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Lightroom Workflow: Color Coding and Watermarks

Color coding is I didn't talk about yet so let's talk about this scroll down got a green way got a green light here right so I use three of thes color coatings almost all the time green means that photo is one hundred percent done it's not attached to any client I can do whatever I want with it there are no restrictions on it. Okay green means go okay uh no color label well, you know obviously I haven't finished anything and when I import stuff from trips that's what my folders look, my folders look like this the ones I'm shot in the last nine months look like this essentially right but that's going to change very quickly in the next couple weeks so green is good to go anywhere. Image is complete from a processing standpoint dust is cloned out of it. That image needs absolutely nothing except to pick the export dialogue and exported to a location in a specific file format by somebody that requests a specific file format uh I use red what is red stop? Okay, so I get to an image if I wan...

t to use this image to send out to for publication to somebody or if I want to upload it to even the tandem stock agency that represents me well, if that things got red, that means that that image is being used by somebody or being held by somebody so I can't I have to go to then track it down now what's cool about metadata here is if this thing is in a collection it will show me the that that the images in a collection and I can then from there figure out what collections it's in the collections name could be. Powder magazine could be black magic, etcetera. I know where that thing is. I can track it down, okay? And then we can go from there. Uh, caution yellow is images that are have just been published. So there maybe I have a one year agreement with that publisher. They say, you know, you can't use this elsewhere in for the next twelve months since publication date that could be part of my contract. Six months could be part of my contract, et cetera. So the day that thing gets published and I'm looking at a tear sheet, I take tearsheet, promote that social media, get the digital download of that thing creates screenshots. It goes up on the website if it was part of a project toe highlight the project in my portfolios on my website and it gets the yellow flag. So at that point, I know that that thing was recently published and that I can't just give it away out to somebody without kind of talking about the thing first, right full disclosure for may I'm trying to pull the wool over any anybody's eyes, steve mistakes happen? Of course they do, but I'm trying to eliminate as many of them as possible, right? Just trying to be a front uh then we've got some blue and we've got purple lefts blue I actually use if, uh, I created print file, so if I'm going to print something, I'll typically take it out into photo shop on print through photo shop, although lately I am now printing a lot more through light room itself, I think it works equally is good, and the way the reason I used to take it to photo shop was for sharpening wasn't too happy with the way the image looked when I printed it out of light room because the sharpening presets we're not they just didn't work as good as they did in photo shop, but I found that that's kind of changed is the progression of the program has gone on so now print out of, uh, light room unless I have a really big print because really big prints take a little extra care. Uh, and then the purple doesn't mean anything to me, it's pretty, but in the future, if I need something of like things air being pushed to a website or I don't know, you know who knows what the scenario could be? Well, I can use that right? So I don't have to re change the way I'm I'm working with my work flow uh, for my made a data information, what am I filling in filling in all the information necessary for somebody to get in contact with me? Should they want to use this photograph? Should this photograph go anywhere else it's going to have that made a data attached to it? Hopefully people get become honest about, you know, usages and things like that, right? Okay, so fill in creator I feel in my address I feel in my telephone number my specific I actually have a specific email designated for any relationship with the file and that's right here. I don't publish this web this email address to anybody it's, not my website. Okay, so it's just related to questions and comments and scenarios about my images. I get an email in this inbox well, I know it's image related automatically because nobody else knows that right website right there. Okay, and then here's my headline so high speed berm turn mountlake ok, that's what I'm adding, oh, there's a type of j found it's just like that, huh? Okay so andie grant is the other guy zaid elbow see, we already found a mistake in the in the key wording I got the wrong guy in there so I'd have to change that tzeitel gorsha and any grant reid a circle berman dung and washington okay describing what's going on circles in there okay shows me day created then I feel in the information here in the title I don't feel that in but sometimes e I actually used to use the title and I just found that caption entitled essentially the same thing so there's no reason to fill it out and then further down copyright status this all gets changed via my metadata preset zero one j goodrich why do I have the zero one in front of the maid of data preset anybody know