Caption match photos fast: the six-step method

One match, hundreds of photos, an agency waiting. Here is a method to go from the memory card to delivery without losing the evening.

1. Import the card safely

Copy the card into a dated folder, renaming by template ({date}_{teams}_{seqn:4}). The copy is verified byte for byte, nothing is overwritten, and files already imported are skipped if you run it again.

2. Throw out the failures

Run the analysis: blurry, too dark or too bright photos, and bursts. Select the failures and the weaker shots of each burst, then X to reject them. Tag the best with T.

3. Create the match event

Choose the type (rugby, football…), enter the teams, the competition and the venue. Import the team sheet: number;name;team.

4. Caption the highlights

Select the photos of one action and type in the quick caption bar, for example /goal /header /RS16 /m45 /event. The player is added to the persons shown at the same time.

5. Caption the rest in bulk

Select all the other photos and apply the event: caption, title, keywords, city and reference, with each photo’s own date. Touch up in the preview if needed.

6. Deliver

Send to the agency’s server over SFTP with that client’s delivery template: resized JPEGs, metadata written inside. If the connection drops, the queue resumes where it stopped.

The IPTC fields and the glossary explain what the agency will read.

Keep reading

• Find blurry photos and bursts — Spot the failed frames and keep only the best shot of each series.
• Caption sports photos with shortcuts — A list of players, shortcuts to type, and the captions write themselves.
• Send photos to an agency over SFTP or FTP — SFTP or FTP, several batches in a queue, resume after a dropped connection.
• IPTC and XMP: press photo metadata — The metadata agencies read, written into your JPEGs and .xmp files.