Workflow of my photo management

Current workflow:

• Take photos in jpeg
• copy photos from camera (SD cards) to Windows Home Server shared folder (a new folder will be created and named by date and a short description)
• Copy the new folder to my wife's computer (as a backup and she can view the files right away)
• View the photos using image browsing software (as slide show or just thumbnails) or Windows explorer or Preview app on mac

Challenges:

• The thumbnails displayed on Windows Home Server is extremely slow and sometimes it won't be available for days
• I have used Lightroom but not using it now
• I have used iPhoto with iPhoto buddy but not using it for a long time
• I have Windows and Mac systems
• I have multiple Windows computers (and multiple virtual environments)
• I would like to do tagging (face, keyword, location) but it seems it was taking too much time and not worth the effort
• I have about 150GB of files
• I would like to take photo in RAW but my wife cannot view the photo right away as in my current workflow and it will take much much more space

Going forward:

• Take photo in RAW and both IrfanView (with plug-in) and Faststone Image Viewer can view the RAW image directly
• Copy images from card to local HD (as working copy) with the proper name and date to name the folder as before (add "_Raw" for RAW images)
• Backup the folder to WHS and  my wife's computer
• Import photos into Lightroom

• I have looked into two software for RAW conversion
• DxO Optics Pro 7 (usd 99 until Jan 31, 2012) and 
• PhaseOne Capture One Pro 6 (usd 399, having 50% during last Christmas)

• I should learn Lightroom (taking Lynda's lessons)
• Using Windows Home Server as archive/backup only (not working copy), i.e. work on my local disk

TBC...


updated on : Mar 4, 2012