← The Olympian CTE Yearbook Design I & II 4th Period 2026–27
Upload photos

ThePipeline

Card · Folder · Lightroom · Selects · Drive · Post it

If nobody can find a photo, it can’t go in the book. If nobody backed it up, it’s gone.

30
minutes
Every shoot

Card to Drive to Discord

Same six steps all year. Learn it once in September, use it until March.

01Do this1 of 7

Instructions

One thingShoot in RAW. Name your folder the right way. Never erase your own card.

Every shoot, in this order. It takes about 30 minutes for a game.

  1. Before you leave the room, set the camera to RAW. Take one photo and check that the file ends in .ARW, .NEF, or .CR2.
  2. Shoot the event. Don’t shoot RAW+JPEG. It fills the card twice as fast.
  3. Back in the room: get an SD card reader from the trash can on the two-monitor desk by the camera lockers. Card in the reader, reader in the PC.
  4. Make a folder on the desktop with your name on it, like Gianna’s Yearbook Photos.
  5. Inside it, make the event folder: EVENT NAME_YOUR NAME_DATE. Inside that, two folders: originals and selects.
  6. Drag everything from the card into originals. Even the blurry ones. Don’t delete anything yet.
  7. Pick your best photos. Twenty from a game is plenty. Forty is a lot. All 800 is not picking.
  8. Open Lightroom Classic. Import your picks with ADD (never Copy, never Move). Fix exposure, white balance, and crop. Export with the class preset into selects.
  9. Open the shared Drive (link pinned in #yb-wiki). Sign in with your CCUSD email. Make a folder with the exact same name as your event folder. Upload originals and selects into it.
  10. Check your work: count the files. Really count them. Then set sharing: selects can be edited, originals are view-only.
  11. Post the folder name and the link in #yb-wiki → PHOTO DRIVE LINKS. Sports photos also go on the sports sheet. Photos for someone’s spread go straight to that person too.
  12. Give the reader and the card to a gear lead. They check the upload, then they erase the card.
Never erase your own cardA gear lead checks that your upload worked, then they erase it. Erased too early, those photos are gone forever.
Always import with ADDCopy and Move make duplicate files somewhere else, which breaks the folder system this whole page depends on.
Don’t shoot RAW+JPEGIt fills your card twice as fast, and you’d replace the JPEG anyway.
02Compare yours to it2 of 7

What it should look like

It’s the day after a volleyball game. Here is what a finished upload looks like, in four places.

1 · THE PCJV_GIRLS_VOLLEYBALL_Gianna C_2026-09-07└ originals/ (all of them)└ selects/ (your 20 best, exported)event _ your name _ datesame name on the Drive folderand on the Discord post12 · THE SHARED DRIVEJV_GIRLS_VOLLEYBALL_Gianna C_2026-09-07└ originals/ view only└ selects/ can editsigned in with your CCUSD emailfile count matches the card23 · #yb-wiki → PHOTO DRIVE LINKSJV_GIRLS_VOLLEYBALL_Gianna C_2026-09-07| drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aB...34 · THE CARDSDback to a gear lead, full.They erase it, not you.4
Four places, one name. If any one of them is missing, the upload isn’t done.
  1. On the PC: one folder named EVENT_YOUR NAME_DATE, with originals and selects inside it.
  2. In the shared Drive: a folder with the exact same name, both subfolders uploaded, file count matching the card.
  3. In Discord: one post in PHOTO DRIVE LINKS: the folder name, a bar, the link. Searchable in four seconds.
  4. The card: handed to a gear lead, still full. They erase it after they check the upload.
The test

Could a designer you’ve never met find your best photo tonight, without texting you?If yes, you did it right.

03The picture3 of 7

Visual guide

Six stops. Same order every time.

Every shoot, in this order, no shortcuts
  1. 01CardShoot RAW
  2. 02FolderEVENT_NAME_DATE
  3. 03LightroomAlways import with ADD
  4. 04SelectsExport with the preset
  5. 05Driveoriginals + selects
  6. 06Post itFolder name + link
Skip a step, and the page that needed those photos is missing in February. Never erase your own card.
findable in four seconds
JV_GIRLS_VOLLEYBALL_Gianna C_2026-09-07

Event, photographer, date. Same name on the desktop folder, the Drive folder, and the Discord post.

gone forever
IMG_4471 (2).jpg
photos
volleyball final FINAL

A designer working late at night can’t search for this. If nobody can find a photo, it might as well not exist.

04The teaching4 of 7

Lesson

RAW: what it is and why it’s so big

Your camera’s sensor has about 24 million tiny light catchers. A RAW file keeps all of that. A JPEG lets the camera make the editing choices for you, then throws the extra information away.

