Live music photography P4. Digital Workflow

Well you expected this to all be about learning live music photography , but sadly theres some other stuff revolving around the housekeeping elements.

Ingestion is the process of getting your images off the camera and into your system/computer/network. Getting them backed up at the same time is inherently linked to the ingestion and to separate them is asking for trouble.
As a successful web designer and manager in my previous life I knew that the most important thing to ensure was that all files were backed up properly. If it doesn't exist in three places at the same time, it doesn't exist at all. And anyone who'd had a hard drive fail on them, despite having back ups or not, will know this is a VERY stressful time and the importance of getting it right cannot be underestimated. And remembering that whatever takes you're machine out may also take you're backups out, you need to think about things.
Now one of the simplest ways of ensuring you have a backup which is disaster proof is the online solution. But if you're creating 21megabyte RAW files like I am and getting hundreds per gig, this soon becomes a non-runner.
So I opted for two network drives and I periodically create backup DVD's or particular projects.
I think I may have solved the difficulty for myself and what I shoot but god only knows how difficult this was for me to work out, mainly because in my desire to be thorough and flexible. I tried using my laptop and/or my desktop. What a brilliant way to have your stuff backup up! On the laptop, on a network drive AND on a laptop...

Not so. The laptop soon filled up and to be honest keeping the two in sync because a total nightmare despite how methodical and well planned I was.

I inevitably ingested certain images into the laptop (if it was with me and I was out) or on to my desktop. This meant that I had some images here, some there and despite a superb naming strategy of folders and sub folders, this became a nightmare to manage and keep in sync, even if using 'ExamDiff Pro'.
Throw into this the formal backup drive of a Freecom Ethernet drive and the nightmare became a horror story.

So I eventually decided that all images were going to be ingested at the same point. This was the more powerful desktop machine and was carried out using Adobe Bridge.
Bridge was set to convert the files to DNG's with the XMP file inside and to also create a backup on the Network Drive or the original RAW file (Canon CR2) and to afterwards delete the originals from the Cameras memory card.
In addition to this I have ANOTHER external drive (a USB2 connected 1Terrabyte Western Digital Drive). Which is used as a backup of the desktop machine's converted DNG/XMP files, but this is carried out AFTER any adjustment work is completed therefore backing up any XMP information such as graduated filter, colour adjustment info, ratings and output projection JPEGS
So the story is
1) Photos shot and recorded on Sandisk CompactFlash Extreme III 4GB Memory Cards (CR2 files and small Jpegs)
2) Ingestion
a. Ingested into Desktop and converted to Adobe DNG files
b. Backup up original CR2 files onto FreeCom Network Drive
c. Original Files deleted from Card (saves potential deletion errors later)
3) Do my work, corrections and adjustments on the desktop (in the RAW folder see the structures paragraph)
4) Backup up any digital work (XMP type information) accompanying the RAW files and PSD's or Production Jpegs on to the super fast USB2 Western Digital Drive. This is a 1 Terrabyte version. Anyone who's found themselves using a 1 gigabyte PSD will fully understand why I have a 1 Terrabyte version
5) Create DVD's of particular projects.
Obviously this process can be used for more than live music photography but what does change is the structure of nested folders where you keep your files.
This is what I'm going into in the next paragraph. Presently I use this structure for 25 bands over a number of gigs and its holding up well. I just wish I'd thought of it earlier.

So the summary is

1) Photos shot and recorded on Memory Card (CR2 files and small Jpegs)

2) Ingestion
a. Ingested into Desktop and converted to Adobe DNG files
b. Backup up original CR2 files onto FreeCom Network Drive
c. Original Files deleted from Card (saves potential deletion errors later)

3) Do my work, corrections and adjustments on the desktop (in the RAW folder see the structures paragraph)

4) Backup up any digital work (XMP type information) accompanying the RAW files and PSD's or Production Jpegs on to the super fast USB2 Western Digital Drive. This is a 1 Terrabyte version. Anyone who's found themselves using a 1 gigabyte PSD will fully understand why I have a 1 Terrabyte version

5) Create DVD's of particular projects.
Obviously this process can be used for more than live music photography but what does change is the structure of nested folders where you keep your files.

