Hey, how’s it going? I’m Andy Jones and this is episode 101 of the Photography Side Hustle podcast.
If you haven’t entered the giveaway you have until Friday 21st of April at 11:59 pm. I’ll announce the winners in next week's episode.
So this week’s episode is courtesy of Jon Singh who is a member of the Facebook group. He asked for an episode about …
The best ways to store photos, export them, and send them to clients.
Organization
This is extremely important. If you can start using a system to organize your images right now, you won't have a problem finding a photo shoot ten years from now.
Now I wasn’t very organized when I started out. Having a folder system that only I could understand, and years later not knowing which drives the photos from my early photo shoots are on.
Once I started using Adobe Lightroom my folder system was easier to use. This software is made for photographers and it can solve all your needs.
So how does Lightroom work?
Catalogs
Lightroom uses catalogs to organize the images. A catalog is a data file that stores the name, location, and edit settings that you used. It doesn’t contain any photos, just data about the photos.
There are two ways to use catalogs. You can either have just one catalog for every image you shoot or a new catalog for each session you do. In the early days of Lightroom as a catalog got bigger the slower it worked. That was why I used a new catalog for each session I did.
Today large catalogs aren’t a problem. So I would advise you to use just one catalog.
Folders
When you import your unprocessed images into Lightroom they are put into a folder of your choice.
This is where you want Lightroom to name the folders using the year/month/day format. Using this method will keep all your images in sequence. But how do you know what images are in that folder?
Well, you rename the folder after it is created. You keep the year/month/day and add to the end of it. Such as …
2023-04-16 smith wedding
The one thing you need to do is change the folder name from inside Lightroom. If you rename images, and folders, or move them around outside of Lightroom, Lightroom won’t know where they are. So use Lightroom to make any changes and everything will run smoothly.
The next Lightroom tool you can use to organize your photos is …
Keywording
This makes finding photos super easy. All you do when you have imported the photos is add words to remind you in the Keywording Panel.
So if the session was a family portrait session for the Smith family in a park on a river, you would use keywords such as smith, riverside park, salmon river, and family portraits.
Years later you want to use an image from that shoot but you can’t remember the family name or even the location. If you search for family portraits you will get a list of every family portrait session you have done. You can then click on each result and the images will appear below the search. If the only thing you remember is that it was a park on the Salmon River. A quick search for the salmon river will give you every session tagged with the salmon river keyword.
Next is …
Labels and Attributes
These are ways to mark or rank your images.
When you search for smith, and family portraits and get all the photos from the shoot on screen, you can then add say 5 stars ratings, and it will only display photos from the Smith session that you rated 5 stars.
Being able to find your best images fast can help you put a portfolio together.
Next is …
Location Information
This is another organizational tool. You can put in the location details for all or just one photo. This allows you to search for all those photos you took in New York or anywhere else you have taken photos.
The next thing that Lightroom allows you to do is make…
Collections
Now a collection isn’t a folder full of files. It is similar to a music playlist, the photos stay where they are stored and the collection displays images on the screen.
Building a collection of your best images is a great help when putting a portfolio together.
Let’s say …
You don’t want to use Lightroom?
Well, that’s fine but you need to come up with a way to organize your images. It is possible, but when you start to get busy you’re going to wish that you used Lightroom.
Next is …
Storage
Now some people try to keep all of their photos on their computers. But at some point, the computer will either die or get so full that it struggles to do anything.
The best option is to use external drives to store your photos, I would advise you to get a 4TB drive instead of four 1TB drives. Having to constantly change drives can be annoying. Make sure you buy SSD or solid-state drives, they are smaller lighter, and have no moving parts that can break. A 4TB drive will store over 170,000 RAW files from my 24MP camera.
If you want to buy an upgradeable solution take a look at Network Attached Storage.
Backing Up
This is something you have to do. I heard a pro photographer say that he has four copies of his work. One on the computer, one in the cloud, and 2 external drives. One of the external drives is stored at a different location.
I thought it was a little bit of overkill, but what happens if your home burns down or you are burgled and lose everything? Then you only have your cloud storage to fall back on. If you did a shoot the day before your home was burgled you might not have finished uploading all the images to the cloud storage.
At least you should use cloud storage and one external drive and keep it in your garden shed. That way you have 3 copies.
Cloud storage is getting less expensive all the time, I’ve started using a company called Back Blaze, which costs $7 a month for unlimited backup, $70 a year, or $130 for two years. Now that unlimited doesn’t just mean photos or videos, you can back up your whole computer if you like. I’ll put a link in the show notes.
Editing and Exporting
So once you have finished editing your RAW files you need to export them as JPEGs. Now to keep everything nice and tidy you need to have a sub-folder within the session folder. But, you need to do this inside Lightroom. It’s easy to do, you just right-click on the folder and choose ‘Create Folder Inside …’ and call it JPEGs, finished photos, or anything you like.
That puts all the images from that session in the same place and is super easy to find.
Online Galleries
The best way to show your costumes their photos is by using an online gallery. Now there are so many options out there, just do a Google search for ‘Online Photography Galleries”, and check them all out.
Some of these options let you sell your images through the gallery. But what I don’t like about these services is that you need to upload the full-size file to the gallery. These sites sometimes charge you a percentage of the sale, which can add up.
Your best option is to set up galleries on your own website and also take payment through the site. That puts you in control of everything, and there isn’t a middleman taking a 10 or 15% cut.
I think you should use the gallery to show the customer and arrange the printing yourself. You keep control of your product quality, and if you sell digital files put them on a thumb drive and mail or deliver it yourself.
Handing a USB thumb drive over isn’t as impressive as delivering a large framed print, but it can be improved on. Did you know that you can buy personalized USB sticks with your logo printed on them? Or customized boxes to present the USB drive?
Do a Google search for “Custom USB Boxes” or “‘Custom USB Drives”.
So use galleries to show customers their photos, prepare their orders yourself, and make more profit.
Ok, that’s it for this episode.
Don’t forget to enter the giveaway, you can enter over at PhotographySideHustle.com
If you have any questions or an idea for an episode, you can find me in the Facebook group or Messenger. There’s a link in the show notes.
Right then, I’ll talk to you soon, bye.