{"id":4901,"date":"2019-01-27T09:37:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T09:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/2019\/01\/27\/10-good-reasons-why-you-need-an-archive-if-youre-a-photographer\/"},"modified":"2019-01-27T09:37:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T09:37:54","slug":"10-good-reasons-why-you-need-an-archive-if-youre-a-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/2019\/01\/27\/10-good-reasons-why-you-need-an-archive-if-youre-a-photographer\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Good Reasons Why You Need an Archive if You\u2019re a Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Have you ever had a moment in your life where a friend, co-worker or client comes to you and ask you for a specific image and you just can\u2019t find the original? If you\u2019re like me with a few Lightroom catalogs containing ten thousands of photographs, then this situation will likely happen.<\/p>\n

With digital photography, it\u2019s now effortless to take, process and publish images. We share more than ever before on social media and we shoot twice as much than five years ago in 2013.<\/p>\n

All that data is easy to generate and it\u2019s quite common for photographers to share their results every single day online. But there\u2019s one thing that still requires some effort, something that many photographers overlook: archiving.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s an Archive?<\/h3>\n

The word itself comes from the Latin word arch\u012bum itself derived from Greek archeion<\/em> which mean \u201cpublic records\u201d (among other things). It\u2019s basically an accumulation of records (in this case photographs).<\/p>\n

In a way, Lightroom catalogs are already archives. So the real question would be: what\u2019s a good archive.<\/p>\n

The Basics of a Photography Archive<\/h3>\n

A good archive is an organized repository, it can be filtered (by location, keywords, tags, categories, date etc\u2026), you can make search requests on it, it has to be backed up, ideally you\u2019d also need to be able to let other people browse it, it should be accessible regardless of your device and your location (web-based). Most importantly, it should be easy to maintain and use.<\/p>\n

As a photographer (amateur or pro) you\u2019re producing content and this content has value. It can be an emotional value or a financial one (or sometimes both). It makes sense to protect that value (first by having a proper backup system in place) but secondly by archiving and organizing it.<\/p>\n

Creating Your Archive<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve tried a bunch of different pieces of software during the past few years, from apps (Filemaker<\/a>, Evernote<\/a>, Pixa<\/a>) to web based solutions (Dropbox<\/a>, Google Photos<\/a>, EyeEm<\/a>, Behance<\/a>, Pixieset<\/a>, Shootproof<\/a>) but none of them had the set of features I needed.<\/p>\n

Until I finally tried SmugMug<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I had seen SmugMug<\/a> being used so many times already (for example on Von Wong<\/a> website) but never bothered to test it.<\/p>\n

The American company started by Chris and Don MacAskill went from a five-bedroom home with blow dryers and vacuums routinely blowing circuit breakers in 2002 to buying the giant Flickr just a month ago. Those guys are passionate about photography and it shows.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see why it\u2019s so good to use SmugMug as an archive.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: This article is not endorsed nor sponsored by SmugMug, it is purely my personal opinion on their services and why I chose them to build my archive.<\/em><\/p>\n

#1. It\u2019s Complementary to Your Portfolio<\/h3>\n

A photographer website is a showcase, it should display your best work and contain a selection<\/em> of projects. A good friend of mine who\u2019s also a great photographer (Niels Ackermann<\/a>) once explained to me that I was showing too much on my portfolio and he was right. I was starting out and wanted to show too many images per projects because I just couldn\u2019t edit them down to a tight selection.<\/p>\n

A portfolio is the curated<\/em> version of your best self. It\u2019s the beautiful display of cakes and sweets by the pastry shop window.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccommissioned\u201d section of my portfolio showing eight selected projects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My portfolio is running on Squarespace<\/a> and is located at samuelzeller.ch<\/a>. The archive is set-up on a sub-domain and located at archive.samuelzeller.ch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a link between my portfolio and my archive, they\u2019re complementary.<\/p>\n

Most visitors just want to discover an overview of my work, they land on my portfolio and get an idea of what type of photography I\u2019m doing. Some other visitors (regular ones, friends or clients) are looking for more and they can access my archive for this purpose.<\/p>\n

