Heavy Lifting

If it doesn’t matter, simply use a cellphone and be done with it.

Otherwise, someone is going to have to do the work necessary to make sure the images are captured, processed, and produced not only to serve the immediate need, but also future needs.

If you have the staff and resources to handle the heavy lifting of processing out-of-camera files in a timely manner, great! If not, you need to make sure you are hiring someone who can do as much as you need done. Otherwise, you are putting yourself at risk. In the immediate, you risk of winding up with less than optimal image files that do not necessarily represent you as well as you want. In the future, you risk not being able to find your images.

Assuming that you have high-quality images (that is, images shot with professional gear with no physical limitations by someone skilled and experienced with the gear), the following outlines the heavy lifting necessary to avoid those risks

• • having the hardware and software necessary to process the images
  • having the skill and experience to efficiently handle all aspects of
    • Digital capture
    • File Naming
    • Metadata capture
    • Review and selection
    • Digital post-production (basic)
    • Enhanced post-production
    • Preparation of contact sheets, slideshows, and/or online galleries
    • Preparing files for delivery (print-ready and/or web-ready)
    • delivering the files and make sure you receive them
  • archiving the images. (While this might not be critical for everyone, it is absolutely critical for some.)