Adobe Success Story

One million images
Popular photographer and blogger uses Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software to speed his photo editing workflow

Thomas Hawk lives life with camera in-hand. An investment advisor by day, Hawk spends the bulk of his free time looking at the world through a DSLR camera lens, framing his next shot. His unwavering dedication to the art of photography is fueled by his ambition to publish a library of 1,000,000 finished, processed photographs before he dies. To help him achieve this objective, Hawk uses Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software to quickly process hundreds of images each day before posting his selections for the world to see.

Benefits

• Simplifies and streamlines photo editing process
• Supports editing and publishing of hundreds of images online each week
• Contributes to visual record of things that will be gone in the future

Project Details

New breed of photographer
While many professional photographers spend hours working to get that one perfect shot, Hawk's documentary-style approach results in dozens of quality photographs each day. Both a photographer and well-known blogger in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hawk readily shares his wide variety of photographs, along with his thoughts and opinions on new media and technology, on his blog ThomasHawk.com as well as on many major social networks, including Flickr, Zooomr, Twitter, FriendFeed, and more.

Hawk's passion for photography began with a Kodak Instamatic when he was just seven years old, but it was his first DSLR camera in 2004 that truly revolutionized his approach to photography. He believes the advent of digital photography and tools such as Photoshop Lightroom 2 have made what he's doing possible and sees his photography as raw material for projects that he plans to work on later in life.

"As an artist, my goal is to outdo New York's Little Angel, Angelo Rizzuto, who between 1952 and 1966 documented New York City with over 60,000 photos," says Hawk. "One million feels like a good number for me." While his aim is high, he's well on his way, with 19,000 images already posted and another 18,000 ready to publish.

After shooting 100 to 500 images, Hawk typically posts 30 to 50 images online each day. He recognizes that to accomplish his goal, this number will need to dramatically increase in the future. "I strongly believe that continuing advances in both camera and image processing and editing technologies will play a big part in helping me achieve my goal," states Hawk.

Evolving photography workflow
Hawk spends approximately 50% of his time shooting and 50% of his time working with the images. He uses his five DSLR cameras with multiple lenses to capture his images, and Lightroom 2 to make sure they tell a story. All of his images are processed and edited in some way in Lightroom.

After a shoot, the first thing Hawk does is put raw images in folders labeled with the date. In his previous workflow, he would go through the folders one image at a time, opening the images that looked like they had potential and editing them in Adobe Photoshop software.

His discovery of Adobe Bridge greatly improved his workflow, enabling him to import images into Bridge, look at the raw images in a larger window, and make his selections from there. Photoshop Lightroom 2 has further streamlined his process by letting him easily import, process, and manage images using the same software.

Photoshop Lightroom 2 also enables Hawk to easily take advantage of the more powerful editing capabilities of Adobe Photoshop. He can import images that require more precise adjustments into Photoshop, apply his edits, and see the changes automatically reflected in Lightroom.

"I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 because it is built for someone like me, who needs a powerful yet user-friendly way to process large volumes of images," says Hawk. "Adobe continues to offer me tools that work together beautifully, enhance my workflow, and make my images look their very best."

Speed is everything
Hawk first reviews his images and flags the ones he thinks he might like to work with, which is typically about 15% of the images from any given shoot. Next, he processes those images using the non-destructive adjustments available in the Lightroom 2 Develop module. Hawk uses the tools in Lightroom 2 to make image adjustments such as increasing the contrast and saturation of most images, and doing quite a bit of sharpening and cropping. He also uses the new Adjustment brush to dodge and burn specific areas of an image.

"I like to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 presets, especially for black-and-white images and vignetting, because they deliver consistently good results," says Hawk. "My workflow is all about speed, and with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, I spend less time processing each image so I can spend more time shooting."

When processing is complete, Hawk saves JPG files and puts them in folders to be uploaded at a later time. When he uploads images to the web he randomizes them, so not all images uploaded on a given day are from the same shoot. "Over time, I imagine having such a large pool of images to choose from that I will be uploading images from different years, even different decades," says Hawk. "It will be interesting to see how images from different eras help to define the culture during that time."

Creating collections
Hawk uses Lightroom 2 to apply keywords and metadata, including information such as city, place, type of place, and other specifics. The tags and keywords help Hawk build sets of images online around specific themes. An example of this is Hawk's neon work, which includes over 2,000 images of neon signs.

While Hawk enjoys creating collections that are pleasing to look at, he also believes in the value of historical preservation. "Many of my images are historically or architecturally significant and serve as a record of things that will be gone in the future," he says.

Not yet ready to give up his day job, Hawk does take advantage of both photography and social media ventures, including the opportunity to serve as CEO and evangelist for the photo sharing start up Zooomr. He regularly shoots as a freelancer and has seen his work published in numerous outlets, including San Francisco magazine, Popular Photography magazine, and the BBC. He also works with popular blogger Robert Scoble on a show called Photowalking from time to time.

With no end in sight for his photography, Hawk looks forward to his continued exploration of how massive quantities of images can create an evolving documentary. According to his blog, Hawk would someday like to walk across the United States with his camera, documenting both American portraits and the American landscape. Another lofty goal, but with Hawk's determination, and the power of Lightroom 2, it's only a matter of time.

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