This is what I'm going into in the next paragraph. Presently I use this structure for 25 band over a number of gigs and its holding up well. I just wish I'd thought of it earlier.

You shoot different bands in different places on different dates. Sometimes more than 1 together, sometimes nothing for weeks on end. So how do you structure the folders? Again, do what works for you but what follows shows what I do is my way. Take it or leave it. Below you will see the structure I use for normal gigs and what happens if a band do two sets.

----- My Pictures
----- ----- Live Music Photography
----- ----- ----- Euphoria
----- ----- ----- ----- 22 25_09_09_White_Horse_Ardingly
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_Prod
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_shot
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW_Held
----- ----- ----- ----- 2022 27_09_09_PITP_East_Grinstead
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- jpeg_Prod
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_shot
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW_Held
----- ----- ----- Speak and Spell
----- ----- ----- ----- 22 15_04_09_Brighton_Electrofest
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Set-Collection_1
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_Prod
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_shot
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW_Held
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Set-Collection_2
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_Prod
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_shot
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW_Held
----- ----- ----- The Last Carnival
----- ----- ----- ----- Claire Hall_09_10_09
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_Prod
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_shot
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW_Held
----- ----- ----- ----- 22 27_09_09_PITP_East_Grinstead
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_Prod
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_shot
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- RAW_Held

You will see that 'The Last Carnival' played at the 'PITP' festival, just like Euphoria, did plus other gigs listed for those bands (I actually have a lot more but no point in putting them down here) and that Speak and Spell did two sets at the Brighton Electrofest.

So each band has a folder, each gig has a folder inside that band folder and then there are 4 more folders. The beauty of this is you can just add extra folders if if you create any other type of files such as layered TIFFs or PSD's. It's going to remain a logical file structure for Live Music Photography.
----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_Prod
----- ----- ----- ----- Jpeg_shot
----- ----- ----- ----- RAW
----- ----- ----- ----- RAW_Held

Jpeg_Prod. This is for the Production Jpegs%u2026 Photoshop can be set to output batched of files as Jpegs into this folder, it will also create a subfolder within it. I find it useful to rename the subfolders according to what size files you have. I always create a web version and this is JPEG_600_600. Meaning that the file is no bigger in any dimension that 600 pixels.
Jpeg_shot. This is where you put the cameras own small Jpeg that it creates. You may need these for 'contact' sheet purposes to show.
RAW. This is where you put your RAW files to start with and where they are when you make your adjustments and write the XMP files (if it creates separate XMP's). Remember these in here are DNG's for me because I convert while I ingest.
RAW_held. For the images which you reject or do not want to use (eg a star rating of 2/3 or less, put them in here out of the way. The reason for this is when Photoshop does a batch process you need to point it to a folder, obviously you don't want your not so good images in there, so you put them in here.

The structures I use for any other type of photography will change as necessary, but if I need to find a file I can use this quite simply and it hasn't failed me yet. Of course you can do a lot of stuff in bridge using collections and meta tags, but you cant beat having the whole strategy built on a solid foundation to start with. What's more if you want to burn DVD's or back up bits or all of it, you just grab the relevant folder and off you go

In addition to the 'Live Music' Folder in 'My Pictures' I have another the 'Live Music Portfolio'

----- My Pictures
----- ----- Live Music Photography
----- ----- Live Music Portfolio
----- ----- ----- Held back from portfolio
----- ----- ----- jpeg

This is where I put the output Jpegs that I actually want to select to show people. I dump all the potentials in 'Held Back From Portfolio' and drag the few successful images in to the Jpeg folder (it doesn't at the moment but it will be further segregated into folders for different sizes of images (eg for their purpose) but at the moment is just web.