Authored by Tareq Husseini, Senior Director of sales for India, Middle East and Africa, Sandisk
Mention photography to most people, and they will likely think of looking at something and capturing it in a photograph or a video. But that view may be far too narrow. It is a bit like saying cooking is simply putting ingredients in a dish and microwaving them, or that cricket is only about hitting a ball with a bat. In today’s content creator economy, photography is much more than saying “cheese” and pressing the shutter. Pointing and shooting remain important, but they are only one part of a larger creative workflow; one that begins the moment the shutter is pressed and continues until the work is published.
As per a study commissioned by Sandisk and conducted by CyberMedia Research (CMR)1, “The Content Rush: Inside India's New Always-On Creator Economy”, almost 75 per cent of creators surveyed publish content at least weekly, many regularly working with full HD video and high-resolution images, while a significant share generate 5 to 10 GB of content per day. That's a lot of photography. And lying behind it is a workflow that supports the creation process.
While each creator has their own way of working, there are six stages that commonly form a part of the content creation workflow:
Capturing content: creating the art
Capturing content is not the end of the creation process. For many, it really is the beginning. Having the right camera, script and composition can play an important role, and so is adequate storage; as per the study1 commissioned by Sandisk, 41 per cent of the creators cited running out of storage while shooting as a challenge. Small wonder that almost 60 per cent of growing creators reported experiencing storage limitations on a daily or weekly basis. That's like having a swank car but without sufficient fuel!
Storing content: preserving the art
It is not enough to capture content; it must be stored reliably, too. The Sandisk study1 revealed that were it not for storage limitations, 64 per cent of creators would make longer videos and 58 per cent would experiment more. So being well stocked in the storage department may help creators capture more footage and a more confident state of mind, which may help support to experimentation and exploring new ideas.
Sharing content: moving the art
On the consumer side, sharing content is often associated with sharing images or videos on a social network, but on the creator side, it means sharing not just final content but even raw footage with editors as well as potential content partners and target audiences. For this to work effectively, content has to be stored and transferred efficiently. It is important to pay attention to storage space as well as the transfer speeds, to avoid bottlenecks in the creative process. In fact, more than half of the creators in the Sandisk study1 cited slow file transfer (55 per cent) as a key challenge.
Editing content: perfecting the art
There was a time when editing content was a highly specialised task, handled by a select few. Today, however, editing is a much more mainstream task, even though it is every bit as creative, thanks to the democratisation of photography (courtesy of smartphones) and the app revolution. While expertise and the right software are essential, adequate storage can be important as well. Forty-five per cent of the creators covered by the Sandisk study1 said that if they had more available storage, they would store content in RAW files, which may offer additional flexibility while editing.
Publishing content: making the art public
This is one of the most visible steps in the photography workflow - putting your work out there for your audience to see. Once again, transfer speeds can play an important role - slow transfer could delay a timely upload, which could affect the timing of content publication.
Backing up content: preserving the art
The creative workflow does not end with placing content in front of your audience. In an age where content loss remains a concern for many creators, keeping your content backed up is becoming an increasingly important part of the creative workflow.
To the hobbyist, photography might still be about hitting that shutter button, and "capturing the moment." But in the world of the content creator, great photography is a workflow that not only captures the moment, but refines, shares, publishes and preserves it. So, on this World Photography Day, say cheese and go with the flow - you will be better prepared to bring your creative ideas to life.
𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 WhatsApp Channel now! 👈📲
𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑺𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑴𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝑷𝒂𝒈𝒆𝐬 👉 Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram
