My Workflow....what am I doing wrong?!!

[CateUK]

Haven't been around for a bit due to being three weddings and 1 blog entry in arrears (for the last wedding behind) etc etc!

I've read on Becker's Blog for example, his workflow seems to be about 3 hours and he takes about 7000 pix per wedding (ok I'm exaggerating with the time a little and he shoots just JPEG so I guess this speeds the process up a bit)

So I wonder why it's taken me literally hours and hours to plough through the images... here is my work flow if anyone has any advice, fast tracks etc please let me know, this constant editing around my full time job is starting to get me down!!

After the wedding, I download the cards to the computer via a card reader USB2. This can take 1-2 hours which for me is fine as I can be doing something else whilst this is going on.

Once all downloaded, I use Bridge to reorder them (as I use two cameras) and rename them. Again not a long process. Back up to HD and DVD.

I used to then look through the images and star them but with an average of 1500 pictures this seemed to be a waste of time. So I just start editing them.

This takes hours! I normally have to adjust most pictures, I can't seem to get the white balance right for indoors, whether it's AWB or I dial it in it's always too warm, too orange. So this a must for most indoor pictures.

After this I then open them 1 by 1 in CS2 and convert to Black and White etc - I use mostly actions so this part seems to go quite quickly and majority just might need a contrast boost again I have this as an action.

Also if I've used high ISO I run these pictures through NeatImage (again quite time consuming but I feel necessary at 1600 or H)

Once done. I back up again.

3-4 weeks are passing me by!!

Am I doing something fundamentally wrong, wasting time somewhere or is this just normal and I should get back to editing rather than typing this?!!

[rhid78]

I note that no-one's responded so I thought I would.... I don't really have anything of value to say though.

I find that my editing time takes me forever. Like you I have a full-time job and I'm also at uni, so I struggle to find the time to edit my pics. Again like you, I feel that I have to edit most of my shots. This is very time consuming, I agree.

I guess all I can do is sympathise because I'm in the same boat :-( If I was to do an honest self-assessment, I'd say that my work is 30% camera and 70% computer. Not a good ratio. Maybe that's where I fall down....

[th3r0m]

Here are my suggestions:
Firstly, unless you are promising that large an amount of shots, I would cull it down quite a bit, by probably close to half. Only keep the best that you have. Second, as suggested in another thread about white balance issues, set your camera to Daylight (or anyother STATIC white balance). This should help with the white balance issues, which even though WB may be off, it should be off by a very similar amount for each "scene" regardless of which camera took the shot. As to opening them 1 by 1, is it possible to rewrite your actions so don't have to click open on the ACR dialog? That way you could group your photos that need contrast boost together and run the action from bridge. Same for black and white if possible.

I think the biggest issue in your workflow is the amount of photos you are editing. Unless you have a very fast computer, opening and closing each file individually takes up time as well, let alone the time you spend tweaking the file.

[th3r0m]

Oh and once your done with them, post'em up (well 8 of them or so ;) ) I look forward to seeing them. :)

[sando]

Personally:

Sync your cameras before you take the pictures.
Upload them to PC (2,000-ish pictures ~ 1 hour max - why's yours take so long?).
Burn Back-Up DVD
Import to Lightroom - applying a standard import pre-set so they have a slight boost when they're imported.
Pick and Reject - just reject the duff focussed ones and the general rubbish ones
Then go through the Picks and Star the ones I'd want to give the B&G, either in album or on a DVD.
Depends on what purpose the photo's are for, I'll then edit the starred ones, usually around 2-300 pictures.
All the rest generally sit on my HD until I delete them.

I could easily do a wedding a day.

[sando]

Second, as suggested in another thread about white balance issues, set your camera to Daylight (or anyother STATIC white balance). This should help with the white balance issues
No, do not do this. Shoot in RAW and use Auto WB, then edit thew WB in Lightroom

[TimSewell]

My wife and I typically get home from a wedding with around 1500 shots (although this is reducing slowly) but we always cull them down to around 500 maximum. First I 'one star' every shot that is reasonably usable, then 'two star' the picks. Only then do I start to edit - nothing unusual there.

