If you share photos online at Flickr, SmugMug, or Facebook and you’re using Adobe Lightroom for your post-processing and image management, there’s a good chance that you’re using Jeffrey Friedl’s export plugins to get your photos from your computer to the online services.

One of the features that many folks seem to overlook is the ability to send a tweet announcing your new uploads. The Twitter section is in the lower part of the export options panel:

Tweet a Lightroom Export

If it’s your first time, you’ll need to click the “Authenticate at Twitter” button to sign into Twitter. Once authenticated, you can choose what message to send once your export is complete. Click the “Help on special codes” link to find out more about how to automatically insert the URL to your destination photo, photoset, or your base URL on the service.

Other than tweeting links, how do you drive traffic to your photo sharing sites?

These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. How to Export Photos from Lightroom to the iPad
  2. Tweet Your Photos from SmugMug
  3. How Many Times do you Tweet Links to Blog Posts?

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Here we go with Episode 23 of the Social Photo Podcast. Hosts Aaron Hockley and Lyza Danger Gardner talk about better blogging, Facebook, a Social Media iPhone App, Lightroom 3, and more. This episode is about sixteen minutes long.

All this Web belongs to meLinks to Things We Mention

Distribution and Feed

We’re now on iTunes – if you use iTunes, you can subscribe using this link: Subscribe on iTunes

You can also find the podcast as an attachment to the main Social Photo Talk RSS Feed. You should see a player at the bottom of this post if you want to listen directly, or you can grab the Episode 23 mp3 file directly.

Feedback

We’d love to have your feedback – technical, content, or otherwise. Leave a comment here or send mail to [email protected] – thanks!

Photo by Robert Scoble, used under Creative Commons licensing

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These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. Social Photo Podcast #22: Blogging, iPad Updates, Easy Release, Adobe’s Lens Correction
  2. Social Photo Podcast #21: Google’s Photo Business, Social Media Lost and Found, Outsourcing Your Blogging
  3. Social Photo Podcast #18: Lightroom 3, CS5, iPad Preview

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social media marketing

If you’re new here, you can keep up with my latest photography information at Picture Pundit – subscribe to my newsletter for a FREE Report: A Guide to Twitter for Photographers.

Subscribe via iTunes: – this link will launch iTunes for easy subscription

It’s time for Episode 19 of the Social Photo Podcast. Hosts Aaron Hockley and Lyza Danger Gardner talk about iPad Reactions, mobile photo apps, synching photos to the iPad, Adobe’s coming launch event, and more. This episode is about fourteen minutes long.

Daisy Fireworks-only 100 days to goLinks to Things We Mention

Distribution and Feed

We’re now on iTunes – if you use iTunes, you can subscribe using this link: Subscribe on iTunes

You can also find the podcast as an attachment to the main Social Photo Talk RSS Feed. You should see a player at the bottom of this post if you want to listen directly, or you can grab the Episode 19 mp3 file directly.

Feedback

We’d love to have your feedback – technical, content, or otherwise. Leave a comment here or send mail to [email protected] – thanks!

Photo by aussiegall, used under Creative Commons licensing

Podcast: Play in new window
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These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. Social Photo Podcast #22: Blogging, iPad Updates, Easy Release, Adobe’s Lens Correction
  2. Social Photo Podcast #18: Lightroom 3, CS5, iPad Preview
  3. Social Photo Podcast #16: iPad Poll Results, URL Shorteners, Andy Adams Interview, Call for Questions

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Here we go with Episode 13 of the Social Photo Podcast. Hosts Aaron Hockley and Lyza Danger Gardner talk about Google Buzz, how photographers might use Buzz, Shane Rich’s oncemany Project, and more. This episode is about eleven minutes long.

In the fog / Köd előttem, köd utánam [explored]Links to Things We Mention

Distribution and Feed

We’re now on iTunes – if you use iTunes, you can subscribe using this link: Subscribe on iTunes

You can also find the podcast as an attachment to the main Social Photo Talk RSS Feed. You should see a player at the bottom of this post if you want to listen directly, or you can grab the Episode 13 mp3 file directly.

Feedback

We’d love to have your feedback – technical, content, or otherwise. Leave a comment here or send mail to [email protected] – thanks!

Photo by athos[hun], used under Creative Commons licensing

Podcast: Play in new window
| Download

These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. Social Photo Podcast #15: Flickr Contacts, Shane Rich Interview
  2. Should You Buzz About Google Buzz?
  3. An Intro to Google Buzz for Photographers

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The Adorable Christmas CoupleLast weekend I had the honor of being the primary photographer for 30 Hour Day, a first-of-its-kind charity telethon held entirely online as opposed to traditional broadcast media. I was in the studio taking photos as well as processing and uploading selected photos to Flickr. Clients love quick turnaround, and by putting the photos online it gave telethon viewers a glimpse “behind the scenes” into the people and workings of the studio.

