2mdman

One of the topics that was covered in a class on Photo Elements was Workflow. I’ve been trying to come up with something that would help me work my way thru post processing a large amount of photos. Using elements, here’s what I came up with:
1. After importing all the files, I select all the MP4 files and assign them a rating of 5 stars. This gets these out of the way. I’ve found when going thru the other photos, I can delete these inadvertently since the image shown is usually not very good.
2. I then select images with a rating of no stars (all the photos) and proceed to look at each one. For photos I want to edit, I assign a rating of one star.
3. After that’s done, I then select all phots with zero stars, select them all, and do a delete leaving only photos with one star and the movies with 5.
4. I then select photos with a rating of one star and begin editing the photos. Usually I’ll start off by renaming the photo, go into photoelements, edit the photo, then save the PSD and create a JPEG.
5. Back in Organizer, I STACK the set, then assign it a rating of 2-5 stars. Once I select another photo, that one disappears in the list and I’m left with the photos needing editing.
6. After I've edited all the photos I want, I upload the JPEGS into Google Photos.
For movies, I use a different program and usually delete the MP4s that were uploaded.

Anyone have any comments or want to share what process they use to manage their photo editing workflow?

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

I am not qualified to evaluate a true photographer's work flow but for me, this could take the fun out of my photography efforts. I shoot and download them then go through them one at at time and only PP the ones I want, but I want to look at everything. I download at the end of each day so I seldom have large numbers of photos to separate but if I were in business I could see the value in your process! Time is money!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Seems like a lot of work. How many images are you talking about? My needs are simpler. Everything I shoot is in raw format and either will get post processed or deleted. I load everything in the appropriately named folder on my hard drive, perhaps a few hundred images from each shoot, and I review them one by one in a photo viewer. If I like them I keep them, If not I delete them. When finished I'm left with less than half of what I started with. I then post process them one at a time in DXO PhotoLab Elite, perhaps making the decision to delete additional raw files as I go. Any I wish to share with others I export to jpeg. Done.

2mdman

started out with about 600 images in one folder. That was about 4 days of scuba diving.

What I'm trying to do is to keep the work seperated into finished vs left to do. In a folder of a few images, its pretty easy.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

What it comes down to is to use which ever approach works best for you.

don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

Each person's workflow should be one that works for them. It appears that you are happy with yours. My basic workflow is different, but it gets to the same point - the photos/videos I want to retain. I take a lot of action sports photos/videos of my granddaughters playing soccer and softball. I use a Canon 7D Mk II, which shoots at about 10 frames/sec. So a typical day, I often end up with 200-300 RAW images, plus several video clips.

1. I upload all of the images to the Organizer in PSE 2018. I never delete from within the camera.
2. I first tag the images with an Event, and Person. This goes very quickly.
3. I then view each still image in Full Screen mode. Videos are easy to skip, because of the filmstrip icon in their thumbnail.
4. I Star-Rate as follows:
1 = Delete
2 = Part of a sequence I may want to treat as a set. I also use 2 to indicate this really needs some work, or I want to try an editing echnique on it.
3 = I plan to use it in a photo project I have in mind.
4-5 = Somehow I grabbed a great picture IMO.

5. I then return to the grid view and set the filter to view only the 1s. I then delete them from the Catalog and the hard drive.
6. I then view only the videos, double licking on each one to play it essentially full screen.
7. I flag the 1s, and delete them.
8. I may rate an extra good video clip as a 3. I stop there, since so much can be done during video editing, even using only a small part ofa clip.

When the above is done I have generally reduced my day's shooting to about 25%. I still have unrated pictures/videos.

At this point, I begin to do some editing on the Still images. BTW the above steps usually take about a half an hour.

Since I shoot RAW, I use the ACR to edit the image, and then simply click Done. This automatically saves the settings in the Organizer, and I have not had to add any additional edited versions at this point. The settings are retained in the small .xmp sidecar file. I do any desired additional edit in the Photo Editor of PSE, saving the edited pic as a Version Set in the Organizer. On occasion I will use PS CC or add-ons like On1 or Nik as well. I basically experiment with Lightroom, especially Lightroom CC for those photos/videos taken with my iPhone/iPad.

I use the same basic workflow for all photos I take, including landscapes etc.

I edit my video clips using PRE 2018, or other video editing programs, with the video project coming from multiple programs.

The above being said, my workflow has evolved over many years, and continues to do so.

2mdman

Thanks for sharing that. Gives me some ideas. I like your classification system. As you say, its an evolving process but having a good workflow reduces the overall time required and leave more room for enjoyment.