Ready the Photo Staff: Sample Timelines
Written by Bill Hankins
To help you organize the processing and editing of photographs, here are sample timelines for traditional and digital photography that can be followed by a yearbook photography staff. No matter what your staff size, I believe it is imperative that photographers edit their own negatives. This builds their own initiative and ownership of their work. I used this approach and found that shooters appreciated being able to help usher their images into print. Look at this from another perspective — should an editor select which quotes a writer must use in his story?
Traditional
PHOTOGRAPHERS
- after developing film and placing film in storage sleeves, do initial edit of negatives using sharpie or stick-on dots
- show edit to photo editors who verify assignment met; critique as needed; negs filed
PHOTO EDITOR
- with layout design in hand, edits negs for printed page
- reviews and selects with photographers who will be scanning or printing for the layout
- once final scans are in appropriate deadline folder on the computer, will place them on the layout; if staff is printing will check prints for quality and make sure they fit the layout
- sees that scans are backed up on zip or CD and negs are filed
Digital
PHOTOGRAPHERS
- plug cameras into IMACs and download assignments
- do initial edit, picking out 4-5 top images
- put raw selects into personal folder on network server
PHOTO EDITOR
- accesses photographers’ folders on network
- reviews, selects and makes appropriate editing decisions
- saves images in necessary folders for later digital toning, moving image toward being placed on page layout
- at least once a month burns CDs of all images for archives or further review
- after backing up drags image files off the computers
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