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Month Three Homework

So now I want to briefly break down the homework that we're gonna have for you for next month. Month three is workflow albums and post wedding client care. If you want to make a quick little month three thing in the Facebook group so that people can get pertinent questions in while we lay all this out Our special treat next month is my dear friend Jen from sidecar Post is coming back with me. She'll be here to answer any super specific questions you guys have about workflow and about anything that you're worried about with workflow. We will also be doing some critiques of the images. Is that the images you've edited? And we will get to that part in just a minute. But I did want to let you guys know the Jenna's coming, General, be here, General. Save it all. All right, So what you guys are going to get you remember every single month you've gotten a pdf that lists out your assignments. I've listed out the assignments for the month. We will post that pdf on the Facebook group. We will al...

so make sure that it is on your course page. I have not broken it down over weeks because a lot of people got really stuck on. I have to do X y Z per week. Just get these done over the next month, and hopefully this won't be too daunting. The first thing we want to do is we want to get you guys organized. So what we want you to do is to write a list to describe your production steps, and what I mean by production steps is what happens after you download. Where do you go next? And how are you backing up? For example, my answers to these questions are when I get home after a wedding, either that night, immediately after the wedding or first thing. The next morning, I download my images to either my laptop, which travels with me everywhere or my desktop. Now, to be clear, I work in three different locations. I work at my husband's studio in Haddonfield, New Jersey I work at my studio in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and I work at home in Brooklyn, and sometimes I'm in each of these locations after a wedding. It doesn't matter where I am. The process always stays the same. I download to either my laptop or a desktop. I immediately back it up to Ah, let's see. Eight terabyte drive. Okay, and I will post the link to that Lissy drive in the Facebook group if you guys remind me to do it, basically, the way my set up is like this. Let me just put down all of the steps. So I have a laptop I download to the laptop, right? Let's say I start with the laptop. Then everything goes onto a traveling one terabyte drive. It goes onto my computer at home, and it goes on to my computer in Haddonfield. Then it goes on to list, see at home, and it goes on to a Lissi and hadn't field. So it's living in several different places, and what that does is not only ensures that I'm backed up over a bunch of different locations, but it insures that wherever I am, I can get work done. Usually, I download to my laptop first because it goes with me everywhere and on my laptop, or only the weddings that have yet to be edited from my laptop. That wedding goes onto the one terabyte drive, then it goes to my desktop computers in both locations, and it goes to my Lissy drives in both locations, both in Haddonfield and in Brooklyn. I back up to back blaze, and I know that backing up to back blaze takes forever. But it's always running in the background, and I just ignore it. So those are my steps The second I'm done with the wedding. I called down my images because I call my own weddings when I'm done calling the images. Then I send those images to sidecar Post, and I back up that cold folder in every single locations. I have my selects in every single location. When I received my images back from sidecar Post, the final J pegs get backed up in every single location. The raw files get removed from all of my computers and exist on the lessee. Drives on Lee and the J Peg. Stay there until I need to free them up. Four additional weddings to be downloaded and my J pegs also live in my download galleries on polio, so it sounds kind of scattered, but it is actually very logistically thought out, and this is what you need to do for yourself is you need to figure out where my downloading How am I downloading? How am I backing up? How am I backing up my backups? So that's going to be Step one. Step two is going to be creating your production folder now buy production folder. I mean, you're working folder, the images that you need to be editing. Where are you keeping this particular production folder? You need to keep it clear of your other files in your other work. So maybe it means that you have a folder on your hard drive that says to work on and the Onley images in There are the images that you need to be working on for me. I know that the wedding's that need to be edited are tagged with a purple tag in my finder. So if I look at my folder of 2014 weddings, I know that if it's tagged purple, I need to be editing it or it needs toe have my attention, and then it's really helpful To set an automated back up, you can use a program called Kronos Inc I use it daily to an external drive that is plugged into my computer, which is basically backing up my entire computer system. Every single day, one of my computers uses chrono. Think the other one uses a program called Super Duper. However you go to back up your data, you need to be backing up your data. What this means is, if I go home to Brooklyn tomorrow and my entire computer burns down in a fire, I have a back up of it. Well, that's actually a bad example, cause if there was a fire, my backup would be gone, too. But let's pretend it was an isolated fire that just took down my computer. From there. We want you to create your naming conventions. Now the way sidecar post does things when they name their files is date, shoot, type and name. So wedding would look like this. You know, a file name would be 001 underscore 2014 10 18 Wed Smith. The way I named things is date and name. So, for example, 001 underscore. 