Monthly Archives: January 2017

where’s everybody 3

11 Replies
20161202-img_20161202_165340810

165340810

20161202-img_20161202_170031501

170031501

Advertisement

my posting MO or what to do with all those photos on your hard drive pt 1

21 Replies
20160105-dsc_3640-edit

3640

Everyone following this blog is probably interested in photography but I seldom go into any detail about the process of getting photos into the blog format.  There is a lot of information on the web and at the library about taking photos and processing them and I don’t think I can add anything worthwhile to what is available.  But I thought I would outline some steps of my own process of posting on this blog and at lightscatter for anyone who might be interested.  I’ll try to keep this brief but if anyone would like more detail, just let me know in the comments section.

After I download the day’s shoot and process them (usually in Lightroom), I try to decide if there are any photos that I think others might be interested in.   Actually, and to be fair, I don’t post anything I’m not interested in myself, so maybe that’s the prime reason right there.  I’ll add, too, that I like to process photos as much as I like to shoot them.  But only a small percentage are post-worthy.  After the processing is completed on a folder the files are star rated (0-4, with 5 stars reserved for the “book”, a once a year limited edition printing).  Usually, there are not many 4 star photos at this point and zero 5 star photos.

I try not to post many 3 star photos (but they do sneak in from time to time).  Sometimes the difference between a 3 star and 4 star rated photo is another processing step that may have been overlooked first time around.  It could be a crop, a conversion or a modification that (in my opinion) would elevate the photo and make it presentable.  I’m not looking to win any prizes but I don’t want to be ashamed of them either.  If I’m lucky (there is a lot of luck involved) I’ll have some 4 star rated photos to post.

Lightroom makes it easy to export files into a useable, web friendly format.  I have a preset I use for this purpose and it’s really the only one I use for the blog photos. I choose not to include a watermark even though it’s easy to do in LR.  It’s a distraction and not much of a deterrent to theft.  The files are exported to a desktop folder called “photos to post”.  Once each week I choose photos from that folder for the following week posts and put those photos in other folders.  This makes it easy for me to find the phot0s to import into WordPress and schedule the blogs.  After the photos are downloaded into WordPress, the posted photos are moved from the original folder to another folder named, you may have guessed, “posted photos”. This helps me keep track of them and not post them a second (or third) time.

I usually schedule the WordPress posts on Sunday for the week, usually posting on Monday and Thursday.  I always set the time of post at 02:00 (2clicksaway) and 02:22 (lightscatter).  (in this way I only use the 2 and 0 keys, which are very close together on a numeric keypad). I don’t post many time sensitive photos so that’s why you may see fall foliage and ice crystals in June and roses and other flowers in December.  Also, alert readers may notice I don’t put much (or any) effort into assigning names to photos or post titles. However, I do admire those photographers that have taken the time for this and some do it very well.

There you have it.  I apologize for the extreme length and little information but I am willing to answer any questions regarding this process.  I also hope other take the time to describe their process and I am always interested in techniques others use.