In this week’s episode of The Shutter Button Podcast, I talk about the pros and cons between receiving a formal education and free-shooting when you’re first starting out. I also talk about some of the benefits of continuing education and workshops for more intermediate photographers. Enjoy and, as always, thanks for listening!
Metadata 101: The Power of Tagging and Organizing Your Work
Hey everyone, Zig here!
Today I’d like to take a bit of time to talk about importing, organizing, and tagging photos after a day of shooting. It’s a very valuable skill to develop because it'll let you easily keep track of projects images, now and far into the future!
The Benefits
It's important to keep track of your project's files for a number of reasons, but first, let's talk about it in the scope of organizing a project. Firstly, it saves time, and if something saves you time, then it's very likely that it will save you money and save you from potential mistakes. Organizing and tagging your images correctly lets you search for and sort through them much more easily. This is especially important on larger projects with many files, as well as projects that involve multiple people. Being able to work in a clean and clear environment, physically, is extremely important for productivity. Why shouldn't we keep our digital workspace clean, as well?
So keeping files organized on a per-project basis is important only when you're working on said project, right? Not necessarily! Imagine a scenario where a client calls you up to make some last minute adjustments to a set of images or videos. If you slacked on organizing and tagging your project correctly, it might slow down your response time and add to the pressure of getting a new set out to the client in time. Much of that stress could be avoided by making sure your project is set up for success, right from the beginning.
Next up, there's a potential scenario where you may be completely finished with a project, but you can use some of the leftover content for projects or reels of your own. For example, if you were putting together a set of stock images using spare shots you took at an event, it'd be much more difficult to navigate through the possibly many hundreds or thousands of images to find the ones you were looking for. If you had, from the beginning, even simply flagged those shots to be used down-the-road, you would be able to quickly look them up and start developing right away.
How To: Importing and Tagging
So, I've talked a bit about the benefits, but not necessarily how to go about importing, tagging, and assigning metadata. This is because everybody uses a different system that they're most comfortable with. I'm going to share some of the processes I go through in my workflow, but I encourage you to look around online and see what other photographers and creatives do to organize their work!
To start off, when I import the images from my XQD card into Lightroom, I do a few things;
1. First, I add a "shoot" name to the batch in the following format: YYYYMMDD_[Optional Client or Project Name]_[Description]_[Location]. For example, if I shot a set of floral images at a local park, I would name the shoot something like 20190417_Spring_Flowers_Stamford_Park. This way, all of my shoots are automatically sorted chronologically, regardless of the computer I'm working on (because of the date format) and I also get a clear description of the project or set.
2. Second, I add every image to a collection using the same name format.
3. Third, I add any generic keywords that encompass the entire set of images. Sometimes, this is not the case, but if I'm out shooting a single, specific subject, then I can do a large amount of tagging right away before I even import my files.
4. Fourth, I go through and flag every image in the set in Lightroom. If an image is a "winner," I flag it as a "pick." If it's a clear "loser," for example, if it missed focus or has clear visual problems, then I typically flag is as "rejected." Finally, I leave every other image flagged as neutral. This lets me quickly sort through every viable image (for the project, or otherwise) in the set whenever I want to explore the photos I've taken.
5. Fifth, and finally, I do a round of more advanced tagging that is helpful when uploading some of the images to stock image websites like Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. This last round of tagging is also good because if I want to explore my entire collection of images, I can sort by different styles, subjects, equipment, colors, and even frame orientations.
Set Up for Success
All of these steps combine to create a clear, organized, and accessible project file structure. I'm able to quickly navigate and see every relevant file at a glance, as well as sort through anything when looking back at or re-entering the project. This is an incredibly powerful skill to develop and it takes time, patience, and the right attitude when working, even on personal projects. This type of workflow can set you up for success in a number of ways and will ease many of the technology-related processes of being a photographer.
Anyway, that's all that I had to talk about for today. I hope to see you next week in another episode of The Shutter Button podcast, which is now also available on Apple Music! Thanks, everyone, and happy shooting!
A Short Introduction to Focus Stacking
Hey everybody! Zig here!
Today I’d like to showcase an image I took on my recent trip to Mianus River Park and talk a bit about my process of retouching and focus stacking when shooting macro photography. It all starts out with a series of images and in this case, it’s a series of photographs I captured of a mushroom which I found growing on the side of a fallen log. Take a look at the images and notice how each has a different portion of the mushroom in focus, starting from the foremost edge of the mushroom and moving all the way to the back.
To capture these, I mounted my Nikon Z6 on a tripod, composited the image, and then used the “Focus Shift” feature that is built into the Nikon Z6. The way that focus stacking works is that focus on the foremost part of the object you want to photograph, take a photo, move the focus towards to the back while overlapping your first photograph slightly, and then repeating the process until you have captured enough “slices” that each contain a different piece of focus for the target image. The focus shift feature in the Nikon Z6 automates this process and made it very quick and easy to get the results that I wanted.
