5 Take Aways from Week 01

As some of you know I started my masters degree in Digital Photography from one of the top Art schools in New York.  Here are my top 5 take aways from week 1.

1. Organize, Organize, Organize: Taking the time to get your workflow organized is EXTREMELY important.  Everything from taking the shot down to exporting it for your clients and backing up. Yes, backup, backup, backup.  
2. Importance of Keywords in my own workflow, not just when it hits iStockphoto.  Yes, I'm guilty of not spending time key-wording, but as my instructors say, if you can't find your photos then you might as well have not shot it.  Wastes time, and money.  Sure you can remember where it was this past year, but try finding your files 10 years from now.
3. Getting the right tools: I know photography is an expensive hobby, but if you don't have the right tools, your pictures can look like crap!  It may look nice on your screen but when you print it out, it's dark and flat could be simply embarrassing.  
4. Convert your files somewhere in your workflow to DNG.  Yes, every camera maker out there makes RAW files, but over time DNG will remain open-source and supported by the photography community.  So just get it right and start converting your RAW files to DNG.  FYI, JPG's do not need conversion since it's already a compressed and a limited file.
5. Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop is pretty much the standard!  Buy it and use it!  And most of all get over the price of it.