You don't say what software you are using for this so I assume it's ACR. We use Lightroom and stuff like white balance, with this tool, is an absolute breeze. Same for a lot of basic edits. For instance, I import the images with 'Punch' settings already applied. Then, for shots in a similar scene like, for instance, a bunch of formal groups all shot in the same setting, as long as you've been consistent in your initial exposures it's very easy to fully edit one image then apply those settings to the whole series, then just cursorily checking them for tweaking.

For most images I find that after Lightroom very little is required until I'm processing for prints and albums. For b&w and different crops (in my clients' online galleries I include a pop-up on each image page showing how it'll look as a 10x8") it's again very simple to create virtual copies and change them all with a couple of clicks.

The result of this is that I get online galleries available by midnight Wednesday after a Saturday wedding. As I further refine the workflow I expect to get that back to Monday (I have a full time job too, btw). I should add that I always back up my cards to a laptop and an imagetank on site, which obviously saves me a bit of time back at home as all I then have to do is import them to Lightroom and back up to DVD.

Hope that helps and isn't too much of a plain puff for LR!

[Banbert]

I dont have any quick easy fixes for you matey because we have also struggled a bit with our PP this year (we expected to tbh, going from one wedding last year to 20 this year was quite a big ask particularly part and time and when were both busy) but were tweaking it atm and we think it will help, I also think some of its just practice .... were a lot quicker now than we were at the start of the year.

I will post ours below and maybe we can get a good upto date discussion going. we shoot raw + small JPG due to the stuff we want to do on the wedding day itself witha slideshow and album.

1. Before thw wedding we time sync all 5 camera bodies. we used to get together to do this but we both use macs now that are time synced to the same clock via the net and weve found this keeps us to within 1 second of each other.

2. When the wedding party sits down for the wedding breakfast we download all our cards to a mac book pro using an express 34 card which we have found to be quite a bit quicker than USB and firewire .. (even though the CF cards speed should be the limiting factor) Each card is download to a folder that has the same number that the card is marked up as.

3. AFter downloading we have 5 or 6 directories with raws and small jpgs in and we run an automator action that renames them all with their time and date and moves them into just 2 seperate folders, one for raws and one for jpgs. Weve modified the action for the next wedding and we will only be moving and renaming the jpgs as we think its going to be easier to cut and balance the raws if they are grouped by camrera rather than in time sequence, We will run the raw action to order them after we have starred and adjusted them.

4. Straight after the automator action has run we open the jpgs directory in bridge and whizz through it starring the images we want to use in the slideshow and for the honeymoon album. This is usually about 100 ish images and we select all the starred images in bridge and open them in showit effects.

5. We whizz the 100 ish images through showit effects applying actions to them and saving them to another directory called slideshow.

6. We pick our fave 10 images from the slideshow directory that tell the story of the day and print them out 6 x 4 and stick them in our little honeymoon album.

7. We import the slideshow directory into iPhoto and display that at the wedding.

8. Soon as we get home after the wedding we backup the client directory with the raws, jpgs, slideshow files in it onto 2 external HDD's. One of these stays at Jons and the other with me.

9. That evening (or occasionally the next morning if its been a long day) I pick 10-30 images from the slideshow directory and run our border action on them and publish them on our blog with a few words about the day.

10. I usually pick 8 images from the images posted to the blog and upload them for showing on POTN :)

11. Jon and I decide which of us is going to sort each wedding and then we start going through the raw files giving them star ratings from 1-5. If a shot needs cropping or straightening or something cloning out we press 6 to highlight it red.
(1) Garbage "why do I have a picture of someones foot"
(2) Technically something wrong with it
(3) Duplicate image that we have a better one of
(4) Proof
(5) Portfolio

12. We adjust the WB and exposure on the 4 and 5's and also do any modifications to the ones that have been highligted red.