After I’ve taken the photos, I import everything into Lightroom and make all my processing adjustments to every image in the stack before exporting the full-sized JPEG files and opening them in Photoshop. What I specifically do is open the first image in the stack in Photoshop and then import and rasterize every other image in the stack into that same session. At this point, my layers look a bit like this;
After this step, I select every layer in the layers tab and click on Edit > Auto-Align Layers and then choose to let Photoshop decide on the best way to automatically align them.
Once Photoshop aligns every layer, I then go in and make any additional adjustments like the selective removal of focus from some of the layers or, if there are many images in the stack, more extremely out-of-focus areas to prevent potential ghosting when I merge everything in the next step. After I’m content with the layers in the stack, I then click Edit > Auto-Blend Layers and let Photoshop automatically merge everything together. The final image looks like this, with the expected result being that everything is in focus.
This is a bit of a simplified breakdown of my process, but I hope that it gives the structure you would need to be able to repeat a similar process or implement it into your own workflow. I am always adjusting and improving the process as I learn some of the pit-falls of shooting macro photography and I am always open to hearing suggestions about how you might change or alter this style of processing and stacking!
I’ve only recently started to integrate this technique into my routine and I’ve already seen examples of photos where I would not want to keep everything in focus. However I think that focus stacking, and practicing taking multiple images with different depths of field, allows me to have the freedom and control I’m looking to get with my macro photography. It helps me capture the crisp, sharp edges that I like, as well as selectively keep things out-of-focus when I want to. Anyway, that’s all I have for today. I hope you have a great week shooting and I also hope that I was able to give a little insight into how I produce some of my macro images. I’ll see you all next week in another episode of the Shutter Button Podcast where I’ll be talking about formal education vs. deliberate practice, and my experience with finding a balance between both.
Thanks and all the best,
- Zig
Photo Book Review: "Seaside Shelters" by Will Scott
Hey everyone, Zig here! How’s your Wednesday treating you? Staying warm (or staying cool depending on which part of the world you’re reading from)? Well, either way, I hope you’re doing well!
Today, I’m going to talk a bit about a book I’ve only been able to take brief glances at since I bought it last October and I’m excited to share some of my experience with it after taking some time to sit down and really go through it. The book is titled, “Seaside Shelters,” and it was created by Will Scott, a wonderful architectural photographer whose work I wish I had found earlier. The photos within are all distinct in their own ways, but the focus of this book is to showcase quaint, often small, structures that reside along the coasts of the United Kingdom. It begins with a lovely essay written by Edwin Heathcote, that spans several pages, and describes the history and cultural impact that these structures represent for many British people. It helps to set the backdrop for you, as the viewer and gives you the information you need to get the most out of each image, even if you haven’t grown up in the world that’s described. There is a line written by Edwin, on the last page, that resonates with me deeply, “They are, perhaps paradoxically, among the saddest and the most joyous, the smallest and the biggest hearted buildings ever built. They will surely outlast us all, still shabby, still slightly funny, still decaying.” I think this illustrates Will’s aesthetic and focus excellently.
The rest of the book consists of 50 photographs, an alphabetically sorted index of each location, and a map showcasing where each image was shot. I think it’s a lovely illustration that shows just how intimate the country’s size is when compared to the variety of architectural styles Will showcases along the coastline. There’s a wonderful variety of familiar settings ranging from night and day to overcast and sunny, clear skies and one of the things I especially enjoy about how Will photographs these structures, is that he very clearly makes them the foremost subject on each page. Sometimes, there are no people around at all, and in others, they’re around or inside the structure, but the image is composited in such a way that they feel almost like a fleeting image, much like the memories associated with the buildings themselves. The shelters stand firm at the center of the frame on every page, like silent guardians standing headstrong against the elements. The ocean and sky stand just behind them and the view feels like it goes on forever. Looking out past the structures, I think back on memories of family trips along the coasts of New England when I was just a young kid. I remember visiting beaches with my family and moving around the shore to get as much of the ocean and sky in view as I could. I remember looking out and seeing the waves move synchronously with each other as the clouds drifted across the sky overhead. It’s a very calming, hopeful feeling that I always look forward to when I visit the beach. The colors and tones that Will captures also evoke a feeling of nostalgia. I think back on the familiar sights and sounds of leaving the busy city and arriving at the beach or harbor where my family would spend the day. The soft tones of the sandy beaches and the light blue skies fills me with a warmth that is especially wonderful on colder days like today.