I got some questions both from people in the studio as well as online about my workflow and how I quickly pushed photos to Flickr and Twitter. As background information, I was shooting with a pair of cameras using CF cards. I had my MacBook Pro with a card reader and Lightroom. I use Jeffrey Friedl’s Lightroom Export plugin for Flickr. Here’s how I did it:

  1. Every hour or two, I’d offload files from the CF cards onto my computer and import them into Lightroom.
  2. During the import, Lightroom was automatically assigning event-specific keywords as well as adding my copyright info to the EXIF data.
  3. All of the photos were then placed into a Lightroom collection for the event.
  4. A generic description for the event was added to every photo – in this case “From the studio at 30 Hour Day”
  5. I’d quickly go through the collection, rating each photo with one, two, or three stars. One-star photos aren’t good, two-star photos are okay but not my best work, and three-star photos are those that are candidates for uploading. Lightroom tip: if you turn on Caps Lock while rating photos, you’ll jump to the next photo as soon as you hit the number on your keyboard.
  6. After rating, use the Library Filter to only show images in the collection that are three stars.
  7. Go through the three-star images and make Develop adjustments to the ones I was going to publish. For the most part I wasn’t making any substantial edits, mainly white balance adjustments and the occasional exposure adjustment (either global or with the adjustment brush). I was probably spending 30 seconds (or less) per image on average.
  8. After making Develop module adjustments on an image, when it was ready to publish I’d label it with the green label (using the keyboard shortcut – the 8 key – to make this quick).
  9. I created a Smart Collection with the following criteria, used throughout the event as I processed photos:
    • In the 30 Hour Day collection
    • Rating at least 3 stars
    • Color label is green
    • Has not been uploaded to Flickr (this is a custom property set by the export plugin)
  10. Go through each of the photos in the Smart Collection (to be uploaded) and give them a title.
  11. After each batch, upload the photos to Flickr, placing them in appropriate groups.
  12. While exporting, use the plugin’s option to send out a tweet – include the event’s hashtag (in this case #30hd) and a link to my Flickr photoset for the event.

With this system I was able to quickly and easily get photos online from the studio in a fast manner that also pushed the photos to Flickr and Twitter.

These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. Keyword Synonyms for Usernames
  2. Social Photo Podcast #4: What to Tweet, Holiday Gifts, Upcoming Poll on Workflow
  3. How to Export Photos from Lightroom to the iPad

Tagged as:
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30hd,
flickr,
keywords,
lightroom,
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Workflow

If you’re new here, you can keep up with my latest photography information at Picture Pundit – subscribe to my newsletter for a FREE Report: A Guide to Twitter for Photographers.

I’m going to borrow a slogan from Nike and suggest it as a mantra for organization of photographs. Just Do It.

Whether your photography medium is film, slides, or digital, as you take more photos you’re going to end up with storage and organization needs. I know a couple guys who have gradually accumulated thousands of photos which they organize simply by burning them to CD and writing on the CD. I suppose that’s better than a complete lack of any system, but when you need to find a photo, it’s a challenge to guess when it was shot and to figure out which disc it might be on.

When it comes to storing digital images, there are several programs specifically for that purpose. I use Lightroom and will likely write more details about how I use it in the future. Regardless of the organization system you choose, here are four things you should keep in mind:

  1. The system should allow for images to easily be found my multiple criteria. Those criteria might include date taken, subject matter, photographic style, time of day, and other information specific to the types of photos you take. For example, I take a lot of photos of trains, and I can easily find those of a specific railroad.
  2. The system must scale. What works for keeping track of 100 photos might not be practical when that collection grows to a few thousand. Choose an organization method that allows for expansion both in the quantity of photos, as well as the types of material being tracked, that is, to have new categories or ways to find the material.
  3. The system should be easily backed up. If you’re using a software program, there should be a feature to backup the database. If you’re storing something in the physical sense (slides, prints, negatives, etc), your organization scheme should allow for a duplicate set of material.
  4. The system should be able to be used fast enough to be effective. If you avoid cataloging your photos because it’s too hard or too time-consuming, the system won’t get used, and you might as well not have any system at all.

How does photo organization relate to social media and online community? It’s hard to share your photos if you can’t find them. A strong keywording and tagging system as part of your organization system will translate into a strong set of keywords and tags when you post photos to Flickr, SmugMug, or another online location.

Spending a few minutes to develop an organizational system will pay off in reduced frustration and time spent looking for photos in the future. In a future post, I’ll dive further into the world of digital asset management software and offer some specific information on my program of choice, Lightroom. Regardless of the system you choose, the important thing is to have system, and use it.

These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. A Social Photo Workflow: Posting Photos from the 30 Hour Day

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The iPad makes a great device for showing off one’s portfolio. If you use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, there are a couple steps to get your photos onto the iPad. These instructions are for Lightroom 2.6:

The Basics

  1. Pick a folder on your hard drive that you want to use for your photos that you’ll copy to the iPad. I created a “iPad Portfolio” folder.my paper iPad
  2. From Lightroom, export your photos to that location. The iPad’s screen resolution is 1024×768, so you might as well size them for the device since any larger files will only take up excess storage.
  3. Open iTunes (you’ll be using iTunes to copy the files to your iPad).
  4. Plug in your iPad if it’s not already connected.
  5. You should see the iPad listed on the left side of the iTunes window (under DEVICES). Click on the name of your iPad.
  6. Click on the “Photos” tab at the top of the window.
  7. Check the “Sync photos from…” box.
  8. In the dropdown menu (which usually defaults to iPhoto if you have it installed), click on “Choose Folder…”
  9. Select the folder where you placed your photos from Lightroom.
  10. Next time you sync your iPad, the photos should show in the Photos app on the iPad.

Creating Albums

The Photos app on the iPad offers a neat interface for viewing albums of photos, but how does one turn Lightroom files into an album on the iPad? It’s not as hard as you might think.

Albums are created based on the folder structure on disk. So, for example, if you create a Landscapes folder and a Weddings folder inside of the folder that you told iTunes to synchronize, you’ll find a Landscapes album on your iPad along with a Weddings album.

Photo by sciondriver, used under Creative Commons licensing

These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. Social Photo Podcast #19: iPad, iPad, iPad, and Adobe
  2. Tweet From a Lightroom Export
  3. Social Photo Podcast #18: Lightroom 3, CS5, iPad Preview

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