13. From the adjusted 4 and 5's we run image processor to create a set of JPG's for the client proofs. These are quality 12 and 300 DPI

14. We rename the 300DPI jpgs to the client ID + sequence number e.g. BP003-001.jpg

15. We choose 50-100 proofs for effects and then run them through showit effects to make some B&W, lomo and also a few for other effects. These files have a _1 applied to them or _2 if we have tried 2 different effects on one file. The client recieves all images in colour and then some images with effects.

16. We run the 300 DPI images through image processor and save them as quality 6 to a directory called photobox proofs.

17. We upload the photobox proofs to our image gallery and post to our blog that they are now available.

18. We order a complete set of the photobox proofs in 6 x 4 bordered prints for the client.

19. From the photobox proofs directory we use contact sheet II in CS to make thumbnails sheets of them along with the codes and then we run pdf presentation also in bride to create a PDF file of the thumbnails sheets.

20. We print the Thumbnails sheets on a colour laser printer on normal paper and these are packaged up with the client 6 x4 proofs and posted to the client/picked up by them/or dropped off by us.

21. The client chooses their favourite image/images for the thankyou cards and we make a proof that we send them via email, when thats approved we upload it to photobox and print them.

22. When the thankyou cards are delivered to us we sticker the backs with our little Boundless Photos sticker and then pack them up and send them to the client.

22. The client chooses their images for the album using the proofs and contact sheet and we pull these out of the 300DPI proofs and upload or post them to whichever album supplier were using.

23. The clients wedding guests and family can order small prints from our website and these are fullfuilled via photobox. We supply larger prints or any special requirements they may have and we go back to the 300DPI proofs for those.

24. Pdf of the album layout is sent through to us and we send it to the client for approval.

25. Album is printed and sent to us after approval of the PDF by the client, we send teh album on to the client after checking it ourselves.

During this process we periodically backup our external HDD's to each others depending on who is doing sort and images processing.

[tim]

Take a look at my workflow, it's linked from my sig. Don't forget step 8! My thoughts on your workflow:
- I download a 4GB card in 10 minutes, give or take. Get a better card reader. I have Sandisk Extreme III reader.
- Rating each image takes about 2 seconds per image for me. I don't color correct or edit while I do this, though i'm considering doing it then so it's done in one pass.
- Re ordering - see my workflow.
- Of my 300 keepers I open about 10 of the in photoshop, the rest only ever get opened in ACR. I see no need to open them in PS. My B&W and sepia conversions are done in ACR and i'm happy with them, except for enlargements I might correct individually.
- I don't use noise reduction. I have noise ninja pro. Customers don't care IMHO.

The key is eliminating the redundant steps. Do you really need to open each image in PS? I bet you few of the high volume wedding superstars do.

[CateUK]

I guess all I can do is sympathise because I'm in the same boat :-( If I was to do an honest self-assessment, I'd say that my work is 30% camera and 70% computer. Not a good ratio. Maybe that's where I fall down....

Thanks for the reply at least it's not just me!


I think the biggest issue in your workflow is the amount of photos you are editing. Unless you have a very fast computer, opening and closing each file individually takes up time as well, let alone the time you spend tweaking the file.

Yes I guess less pictures less to edit! Just can't seem to cut that down yet. The last wedding I (finally) finished editing I took 1500 pix and had 800 final images for the couple.

Personally:

Sync your cameras before you take the pictures.
Upload them to PC (2,000-ish pictures ~ 1 hour max - why's yours take so long?).
Burn Back-Up DVD
Import to Lightroom - applying a standard import pre-set so they have a slight boost when they're imported.
Pick and Reject - just reject the duff focussed ones and the general rubbish ones
Then go through the Picks and Star the ones I'd want to give the B&G, either in album or on a DVD.
Depends on what purpose the photo's are for, I'll then edit the starred ones, usually around 2-300 pictures.
All the rest generally sit on my HD until I delete them.

I could easily do a wedding a day.