Showing all the images<\/a> taken during a project, note the alternative crops and angles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

#2. It\u2019s Organized and Searchable<\/h3>\n

A portfolio can be as simple as a few slideshows. Some great photographers that I\u2019m following have very simple websites. The structure is often similar to this one \u201coverview, portraits, commercial, bio, contact\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also photographers who choose to display their work per project and with a bit more details, each project usually containing between ten and thirty images (that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing on my website).<\/p>\n

A portfolio has a very linear organization \u2014 it\u2019s mostly the main navigation and a simple structure. Your archive is much smarter than that, it can be filtered and it\u2019s searchable. Think of it as an extension of your website.<\/p>\n

My archive is divided by locations (countries and\/or cities) but also by projects. For example at the first level I have a folder for \u201cGeneva<\/a>\u201d which itself contains sub-folders like \u201cBuildings<\/a>, Scenes with people<\/a>, etc\u2026\u201d this allows me to quickly find all the images that I\u2019ve shot in this city.<\/p>\n

At the first level I also have folders for client\u2019s projects, for example \u201cVerbier for Monocle<\/a>\u201d contains about 100 images that I\u2019ve shot last year in Verbier for Monocle magazine. They printed only six of them but I\u2019ve archived the project (not all the images, just the 100 that I selected and sent to the client).<\/p>\n

SmugMug has powerful tool to organize your archive. For example you can batch edit titles, tags and description.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every single image is also organized using titles, descriptions, and tags.<\/p>\n

This allows visitors to filter then entire archive either by searching for a specific word or by clicking on one of the tags. Tags are also conditional. You can display all images containing \u201csnow<\/a>\u201d that are in the folder \u201cGeneva\u201d for example and they can be combined (display all images tagged with \u201carchitecture<\/a>\u201d then filter down the results to only show the images tagged with \u201cwinter\u201d to view all the buildings I\u2019ve shot during that time of the year).<\/p>\n

Images under the tag \u201cmountain\u201d note the display of related keywords and the option to combine keywords.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

#3. It\u2019s Visible to the Public and to Search Engines<\/h3>\n

Every single day people search for images and most of them do that using Google. Having your work showing up in search results is an easy way to increase the number of people who will visit your website. But getting your work properly indexed is not as easy as it seems.<\/p>\n

Luckily, SmugMug has a great SEO optimization. All images have title, description and tags attributes and they\u2019re seen as structured data (they\u2019re Schema ImageObject) which means they\u2019ll show up quickly in Google search results.<\/p>\n

My archive currently contains 841 images, 781 of them are recognized and indexed by Google search and Google images (the rest will be in a few days).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The more images you have on your archive the more often your work will appear in search. My archive is relatively small and new but it already displays in Google Image results about 50 times per day for various type of queries. It may not seems much but organic discoverability can play a big part in the long run in getting new clients.<\/p>\n

Appearing in search results just a few weeks after adding the images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

#4. It Acts as a Backup<\/h3>\n

Uploading your full resolution JPEG files to an archive on the cloud also mean they\u2019re relatively safely stored from any hazard. It doesn\u2019t replace a full backup of your work on an external drive and on services like Backblaze<\/a> (which I highly recommend \u2014 I\u2019m currently using a Synology DS418<\/a> NAS backed up on Backblaze B2<\/a> for all my raw files) but it adds another layer of security. Photographs are our assets and we should protect them.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: SmugMug also has a Lightroom plugin that let you sync collections (it pulls titles, captions and tags from Lightroom too!). It is useful if you have a lot of images to upload and want to stay in Lightroom for organizing them.<\/em><\/p>\n

#5. You Can Access It Anywhere<\/h3>\n

That\u2019s probably one of the most useful features of having an archive online. Being able to share your work with friends, family or clients is invaluable.<\/p>\n

As an example, yesterday I was taking photographs for Monocle, who opened a new office and cafe in Z\u00fcrich, and at some point, I had to take pictures of the drinks they were serving. I took my phone and showed them some other similar shots I\u2019ve did on past projects (that are not yet on my portfolio) and we decided together on the styling.<\/p>\n

