How do you organize/deliver your files?

I'm wondering what kind of systems you guys use for making your thumb drives/dvds, etc. to deliver to the couple. The first thing I do after the shoot is organize into folders in LR by the part of day (ceremony, bridal portraits, groom with bridesmaids, etc) and then cull and edit from there.

As I cull I use the pick/reject system, edit all of the "picks" and do a baseline edit on most of the unpicked (usually just auto tone, obvious cropping, etc), but never touch a regect. Then I will export the main folder into two sub-folders, one called "Ceremony - edited" for the Picks, and "ceremony-unedited" for the unpicked but not rejected. I talk through this with the couple, so they do not feel cheated about some being unedited, as even those have at least been looked at and chosen, not just included because I happend to take it that day.

As I've been going through it for this most recent wedding, I've been wondering if there is a better way to do this? The pick's tend to be about 1/3 of the total (varies, but usually 400-700 images), and then I will usually make a folder called "Best of" or "High Resolution" or something along those lines that will only contain the best of the best, usually 75-150 images tops in full size high resolution (3,600 long side). The "unedited" folders will get a lower resolution export (typically 1600 long side) and the "edited" but not "best of" will get about 2,400 long side.

I'm also considering adding a folder with certain shots sized and cropped for social media with my watermark on them so they can easily share the best ones without having to deal with the huge file sizes in the "Best of" category.

Does this seem reasonable? What do you guys do at this point? I've looked at some different workflows, but they usually pertain more to the editing and not the export and delivery phase.

I apply the KISS principle.

Cull pics. If it is culled it is deleted. No middle ground.

Whatever remains is edited (normally around 700 pics). I have no such thing as unedited, you're only ever as good as the lowest standard of image you deliver.

Delivered to client in two folders. One high resolution 5400 pixels x 3600 pixels, one low resolution (facebook optimized size) 2048 pixels x 1365 pixels. Pics numbered from 001 to whatever they run to.

No watermarks on any photos that are delivered to the client, ever.

Sorting images beyond them being chronological just reduces my efficiency and increase my workload for no extra return.

My wedding workflow.

Images are culled, processed, then renumbered. They're delivered in a number of folders:
- High res color
- Low res color (which are watermarked)
- High res sepia
- Low res sepia (which are watermarked)
- High res special effects
- Low res special effects (which are watermarked)

The couple never sees image I cull unless they specifically ask, and no-one ever does, because the ones I leave in tell the story. If in doubt I leave it in - costs me nothing other than a minute of my time.

Images go onto a branded USB drive. Q10 jpeg, native camera resolution.

I dump them into a dated folder on import in LR5. Then I export to a subfolder of the main Pictures directory with the name of the couple. After editing, I burn Dvds and after keeping a branded cd for myself (expensive camera doesn't deserve cheap media that won't read in 5 yrs time) I delete from the HDD. I leave camera file names intact though I should get LR to rename the files. What's a simple and easy way to rename the files? Can LR do this for me?

Colin Glover wrote in post #17716210
I dump them into a dated folder on import in LR5. Then I export to a subfolder of the main Pictures directory with the name of the couple. After editing, I burn Dvds and after keeping a branded cd for myself (expensive camera doesn't deserve cheap media that won't read in 5 yrs time) I delete from the HDD. I leave camera file names intact though I should get LR to rename the files. What's a simple and easy way to rename the files? Can LR do this for me?

I have LR rename the files when I export my finals.

Not sure about your logic in keeping only CD's. I am down to only 1 machine that still has a CD drive. I know lots of people that no longer have a CD drive in any machine they use.

Tim, Thanks again for the great info. I looked through your workflow thread and it gets a little vague on this particular topic, thanks for the clarification. Maybe pasting this text into that post would be helpful for others as well? Thanks for all of your help to those of us just getting going!

turnmybassup wrote in post #17726583
Tim, Thanks again for the great info. I looked through your workflow thread and it gets a little vague on this particular topic, thanks for the clarification. Maybe pasting this text into that post would be helpful for others as well? Thanks for all of your help to those of us just getting going!

Vague about how they're delivered? I'll have a look some time.

I meant DVD drive, sorry. I find it a useful medium that takes up little space.

Here is my system and yes I am still learning new things as I go.

1. I download all images to my work-space first (of course)
2. I "harvest" my images (same as cull but I'm a country boy) in either bridge or Fast stone image viewer.
3. I put all the images I am going to edit into a folder called to lighthouse, then import them from there.
4. edit all the images and label them as I go as to what folder they will go into. Prep bride, prep groom, ceremony, etc
5. Mark selected images for additional edits in Photoshop if needed. Light edits or light cloning I can do right out of fast stone image viewer.
6. Re number images from 1 to whatever
7. export to said folders, then upload them to my proof gallery where they can review them there, download etc