My laptop is old but still a good workhorse so I imagine that's the reason it's slow. But that's not something I can do anything about as just no funds for a new one!

And wow! to you being able to do a wedding in a day!

My wife and I typically get home from a wedding with around 1500 shots (although this is reducing slowly) but we always cull them down to around 500 maximum. First I 'one star' every shot that is reasonably usable, then 'two star' the picks. Only then do I start to edit - nothing unusual there.

You don't say what software you are using for this so I assume it's ACR. We use Lightroom and stuff like white balance, with this tool, is an absolute breeze. Same for a lot of basic edits. For instance, I import the images with 'Punch' settings already applied. Then, for shots in a similar scene like, for instance, a bunch of formal groups all shot in the same setting, as long as you've been consistent in your initial exposures it's very easy to fully edit one image then apply those settings to the whole series, then just cursorily checking them for tweaking.

For most images I find that after Lightroom very little is required until I'm processing for prints and albums. For b&w and different crops (in my clients' online galleries I include a pop-up on each image page showing how it'll look as a 10x8") it's again very simple to create virtual copies and change them all with a couple of clicks.

The result of this is that I get online galleries available by midnight Wednesday after a Saturday wedding. As I further refine the workflow I expect to get that back to Monday (I have a full time job too, btw). I should add that I always back up my cards to a laptop and an imagetank on site, which obviously saves me a bit of time back at home as all I then have to do is import them to Lightroom and back up to DVD.

Hope that helps and isn't too much of a plain puff for LR!

Ah maybe LR would help! I am using Bridge and CS2. And I shoot in RAW. Maybe looking at all the replies I'm just giving the couple to many pictures!

I dont have any quick easy fixes for you matey because we have also struggled a bit with our PP this year (we expected to tbh, going from one wedding last year to 20 this year was quite a big ask particularly part and time and when were both busy) but were tweaking it atm and we think it will help, I also think some of its just practice .... were a lot quicker now than we were at the start of the year.

I will post ours below and maybe we can get a good upto date discussion going. we shoot raw + small JPG due to the stuff we want to do on the wedding day itself witha slideshow and album.

1. Before thw wedding we time sync all 5 camera bodies. we used to get together to do this but we both use macs now that are time synced to the same clock via the net and weve found this keeps us to within 1 second of each other.

2. When the wedding party sits down for the wedding breakfast we download all our cards to a mac book pro using an express 34 card which we have found to be quite a bit quicker than USB and firewire .. (even though the CF cards speed should be the limiting factor) Each card is download to a folder that has the same number that the card is marked up as.

3. AFter downloading we have 5 or 6 directories with raws and small jpgs in and we run an automator action that renames them all with their time and date and moves them into just 2 seperate folders, one for raws and one for jpgs. Weve modified the action for the next wedding and we will only be moving and renaming the jpgs as we think its going to be easier to cut and balance the raws if they are grouped by camrera rather than in time sequence, We will run the raw action to order them after we have starred and adjusted them.

4. Straight after the automator action has run we open the jpgs directory in bridge and whizz through it starring the images we want to use in the slideshow and for the honeymoon album. This is usually about 100 ish images and we select all the starred images in bridge and open them in showit effects.

5. We whizz the 100 ish images through showit effects applying actions to them and saving them to another directory called slideshow.

6. We pick our fave 10 images from the slideshow directory that tell the story of the day and print them out 6 x 4 and stick them in our little honeymoon album.

7. We import the slideshow directory into iPhoto and display that at the wedding.

8. Soon as we get home after the wedding we backup the client directory with the raws, jpgs, slideshow files in it onto 2 external HDD's. One of these stays at Jons and the other with me.

9. That evening (or occasionally the next morning if its been a long day) I pick 10-30 images from the slideshow directory and run our border action on them and publish them on our blog with a few words about the day.

