Workflow, Backup and Security – What Every Photographer Needs

It’s easy to shoot one photo session. It’s easy to burn a CD/DVD and hand it over to the client.

But what do you do when you have one shoot per day, 5 days of the week? What if one photo session turns into 10, and 10 turns into 100? What do you do to make sure your files are safe, secure, and easily accessible in the future?

Welcome to the wonderful world of workflow. When you have one client, it’s easy to control. But when that number grows day after day, it’s easy to get completely overwhelmed.

Before that happens, take the time to setup a workflow system within your studio, and put all the pieces into place to make sure your data files are safe and secure, and accessible no matter what.

Organize your shoots

Start out by creating a system on your computer for you to store all of your client work. For me, I find it easiest to build client files by date and by name. I have a main file titled “Client Files”; then I have subfiles listed by year: 2011, 2010, 2009, etc.

Within each year, I further divide my list so every company gets a folder. I only have a few major clients each month, so subdividing it by year works for me. If you have dozens of clients per month, it might make more sense to further divide your folders by month, or even by week.

Spend some time thinking about a system that works for you, and set it up as you are working on your first client. Yes, you will probably adjust it over time as you find things that work and things that don’t. But starting off in a good position will make it that much easier down the road. [Read more…]