Workflow is usually one of my most sought after reads from like photographers. It’s more of an art in itself with everyone working to their own drummed up flow.  The entire process flow from capture to publishing is a topic I find quite interesting.  The multiple types of photo organization schemes, editing techniques, photo backup and final ways to publish are all ways of making the craft more efficient. I have an organized flow that suits my work style, but also is flexible enough that it can be done anywhere.

Let’s start with the capture. Most of my work starts with a 10 second timer on my FujiFilm X100. Once the final image is captured that satisfies my composition and color needs for the day it’s time to get the JPEG images off the camera and onto the device I’m going to edit the photos with. To accomplish being able to shoot and edit photos anywhere, I rely heavily on using an Eye-Fi Card.  The Eye-Fi card is an SD memory card with wi-fi capability that creates a wi-fi network that allows an iPhone to connect and transfer the images across wirelessly.

With the images transferred wirelessly to the iPhone it’s now time to start the organization and editing process. I allow the iPhone to do most of the heavy lifting in the organization department. Allowing Photostream to do its magic and transfer/backup all the images on the phone to my home computer running Aperture. Aperture is where all my photos from various cameras get stored and edited if need be.  Everything from my SLR goes straight in, while X100 and iPhone photos get sucked in via Photostream. If I need to pull an old image up, it’s all in Aperture ready to go, done wirelessly without any effort on my part.

Next, I take the organization every so slightly further with only importing the raw images I need into VSCO cam to begin editing. VSCO has its own stand alone library that I let stack up with all the daily Instagram final edits.  No real organization is done, just that this library is the cream of the crop of the 10-20 shots I take each morning.

Editing photos could take an entire post to talk about, but the important flow always starts with cropping the image to the desired 1×1 Instagram format then playing with the manual sliders till something worthwhile is produced. The final image is then exported to the photo library of the iPhone. I export to the library to ensure that I have a copy on the phone that is getting backed up via Photostream, and I also think the quality of image is better going to the library instead of straight into Instagram.

Publishing is the final step in the process. The image is brought in, no crop needed as it should already be at a 1×1 frame, I resist all the pre-built in filters and auto enhance button and move straight to the publish page.  A caption is added and the photo that started 10mins ago in the air over my bike is pushed to everyone. The workflow is complete and another day is checked off.

Ryan Behner