10. I usually pick 8 images from the images posted to the blog and upload them for showing on POTN :)

11. Jon and I decide which of us is going to sort each wedding and then we start going through the raw files giving them star ratings from 1-5. If a shot needs cropping or straightening or something cloning out we press 6 to highlight it red.
(1) Garbage "why do I have a picture of someones foot"
(2) Technically something wrong with it
(3) Duplicate image that we have a better one of
(4) Proof
(5) Portfolio

12. We adjust the WB and exposure on the 4 and 5's and also do any modifications to the ones that have been highligted red.

13. From the adjusted 4 and 5's we run image processor to create a set of JPG's for the client proofs. These are quality 12 and 300 DPI

14. We rename the 300DPI jpgs to the client ID + sequence number e.g. BP003-001.jpg

15. We choose 50-100 proofs for effects and then run them through showit effects to make some B&W, lomo and also a few for other effects. These files have a _1 applied to them or _2 if we have tried 2 different effects on one file. The client recieves all images in colour and then some images with effects.

16. We run the 300 DPI images through image processor and save them as quality 6 to a directory called photobox proofs.

17. We upload the photobox proofs to our image gallery and post to our blog that they are now available.

18. We order a complete set of the photobox proofs in 6 x 4 bordered prints for the client.

19. From the photobox proofs directory we use contact sheet II in CS to make thumbnails sheets of them along with the codes and then we run pdf presentation also in bride to create a PDF file of the thumbnails sheets.

20. We print the Thumbnails sheets on a colour laser printer on normal paper and these are packaged up with the client 6 x4 proofs and posted to the client/picked up by them/or dropped off by us.

21. The client chooses their favourite image/images for the thankyou cards and we make a proof that we send them via email, when thats approved we upload it to photobox and print them.

22. When the thankyou cards are delivered to us we sticker the backs with our little Boundless Photos sticker and then pack them up and send them to the client.

22. The client chooses their images for the album using the proofs and contact sheet and we pull these out of the 300DPI proofs and upload or post them to whichever album supplier were using.

23. The clients wedding guests and family can order small prints from our website and these are fullfuilled via photobox. We supply larger prints or any special requirements they may have and we go back to the 300DPI proofs for those.

24. Pdf of the album layout is sent through to us and we send it to the client for approval.

25. Album is printed and sent to us after approval of the PDF by the client, we send teh album on to the client after checking it ourselves.

During this process we periodically backup our external HDD's to each others depending on who is doing sort and images processing.


That's brilliant Banbert! And also makes me feel very tired! But it does sound like a streamlined approach to providing all the services you offer your clients. How long would it take you from Wedding to Uploading the proofs for clients? This being my biggest problem, I used to say two weeks to clients to get them proofs this has increased to 4 weeks.

[Banbert]

That's brilliant Banbert! And also makes me feel very tired! But it does sound like a streamlined approach to providing all the services you offer your clients. How long would it take you from Wedding to Uploading the proofs for clients? This being my biggest problem, I used to say two weeks to clients to get them proofs this has increased to 4 weeks.

We started off saying 2 weeks, but have quite often been 4 this year so far but thats mainly because we have been busy with our day jobs, travelling, shooting weddings, moving house and learning how to do stuff ... I think now weve done a dozen or so were getting into our stride and the aim for next year is to have them done a few days after the wedding, definitely easier to sort and process when the shots still fresh in your mind I reckon!

Shooting it right in the first place is also something were working hard on atm, so taking less pictures but getting them right is deffo a help with post processing. Also as I am sure you find, we do a lot of group shots here in the UK and were trying to be very structured when we shoot those now, so rather than a couple of shots of one group and then 5 of another i am trying to take 3 shots of each group as that really speeds up the post processing time if the images are in consistent groups when you go through them.

[th3r0m]

No, do not do this. Shoot in RAW and use Auto WB, then edit thew WB in Lightroom

If you do this, the white balance from shot to shot can and will change, even if you do not move based upon what the camera determines is right. If you set a static white balance, while it will probably be off, it will be off in the same way for every shot in that scene, thus making it possible to correct the WB on one shot and sync the rest of the photos from that scene with the corrected version. Granted you can do this with the AWB, but since each shot's WB varies, this may result in odd color casts even across a single scene.