0417 13 Underscore Mountain er. That means this is image oo one of a wedding that took place on April 17th 2013 on The last name is Mountain Er Now, if I didn't engagement session and a wedding, I will split the naming convention, so it would be oo one underscore. 0417 13 Underscore Mountain underscore Wedding. That way, if I had underscore Mountain underscore engagement. I know that there was an engagement session and a wedding that had to do with this one event. If it just says mountain er, then I know that all there was was a wedding. So take some time to think about it and come up with your own naming convention for files. And you don't have to use the way we name things. You have to choose something that actually makes sense to you. You need to be able to identify the shoot easily, and the key to it all is consistency. You need to be consistent. I can look back at underscore Smith. And I know that that was a wedding that I shot on April 17th 2000 for their name with Smith and they didn't have an engagement session because it doesn't say wedding or engagement after it. So you need to set a naming convention that you're willing to stick with for years down the road for consistency. The next thing you do a set of your post production calendar and this is gonna involve some decisions that you need to make. First of all, what is going to be your turnaround time? You know, from the time that you shoot the wedding to the time that you have the images in the bride and groom's hands, what's your turnaround time? How are you going to keep your calendar? Are you gonna write this down on a paper calendar or a calendar that you adhere to your wall? Or is this going to be in Google Calendar or Aikau or any of the thousands of other calendar options out there? How are you going to keep your calendar and how are you going to back up that calendar? How will you set your deadlines for yourself so that you'll meet your deadlines to your clients? So, for example, I download the weddings that I shoot either that night or the next day. At the absolute latest, I call that wedding down to my keepers. Within a week, I deliver my images to sidecar post to be edited within 10 days. I received my edited images from sidecar post within five weeks of the wedding day, and I deliver my images to my clients within six weeks of the wedding day. And what this does is it gives us a little bit of buffer at a really, really, really busy summer into a really busy winter. I made a mistake when I put a date on the calendar at a couple of weddings that ended up being doubles like they would end up being instead of one wedding day. They would add on rehearsal dinner coverage in the second shooter. So instead of delivering my normal 708 100 images decide Car Post, I was sitting them 1500 images, which was taking her twice as long. Edit them and we got really backed up. That's where the buffer between receiving my images after five weeks and delivering by six weeks really came in handy because we had an additional week we're in. If it took a few a few days extra for her to get them back to me, she could or if I overloaded her with work and I had to take something back. I could. It gave us a little buffer. So you need to give yourself buffers in your timelines so that if anything goes wrong, you have time to fix it. And Jen and I, um, sidecar and I share on aikau calendar on ICloud through our apple mail where when I book a wedding, I go in and I write down the date that wedding is due and then she can see what wedding is coming up in what due date happens and I can see what wedding is coming up in what due date happens. I also use my automated workflow, Um ha sore subject. I've been a big shoot que user for years and years and years. I am still a very big fan of their interface. However, they've been having a lot of technical issues yet recently, and I'm considering leaving them for another company. I'm not going to do that without having thought that all the way through, But no matter where I go, I'm going to go to a company that will allow me the same workflow functionality that shoot que has. So when I look at my shoot que workflow after an event. It reminds me the next day after an event, it says, Hey, Susan, you shot Jim's wedding. Have you downloaded yet? Hey, Susan, have you cold? Jim's wedding today? Hey, Susan, you should be getting your wedding's about your Jim's wedding back from sidecar posts today. So not only do I have this calendar to remind me, but I also have my studio management software workflow to remind me as well. So the next thing we want you guys to do is to identify your tools. Now, this is what I mean by tools. What will help you go faster when you're editing your images? What's gonna help you speed up? And that could be a preset that you've purchased. It could be presets that you've made. For example, I like working with alien skin exposure. Six. I also like working with some of the knick filters. I like working with some of the filters from totally rad. I've also made presets that help things go faster for me. Ah, basic warming, preset a basic contrast correction preset. So identify the things that you do over and over and over again with your images in postproduction and start seeing what you can do to purchase or create presets that will help you make your workflow go even faster. Learn your keyboard shortcuts, you know as faras keyboard shortcuts and light room. There's not really a whole lot that you can do. It's not very keyboard shortcut friendly, however. In photo shop, there are a ton of keyboard shortcuts, and I use them all the time. So in that half a second that I would mouse up and click on something if I can just click a button, you know, if I click V and I know that it brings me my arrow or I click, see, and I know what brings up my crop or T. It brings up my type tool. Those were really helpful things to know, and it just helps make things go a little bit faster and then explore other shortcut options. You know, if you use if you use light room a lot, you can purchase