Step Three

Tonight I have spent the night continuing on in my steps to becoming a professional photographer. The third step that i feel is vitally important in being successful in photography is to be organised. I cannot stress this enough to people when I chat to them about entering the world of photography, whether it be as a wedding photographer, sports photographer, or a stock photographer.

Being organised and somewhat methodical when it comes to your work is vitally important to the success of your business. Be sure to put into place very early on a correct and proper workflow for all that you do. Filing, emails, photo projects, editing of shots, cataloging etc all require some form of organisation.

Don't wait a few months before you start. Get into the habit now. Believe me, it is alot easier to sort things out if you have correct procedures in place from the start, rather than trying to wade your way through multiple emails, website links, thousands of images that you have taken over time.

I have created a few simple steps for myself that in the long run will save me hours of pain. This includes:

emails - create proper folders for your mail within your inbox. It is very easy to do this. Also make some simple rules for your emails to go straight into those newly created folders. For example, I have created new email addresses for every stock photo agency that I host my images with, and then in my email inbox I have created sub folders for those emails to go to. Windows Mail and Outlook allow you to create a rule so that when you receive mail from someone, you can tell it to be placed straight in that folder name

websites - how frustrating is it when you have found an awesome website, yet you can never remember where it is when you need it in a hurry. Bookmark your webpages. Catalog your bookmarks into simple folder catagories. Hopefully you have already bookmarked my blog for future reference :)

images - I have spoken to so many people over the years that i have been photographing, and I am still amazed at how many people do not keep a master file of their images. Some people take their photos and put them into different folders, others have the same picture in multiple folders. This makes it very difficult indeed to track down a shot in a hurry. If you are as enthusiastic as me about taking shots, they probably number into the thousands each month.

Create a simple system for numbering your images. I find it easiest to number them like this. Year/month/day00001. So my master file number would look like 2009010100001 Your computer will find it so much easier to sort your files when they are in number order. If you are using a program like Adobe Bridge or Adobe Lightroom, they have an automated function that allows you to rename your files straight from your camera or memory card.

I hear some people out there screaming at me - "but how do i find the picture of Aunty Jean if it is with all the other images.....". Thats where I will move on to my next helpful tip

Keywords - Get into the habit early on of keywording your images and attaching it to your metadata on your image file. Metadata is just a fancy name that simply means you can attach a whole heap of info to your file for future reference. Keywording is just on piece of info you can store with your file.
So in the above example of the photographer who wanted to be able to find his pictures of Aunty Jean, it is as simple as putting the keyword "Aunty Jean" in his metadata. You can then use programs like Photoshop, Lightroom and Apeture to sort through your master file and bring up all of the relevent pictures that have keyword "Aunty Jean"

Diary - if you dont use a diary of some sort in the photo game, you should. It goes the same for our address book. These are very important tools for the photographer, that if not kept in some sort of order could mean the possibility of lost income for your business. If you get given a business card or contact of some sort; store it somewhere. Dont just scribble it on a piece of paper and stick it in your shirt pocket. Chances are it will go through the wash and you may never get the chance to call that person to book in their wedding or portfolio shoot.

Diaries never go out of fashion. it might be a book of some sort, or you might get an electronic device that will automatically remind you the day before of what you need to do for the day

Anyway, I hope that some of these tips will set you on the path to success in any photographic venture you may persue. Until next time, keep shooting, and enjoy the adventure