While I'm laid up crock, it's given me chance to go through some of the photos I've taken during the summer and have a think about my overall workflow.
Capture the image
Goes without saying really. Without some images, the rest is pretty pointless.
Import into Lightroom
I import images straight from the camera into Lightroom, simply filing images by the date they were taken
Select the picks and rejects
Using Lightroom's flags, I'll go through and mark the images that I want to keep, along with those that arent up to the mark. They might be out of focus, blurred or countless other faults, it doesnt matter they go into the reject pile.
Develop images
Typically, I'll adjust the crop, exposure and contrast but often also change the colour temperature, vibrance or saturation of an image to get what I'm looking for
Export to JPG
Once I've got an image (or series of images) that I'm happy with, I export them all to JPG. This way I have a copy of the final output with all the develop settings in place, to give me something to work with.
Create a collection for favourites
To a certain extent, it doesnt matter if you delete the rejected photos or not, but once I've selected the picks from a shoot, I'll often move these into a collectioon. Remember, Flags are local to each folder, whereas colour labels and star ratings are global to an image. This is why I only create a collection after I know the images I want to keep. I use the star ratings to mark the overall quality of the images
Keyword
I hate keywording. But it's a necessary evil, especially if I'm going to publish images on alamy
Archive
I have a regular backup cycle on a ReadyNAS NV+ and then keep another monthly copy of everything offsite just in case...
Then it's just a case of publishing some images