puts it at the top regardless so this thing organizes alphabetically well, numbers come first okay so then my present is always a top that way I'm always going to apply that information and a little right usage rights term copyright jaegers there's also a place to put a credit line so if somebody is going to use that they're willing to use give me a credit line on the photo we see this in magazines and advertisements sometimes uh you know so the credit I would be looking forward befo jaeger slash j goodrich dot com right so we get that hit on the website published yes questions. You saying that your credit land that you put on a business show up on the image itself was just like him and know that? And I'm going, I was going t o we are one step ahead of the game s so when I export things to publish on social media, publish on the web, on my block if they're not sitting in the portfolio of my website, ok, I do what I put a watermark on their right and that's what we're talking about now, is it really hard to put a watermark on a file in light room? No, it's. Very simple. We go appear to like them. We go up here to edit watermarks, and I have a ton of your from water marks that I have created. Okay, so let's see him? I call out the font. Name that amusing for my water mark. And this corresponds to my branding. It also corresponds to the font that I use on my website. So if I change something along the way with my branding, the usage, all that kind of stuff I know I need to change these the kind of correspond do you need to continue this kind of path of craziness with all of your stuff, no, but I choose to that you know fonts are important to me as a designer I'm choosing specific funds for my website I'm choosing specific fonts for all of my marketing materials and I'm doing it here too because if they're in the computer you can use them in the software so I choose to do that so I create a watermark that is based on that front now if I change the fonz I'll create new watermarks that correspond to the new fonts okay, so it's just something a little thing cross my brand right? So how do I do it? So what do I do? I pick I have basically to water marks that are the basic watermarks showing she right here uh this image notice how I picked that watermark and you can't really see it right? Because it's a black and white image so if I was going to apply the thie able font jaeggi watermark you're not really going to see in this scenario so how would do I have anything else that will help me? How? What if I do a brighter watermark so I changed the density of that thing based on the image ok and again after time I know that a shot like this he's the brighter one it doesn't need the normal and now I also created a different one in the brighter zone I can put that thing on the left side of my need to I typically put it vertically the way you're seeing it right here on the right side because we read from left to right and by putting it vertically on that end I'm not disrupting my photograph I can't stand when people watermark there images like dead center because yeah, ok, I get it he's cooperated right? But you're not showing anybody any your any of your great photos, right? You're blocking them and that's kind of a turnoff, so I found that putting it off to the right doing it vertically makes people see it more because most people put it down low on the right hand side reading left to right wolf I'm doing a vertically you probably are going to notice it more I have ones for panoramic ce because if I was going to export a cropped panoramic photo well, the watermark would get cut off, so I've created one that specifically done designed for the panoramic format so I could attach that if it's a panoramic exporting and I also can do a byline. So the byline is what you saw photo by jay gdrich, j goodrich dot com if I'm working with a client who is like we really want, you know we want to use this image on our block, but uh uh and and we don't want this crazy watermark interfering I'm like, how about this one here's my byline it's smaller it's still on there still referencing me is the photographer still going to get more promotion more wheels kind of out of that photograph being another website so that's how you okay pretty cool right so we could just create these we can actually in the water mark if you don't like just the font you can pull in any file type you on right right here image options please choose a png or jpeg image and you can overlay a graphic design element to your water mark if you want to now remember how I said well I've presets are key here for me well what if we're going to export this image if I go into export do you think I have export presets too yes I do ok so here's my tandem export if it's going to tandem stock agency opie export if I'm going to do a blood post on the outer photographer website they have specific image sizes that I have to use within their system well all I have to do is click this and it changes all of the information that I'm going to do on export kind of cool right I also have my own here on my website presets from going to export to my portfolio I click this one and if you scroll down here the watermark is unchecked now if I'm going to go to the blogged there it's checked ok this was all pre set I've also pre set the height that I need based on my website design so you can change all of this information one click export you could export one you can export into a folder so if I have fifty images that need to go out I can just click this