SmugMug iOs app running on my iPhone SE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only you can share publicly visible galleries, folders, and subfolders but you can also create private ones (accessible only with a link) or password protected ones.<\/p>\n

#6. It Gives Context To Your Work<\/h3>\n

Photography is a great tool for documentation, but single images don\u2019t have a narrative. Visitors won\u2019t know that this beautiful forest you captured is actually part of one of the sixty national parks in the US, they won\u2019t understand the context and they will judge the image purely on its aesthetic value (which can be a good thing sometimes).<\/p>\n

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I know of so many photo editors and art directors who constantly bemoan the lack of captions on websites to help them understand the context in which an image has been created. So why not include them? I have yet to hear a logical answer to this question. \u2014Grant Scott<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

SmugMug showing title, captions and tag for an image providing context to the viewer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By using the title and description fields in SmugMug (and the tags) you can easily give the viewers more information about your work.<\/p>\n

#7. It Will Be Useful to Clients and Friends<\/h3>\n

I can\u2019t recall the number of times I was with a friend and took my iPhone out of my pocket and showed them some work I\u2019ve did that I had stored on my archive. It\u2019s invaluable to have all of your work in the palm of your hand.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m shooting corporate or commercial portraits I also show my archive as a reference for the client. I can quickly find past shots that encompass what I want to create on location.<\/p>\n

The bigger your archive becomes the more likely you\u2019ll have images that will fit your future clients in both content and style. I learned quite quickly that most clients need to see something similar to their needs in your portfolio in order to be able to project themselves and imagine what you\u2019ll be able to create for them.<\/p>\n

For example, it\u2019s way easier for me to pitch images for a wine brand if I can show them an archive of images I\u2019ve shot for a subject for Monocle magazine on Swiss wines.<\/p>\n

#8. It Looks Professional<\/h3>\n

Maybe this is a detail but clients will appreciate when you send them a link to your archive instead of just a bunch of images on WeTransfer. They\u2019ll be able to browse sharp images that have been automatically optimized for the web by SmugMug and download or buy the ones they need. You can even create password protected galleries and let them share the link to their colleagues and their team.<\/p>\n

SmugMug offers plenty of customization options to make your archive look exactly the way you want it to be.<\/p>\n

#9. It\u2019s Built for Tomorrow<\/h3>\n

As a photographer, I\u2019m my own boss and every project I do (personal or for a client) is another stone I add to the house I\u2019m building. It is very important to take the time to sort old projects and present them online, but I don\u2019t want to put everything on my portfolio. Your archive grows with you, and it\u2019s there for the long term.<\/p>\n

#10. It Acts as a Journal<\/h3>\n

Having an archive is a good way to build up a journal for yourself. Because all images have their EXIF data displayed, you can quickly check when you took that one shot. You can also use this to browse back in time and see what you were doing a year ago. Your archive is a repository for your memories.<\/p>\n

An image<\/a> taken on July 27th with my favorite combo, a Fujifilm X-Pro2 with the XF35mm f\/1.4 lens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before choosing SmugMug, I compared it with other services, mainly Photoshelter, Pixieset, and Shootproof. One of the big reasons why I went with SmugMug is also the cost. At just $72 per year for their \u201cpower\u201d plan (custom domain, unlimited storage, and customizations), it\u2019s hard to beat!<\/p>\n

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About the author<\/strong>: Samuel Zeller is a freelance photographer based in Geneva, Switzerland, who\u2019s available for assignments worldwide. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Zeller is an ambassador for Fujifilm and the editor of Fujifeed<\/a>. You can find more of Zeller\u2019s work on his website<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>. This article was also published here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever had a moment in your life where a friend, co-worker or client comes to you and ask you for a specific image and you just can\u2019t find the original? If you\u2019re like me with a few Lightroom catalogs containing ten thousands of photographs, then this situation will likely happen. With digital photography,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1799],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}