post-processing time

[mng100]

For every hour you shoot, what is your average number of hours you spend post processing them? Sometimes, I have a hard time deciding when enough is enough... I understand all sessions are different, but on average.... what would you say???

[wulf]

Enough is enough when you realise you are just making the result different rather than better or when you remember that you have numerous other photos queued up waiting for attention.

Are you talking about professional sessions when you are working on shots for a client or photos taken entirely for personal reasons?

Wulf

[mng100]

well - i haven't done a lot of pro-sessions, but have done paid sessions (paid sessions for people i know vs. sessions that I have actively worked to get). When i first started, i wanted each of the photos to be PERFECT and letting them choose their top (agreed-upon number of) poses. but as time has progressed, I found I'm selecting the poses then making minimal changes so it has really cut down my pp-time. I question myself because of this... are they refined enough, or my tolerance for imperfections growing higher, or am i getting better at my shoots, or are they sub-par photos for a semi-pro - basically, are they getting their money's worth?

[wulf]

I think it would be fair to say that pruning through the photos you took and picking only the very best ones is the most important stage of the post-capture work flow. There are very few photos that won't benefit from any subtle tweaks of colours, contrast and sharpness but if you start with the ones that people would love anyway, you have immediately given yourself a head start.

Wulf

[Rentham]

Originally Posted by wulf

I think it would be fair to say that pruning through the photos you took and picking only the very best ones is the most important stage of the post-capture work flow.

I agree with this. Picking my selects is the area where I've made the biggest speed improvements. I used to fret over pixel level detail between two shots that were, for all intents and purposes, the same. Now I make liberal use of Lightroom's Survey feature and quickly pick out my selects based on quick, gut reaction. Murder your darlings, and all that.

Being consistent shot to shot is another way to cut down post time. If you can tweak one photo and apply those changes in batch to all or most of the other shots you'll realize a huge time savings.

[crockny]

I have CS4 and use Bridge to cull through my photos -- Bridge is bogging down and becoming time consuming - is there a better way to do this short of buying Lightroom? I too obsess over hundreds of similar bird photos trying to find the sharpest eye on similar pictures -- very time consuming ... any suggestions would be welcome ...

[mng100]

Originally Posted by crockny

I have CS4 and use Bridge to cull through my photos -- Bridge is bogging down and becoming time consuming - is there a better way to do this short of buying Lightroom? I too obsess over hundreds of similar bird photos trying to find the sharpest eye on similar pictures -- very time consuming ... any suggestions would be welcome ...

I see you're shooting with canon... i find using their DPP software and seeing all of them under "edit image window", helps me right away decide which ones are 'throw away'. If I want to check out their sharpness, i review them at 100-200%, then I rank them - 1 for definite keepers, 2 for ones that could be easily fixed with minor tweaks, and 3 for toss right now.... then I select all the 3's and toss all at once. At first it was harder to let go of stuff, but truthfully, I procrastinate moving photos off the computer and find that keeping unnecessary photos just takes up memory. So it's been getting easier to throw away without regretting.
I also find I'm getting more thoughtful about my initial shot at the time of the shot, so I'm actually bringing home less images to process.