I wanted to stay true to my weekly image and my goal to post every day about my workflow. The result was pictures about my workflow! See below for pictures and descriptions of my folder structure and naming conventions.

As picture totals rise into the tens of thousands, a critical part to effectively storing, backing up and retrieving photos is organizing and naming them properly.

Note: Lightroom helps facilitate organizing and naming the photos properly (I know I keep mentioning Lightroom-I’ll dedicate one post this week on just it).

Another Note: As with other parts of the workflow, these are my preferences and may not suit everyone. Naturally, I’ve found it to work very well and highly recommend it, but there are certainly other ways to go. The most important part of the process is to follow it religiously. Without rigid consistency, pictures become lost and time is wasted determining what the photo is and where it fits into the bigger picture.

Folder Structure

I organize my pictures into two primary folders – personal and business. I then break them down into subfolders as shown below. I then break each of those areas into what I search for most frequently. This could be done many ways, but I’ve found that by client makes the most sense for the business and by the year makes the most sense for my personal folders.

Next, the structure is broken into individual shoots. I start with the year name, then a two digit month and then a description of the shoot. This automatically sorts folders chronologically and creates a lot of consistency in scanning down through the lines, making finding a particular shoot during a particular time very easy.

Naming Conventions

As you can see, my file names are named similarly to the shoots. The only addition is a counter at the end of the picture. It increments for each new photo from the shoot. This allows me to very easily match up any exported photos back to their original shoot, understanding who/what the shoot was for and when it was done – all by a quick visual scan.

There are a few reasons I chose this photo for the week. First, it was part of the picture marathon that we recently concluded and I really liked the expressions she gave spontaneously.

It’s also an homage to the fish. Our household hasn’t had many pets, so we didn’t quite have the knack for taking care of a new one, even if it was a goldfish. Apparently, they need aeration (the bubblers) to help oxygenate the bowl. Sadly, for the fish, we didn’t find that out until it was too late. So, this is also a parting shot for our family’s first fish (it was still living during this shot – it died later that night).

Image a day is still going strong – this last week has been a lot of fun. See some of the highlighted shots below. You can check out the full collection of image a day photos here at Flickr.

Photo Stats, Top to Bottom

Photos 1 and 2: Canon Digital Rebel XT, 70-200 2.8L lens at 100 mm, f8, 1/200 sec. Both processed in Lightroom.

Photo 3: Canon 40D, 24-70 2.8L lens at 67mm, f20, 1/100 sec.

Photo 4: Canon 40D, 24-70 2.8L lens at 66 mm, f13, 1/160 sec.

I like shooting landscapes. The light – being outdoors – the fact that the subjects don’t get tired – can all be very refreshing. So, this week’s Flickr finds are in tribute to landscapes. I found it very interesting that a search on just landscapes pulled up 1.6 million photos. Even more interesting, 11 of the first 20 in the search were by a person named
Christian Frölich. He has some nice shots. See below for one of my favorites. You can see Christian’s entire collection here.

Click here to see the photo at Flickr.

Image a day is still going strong – with a few hiccups along the way. The main slowdown was due mostly due to flu-like symptoms sweeping through the family. See below for this week’s image – from day number 4 of image a day. I couldn’t help but post 2 from the shoot – they go nicely with each other. Each shows a very different side of the same person. Don’t forget that you can see all the images in my Flickr set here.

About these Photos

Both photos shot with about the same specs. Canon 40D, 24-70L lens at 51mm, f11, 1/250 sec, 100 ISO. Flash behind providing back light – strobe to the right. In the lower image, added a snooted flash on the head of the driver.

Okay, so I’m into day 2 of my photo a day experience. See below for one that I liked. You can also click here for my Flickr set.

Illumination from the Scriptures

My kids had a lot of fun with this one. We read scriptures as a family every day and they really liked getting their picture taken. This one was done with a 430EX Speedlite flash in her lap, pointing at the white pages – it created a nice effect – like she is receiving light and knowledge directly from the pages. There is a 580EXII Speedlite flash behind her to the camera right with a snoot to separate her from the background a bit.

Other Specs: Canon 40D, f6.3, 1/200 sec, 24-70L lens at 54mm, ISO 200