For what it's worth my workflow is quite different.
I import with PM and name files automatically as the frames are ingested and also use PM's automatic folder creation feature to ingest the files into a particular folder structure onto Hard drive #1 (which is a raid 1 two disk array, which is part of a three array set with one off line which gets sync'd one a month or so) During the ingest I have PM put in some basic IPTC metadata in various fields.
Then I use PM to view files and decide on a one, two or three star rating. One star shots get deleted at the end of the session, two star photos I let sit a while so I can see them with fresh eyes at some later date and sometimes delete them, sometimes promote them, or mostly just leave them there to sit on the drive. Years later I sometime find a use for these not quite best shots. I will now Keyword these with PM's "structured keywords panel" Then I grade each shot with a color, each representing on category of my photography. For example color #1 is for my personal snapshots, color two are "scenics", color three are "cemetery" shots - etc. That along with keywording saves me countless time and headaches. Were I to try to do all this with Light Room (which i no longer now use) or Aperture (ditto) or Capture One, it would take forever and actually I'd not be able to do much of this. I've depended on the DAM features of some of these programs and found myself in a mess often due to updates forcing a change of approach or software glitches, so I'd rather keep all the organizational aspects "hand made" and simple. One of the un-sung "features" of Photo Mechanic is that they don't always change everything!! (Thanks Camera bits!)
To make some of this fast and easy I use variable in some of these IPTC fields. For example my Object Name field is "{colorclass}{iptcyear2}{iptcmonth0}{iptcday0}-{iptchour24}{iptcminute}{iptcsecond}" and I have "{colorclass} in my Category field. It all helps later.
So now that each photo on my Raw files array is key-worded, with the metadata as I need, rated for quality and color graded by the group they belong to - then I use PM's Copy option to "move" (copy and automatically delete) all the photos graded with three stars onto a separate Drive sitting in a different enclosure which I refer to as my Edit drive. That gives some failover protection against enclosure hardware failure and it gives me two copies on two drives, one being constantly spread over three drives to help offset the impact of Hard drive decay and failure. Since these are moderately large spin drives I limit the partitions to 50% for a boost in speed (it uses only the outside of the platters that way) and I can always grow the partitions if I really need, but so far I've simply been upgrading them every three to five years. I've always been a bit puzzled at how we photographers spend a fortune on Lenses and tripods etc, and skimp on the hardware which our photographic history lives on. It's relatively cheap and hard drives are a high fail bit of marvelous technology.
When Photo Mechanic moves my three star rated photos onto my working drive I have it change the folder structure a bit where now the photos are automatically moved to their separate groups. That way all my Landscapes are in a folder structure like "/volumes/Edits/Scenic/Scenic-17-09/Scenic_17-09-28". Nice and organized and in a way that works for my brain.
Since only the files I plan to edit with C1 are on this large drive, it fills up slowly, and C1 scans the folder faster. I've gone back to sessions, but when I used catalogues I kept hearing about large catalogues giving people speed problems and other headaches so with this approach I sought to avoid that, later down the road. Sessions tend to work better and faster though, for me. I've only migrated to Capture 1 version 10 a few weeks ago (I'm always late so that the problems are less of a surprise) so I haven't investigated thoroughly any incompatibilities but like version 9 (which I also have for security - I bought two separate licenses and upgrade them in a staggered order to always have a older copy as well ... just in case) I have only the same small issue that the Colors applied in PM don’t sync up. They would if I changed my custom naming and colors to one of the pre-sets, and on that note I’ve had the most compatibility with two way color syncing between PM and C1, using the Aperture pre-sets in PM, btw. But I only need the colors to enable my chosen folder structure so I don’t really care. Al the rest, keywords, IPTC and the star rating works in both directions.
So when the selects are on my Edit drive, I now fire up Capture One and do my editing. When the edits are done I normally process both a 800 pixel and a larger 2600 pixel file. They are appended a sub-name automatically by C1 so that I can tell what size they are at a glance. For example the 800 pixel file, the size I tend to use the most because I mostly post to a forum would have a filemane such as “170928-00502-s.jpg” and the same 2600 pixel file, which is a good size to view full size on my monitor would be “170928-00502-M.jpg”. That is the time as you’ve probably noticed with year,day,month - hour, minute, second format (and A,B,C etc appended by PM in the case of shots taken in the same second. I actually wonder why someone would find it desirable to rename files? I have it like that because that way I know which folder the file came from, but mostly file names are superfluous in my view, when metadata is used. It’s far, far more useful in searches. While I like my photos in folders with a structure I can understand, so that it is indpendant of any one piece of software, I don’t actually care in use as searches and fliters are such an advantage in use. So I wonder what purpose usage scenario exists for people who do rename files. What sort of naming do you use and what’s the logic behind it?
The last point on my workflow is that the edited files now got processed, were processed out to a third older smaller hard drive. That way I have my originals in a rotated out raid, of which I used to keep on drive at home when I was shooting for the North Carolina dept. of Instruction, and one of my personal drives was at work. That way on copy was always off premises. that made the originals as secure as I felt comfortable enough with without resorting to very expensive and time consuming backup strategies. Then that was duplicated again, with the best shots residing in a second enclosure drive number four. If either enclusure and it’s drives died a complete and ugly death .. well I’d have no reason to cry.
And those edited files are on drive number five in enclusure number two, and I really don’t care about those at all since Capture One’s batch processing is so fast and nice. I keep them there because I import the larger 2600 pixel files inside to the Photos app that comes free with any Mac. I use it, because that way I can share files at any size whether for texting, upload to iCloud so that they are on every device or for sending to flickr or emails - all without having to have another sized copy. The 800 pixel files are so that I can post pictures straight to FredMiranda without compromsing any further quality. The advantage to the Photos app is that any further tacky edits for when I want to use those awful pre-canned filters or some dramatic style edit (which I normally dislike) it’s easy and works exactly like my phone or iPad. My wife is familiar with that sort of way of working, just in case she wants to make some easy edits for her stuff. Aperture which I used to use, was a bit of overkill but did keep my fininshed edits all in one easy to search place, sort of like having a “favorites” album. But my wife did not take to its complexity.
So I hope that my particular way of working is of some use to someone, even if only to make them smile as they think I’m nuts.
I think writing it out sounds compicated and perhaps leaves the impression that a lot of time or effort is involved. That is not the case. As far as my use and interaction with Photo Mechanic is concerned it was a long process to set up and hone the program to work the way I preffer it to, but once set up - it is such a joy to use. It took me longer to write this than to use PM on about 300 shots out of a weekend of maybe 1000 from start to finnish. The keywording takes the most time, but PM’s stuctured keywording ability makes it far easier and faster than absolutely any other program I’ve ever used. It’s pretty much genious. And for someone who shoots sports - how could they possibly get by without things like PM’s code replacement features. I shudder to think.
Even if my particular way is not YOUR particular way of working with your thousands of digital and scanned photographs, I do still think that it may help underscore to people new to the program the vast personalization possibilites and all while still having a simple to use interface which does not get in the way if one wants to to work without some of it’s advanced features. I wish other software designers had that same approach and attention to fine details that only Camera bits seem to understand to this level. Because while there are many DAM and Raw Editing programs - there is only Photomechanic that can browse and help do the fundamentals behind good asset management and still make it fast, comprehensive and easy. It works my way, without getting in my way.
Cheers.
