Post Processing... How much time?? (now with poll!!)

r3t1awr3yd

I was really curious after reading another post here about post processing that really got me thinking...

How much time is too much time in PP? Let's say you're doing 100 pictures. What would be a good amount of time spent?

KMCC

I guess the amount of post-processing is related to the type of photography you're engaged in, but speaking as one who predominantly shoots sports, I'll spend less than 2 hours to complete post-processing on a typical gallery of 200-250 shots.

For the past couple of years, I've used Lightroom for all of my processing.

ColoradoSkier

KMCC wrote: »

I guess the amount of post-processing is related to the type of photography you're engaged in, but speaking as one who predominantly shoots sports, I'll spend less than 2 hours to complete post-processing on a typical gallery of 200-250 shots.

For the past couple of years, I've used Lightroom for all of my processing.

r3t1awr3yd

KMCC wrote: »

I guess the amount of post-processing is related to the type of photography you're engaged in, but speaking as one who predominantly shoots sports, I'll spend less than 2 hours to complete post-processing on a typical gallery of 200-250 shots.

For the past couple of years, I've used Lightroom for all of my processing.

I take it you batch process for each set of shots? (or at least the ones that you know were shot the same way)

KMCC

r3t1awr3yd wrote: »

I take it you batch process for each set of shots? (or at least the ones that you know were shot the same way)

Maybe for a few steps, i.e. sharpening. Generally every shot gets handled separately.

r3t1awr3yd

KMCC wrote: »

Maybe for a few steps, i.e. sharpening. Generally every shot gets handled separately.

See, I'm in this boat and I didn't understand how people could be spending so LITTLE time on post processing. Every picture I consider processed is done over individually by me to assure the customer (and more importantly my OCD anal-retentive self) that it's good to go.

KMCC

r3t1awr3yd wrote: »

See, I'm in this boat and I didn't understand how people could be spending so LITTLE time on post processing. Every picture I consider processed is done over individually by me to assure the customer (and more importantly my OCD anal-retentive self) that it's good to go.

Every image that makes it into one of my on-line galleries is print-ready; which means that each image has been individually post-processed.

My work flow consists of adjusting the following (as necessary): noise reduction, cropping and alignment, exposure, curves and levels, color balance and saturation, and sharpening (pretty much in that order).

Individual images may require other action, but that's my typical work flow. Also, some - but not all - of those steps can be done as batch processes.

Biffbradford

Is that 100 keepers culled from 1,000 originals? or 100 photos sorted out to a couple dozen keepers?

If I'm going through a large number of shots (1,000+), I think it takes me about 1 1/2 minutes to pick one out of Adobe Bridge, open with PHotoshop, crop and tweak for color and exposure, then save and close. That's for a typical 5-7mb photo from my 10mpx camera and measly 1mb of computer RAM. Some are faster, some slower of course, that's just my average speed. So, for 300 keepers, that's about 7.5 hours of keyboard time. I think with a computer upgrade I could cut 20 to 30 seconds per photo in processing time which would be HUGE!

rich56k

my best kept secret work flow...
An important part of my workflow is the ability to sort the keepers rapidly as an sports event shooter (extreme motorsports and college athletics) my initial number of pics from an event is approx 600-1000 images...

My currently preferred method is to download all into iPhoto (maybe the most underrated photo editing software out there!) and set up a slideshow with a 1 second interval - this automates the flow of images in front of me at full screen size and allows me to just mouse click a 1 star or no star (no click) rating (say 600 pics can be rated in 10 minutes at 1 sec intervals) once this first step is done I create a smart folder for the 1 star pics (typically 300 or so) and re-run a 1 second interval slideshow and click 2 star or nothing...(approx 5 minutes) now another smart folder with only 2 star pics (approx 150) then one last round at 3 star for the best of the best (at 2 seconds each ) and in less than 30 minutes I've sorted the 40-100 keepers out of 600 I then will open in PS CS4 for final individual tweeking before upload to smugmug...UPDATE: Now that using iPhoto 08 allows sharpness, noise reduction, levels adjustments - with the copy/paste option allowing multiple apply of same adjustments the ONLY time I use Photoshop now is for pre written actions such as adding my watermark and saving at reduced quality level 10 (prior to smugmug uploading), and/or adding File Info (copyright/contact info for magazine submissions)

