As nature photographers, we can collect hundreds and even thousands of images! Especially if you shoot wildlife using burst mode, or landscape time lapses, you’ll find your memory cards filling up pretty fast.
Taking the time to review, cull, and archive your photographs will save you so much trouble down the road. It’s much easier to think about storage space as you’re loading your images onto your computer than to go back and free up space later.
This article will explore the three main stages of a streamlined photography workflow: setting up your camera, loading your images onto your computer, and culling through your shots to pick out the best ones.
Using a consistent workflow, nature photographers can spend less time behind their screens and more time in nature seeking out the next great shot!
Camera Settings
When you’re first starting out with nature photography, it can be easy to think “I’ll just set my camera to the lowest resolution files to save storage space!”
But with that said, there isn’t much point in buying cameras with lots of megapixels when you don’t plan to use them! Instead, we recommend setting your camera to the highest resolution available. This ensures that you can crop your photos and print them large in the future.
Shooting RAW provides the most latitude for editing your images. Unless you’re completely confident that you’ll be able to nail your exposure, white balance, and so on, it’s a good idea to use RAW files if your camera is capable.
The one downside to shooting RAW is that the files do need to be edited. Consider also capturing full-size JPEG files at the same time if you need them for immediate sharing online. This can also be a useful way to back up your photos if you save the JPEG’s to a different file location than the RAW files.
You’ll notice that none of these camera settings involve making the files smaller! Managing storage space comes in more in the next steps, when we cull our images down from the hundreds captured during a shoot to a small handful of keepers.
Loading Images onto the Computer
There are a few different ways to load images onto your computer, and some debate over which method is the best. Things like transfer speed and reliability of connection are becoming less and less of an issue these days as camera technology improves.
Wi-Fi Image Transfer
Most cameras released within the last 10 years are equipped with Wi-Fi to transfer images. Wi-Fi is great for transferring a few images at a time, to share on Instagram and so on. But it can be slower and clunkier than other methods when you need to transfer a full card over. This is definitely still true for the two systems we use, Canon and Fujifilm.
Card Readers
Card readers are typically the pro photographer’s method of choice for transferring lots of images at once. Card readers are generally faster than either Wi-Fi or a direct USB connection. Higher quality card readers can transfer data at higher speeds, especially if you have a fast memory card as well.
Using a card reader doesn’t drain your camera’s battery, and there’s no risk of the battery running out while files are in the process of transferring over.
USB Cable
Most cameras come packaged with a USB cable that can go directly from the camera to the computer. This can be more straightforward for some users than using a card reader. A USB cable can also be used for other purposes, such as tethering for live shooting or controlling your camera remotely (depending on your camera model).
Formatting Your Memory Card
Regardless of the tool you use to transfer images over, once you’re satisfied that all of the images have copied over to your computer, it’s a good idea to format your memory card using the on-camera menu.
Formatting helps maintain optimal card performance by resetting the file structure, preventing file corruption, and ensuring smoother read and write speeds.
It also frees up space on the card for new photos and reduces the risk of mix-ups or accidental deletions during subsequent shoots. Just make sure that the images are definitely on your computer – formatting the card permanently erases all of the data on it.
Using a Catalog Software
Using a cataloging software, like Adobe Lightroom, is highly recommended. Even for brand new photographers, starting out with a cataloguing software will help you import, organize, tag, and then later find your photos when you have thousands of them!
There are a few key reasons why it’s generally not recommended to use your computer’s native file system for culling photos:
- No metadata management – File systems don’t track metadata like keywords, ratings, captions, etc. that are useful for search and organization later on.
- No non-destructive edits – Any adjustments made directly to the original file are destructive and can’t be “reset” later.
- Hard to keep files organized – It’s easy for files to become disorganized, lost or duplicated when moved haphazardly in folders on your computer.
- Difficult to sync across devices – File systems can’t easily sync files, metadata and edits across multiple computers like photo software solutions.
- No centralized database – Without a photo database (like what Lightroom uses), it’s hard to maintain references if files are moved or deleted later on.
- Slower review process – Browsing file folders is much slower than using metadata filters and virtual previews in photo software.
For these reasons, it’s best to always import and cull your photos using dedicated photo management and editing programs.
Software Options
Some popular options for photography file management and organization are:
- Adobe Lightroom: Provides a full-featured cataloging and editing ecosystem. Streamlines metadata entry. Allows keywording, flagging, and Collections for organization.
- Photo Mechanic: Dedicated culling software for rating huge volumes extremely quickly based on embedded previews alone. Pros use it for rapid down selecting before further editing in Lightroom.
- Apple Photos: Free with macOS. More limited capabilities than Lightroom but suitable for basic culling on one computer.
- ON1 Photo Raw: Competitively priced all-in-one alternative to Lightroom and Photoshop. Strong local adjustment tools.
Culling Your Images
Regardless of the program you use, culling your images after each photography adventure ensures that only the very best shots from each photo outing advance to the next stage of editing, storage and finally backup.
Culling is the process of reviewing your entire photo set from a shoot and selecting only the best images to keep, while discarding unusable, blurry or subpar shots.
The Goals of Culling Photos
- Critically evaluate each photo at 100% magnification and remove any that are blurry, incorrectly exposed, lacking in composition, etc. This ensures only high-quality images move forward.
- Cut your full photo set down to a more manageable number of true “keeper” shots. Going through hundreds of photos can be time consuming, so culling helps you focus on your favourites.
- Avoid wasting future time and hard drive space editing or storing photos that are beyond saving. It’s better to cull them early.
- Analyze the strongest photos from the shoot so you can improve your shoots in the future!
Initial Review
Here are some techniques for efficiently culling a large number of images:
- Use the left and right arrow keys to quickly cycle through your photos.
- Make a quick first pass to remove any photos that are completely unusable (out of focus, too under- or over-exposed to fix, etc.)
- Use keyboard shortcuts for a simple rating system, such as 5 stars vs. 0 stars to quickly pick out potential “keepers”.
- Scan quickly at thumbnail size, zooming in when needed to verify focus.
- You can then do a second pass to make harder decisions, like picking the best photo out of a sequence of images.
- Take regular breaks to review your collections with a fresh eye before finalizing your decisions.
Using techniques like these, a photographer can rapidly analyze hundreds of images per hour to identify the strongest shots worthy of further time and effort in post-processing.
The Journey of a Thousand Pictures Starts with a Good Workflow!
An efficient workflow is crucial for nature photographers who amass thousands of images over the life of their hobby or career. Having proper file management and organizational systems from the start ensure a lifelong collection of cherished moments that remains secure and accessible.
