In this article I will talk about what I usually do after I return from the photo shoot.

Transferring images from memory card onto computer

You have different options: you can connect the camera and computer directly with a cable (usually USB type), or use a card reader. I personally always use the card reader. With direct connection between the camera and computer there are many things that could go wrong, the most obvious would be the battery running out of power.

Whichever option you choose, I recommend that you always COPY images to your hard drive (not move them) and then format the memory card inside your camera (not delete the photos or format the memory card from a computer).

When you have made the connection, you can either copy the images on your hard drive manually (create a folder with the name you want) or let the program you use for organising images do that for you automatically. I personally always do it manually.

Each of those options have its pros:

• When you use software, it automatically creates a folder with a custom name you specify, it can already rename the photos into some more pleasing name.
• When you do it manually, you have control and be sure that all images are copied with no errors (and do renaming later).

Next step for me is to import the images into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (software I use for organising and editing). When importing, the copy of all images (I always shoot in RAW format) are automatically

• converted into DNG format (for why to do that read the article about the different file formats)
• renamed into format: e.g. vesna_20080208_DSC9483 (my name + date the image was taken in year – month – day format + number of the image that was set by the camera)
• applied with some metadata (like copyright info)
• sometimes applied also with some keywords.

The images are now successfuly imported in the software!

Basic organisation

First I apply the keywords to every image. It takes some time to do it (especially if I capture a lot of images), but later on, when I want to find specific image or specific motif, I am always grateful to myself for doing that.

Then I rate the images. There are many ways that you can do that: using stars or using labels (colours). Which one you use and what each label means, is completely individual choice.

My labels:

• red label means the image can be deleted from the computer (not focused, bad colours or similar)
• green label means I want to edit that image
• blue label means I have already edited the image

My stars (I apply them after labels):

• 4 stars when I like the image a lot
• 3 stars mean I am satisfied with overall image

You could also use flags, but for me the above does the job.

Archiving images

I burn on DVDs the images that I have copied from a memory card (usually in raw format) onto computer. So just in case something happens, I still have the original images that I captured with my camera.

Images that I have imported in the program (usually in dng format) and have applied keywords, labels and stars on them (and also edited them later on) are also immediately backed up on DVDs.

On what media you can archive images, read the backing up section.

Editing images

Now I’m ready to edit images! This step is subjective. I will talk about it more in some later article.

Backing up!

When you are dealing with electronics you can never be sure when they will stop working or encounter an error. Therefore the best thing is to play safe and make regular backups of your images!

What can you use:

• Another hard drive on the same computer. Maybe only the hard drive where you have images saved on will stop working…
• Use an external hard drive. It is a better option because the hard drive is not plugged in a computer all the time. You are also safe from the viruses.
• A hard drive on some other computer. Is a safer option than above since the two hard drives are in different computers and (if possible) on different locations.
• DVDs.

And two question for you: Which programs do YOU use? What is YOUR workflow?

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