How and why to quality control your photographic image library
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Loading... - Yu Yan Wong
- 07 Sep 2022
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Whether we're taking photographs for personal use, or for clients, making sense of our image library and keeping things organized is a tricky task. How many of us have finished a shoot, only to drag the folder of images onto our desktop and name it something random like "images003" (just me, then)?
Once you've established a good photographic workflow – either using your own system or the best image organizing software – you then need to make sure that you're keeping your collection of images in check by culling duplicates, those that are out of focus, or that you'll simply never use again. This is especially important when you're narrowing down images to give to a paying client.
Ensuring that the images you supply to your customers are of the highest quality is a challenging task. While investing in the best professional cameras(opens in new tab) and perfecting your technical skills will provide more consistent results, shooting files is only one stage of the output process. Sorting an image database and isolating the best photos from a particular shoot is a skill in its own right. The working photographer has to establish that their images are fit for purpose and are aligned with the required functions expected by the client.
First, decide what quality means to you
The first stage is to determine what the term ‘quality’ means in any given circumstance. What one consumer might want is not necessarily considered of utmost importance by another. As an example, while stock agencies aiming for sales to poster and magazine publishers might be more concerned with sharpness and even lighting, a newspaper picture editor may place more emphasis on the subject, context, and timing. Read More...
