Post Clean up - Steps involed without becoming an old man

[demetrioffr]

After shooting about 50 or so images of anything or even 200 during a shoot out for the day.. or 2000 on a trip

How does a PRO or Amateur go about editing all there images.. Make them look great.. Color correct, sharp, ect. (as i had some images done for a website from a pro and WOW do they stand out.. compared to some that i have done and want to make do this as well but mostly for print to..)

What are the step involved (i have LR3)

How long does this take? Can this take days or hours..

Just trying to figure out the after math behind the camera, to take my shot to the next level as i have some amazing shots of my little girl but want them to POP and not take me HOURS and hours just to get 1 image done.. i would be an old man before i get them done..

Thanks..

[RichardTaylor]

I am just a hobbyst.
Depending on how far you want to take it is:

From the original RAW file.
If needed:
(1) Crop
(2) Apply a preset
(3)Adjust the colour balance.
(4)Adjust the levels.
(5)Rarely tweak individual colours.

Usually a minute or two per pic.

That may be it if it just for output for a "client" to make choices on what they finally want or for a slide show to be viewed on TV etc..

For my own stuff and pics for "clients"
It will be into CS4 for more (sometimes selective) processing, including (if needed) noise reduction, B&W conversion, and final sharpening.

For 90% it is another few minutes per pic.

===========================
The big problem is making the initial selections from large shoots.
It takes a lot of time to go through them all and tag them.
For example I shot motor racing the weekend before last - at least 4000 raw files.
Selected 30 for a couple of "clients" and another 100 as a sample of the event.
All received full processing.
The clients had theirs by next day.
The rest were up 3 days latter

If other drivers want pics it will take less than 10 minutes to locate and fully process each pic.

If you are shooting in very difficult lighting conditions your PPing time doubles.

The longest processing for me is my vacation pics.
I normally average 100 pics per day. So on a 6 week vacation that is 4200 + pics. Most of them are technically ok and a lot of them will end up in albums etc. There will be a lot of keepers. Post processing can take months of on and off work, however that doesn't worry us as we are re-living the vacation

[OsmosisStudios]

Step 1: Sort.

Go through your images with a previewer of some kind (I use Apple's built-in previewer), and pick out the ones that are really worth actually developing. For example: I just got back from 2 weeks in Greece and Venice. I have 1200 photos. I'm only developing 1/6th of that, and most of them are as panoramas. I only have 130 individual images besides the panoramas. That's slightly above 10%, and a manageable number.

Step 2: Processing.

Load the RAW files into your favourite developing application (LR3 in your case, ACR in mine). You can do it either as a giant batch or in sections. I just load the bunch and might leave it and come back over the space of a day. From there, each image gets done individually, with adjustments to cropping, white balance, exposure, saturation, etc. SOme get special effects (slight vignettes, color shift, split toning, filters, etc).

From there you add sharpening in any way you deem best: I usually load the images straight into Photoshop and then do my sharpening through an adjustment layer in there.

Step 3: Enjoy.

Step 4: Return.

Give the images a week, two, a month... give them some time. Then, come back to them. Re-evaluate the ones you've developed, and re-evaluate the work you've done to them. You might tweak a few things, adjust a crop or two, change an effect or add one, something.

Once you've done that, come back to them a year from now. Do it again. ALWAYS keep your RAW files. Always keep your mind open.

[wulf]

Wanting all your photos to pop is like playing in band and wanting everything louder than everything else. It maybe isn't such an impossibility but it will take you a long, long time. Instead, boil your selection down to the few photos that stand out and then spend sometime to polish those.

Wulf

[Marija]

To OsmosisStudio

I find your comment very helpful and think that it would be helpful to others.
with that said, i want to ask you to copy it to this thread Share your tricks and tips of the trade
just a thought...

[jamesev]

Originally Posted by Marija

To OsmosisStudio

I find your comment very helpful and think that it would be helpful to others.
with that said, i want to ask you to copy it to this thread Share your tricks and tips of the trade
just a thought...

Document your workflow. Its what defines your particular style

[GTAltman]

Originally Posted by Marija

To OsmosisStudio

I find your comment very helpful and think that it would be helpful to others.
with that said, i want to ask you to copy it to this thread Share your tricks and tips of the trade
just a thought...

Link appears broken :-(

GTA

[Marija]

Originally Posted by GTAltman

Link appears broken :-(
GTA

oh... really don't know why. here is another try Share your tricks and tips of the trade