that are then laid out on other resources), as well as club.foto.ru - the main network gallery our passionate amateur photographers. Many other popular services enjoy, sometimes deservedly, the status of "bydlokhostingov", and spread their pictures on them is considered a sign of bad taste. I am not ready to comment on this attitude to such sites, especially since in the original article their foreign counterparts are not even mentioned.



Professional communities



This is a great place to promote high level photos. Naturally, snapshots for a family album have no place for them. It is worth mentioning the site 500px.com and a good domestic resource, 35photo.com for publishing galleries of art shots. Photo collages and other artwork can be placed on DeviantArt.



It should be noted that on professional web sites you will encounter moderation rather than objective criticism of your work.



Professional photo communities also include photo stocks, places where you can sell your photos, not without profit, if they meet the technical and aesthetic criteria of a particular photo stock. You don’t usually have to count on big money, but the average stock photographer usually lacks beer or Lenspen.



In general, think a hundred times before taking up professional photography: is it worth it to turn pleasure into work, even if it is extra.



Exhibitions and contests



Contests are most often held by photo hosting sites, but sometimes there are also on specialized portals. If you feel that the level of your pictures corresponds to the level of competition, feel free to exhibit your work. You will be noticed and remembered, and this is important. On the other hand, do not attach too much importance to the estimates: they can be paid for, set to an acquaintance, or reflect the changing moods of the current moment. Moreover, never try to copy the style and technique of the work of the contest winners! What was found once, from repetition will be only part of the ordinary. Look for your way, your tools for self-expression in photo-creation always and everywhere!



Own site



Top of dreams and at the same time the most expensive option in the career of a photographer! When designing a website, make sure in advance that the photo hosting site, from which you will upload your creations to the public domain, is not engaged in independent, ugly rendering of your images. Pinned images with artifacts and incorrect interpolation will not please your visitors!



Take care also about the "promotion" of your site. Be polite, but persistent; in the world of victorious capitalism you have to make your way through a thick layer of competitors. If you have worked on yourself and feel that you have something to show to the public, do not hesitate to push yourself; Most of your competitors are probably "bombed", meaningless in the art of photography. Act, and good luck to you!



Conclusion



The above paragraphs, I repeat, not a translation. It is rather a generalization, an integral sum of the thoughts and positions of the western author and the experience of my photographic practice. Digital photography in our world sets common criteria, not so much dependent on the region and national infrastructure. The same “Canon” or “Sony” in the hands, the same Flickr and Instagram unite the photographers of Russia, Great Britain, Thailand, Chile ... Common experience leads to common decisions, common tips. Be disciplined. Be creative. Be professional. The question is always how to realize these common values ​​at the lowest cost.



Therefore, I find such articles as described by me in this blog very useful, despite the obviousness of the information. They help to streamline and systematize the subjective experience gained. I liked it and sometimes even came in handy. I hope, my dear readers, that one of the sections of this article will help you in solving everyday problems facing the amateur photographer.