Automation

Beyond the Hype: Why AI Integration Could Actually Strengthen Your Creative Workflow
News

Beyond the Hype: Why AI Integration Could Actually Strengthen Your Creative Workflow

Beyond the Hype: Why AI Integration Could Actually Strengthen Your Creative Workflow I’ve been paying close attention to how photographers are talking about artificial intelligence these days, and honestly, the conversation feels one-sided. Everyone’s focused on worst-case scenarios—machines replacing creatives, algorithmic art flooding galleries, the erosion of what makes photography feel authentic. It’s understandable anxiety, but I think we’re missing something important. The Real Opportunity Most People Overlook Here’s what I’ve noticed: the most productive photographers aren’t scared of AI.

Automating Solar Eclipse Photography: How Smart Apps Are Changing Our Workflow
News

Automating Solar Eclipse Photography: How Smart Apps Are Changing Our Workflow

Automating Solar Eclipse Photography: How Smart Apps Are Changing Our Workflow I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the intersection of photography and automation. We spend considerable energy in the presets and actions space optimizing post-processing workflows, but what happens when we can automate the capture itself? A new tool has me reconsidering that balance. Photographer Steven Madow recently launched Umbra, an automation app specifically designed for solar eclipse photography. With major eclipse events coming—including a total eclipse crossing Greenland, Iceland, and parts of Europe in August 2026—this kind of specialized software deserves our attention.

How I Built a Batch System That Processed 500 Product Shots in One Afternoon
Workflow Automation

How I Built a Batch System That Processed 500 Product Shots in One Afternoon

The Day I Realized Manual Processing Was Costing Me Real Money Last spring, a mid-size e-commerce client sent me 500 product images that needed the same treatment: background normalization to pure white (255/255/255), a specific shadow style, resizing to 2000x2000px at 72 DPI for web and 3000x3000px at 300 DPI for print, and export to both JPEG at 85 quality and PNG-24. Same thing. Every single file. I’ve been doing this kind of work for fifteen years, and I can tell you exactly what happens when you try to run that volume manually.

The Workflow Stack I Actually Use: Honest Notes from 15 Years of Studio Post-Production
Workflow & Productivity

The Workflow Stack I Actually Use: Honest Notes from 15 Years of Studio Post-Production

The first time I spent an entire day cropping and resizing the same image 200 times, I wasn’t frustrated. I was embarrassed. I had been working in commercial photography studios for years at that point, surrounded by people who talked about efficiency constantly, and there I was, manually typing pixel dimensions into the Image Size dialog like it was 1997. That afternoon I went home and learned just enough Photoshop scripting to make sure it never happened again.

The Workflow Stack I Actually Use After 15 Years in Commercial Post-Production
Workflow & Productivity

The Workflow Stack I Actually Use After 15 Years in Commercial Post-Production

There’s a specific kind of misery that comes from doing the same Photoshop task 200 times in a row. I know this because I lived it, about nine years ago, when a client handed me a folder of 200 product images that all needed the same crop, resize, and export sequence. I did the first thirty by hand before something in my brain snapped. I spent the rest of that day learning how to script the whole thing.

Beyond Actions: How Photoshop Automation Scripts Actually Think (And Why It Changes Everything)
Workflow Automation

Beyond Actions: How Photoshop Automation Scripts Actually Think (And Why It Changes Everything)

The first time I spent an entire workday doing the same crop-and-resize task 200 times, I told myself it was a one-off. It wasn’t. Three weeks later I was back in the same chair, same file naming convention, same repetitive hand motion, watching the clock. That afternoon I opened Google and typed “how to automate Photoshop.” It took me about 48 hours of fumbling through forums to write something useful. That was fifteen years ago, and I have not manually repeated a batch task since.

Beyond Actions: How Automation Scripts Turn Photoshop Into a Production Machine
Workflow Automation

Beyond Actions: How Automation Scripts Turn Photoshop Into a Production Machine

The day I finally learned to write a Photoshop script, I had just spent seven hours doing the same crop-and-resize operation 200 times. Same canvas size, same anchor point, same export settings. Two hundred times. By hand. I was a working photographer with a decade of studio experience, and I had burned an entire Tuesday doing something a decent script could have finished before my morning coffee cooled down. That was the turning point.

How I Built a Photoshop Automation Script That Processes 500 Product Shots While I Drink Coffee
Workflow Automation

How I Built a Photoshop Automation Script That Processes 500 Product Shots While I Drink Coffee

There’s a specific kind of misery that comes from doing the same crop 200 times in a row. I know this because I lived it, about twelve years ago, on a catalog shoot that ran long and left me alone in the studio at 11pm with a folder full of raw files and a deadline that didn’t care about my feelings. Every image needed the same treatment: crop to 2:3, resize to 1200px on the long edge, sharpen at 0.

The Workflow Tools I Actually Use After 15 Years of Commercial Post-Production
Workflow & Automation

The Workflow Tools I Actually Use After 15 Years of Commercial Post-Production

The first time I manually cropped and resized the same image 200 times in a single day, I didn’t get angry. I got methodical. I spent that evening learning Photoshop scripting, built an action the next morning, and ran the whole batch in under four minutes. That was fifteen years ago. I haven’t repeated a manual task since — at least not without asking myself whether a tool should be doing it instead.

What Tesla's Growth Strategy Can Teach Us About Scaling Creative Workflows
News

What Tesla's Growth Strategy Can Teach Us About Scaling Creative Workflows

Finding Efficiency in Growth I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how creative professionals can learn from the business world’s approach to scaling operations. Recently, I came across some impressive market data showing a major automotive manufacturer hitting a 25% year-over-year increase in production—something that immediately got me thinking about our industry’s parallel challenges. When I dig into what drives that kind of growth, one thing becomes crystal clear: efficiency at scale is everything.

Photoshop Droplets: The Automation Tool You're Probably Ignoring
Workflow Automation

Photoshop Droplets: The Automation Tool You're Probably Ignoring

A few years back I took on a product photography contract for a mid-sized e-commerce brand. Three hundred SKUs, white background, consistent color profile, two export sizes each. Six hundred files total. The client needed them in 48 hours. I’d built the action sequence over the weekend before, tested it on a sample set, and felt good going into Monday morning. What I hadn’t planned for was how many times I’d need to manually trigger that action, folder by folder, because I’d set it up as a standard batch process through Photoshop’s automation menu rather than as a droplet.

Where AI Fits Into Your Creative Workflow (And Where It Doesn't)
News

Where AI Fits Into Your Creative Workflow (And Where It Doesn't)

The Tool Question We Keep Getting Wrong There’s been a lot of hand-wringing lately about artificial intelligence in creative work. I get it—there’s legitimate philosophical territory here about authorship and craft. But I’ve noticed we’re often framing this as a binary choice when the reality is much more nuanced, especially when you’re thinking about your actual day-to-day editing workflow. Let me be direct: I use AI tools. Not because I’m trying to skip the hard parts of being a photographer or designer, but because I’m pragmatic about what saves me time on repetitive tasks.