Clean Camera > Use fast camera formatted memory cards > Don't over shoot a subject > Download cards as soon as they are full on site if possible > Use external USB2 or firewire Card readers to copy directly to laptop without software > Use cataloguing software that needs to open images to verify no errors > Back up to external hard drive > Reformat card in camera
Check, double check and check again each of the procedures.
Clean Image Captors
With the Canon we start the day shooting by ensuring the image captors are clean on the bodies. A pain to do, but means huge time savings in image cleaning up later on, but also ensures a better presentation of the images to the client or art director. The Canon EOS bodies are set at f22 and a clear shot of the sky is taken. The image is then zoomed on the back of the camera and examined for dust specs. As is usually the case, it needs cleaning. We make up a cleaning tool with a plastic spatular and some lint free lens cleaning paper, with a few drops Eclipse optic cleaning fluid. The captor is wiped over, and given a few minutes to dry off before repeating the sky shot test.
Memory Cards - not too big and as fast as possible
Use fast Compact Flash cards, with preference for 2Gb capacity cards. larger 4GB and 6Gb cards are tempting, but if they fail or there is a problem they take a lot longer to recover data using recovery software or could be a disaster if images are lost completely, as it could be a whole day shoot on one card and impossible to return to redo the shots if a problem is encountered. The speed of the card is important and cheap generic cards will become a real pain to work with once you start shooting in bursts, as the cards grind to a halt when they become overwhelmed with data being written from the buffer. Even with fast cards (like the SanDisk Ultra II 2GB) there will have moments, when shooting in RAW mode when you can just put the camera down, twiddle your thumbs and whistle until the flashing light on the back of the camera stops and tells you the memory card has caught up. This is extremely frustrating when shooting sports action or movement for stock and fashion, and can be even slower than running out of film on a film body. A good resource to check up on memory card performance is found at Robgalbraith's excellent site with his Compact Flash Performance Database page http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007
Card Formatting
Reformat the memory card every time in the camera before shooting! This is to be sure the numbering on the images is continuos and that the cards is cleaned. Do this even if there are only a few images on the card and lots of space left. Not reformatting the cards when using multiple memory cards on the shoot, can mean you end up with the same file names! Which could either mean you overwrite or don't transfer images when you get the warning the same file name exists!!! For the same reason, don't swap memory cards in and out of the body for different subject matter, like have one card for this subject and another card for another subject as file names can be similar and then there is confusion and conflict on the computer. Shoot a subject, download it, back up and reformat the card. Keep the subjects in different folders on the computer not on the memory cards being used to record the images.
Shot Discipline
Don't shoot too much. One of the major work flow issues with digital is shooting too many images, which might mean you get the 'right' shot, but usually means you have so much data more to transfer, back up and then sort through that it becomes overwhelming post shoot. In the days of film, cost stopped anyone just endless amounts of shots of the same subject. Going back to the 'old days and film' one rule used by some was a roll of film per subject, or angle... which was often because the roll would then be clip tested for exposure to get the right colors. When the camera finished the roll of film it was like a signal to stop shooting, unfortunately digital doesn't have that if you use large capacity memory cards. Trying to stick to 40 shots per subject, product photo set up will however help in the next step of the work flow and you should of got your shot in that many frames anyway. On your computer screen in the cataloguing software that represents only one or two pages of thumbs to scan through to make final shot choice.
Download cards on site if possible. Cards do fail! When they do, perhaps there is a chance to reshoot the images if the error is caught sooner rather than later
Use external USB2 or Firewire media readers as opposed to PCMIA card readers on laptops as they are faster.