put in some folder where's that folder look going to be located users j the desktop is going to be the folder name blogged now do I have to keep it block no but I'm exporting to the blog's so it makes sense to start that as my folder right but there was going to somebody else I just changing the bama creates the folder on the export whereas it sends a photo the photo can't export because they don't have the hard drive right we have original files that can put him out to see all of that information comes together and I can work on an image really fast so going in here from that f scrolling through what happens when I see an image I like very simply I press the number one bam it gets the start you see it right there keep doing it keep doing and now obviously that image that I just picked it wasn't a very good example but so that's how you keep going through those now all in all I've done I've gone through all those I have all these one stars ok what happens if I go into the grid and I need to know what images say I have ten thousand images that I shot on a single trip I want to know all the one stars that I've edited through on all of those all I have to do is go up too attributes click one star it's going to give me an option to pick greater than equal to etcetera how many images in this zone have a star rating of one how many images have the star rating of two for hire how many have three k nothing's probably changed what about five now I can click the main folder that houses all of my image date folders that says two hundred fifty seven thousand blah blah blah I can click that mean folder and I can click five stars and we will just show me out of two hundred fifty seven thousand images which ones have five stars which one sub four stars which is now all of a sudden I know what files I need to work on with files they don't but I could also do it here in the smart collection area too so workflow speed efficiency good question yes so in that functionality you khun you can show greater than right yeah you can show less than can you tell it to just show me like ok or is equal to greater than equal to three great is that cool? Yeah that's when that this awesome on and then change it back to you know that's what? You default can you also color coat yeah, we can so individual images and then yes, it filtered by the color as well yes s o five star ok let's say we only want breeding of five star now we only want images or read well we don't have any images right here. Do we have them in just the yellow? No, we only want the green ones. Okay, now notice I've clicked red and yellow they're still click so I gotta unclip them so I'm just showing the green images. Okay. Pretty cool, huh? Now what if we wanted to see if wanted add an extra element too. Just the ones that have picks. So do we have green images in the catalogue that have five stars? They're green but they don't have a pick. Can we pick that? Yep. There's the one that has the pick. Okay, now, what happens if I'm gonna check in on here? So what happens if? Ok, way don't care about the ratings way have all one star images but we need to find something well, can we search for something? Yes, we can search via meta data so we can search by the camera or the lens so if I'm looking for specific linds, how do you think I did the f stops shutter speeds ice owes all of that stuff for all these presentations right here just sorted it out pick the images I liked exported him for specific preset for presentations and then I'm dragging him in the keynote question you will also kind of put in metal band at what savings that you hear what I saw, what no that's all automatic based on the camera building that incident okay, so you don't have to go through and start everything outside of the f eleven no okay, but I can pick ok so let's say do we have any shots in this folder here that were shot with a one d x the sixteen thirty five and ok, so here's the label thing but what if we don't want to use label? What if we want to search by something else? How about we search by actor here all the apertures that these images in this grouping half so we've got f eight f eleven let's just see the f twenty ones which images there those those were the ones right here pretty cool, right? So we have the maid of data option but we also have the text option do we have any images? Maybe with the nomenclature no, we don't do we have anything that says mountain on it? Yes any searchable field contains all mountain okay, now what if I have to word terms I'm looking for what if we want washington? But if we do let's do mountain and wyoming see if you find anything maybe we don't have any contains all let's see if we can change that but if we search in key words things were happening so mountain so we can further refine that search contain all of these okay, so these have the word mountain in them and they have the term wyoming multiple catalog you would be able to search your entire you got it because you have only have one catalog open at a time you got to go into each individual catalog to try and search through the terminology which like I said, if you're shooting one project that has one specific destination and that things never going anywhere else that's totally fine to do it that way but for me that's not the way it works so I can't do it that way right? Questions, comments, everybody good, good. All right, so do you record in the metadata whether an image is shared on social media? I don't actually I don't do that maybe I should and one