RAW16,384 brightness levels per channel
JPEG256. That small bar is the whole difference

That extra information is why you can save a dark, grainy gym photo shot at ISO 6400. It’s also why you can fix a face that an old light bulb turned orange, in about four seconds.

RAW files are big: three to five times bigger than a JPEG. One football game on burst can be 20 GB. Bring a big card.Bring two.

Turn RAW on before you leave the room

  • Sony A7 IV
    MENU → Shooting → Image Quality → Image Quality Settings → File Format → RAW
  • Sony A6700
    MENU → Shooting → Image Quality/Rec → File Format → RAW
  • Sony A7 III
    MENU → Camera Settings1 → File Format → RAW
  • Nikon Z5
    i Menu → Still Images → Image quality → NEF (RAW)
  • Canon Rebel T5
    MENU → red camera tab → Image quality → RAW
  • Then check it
    Take one photo, press playback, make sure the file ends in .ARW, .NEF, or .CR2. Ten seconds. Skip it, and you might shoot a whole game you can’t use

Lightroom Classic: the three things that matter

Learn these three and you know Lightroom

Import with ADD. ADD uses your files where they already are. Copy makes duplicates somewhere else and breaks the folder system.

Press P to keep a photo and X to reject it. Then filter to show only the kept ones. That’s how you pick your best shots, and it takes about ten minutes for 800 photos.

Sync Settings. Fix one gym photo, then apply the same fixes to the other 200 with one click. Biggest time saver in this class, and most people don’t find it for a year.

Editing is
  • Cropping, straightening, and fixing exposure or color
  • Picking 20 photos out of 800
  • Exporting a JPEG once, at the end
Editing is not
  • Deleting the originals to save space
  • Editing the JPEG instead of the RAW
  • Erasing the card yourself

Want the whole camera? Camera School covers shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus, and the settings for the gym, the stage, outside, and the classroom.

05A real one5 of 7

Example

A real upload from a Tuesday JV volleyball game.

Gianna’s Yearbook Photos/
└── JV_GIRLS_VOLLEYBALL_Gianna C_2026-09-07/
    ├── originals/      812 files, .ARW
    └── selects/         23 files, .jpg, exported with the class preset

The Discord post, word for word:

JV_GIRLS_VOLLEYBALL_Gianna C_2026-09-07 | https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aB...
Why this gets a 5

Shot RAW, so the dark gym photos were saveable. 812 originals kept, 23 selects picked, not 812 selects. Same name in three places, so the designer building the volleyball spread found the folder in four seconds. Card went back full. Nobody had to text Gianna.

06Where it goes6 of 7

How to turn it in

How to turn it inPost the link in #yb-wiki

The upload is turned in when the folder is in the shared Drive and the link is posted. A folder nobody can find is not turned in.

  1. Open Discord. Go to #yb-wiki, then the PHOTO DRIVE LINKS post.
  2. Paste: FOLDER NAME | link. The name has to match your Drive folder exactly.
  3. Sports? Add the link to the sports sheet too.
  4. Shot for someone’s spread? Send them the link directly.
  5. Hand the card and reader to a gear lead.
Open Discord ↗ When: the next class after the shoot, by the end of 4th period. Cards don’t wait.
07How it is scored7 of 7

Rubric

Eight lines. Each one is done or not done. Then the three checks.

  1. ☐The camera was set to RAW (files end in .ARW, .NEF, or .CR2)
  2. ☐The folder is named EVENT NAME_YOUR NAME_DATE
  3. ☐originals has every photo from the card
  4. ☐selects has your best 20 to 40, exported with the class preset
  5. ☐The Drive folder has the exact same name as the PC folder
  6. ☐The file count in Drive matches the card
  7. ☐The link is posted in PHOTO DRIVE LINKS as NAME | link
  8. ☐The card went back to a gear lead, still full
0/8Tap a line to check it off. It stays checked on this device.
Check1 looks like5 looks like
On timethe next class after the shootThe card sat in a bag for a week. Someone else’s spread waited on it.Uploaded the next class. The designer had the photos before they knew they needed them.
Correctname, format, sharingFolder called photos. Shot JPEG. Originals set to edit, so somebody deleted one.Right name in all three places. RAW. Selects editable, originals view-only.
Completeoriginals, selects, linkSelects only, no originals. Or the folder is in Drive but nobody posted the link.Originals, selects, Drive, Discord post, card back with a gear lead. Nothing to chase.

5 is ready to print. 4 needs one round of fixes. 3 does what was asked. 2 is a real try. 1 is barely started. 0 is missing.