a set of X keys that will help you navigate your light room faster, and I'll post a link. If you can remind me in the Facebook group, I'll post a link to those X keys I find that when I use a tablet to help myself at it, that makes me go faster than just relying on a keyboard in a mouth. So start looking at things that you could be doing on your side. And this is where you really need to start identifying what takes you the longest in terms of workflow. And when you identify what takes you the longest in terms of workflow, then you can start putting in practices, presets and procedures to get faster with all of those things. Then we want you to get out there and edit. Okay, this is what's gonna happen. I want you. When you were editing your images this month to select 10 images total making sure they encompass several categories of shooting and we want to see your ba fours and afters. I'm gonna post again. The sizing conventions will stay the same. You know the way that you size it the way that you name it. But don't worry, we will reiterate it. But I want to see your before and I want to see your after that will help us help you with your editing. The next thing I want you to consider is your album designs. The first thing you need to do is figure out how you're going to receive your selections from your clients Or are you going to pre design? There are two very different schools of thought when it comes to album design. Do you let your clients dictate the images that are going to go in the books, or do you go out there and pre designed the album yourself? I am the type of photographer who likes to receive most of my images from my clients before I start designing. But there is another school of thought where you will make more money if you pre designed. So you have to figure out in your business in yourself in the way that you sell, which is going to work best for you. Then you need to decide how you're going to create your design. And another thing is, are you going to outsource? I reached a point where doing the album designs with taking up so much of my time that I decided to outsource them to Sandra, my assistant. So now she handles everything with the album design process, and it's also fantastic because she can talk to the clients because she's been to their wedding, you know? Hey guys, I noticed that you had this whole ceremony, but you didn't include any pictures from it. Do you want to make sure that you have a picture from that in here? It helps to have somebody doing the album design that was actually there. So, for example, I received my images through my eyes and folio favorites. What clients dio is they go through, There's an folio gallery. They pick the images that they want In their album design, there's a button that says, Add to favorites. They click on that When they're done with all of that, they click an email that sends all of those favorites to me, and I have all of their favorites in a gallery. I clicked, download, and it downloads every single one of them. And also it really it cuts down on problems because instead of getting a list of file numbers from clients, they're sending the images that they have selected, and they get toe eyeball that list of favorites before they click sent photographer. So there's never any confusion over. Oh gosh, we didn't mean to pick those images. Well, you saw the thumbnails before you send them in, so they do get a chance to see them before they send them in. I don't pre design, but to be honest, I'm leaving a lot of money on the table by not doing that. If you're looking for any in person workshops for album design, Jerryd Illness is a genius in pre selling. I am not going to lie. I need to learn from him. I know I'm leaving money on the table. I am well aware of that. Designing the album, whether I designed the album or my assistant designs the album we use Fundy album builder, but mostly Sandra doesn't. So you're going to get a PdF that takes you through all of these things. But the main things that I want you to be working on in month three are figuring out the steps of your workflow, figuring out the steps of your delivery bols, figuring out the weak spots in your post production and what you can do to make them faster. Getting out there and starting heading. Start editing and start working on your album designs so you're going to get a PdF from me that is going to say what all of these assignments are, and I would I'm actually going to edit it again one more time so that we can talk about the images that I need from you in their sizes. And also, since we are going to open things up and allow you to send in a fume or images just for shooting critique to address that as well, all of that should be up on your course page in the next day or so. So Darren George month reassignments. Do you rename your files when exporting as J pegs to clients or keep the same naming convention? I okay, that's a very good point. I do not actually name my images until I have chosen my keepers. So when when a wedding gets downloaded, let's say there are images. I don't rename those. I go through those images, choose my keepers, and then those are the ones that I'm naming so that if it doesn't have a name like if I go back on it later and it's like D S C that obviously wasn't a keeper keepers get their own names. So then therefore, when they're exported out of light room, they retain those names. And, um okay, Um, do you keep any of your backup disks in a separate location? And Ana h would like to know, I literally just talked about that. Like, I literally just I'm not trying to sound frustrated, but, like I literally covered this five slides ago. I have my stuff in three different locations, three different one in Philadelphia, one in New York, which is, you know, two hours of driving apart and one on my laptop that is almost always with me and one on back blaze, which is always up in the cloud. And then when we switch over to J Pegs when we're done with the raw files, then those also live on Sin Folio. So literally they're everywhere.