Maybe this thread would be best served if people share their workflow methods...
I cover sports, so I have two workflow routines. One for getting photos sent by e-mail or ftp on deadline, usually at halftime or immediately after games, and another workflow to archive photos from the entire game. I use the second workflow when sorting through photos from portrait sessions, weddings, and other events.
In a hurry, gotta send a couple of images:
The key to doing all of this is to "tag" or "protect" images as you shoot. Too many sports photogs spend their time deleting images during stoppages. Instead, just worry about tagging the best images so you can easily access them by only showing tagged images in PM.
1: Ingest photos using PM, renaming them "{iptcyear2}{iptcmonth0}{iptcday0}_CreampuffsJuggernaughts_{frame4}_MyName", and apply some sort of dummy caption info into the IPTC info. "during the first half of a college football game between the Creampuff State Creampuffs and the Big Money University Juggernaughts on Saturday, October 1, 2009 at Booster's Name Stadium in College Town, USA. The Creampuffs led 21-7 at haltime." I make sure to have keywords, such as the team name, city, etc. preloaded into the IPTC Stationary Pad before the game begins.
2: View only tagged images, remove tags on photos you aren't going to send.
3: Write caption information into the IPTC data, using the dummy caption as the base - "Joe Schmoe runs for an 8-yard touchdown" only needs to be added to the info that is already in the file. Code replacements will save you a lot of time and prevent spelling errors. Let the photo editor cut out the extra info.
4: Put the key person's name in the "Object" field of the IPTC data.
5: Draw a crop box on the image.
6: Select the images you wish to work on, they already have a caption written and a crop drawn.
7: "Save as" with no scaling, just leave it at the default 200 px/inch the image is, but "rename the photos" as "{iptcyear2}{iptcmonth0}{iptcday0}_{object}_{frame4}_YourName" into a subfolder called "cropped"
8: Open the "cropped" contact sheet.
9: Select photos to edit in Photoshop, I generally only adjust some levels and apply an unsharp mask, save them in a subfolder called "edit"
10: Open the "edit" contact sheet.
11: Select the photos, then send them by e-mail or ftp
I can usually move 15 photos at halftime of a football or basketball game.
The day after the game, I'll sort through each photo, frame by frame, applying a color code to each one. 5 is average, 4 is better, 3 is good, 2 is great, 1 is a rare lofty level of photography, 8 is trash, 6 is "wish this worked out!" and 7 is usually photos I mean to send to a friend or have some other use for. I'll usually want to revisit my rankings to make sure I didn't pick out too many 1-3's, since they are the best photos.
I then go through each one, drawing a crop and putting people's names in the "Object" field, "save as" like I already described. That way I can easily sort by filename, apply keywords if I want, write captions if necessary, and pick out the best photos from each game to file away for future use. I delete the "8's" and keep the rest. I will usually use Photoshop to apply a "Batch Process" to all of the photos after they have been cropped and deleted the cropped versions, keeping only the edited and original files. I then burn the edited files to CD or DVD and upload to a backup site and keep the originals on external hard drives, since it will now be easy to find and re-edit them if necessary.
