I want to apologize for being somewhat absent from the blog last week and thank everyone for the wonderful support I received for my upcoming black and white chapter in Peachpit’s new book on composition. I have lots of really cool news to announce in coming weeks, not to mention we’re working up some great giveaways on the blog so make sure to stay tuned. I know it’s a tease, but trust me it will be good. The next couple of days I’ll be teaching my Yellowstone workshop with a really cool group of ladies. We’re going to spend today in Yellowstone National Park and the next day we’re heading into Teton National Park. Should be a ton of fun.
Learn from my mistake:
Artistic Photo Canvas contacted me earlier this week about using today’s image for the upcoming Photoshop World. I of course was flattered and agreed, but I’ll be darned if I could locate the file. I work off one main Lightroom library in Chicago and export all my five star files to an external drive so that I have them with me at all times—just in case a situation like this would ever pop up. Well folks, I failed to label today’s image as a 5 star. Instead it had been edited in Photoshop and imported back into Lightroom, but never assigned a star rating. Here’s my advice: go through your library and make sure you’re consistent on your rating system. I typically assign all my images that are in my portfolio a 5 star rating so that when it comes time to locate them it’s easy peasy. If you’re like me and work off one library that’s not always with you, then I suggest exporting our your best files (in my case my 5 star images) and keeping those with you on a portable hard drive or laptop.
Wednesday’s Blog
I’ve asked a long time blog follower Aaron Graham to write a guest blog for this Wednesday. Aaron’s written a very nice piece regarding his approach to improving his photography. I can really relate to what Aaron’s going through and what I love about Aaron’s story is he’s like so many of us…just trying to get better at what he loves.
I hope everyone is having a great Monday and make sure to stop by Wednesday and give Aaron’s article a read. Take care, John
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This is great advice.
I do carry y photos all with me on an external drive, but THEY ARE A MESS. I will, per your advice, put my good shots in one file so that when I’m asked for an image I can go right to it.
Thanks again.
M
Monika,
The system has worked well for me…the key is making sure you have the correct images labeled. Thanks for the comment…John
I am currently going through all my photographs taken with my dSLR, since 2007, to rate and organize them into a portfolio. It is a time consuming process but I feel I am learning a lot about my own images along the way, especially revisiting the older ones. I tend not to use the star rating system, preferring the X/P flagging with X getting deleted from the catalog and disk and the unflagged ones being the ones I keep but am not sure about. I’ll be doing several passes over the “P” flagged ones to make sure they are the best-of-the-best. Thanks for the reminder on this part of workflow though. Have a great time at the workshop in Yellowstone and Teton.
Ed,
I know your pain. It takes a lot of time to get all your images rated. Thanks for the comment.
I’ve never put photos together for a portfolio but now because of the opportunity at PSW I’m working on one. I have a time and their requirements which can be print or on a computer but I am having real trouble figuring out the print ratios. A few of my photos are reg. sizes but the majority are weird sizes and I’m thinking the computer would be the best way to view them. There isn’t any internet.
Do you think a Thumb Drive that could be carried around would be suitable or will the people critiquing your portfolio prefer to see the actual photograph in print? Also, how many of a certain type of photo would you show? They only want to see 10-15 and you only have 15 minutes with the reviewer.
I’m so nervous, but I really want someone besides my family (who love me and everything I do) to critique my photographs and give me ideas to work on or even tell me I’m awful and I can stop trying.
Thanks for bringing this up! Kitty
Kitty,
I’m not quite sure what PSW’s requirement is but I would think a thumb drive would work just fine. If you do bring your computer and if you use Lightroom I strongly recommend using your lights off feature by hitting the letter “L”…it’s a great way to show your work. Take care, John
Thanks! That’s what I’ll do. I have the thumb drive and I’ll give it all I have for 15 minutes. Just got LR so I’ll spend the next week figuring out the lights off feature.
I’m such a computer illiterate person but for a 57 year old woman I’m learning, just a little slower than the average college age kid! Kitty