productivity

We have all heard that “real photographers get it right in camera.” Whether it is attached to some asinine argument about shooting RAW vs JPEG or a preachy lecture about the pitfalls of using anything but manual mode, there can be a lot of pressure to get perfect images right out of the camera. There can also be an apathetic tendency to just “fix it in post”. Both extremes have their downfalls and I have found that a balanced approach is essential for personal development and happiness.

Auto-stacking in Lightroom can quickly organize a huge set of images in to more manageable ‘stacks’, which are small groups of images grouped according to their capture time. This 6-minute video from photographer Anthony Morganti shows how you can use the feature to speed up your workflow.

There's a Gmail add-on feature that photographers and others always seem to benefit from once they find out about it. I've been using it since it has been available and it has been amazing. If there are any responses that you continually re-write over and over again, Gmail's "Canned Responses" feature is there to help.

The productivity service IFTTT (short for "if this then that") is a popular digital "glue" that ties different web services together. If you want to create a Facebook status every time you get an email, or automatically upload new photos to Flickr, the app allows you to do that.

And now, with the release of the company's brand new (not to mention free) iPhone app, IFTTT's influence is spreading to include a decent amount of functionality for smartphone photography lovers.

Want to learn how to be more productive with your photography? Instead of simply "trying harder" and relying on your willpower, a better way may be to take simple steps that have been shown to be effective by science. The above 3-minute video, created by artists/educators Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown, offers some tips that science has taught us about being more efficient at working and spending less time getting our work accomplished.

Here’s a neat productivity tip for those of you who regularly buy stuff online (e.g. obsessive photo gear buyers): …

Do you have an efficient way of keeping track of which batteries or memory cards are fresh and ready …

If you’ve ever tried saving a layered file in Photoshop CS5 that’s more than a 1GB in size, you’ve …