However, Will also evokes that somewhat bittersweet feeling we all experience when looking back on our past and I feel that it’s especially present in this book, with images that reflect memories of trips to the beach, snack bars, and sandy towels. Seeing the deterioration and decay of the structures can remind us of the neglect we, too, have felt as we’ve grown older and lost some of that childhood magic. Still, I think these somber reflections serve as an important reminder that even with the constant motion of moving forward, those feelings of loss and regret are just one side of a two-sided coin. The shelters serve as an anchor in both mind and body, and their resilience, despite their treatment (or lack thereof) is a testament to the connections we make with the past through the buildings we build and the memories we form there. It’s a reminder that nostalgia is cloudy and formless. It’s something that you can get easily lost in, but buildings like these can act as a guiding light in that messy fog, bringing you back to reality.
I highly recommend this book for the content, as well as the price. I purchased my copy from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for about $20, but I have found it available on Amazon, as well. It’s become a staple of my bookshelf and I have enjoyed sharing it with others. I look forward to seeing more of Will’s work in the future, as well as maybe purchasing another one of his books!
You can find Will’s website with more of his work here: http://www.willscottphotography.com/
Anyway, that’s all I had to share for today, but I look forward to recording the next episode of the Shutter Button Podcast next week. I’ll be talking about some steps and necessities for planning projects for both personal and professional work. I’ll see you all in the next post!
Have a great week,
- Zig
Gearing Up for the New Year!
Hey everyone, happy Wednesday and happy New Year! I’m really looking forward to the year ahead and I wanted to take some time to break down some ideas I’ve had about gearing up and getting my kit in shape for 2019.
Right off the bat, I feel that it’s important to go over my goals because if I don’t even know what my goals are for the year, how am I supposed to take steps towards them? When it comes to the long-term, I have a few ideas, but mostly I’ve been thinking about experimenting and playing around with my photography in the year ahead. I’ve written up a small “want-to-do” list down below;
I want to build a simple, 1-light studio setup for at-home product and macro photography, which should be versatile enough that I can re-use some of the lighting equipment for portraits, as well.
I want to get a simple, but effective gimbal for experimenting with videography and travel/stock footage.
I want to experiment with more, planned, at-home projects.
I’ve tried to keep these goals flexible, but not so vague that I get lost trying to achieve them. I’ve also tried to stay away from any specific product or brand name because I feel that’s a recipe for overspending money I don’t need to. Another thing I left out of this list is lenses. If there’s something that all photographers can get behind, it’s that really good glass, is very, very expensive. I have a few items on my shopping list (like a new wide-angle FX-format lens for landscapes and interiors), but for the most part I am looking to work mostly with what I have ine my lineup right now. The way I that I see it is that the money I would be spending on lenses is money I could be spending on equipment for different projects, which is something I value a little more than having “the perfect lens” for each situation. I also think that this line of thinking is a good way to get me to get experience with being more flexible when it comes to equipment and cost restrictions.
Also, as a brief aside, when it comes to equipment I need to get for my professional work, I think that the gear I have now is more than enough for most of the simple jobs I’m looking to take on.
So that’s it for now! It’s only the beginning and so far I have some at-home project ideas I’d like to plan and work on, as well as a few pieces of equipment I’d like to pick up just to play around and experiment with. As we move a bit deeper into 2019, I will most likely develop a more refined list for each goal, along with some equipment ideas and choices. I’m greatly looking forward to executing on some ideas this year and I can’t wait to share that journey with you guys, too!
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m wishing you all a great 2019 and a very productive year of photography!
- Zig
I'm Producing a Photography Podcast!
Hey, everyone. Ziggy here again. I wanted to talk about a project I’m currently writing and producing in my spare time; a photography podcast! It currently has the very tentative name, “The Shutter Button Podcast: We’re Already Halfway There,” and at its core, I’ll be using it to talk about a ton of subjects that can be daunting for both beginners and hobbyists, alike.
Each episode, I plan to talk about a very specific subject for about 5-10 minutes with the goal of providing listeners with a set of steps they can follow to practice and integrate that new information into their toolkit. For example, one of the first episodes is about project planning and some of the key factors that should help break it down into simpler, more digestible terms. I discuss how to plan and manage a budget for both time and money, as well as scouting for shooting locations and even giving some tips on how to brainstorm and keep track of project ideas.
My current goal is to finish the writing for the first four episodes, as well as the outlining for the following four, for a total of eight episodes that I’ll be releasing either once per week or twice per month. The release schedule is still being worked on, but I’m planning on making the podcast available on all of the major platforms, as well as right here on my blog!
With all of that being said, I still have a lot of work to do, but I’m excited and looking forward to the remainder of this initial writing period and moving into the recording/production steps.
As always, thanks for all of the support and I hope to see you all again real soon. See you next week!
- Zig