well I've got the podium I'll ask you what's your workflow when a customer a client puts a hold on something for purchase you then mark it is all right I can yeah market with the red flag marked with red flag red color and then your set your timer somehow like six months he's going no I typically just leave it there unless unless I needed elsewhere oh got to go you know and there are things like they can hold the shot I'm fine with him holding the shot but that doesn't stop me from using it in a presentation teaching class with it you know, putting it on social media you know, that's that's probably going to be okay to depends on contract with whoever is the contract client there have been clients that are like you're not allowed to use these anywhere and when that scenario happens the price goes shopping right? You want exclusive video that costs money ok s so you have, like, quote unquote stark images on two clients want the same image its pace is first come first serve or first come first serve on a reality basis like yeah they may wanted to look at but are they really going to publish it and vice versa? The other thing is ok, they both are like we're publishing this next month okay, well now I'm in I'm in the middle of kind of this okay, so how do I who has the strongest desire for that specific image and how can I sway them maybe to a different image like I don't have to tell one that the others doing it I you know I have to be the interpreter again and I have to be diplomatic about it you know, if the better client is like this thing's going in, you know, in the next issue I'm on it have it the other guy sorry it's being used right now, you know? But if they're both kind of really good clients competing kind of in that format, well, when are they really going to use it or are they just going to hold it? What is their publication time frame? You know, does it work within the limits of both of their kind of, you know, statue of limitations of the usage except sounds like you don't really use the bolt agencies that you just give him the photograph and then some hoping somebody will pick it up out of that? No, I'm trying, you know, my deal is I want the story, right? I want to produce a written story that goes with the serious of images that I create that's my dream that doesn't happen every day, how do we continue to monopolize on what I'm working on shooting et cetera in other aspects of the world, right? How can I get that image published by itself or if I just started to started a project and I have an image that works really well you know is that going somewhere else versus being part of that project kind of if you don't put it into getty or corbis thie only stock agency actually work with this tandem and I truly chose tandem for one the percentages that they pay me when they use when they sell my work and the other thing is they're very have very contemporary website really like kind of their overall brand so works with my overall brands and the other thing is that uh there's a you know, communication in a relationship going there whereas I don't know that I would have that with getty or I finally have that with corvis you know I know the three owners of tandem I can complain to them I can be excited to them I can you know etcetera on and on on a one on one basis what we're on this topic we have a question from the chat room that I'd like to pop in with its from heavenly heavenly photo on its quite a long question but I'll edit it down so we know that your cell your images as stock do you sell it as stock and fine art andi I got more after yes some of himself fine as fine art yes yeah yeah cool and um if you at what point do you just sell it on your own on your own website typically, the way I work is if I can get a new assignment from somebody to go shoot something, right that's the perfect scenario, if I can get the whole package deal, okay, I'm going to write the article, I'm going to shoot all the story, you know, shoot all the photos that go with that story, going to travel the location with or without somebody, depending on what the scenario is that's my perfect like, yes, I love this, right? Because there's there's a project, I got direction, I've got motion going, I'm not just shooting blanketly out there in the wind kind of thing, and so that would be number one. Ok, then I get create all this stuff write the article, the images the magazine selects, the images that they want, okay, may shoot seven thousand images in a five day period for an article piece, right? I'm shooting everything bug moves on the ground shooting that somebody's eating eminem's and chiang bi yu know shooting that like finding all this kind of can activity, then I edit it down to get get, you know, break it down into how all of those images we're going to go to the story that I want to write, right there's story concept going there to pass that by the editor better likes it. Ok, now we've got core images that we edit down those they're going to be the submission package. Well, let me submit a seven hundred images for their review for a ten page article because those are all the images I think they're going to best represent now they have to take those seven hundred images and go, we only can use twenty we have to pick twenty out of here, so they further edit it down. They give me ok here's the top one hundred we're going through, then they have to pick the ones they pick the ones further editing down. So now all of a sudden, I've got one hundred images that they are