Getting out proofs

JayClark79

Do you fully edit or even edit at all your 4x6 proofs?

How long do you say until you can get the proofs to your customers?

tenoverthenose

When it comes to proofs I promise six weeks, but I am normally much faster. All of my proofs are online, I don't do paper proofs unless asked (too many photos). I keep them online for six months - gotta pressure sales!

heatherfeather

I promise six weeks and usually get them out faster.

Every photo gets basic processing (brightness, contrast, color and conversion) and 30 photos get deep processing (blemishes, scars, double chins, outlet removal etc).

Proofing is online.

zoomer

What is a proof...........
People pay me to take their wedding pictures.
I take them and edit each one to look their best, including skin fixing on closeups where required.
Within two weeks their pictures are ready on their disc.
On to the next one....:D

Maybe I have an ego problem...I just can't show anybody a photo until it is the best that I can make it.

Moogle Pepper

zoomer wrote:

What is a proof...........
People pay me to take their wedding pictures.
I take them and edit each one to look their best, including skin fixing on closeups where required.
Within two weeks their pictures are ready on their disc.
On to the next one....:D

Maybe I have an ego problem...I just can't show anybody a photo until it is the best that I can make it.

Hardly an ego thing, more like perfectionism.

JayClark79

That's how I feel zoom I'd rather them look the best. If I was a client and saw some crap processed photo I'd be sick to my stomach thinking I hired the wrong guy!

My partner seems to think we can have the proofs out in a week! I'm thinking ummm no way can we edit 400+ photos and work other fulltime jobs!

zoomer

If you don't have Lightroom maybe look into getting it.
400 photos would take me about 5 hours, to fully process.
If I shoot a wedding on Saturday, I can get usually get them finished or pretty close on Sunday, finish up odds and ends during the week and deliver before the next wedding on the next Saturday...I hate to get behind.
I work a full time job also.

If you are not using Lightroom now it would change everything for you.

heatherfeather

zoomer wrote:

If you don't have Lightroom maybe look into getting it.
400 photos would take me about 5 hours, to fully process.
If I shoot a wedding on Saturday, I can get usually get them finished or pretty close on Sunday, finish up odds and ends during the week and deliver before the next wedding on the next Saturday...I hate to get behind.
I work a full time job also.

If you are not using Lightroom now it would change everything for you.

So wait a minute... are you saying that every photo just gets put through LR? Or are you saying you open everything in photoshop and clean up blemishes and all that? Of course everything goes through LR... How many do you open in PS? If I open it in PS, I consider it deep processed since the extra mile has been taken....

JayClark79

I already do have lightroom and photoshop cs4.

Everything goes through LR from the get go... Things that need heavier work go through CS4. Like cloning people or objects out of pictures

And im not talking just color, contrast work in lightroom either im talking skin smoothing, blemishes, etc. etc.

Sadley i think my and my partner have different ideas of "post processing" which we will have to work out lol

zoomer

The only thing I don't do in Lightroom is cleaning skin where necessary.
I do that in Portrait Professional. Depending on the photos, and how many closeups I am delivering generally 20 to 30 pictures.

Well they don't "just" get put through Lightroom....I open every single photo in Lightroom and evaluate and/or adjust the exposure, contrast, white balance, crop, color, vignetting, levels adjustment, and I sharpen them on export. Also add presets to any where I feel it would add, some photos get 2 or 3 different versions. I go the extra mile in Lightroom, appx. 75% of them get at least 1 additional version besides the straight color.
Now understand that most of my photos are very close to just right straight out of the camera which saves a lot of time.
Another 10-20 get opened in Photoshop to add other filters or for cloning.
If I have a photo that needs something cloned and I can't remove it with a photo crop I normally just nuke it. I do almost no cloning.
Feel free to look at any one of the galleries on my site, all are done using this process.

I remember the days when I first started out, spending 20 to 40 minutes on every picture in Photoshop making them just perfect, or as perfect as I was capable of at the time. My assistant (who meets with the clients to look at the pictures without me so she hears all their comments ) told me I was wasting my time cause the clients just did not notice the difference, she said if the bride looked good nothing else mattered....
Now if I spend more than 3 or 4 minutes on a photo that is an eternity.
Of course after processing 10's of thousands of photos I am pretty fast:D

www.alloutdoor.smugmug.com click on any of the wedding galleries if you want to see what fully processed using this process looks like.

JayClark79

Thanks for the tips everyone!

zoomer

I wanted to add, that if you push the exposure to the limit on the skin it usually does a good enough job of cleaning it up to the point that it does not need that additional time consuming trip to Photoshop for clean up, and the use of very short depth of field and paying strict attention to back grounds setups before taking the pictures can save a ton of time in additional cloning and cropping.

heatherfeather

Ha ha, Zoomer... pretty much what I do too. I just use LR and PS.

zoomer

heatherfeather wrote:

Ha ha, Zoomer... pretty much what I do too. I just use LR and PS.

Well your stuff always looks great so it works!!