The toughest part is the one second interval (sometimes if my eyes are tired I'll use 2 second - becuase you're forced to save it or not in a flash - note I'm not deleting them -just not bringing to the next level - my backup methods retain ALL originals

My question is there any other (mac compatible) photo software that allows you to do this (note: I've seen many that can create slideshows but thats as a final product and NOT of interest or use) my main point is NOT having to click on an image to 'open' at full screen and then apply a rating and save and repeat - it's so much faster to have the images open automatically in a slideshow format and allow adding your rating while its automated then a simple 'smart folder' does the separation.

Any others that use similar method with different software please let me know your w/flow...

thanks,

rich56k

rharrison

r3t1awr3yd wrote: »

See, I'm in this boat and I didn't understand how people could be spending so LITTLE time on post processing. Every picture I consider processed is done over individually by me to assure the customer (and more importantly my OCD anal-retentive self) that it's good to go.

Try directing as much of that OCD into getting the best possible exposure straight out of the camera. Its much more time efficient to take a touch more time setting up a shot than it is trying to resurrect it in post.

r3t1awr3yd

rharrison wrote: »

Try directing as much of that OCD into getting the best possible exposure straight out of the camera. Its much more time efficient to take a touch more time setting up a shot than it is trying to resurrect it in post.

Don't get me wrong, my anal-retentiveness knows no bounds and haunts all aspects of my photography lol. Even after a shot though I have to touch-touch-touch to make sure all is well for my own person piece of mind at times lol.

MomaZunk

I use Photoshop Elements 7.0.
You can set up a full screen slide show at 1 sec, click on 1-5 stars as they go by, then set up smart albums to look at your photos based on your star selections.

rich56k

Bulk processing procedures...

MomaZunk wrote: »

I use Photoshop Elements 7.0.
You can set up a full screen slide show at 1 sec, click on 1-5 stars as they go by, then set up smart albums to look at your photos based on your star selections.

Thanks for the info Dee!

Ironically neither PS Elements or iPhoto seem to promote this feature to bulk photo editors...(such as myself).

I can't imagine trying to bulk edit hundreds (and often thousands) of images without this feature.

Any others??

-rich56k

nvisiblephoto

Wow, 100 photos and the highest option you gave was 15 hours?

It all depends on what type of shots you are editing. I've literally spent 15 hours editing a single photo. It was an artistic portrait that was basically a painting by the time I was done tho.

Now something like a wedding shoot I would generally just use Lightroom to batch process then go back over each one and make some minor color corrections and tweaks. If I didn't have to open up PS to do more advanced retouching on any of them then I'd say I could get through 100 in 4-5 hours.

Snowgirl

rich56k wrote: »

Thanks for the info Dee!

Ironically neither PS Elements or iPhoto seem to promote this feature to bulk photo editors...(such as myself).

I can't imagine trying to bulk edit hundreds (and often thousands) of images without this feature.

Any others??

-rich56k

I use Aperture 3 for downloading, sorting and basic editing on my ipMac and/or on my MacBook Pro if I'm out somewhere and want to show images to a client.

At a dressage horse show I will typically shoot up to 3600 images on a weekend so I have to sort and rate quickly, and keyword each group by the horse's name in addition to my standard key wording for this type of event. For portraits, engagement shoots etc. I assume at least two hours of editing time for every hour of shooting and work that into my prices.

For finer editing I use PS Elements 8 for MAC on both machines.

Btw, when I do anything on the MacBook Pro I always keep the originals on my memory cards until they can be loaded on to my external disks with the iMac and backed up just in case. Paranoia runs in my blood.