essentially, you know, on the hook for I can't take those images from them without first asking because we have a contract in place, things were going down, okay, but they just let go six hundred images. So now I have six hundred images that can go where? What are they going to be? Okay, how closely related are those? Six hundred two, the first hundred? I'd then further ended that down things that don't look anything like what they're selecting, I then take those and I could potentially ship them off the stock for sale I could potentially ship them to another magazine for sale great. So this there's a question that we've been actually the chats have been talking about for two days, and the question has been they've seen some texture photographs they seen some the mud on the trucks where this is not specifically adventure sport photography. So now now we're kind of and your enlightening us letting us know that those air really twofold, potentially, they might be b roll for editorial article and potentially, they're just they're just there. You're always shooting so there's no reason not to please put that out there taking photos? Yeah, exactly like like I said, let's, talk a little bit about that, you know, like I said, yeah, how hard is it to go back to patagonia? Spend ten thousand dollars getting the patagonia, right? Can you go back next week if you missed the shot? No, most people can't. Some people can, some people can, but so my my goal is to truly just shoot everything and anything that catches my eye in a scenario like that, and then I hone it down what I'm shot over that entire trip kind of homes down to what this story angle I was thinking about so some of them may work within this story, some of the main element texture images. Those things you know they need texture backgrounds when they produce articles they need graphic design stuff right there graphically communicating and story via photos article and then the design of the actual magazine right magazines have some of them have very contemporary looks they have great graphic design going on so they may need a textural image for a backdrop of something okay, so I use that too but there may be something going on you know what? What happens when the giant spider hate spiders sorry guys but the giant spider is hanging out in the web and it has a has no mountain like her anywhere near it right? But it's a key parts you some freak out session on the trail you know you ran into a part of the web and there's this huge spider and you're freaking out well, that then could become part of that article as well right? But I've got the shop now it illustrates what you're reading there's a connection there connections everywhere does that work perfect? Thank you we're good we're good all right? Of course in about what type of a team would you take along with you say if you were going to patagonia I mean wherever you're going, if you're on in the sunday are you taking are you taken athletes with you or sometimes yes, sometimes the story is to shoot the athletes that lived there ok there's a story growing they're you know they're the local athletes there's there's this international thing but we want to bring it back to america we want to highlight that our style of writing or, you know, this craziness goes on elsewhere in the world so we go there and we shoot their athletes so it happens that way I bring athletes with me sometimes athletes bring me with them, you know? We like the way he shoots we like getting, you know, hanging out with him, he gets to go with us he's going to be our photographer sometime the magazine is like what? We never worked with him, you need to take this person so they can go both ways, you know, forty forty thousand different scenarios for any given thing, but if I get the choice, I'm going to bring my best friend's gonna bring the guys that I can hang out and drink beer with. I'm goingto bring the guys that I can get along with when the chips are down, I'm in thailand one hundred degrees, one hundred percent humidity, I get heat exhaustion, what happens my athlete grabs my pack and takes it to the top of the mountain, I get to the top of the mountain and get sick then I'm like ok, I'm going to ride, I'll take the back back so those are the kind of relationships you need you know, you it's not all fun and you need people there to when you're you're down when you're depressed you're like I'm not getting the shots I want how can we fix this it's really important? How can we fix it? You need somebody you can bounce that stuff off, you know? So those are the kind of people I want to be with anything else just one quick question to use the map function I do, and I don't I kind of struggle with it it's like, ok, well, the cool thing is the newer cameras like the seventy that you can seventy mark two has built in gps with it so he would automatically place the images in the into the map area my one d the only way I get to put the the images into the map areas either manually dragging them or adding another little piece of device that I would have to carry, so I don't typically carry it. Uh, but if it were, like, really important have gps coordinates for something like an app, maybe like, where was this photo shot? How could that person get to that exact location? Well, then you got to use a gps right where you've got to know exactly where you were, but cool thing like the iphone does that? So the iphone photos come up on the map, so I have to drag and drop it. So sometimes I do it. Sometimes I don't.