GTD for Photographers

In the world of personal productivity, David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) method has achieved cult status. In short, the GTD method makes use of the following 5 stages:

1. Collect
2. Process
3. Organize
4. Review
5. Do

These same steps might also be used to help photographers, particularly those who are trying to balance a full time job with a burgeoning career as a photographer, to make better use of their time. Let’s take a look at the potential application of each step.

1. Collect: This step should come easy for photographers – get out and shoot some images! Of course, a bit of forethought here might pay dividends in the following stages. What do you want to shoot? What is the best lens for the shot? When will the lighting be at its best? What is the best angle? Consideration of questions such as these will produce a tighter set of images to be carried into the next stage.
2. Process: How do you process your images? Assuming that you are shooting in RAW fomat, several options, such as Camera RAW, are available. For the vast majority of my images, I use Aperture for the processing stage.
3. Organize: How do you organize your digital images? Do you have a trusted system or do you dump hundreds or thousands of images onto your hard drive and hope for the best? I have been using Aperture for almost 18 months and find it be a very reliable tool for collecting and organizing all of my images. There are a number of readily available resources to help you learn the basics of Aperture – I suggest Rich Harrington’s Aperture Quick TIps podcast. There are also several Aperture plug-ins available to help you get more out of your organization system. For example Maperture allows you to quickly geotag your images. This is also a great time to back up your images using the Aperture vault or by burning DVDs, etc.
4. Review: I find that it is difficult to part with some borderline images immediately after a shoot. In order to keep my external drives from bursting at the seams, I review my Aperture projects on a regular basis to eliminate those borderline files that have now lost there sentimental value. The review process also provides an opportunity to see my images from a fresh viewpoint and often leads to ideas for a new twist on post-processing.
5. Do: Upload your best images to your favorite stock sites. Build a web gallery to share with a magazine editor. Set up a free Imagekind account to sell prints. Get out and take more pictures.

So, how about you? Do you use a similar system or have you found better ways to “get things done” with respect to your photography?

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