We use either:
Multimedia Storage Viewer - EPSON P-2000
If it is not possible to have a laptop on the shoot or at least close at hand we use a hard drive with a card reader and LCD viewing screen. We use the 40GB Epson P-2000 to transfer data from the memory cards and view them. This device is useful even when a laptop is available and you have a client or art director who absolutely has to see the shot as soon as it is taken. Rather than crowding over you shoulder to view the images on the tiny LCD on the rear of the camera, you can put the card in the viewer and have them check out the shot on the excellent 3.8 inch LCD display and even zoom on the images. If a laptop is at hand, the Epson can then be transferred to the laptop and the images kept on the Epson as a back up. The Epson has proved trouble free in transferring images across, and the images can be zoomed and stepped through at full screen (meaning that they are being opened) to check that there are no transfer errors or corrupted files. The problem if there is no laptop nearby, is that there is no back up of the images when you remove and reformat the memory card so is risky until you get back to the hotel or office and so needs to be kept safe from being dropped, knocked or lost! There are 80GB Epson multimedia storage viewers now, but these devices should be used as if they were a larger memory card and data transferrred and backed up to a computer as soon as possible. Larger capicities might mean there was a tendency to leave data on there until it was full before transferring and with any large capacity media it means there is more to lose if it breaks! The device also needs power! So spare fully charged batteries are a must and need to be changed before they are completely empty. Having the battery die while a card is being transferred is a waste of time as you have to go back and start again (or could even miss that the data wasn't all trnasferred) and possibly it could corrupt the data on the memory card.
Laptop
A laptop plugged in to a power source to download images and create a catalogue before backing up the images to an external hard drive. Only then will we reformat the cards in the cameras. We never reformat the cards on the computer. The computer must be plugged into a power source, either a car battery adapter or a mains supply. However accurate the computer battery indicator might appear the computer can die in mid transfer, and then you don't know if or how many images transferred and it can corrupt the files on the card. A laptop battery will run flat quite quickly when doing file transfers as it also powers the media reader device, and the external hard drive you are backing up to. Image software for making catalogues is processor intensive and so will use more battery power too.
For maximum transfer speed we do not use any of the image software, but simply copy the images only from the memory card to a pre-named folder for the shoot session on the hard drive. 2GB card takes about 6 minutes to transfer this way. Using i-Photo or other software will take a lot longer as the software is creating thumbnails, doing preview rotations etc at the same time...
Cataloguing software
Once the images are copied over we drop the folder into cataloguing software, and we use software that has to open the images to make the catalogue so we can be sure the large image file is not corrupt. The camera produces a thumbnail that some software, especially the desktop file browsers use to show the image on the computer. This image can be fine whereas the actual image file is damaged. As we use Apple Macs, we use i-View Multimedia with preferences set to not use the built in thumbnails to make catalogues, and also set the thumbnails to be large like 512 pixels for faster viewing presentation to the art director or client and when editing later. I-View, which can handle RAW file, has to open every image file to create this larger thumbnail, so even though it takes time, you are verifying the image is sane. Once the catalogue is made, it is saved into the folder with the images. The folder is then copied across to an external hard drive as a back up, and the memory card can be reformatted and reused. There is no point backing up the images to the laptop, the idea of an external hard drive is that it can be kept separately from the laptop when traveling. Then, it is unlikely that both will fail or get stolen. Writing DVDs as a back up is too long even with fast DVD burners and everyone waits until they have 4.2Gb of data before they do it. The back up should be instant so there is always 2 copies of the original as soon as possible after shooting. One copy on the memory card and another on the laptop whilst making the catalogues, then one on the laptop and another on the hard drive. Be aware that theft of a laptop occur often as does dropping it and breaking it. Make sure the external drive is in separate bag or better with someone else. Turn around on a 2GB card is around 30 minutes. 6 minutes transfer, 20 or so minutes making the catalogues with large thumbnails, and 4 minutes to back up to the hard drive. We use several memory cards on a shoot so this is not an inconvenience during the session.
Tip: If using a laptop plugged into a car power adapter for long periods of time remember to run the car engine to keep the car battery charged! It will run the car battery flat, and pushing or jump starting the car doesn't make for smooth workflow.
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Digital Work Flow