Multiple photographer workflow?

Hey everyone!

I recently added another photographer onto my team which makes a whopping 2 people. My main concern is our post processing workflow!

My main workflow consists of this:

1. Ingesting files into Photo Mechanic and starring them off accordingly
   
2. Copying the files into a desktop folder then import into Light Room
   
3. Edit & Upload to gallery
   

1. Sync the camera times before the wedding.
2. Copy all images to PC, in Bridge sort by time. Presets are applied which give me a starting point for all images (camera styles or something are applied).
3. Renumber.

Then I work as usual. Sometimes I select one camera to process at a time, to make batch processing easier. It's more of a per photographer thing than per camera, different exposures and locations.

tim wrote in post #13128943
1. Sync the camera times before the wedding.
2. Copy all images to PC, in Bridge sort by time. Presets are applied which give me a starting point for all images (camera styles or something are applied).
3. Renumber.

Then I work as usual. Sometimes I select one camera to process at a time, to make batch processing easier. It's more of a per photographer thing than per camera, different exposures and locations.

Right on. Thanks for the tip! Sometimes I figure there are simpler ways to go about things...

Sync your clocks, and color code your images on import. E.g. blue for yours, red for theirs.

If you're worried about editing styles, there's little you can do on that part then ask them to follow a rough guideline. A variety of styles would likely benefit you on the creative front at the end of the day.

As for having two people work on the images at the same time, you'd probably have to split the catalog into batches, and have each other work on batches at a time, then export into the master catalog.

You don't need to color code images, you can filter by camera model or serial number.

I would always have the same person edit all images. The customer should get one style, not a bunch of random styles.

True, but I find it harder to make the mistake of crediting the wrong person. Course, if you work under the same name then it doesn't matter.

Naturally you would cull and curate the final images to be presented to fit together. Multiple edits can sometimes show you different directions to go you wouldn't have thought of before, that's all. Consistency during presentation I agree with.

For the most part, I want to have a consistent feel. On another note, I found that creating folders before hand named after each event, ie., getting ready, ceremony, reception...etc. and sorting through the cards in photo mechanic and then editing each folder in LR sped things up a bit.

I don't know why I stopped doing this but I suppose I get too caught up in multitasking.

I do very much like Tim suggested. I have had up to 3 shooters at one event.

I simply copy them all to a common folder and then sort by time. I use Breezebrowser Pro to rename them and I always keep part of the original file name in the resulting name. When renaming I do a sequential renumber so you would have something that looked like 126402_event_D3s8302.C​R2. Others have suggested the syncing of the clocks and I can't tell you how important this is as we missed one camera once and it was hell trying to put everything in the right order. I've never ran into a problem of duplicate file names from different bodies as I have a different prefix for each body which is set in the preferences file.

This system works exceptionally well for me and when we submit to the customer we simply drop the original file name from the overall name. This isn't to say that this system is for everyone. If you asked a dozen photographers you could very well have a dozen different workflow solutions. What is important that you work towards one that works for you and then stick with it. We made several changes along the way but have stuck with this system now for several years.

ssim wrote in post #13134620
I do very much like Tim suggested. I have had up to 3 shooters at one event.

I simply copy them all to a common folder and then sort by time. I use Breezebrowser Pro to rename them and I always keep part of the original file name in the resulting name. When renaming I do a sequential renumber so you would have something that looked like 126402_event_D3s8302.C​R2. Others have suggested the syncing of the clocks and I can't tell you how important this is as we missed one camera once and it was hell trying to put everything in the right order. I've never ran into a problem of duplicate file names from different bodies as I have a different prefix for each body which is set in the preferences file.

This system works exceptionally well for me and when we submit to the customer we simply drop the original file name from the overall name. This isn't to say that this system is for everyone. If you asked a dozen photographers you could very well have a dozen different workflow solutions. What is important that you work towards one that works for you and then stick with it. We made several changes along the way but have stuck with this system now for several years.

Good stuff. Thanks for the info!