It’s the dirty reality how much us professional photographers manage in our businesses. Like, really dirty. The hats we wear and learn to wear – the list is endless, friends. And one of the most important? Digital Asset Management. DAM for short #SeeWhatIDidThere?
This is a fancy title for organizing all of our files. It may seem like something unimportant, but it’s a real thing and companies and brands hire individuals who specialize in just this one area. Why? Because for any business, there become massive amounts of files. You want files that are well organized, easy to find and backed up and stored properly. The sooner you can grasp how important this part of your job is, the better off you will be in the long run. Imagine 15 years down the road and all of the files you will have in your database. An insane amount, am I right? So jump on board with how important it is because I am about to break it all down for you and best practices for handling this part of running a business.
Let’s jump into the first steps of DAM. These will be your tools for saving, organizing and backing up files. Back in the day as a photographer and before cloud storage, I would store off-site external hard drives along with my in-house external drives. There was a lot of picking up, backing up and dropping off again. Now thanks to modern technology, things have gotten a bit easier in this department.
External Storage. You want to make sure and find exactly what is going to suit your needs and everyone has their preferences. My personal favorite? Drobo. This thing is a beast and I love the entire setup that Drobo has to offer. I have the classic 4-bay Drobo which holds 4 hard disk drives. What does this mean? It means that if one of my four hard drives fails, I have three others that are holding all of my data and storage. The Drobo allows for your files to be duplicated four times over.
Drobo offers different models depending on your needs so be sure and do your homework on what they offer, but it’s a great choice for on-site external storage of your files.
Cloud Storage. I have truly loved the power available with DropBox. It is a fantastic system and they are constantly rolling out features and updates to the DropBox system that continues to make life easier. Everything that is stored on my on-site storage is duplicated and identical within my DropBox system. Why do I do this? Because technology fails all of the time. Computers crash and drives go faulty. Take it from someone who has lost a small collection of personal photos from a hard drive crash years ago. It is so extremely important that you are backing up in multiple places. Both on-site and off-site or cloud storage. We store imagery for years and we need systems that are going to be solid and trust-worthy. It is also convenient for when you are on-the-go and still want to work effectively away from your desk. All of your work product is available at your finger tips wherever you happen to be.
Over time, I have had to increase my DropBox storage and I now pay $9.99 per month for this service. However, for peace of mind that all of my files are being stored safely, backed up a second time and I can access anything from my mobile devices? Yes, please!
Alright, so now we have chosen the best options for us in both on-site and off-site external storage of all of our data and files. Awesome! Check that off the list. So where do we begin once we are ready? My first rule of thumb for you is to figure out the best scenario for you, the type of work you do as well as your workflow, establish it and always maintain the same system. Why? Because once you start your new management system you want it to continue to ensure that all of your files are consistently stored and filed. This will ensure that you can find anything you need whenever you need it and whenever it comes up. Thorough planning now saves you hours of frustration later. Not to mention sheer stress when you think you have lost a certain image because it wasn’t labeled the same way you are searching for it.
We are going to make a list. Jot down everything that you use imagery or any kind of file for so you know what “parent” files you need to set up. Think of these as the main subjects of your business. My list looks a little something like this:
Now there will be many of you who don’t blog or don’t deal with any e-commerce so your main list will look different, but let’s break down the more general ones so we can decide exactly what files are going where.
Admin. This folder will house all things for upkeep. For instance, your branding and logos, your Facebook and Twitter headers, your menus and pricing, your templates for order forms, invoices, etc.
Blog. For those of you who do blog, this will be where you save all images for each blog post. You might be asking why you need to do this. One year ago, something happened with a software update on the backend of my blog and six months of posts were gone. I had them all back within 24 hours because they were stored, dated and labeled within my storage system and I was able to pull them from there. I’m just sayin’.
Clients. As the title suggests, this will be where you store all client documents and images.
Emails. This will house all of your marketing emails or newsletters that you send to your subscribers and clients. And for those of you who haven’t yet utilized this in your business? Start.
Stock + Styled. I realize that some of you may not do this, but I do a lot of stock and styling imagery for business. Whether I use it for marketing or design, I have found a large need for it so it’s become one of the main subjects of my business.
Website. This will be where you save all of your portfolio images, your web design files such as blog headers, graphics, etc.
Because there is so much to cover between all of the folders, let’s skip right to the client folder which is universal for all of us. I am going to base the specifics off of the photography area of my business, but this concept is universal. You will just customize to your business model. If you are a wedding photographer, you may do better keeping clients filed by year within the parent folder. If you are a portrait photographer, it may make more sense to stay organized by the client’s last name. So the general breakdown of a client’s specific folder would look like this:
The biggest thing that I can not stress enough is the actual labeling of each file or image. The one mistake I see many business owners make is saving the file whatever they want to in the moment. Please, never ever do this. Each client’s files need to follow the same suite. For example, I photographed the Smith Family back in 2013 on August 15th. The labeling of their image file in my system would be: Smith_081513_01.jpg. Every original, high res image is saved in this manner. Once those have received their final editing, then I go into re-sizing them for the blog post, submissions, proof prints, etc and each one is saved in it’s respective folder that looks like this:
Everything is neatly organized and easy to find. A note for my fellow photographers: One thing I get asked a lot is if I keep the original, unedited images. And my answer is always yes AND no. Let me explain. Part of my job as a professional photographer is to select and choose my client’s final image collection. I do not give them every image and instead choose only the images that make them look the very best. However, if my client asks me if I happen to have a particular image or a different pose, I don’t want to be left without those images as a backup. So I will save the original files in the client’s folder and once I receive their final order and the job has closed, I will then go back and delete the original images.
And remember! This same layout of folders and files is duplicated within Dropbox as well. Always, always, always, back up in more than one spot!
This subject could go on for days with how much we could cover, but for now I will leave you with this. If you haven’t yet started paying attention to your file management, get started now so you aren’t wasting time in the future. Set time aside in your schedule to really get a handle on this aspect of your business because it will change your life and also make it easier if you were to hire an assistant or employees in the future.
Happy organizing, friends!
Original article and pictures take www.karalayneandco.com site
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