The Wisdom Of Workflow

Why it matters, what you need to think about, and some of the things we do at our studio

- Paul Wilkinson

We’d hit crisis point. There was a backlog of images to edit and capture. My wife Sarah was running the business side and I was shooting, culling and editing the pictures. I was the bottleneck and there was no reprieve. It was time to redesign our workflow. You might not think you have a workflow, but that’s not true. Workflow is just a formal term for the different things you do each day and the order in which you do them. It’s how you run your business, how you attract clients and how you process, sell and deliver images. In our experience, a good workflow has five main characteristics:

1 A good workflow is resilient. It reduces risk, to protect you and your brand. For example, I only use cameras with dual memory card slots, so that every shot I take is recorded in two separate places. Immediately after each shoot, I remove one card and import the images into Lightroom. I rename the files, then save a backup copy. This backup copy is duplicated on an off-site storage unit. Only then do we reformat the memory cards ready for the next shoot. If at any time something goes wrong – card failure, HD failure or even a fire in the studio – the images will be recoverable.