Edit: In my original statement, I assumed that since WB was being corrected in the original workflow it would still be corrected even after any adjustment to the workflow was made. That made my post a little less than clear on this issue, sorry about that. I agree that leaving your WB set to daylight and NOT correcting it would result in some bad looking shots. :)

[sando]

But the colour temp in different scenes changes constantly, the light from a window can be different from corner to corner in a room... the flash power can change, so the flash/ambient mix can change. So setting a static WB wont make any difference, it'll just mean that in 80% of your pictures you'll HAVE to change the WB, whereas with my method you might find that 60-90% of the images don't need colour correction at all.

[RobKirkwood]

It was probably my comment about setting a fixed white balance that is being referred to ...it's really no more than going back to my film days, because film of course had a static colour balance, and now you can easily adjust WB in PP rather than fitting filters. It's obviously only useful to people shooting RAW, but all I can say is that since switching away from AWB on our cameras it's been much less hassle to correct WB - and I'm really talking in the context of shooting the same thing at the same time with multiple camera bodies.

To the original questions, I agree with what others have said or implied...

1500 is a lot of images - we aim to shoot 800-1000 ish, and deliver in the region of 200-300 depending on how long we've been at the wedding. Most we've ever delivered was a wedding 10 days ago where we've hit 397.

Download times, like Tim we're looking at just over 10 mins for 4GB - using a Crucial USB2 reader, Sandisk Ultra ll and Extreme lll cards (the cards themselves can make a big difference). We use Downloader Pro from Breezesys to handle the download and it automatically recognises camera serials embedded in the files and names them accordingly as they're downloaded to one big folder.

We currently use Adobe Bridge and CS2 (switching to Lightroom end of this year), and for the 200-300 images we deliver we just do basic corrections and then generate the web gallery + send them off to Photobox for 6x4 proof prints. Some of these we will do a simple B/W conversion, but we only do more involved PP or noise reduction when people order large prints or they're needed for an album. We usually promise the gallery in place by the time the couple return from honeymoon, but it's usually there within 3-4 days, depending on what else we have to deal with during the time.

Rob

[th3r0m]

But the colour temp in different scenes changes constantly, the light from a window can be different from corner to corner in a room... the flash power can change, so the flash/ambient mix can change. So setting a static WB wont make any difference, it'll just mean that in 80% of your pictures you'll HAVE to change the WB, whereas with my method you might find that 60-90% of the images don't need colour correction at all.

The variation in color changes in a single scene is what my suggestion (taken from another thread) would limit (hopefully). Those variables do change, and if you look at each photo individually then the WB being off slightly is less of an issue, however, when you compare several photos from the same scene together and the color is very inconsistent and looks bad (IMHO).

[sando]

We currently use Adobe Bridge and CS2 (switching to Lightroom end of this year), and for the 200-300 images we deliver we just do basic corrections and then generate the web gallery + send them off to Photobox for 6x4 proof prints. Some of these we will do a simple B/W conversion, but we only do more involved PP or noise reduction when people order large prints or they're needed for an album. We usually promise the gallery in place by the time the couple return from honeymoon, but it's usually there within 3-4 days, depending on what else we have to deal with during the time.

RobYou'll notice a lot faster processing when you switch to LR - it really made a HUGE difference to my workflow. Best money I ever spent? Possibly.... :)

[sando]

The variation in color changes in a single scene is what my suggestion (taken from another thread) would limit (hopefully). Those variables do change, and if you look at each photo individually then the WB being off slightly is less of an issue, however, when you compare several photos from the same scene together and the color is very inconsistent and looks bad (IMHO).

Each to their own, I say, then. Personally, I'd find having to adjust every image very time consuming, rather than being able to get away with not changing it on the majority.

[Banbert]

1500 is a lot of images -



Last one we processed was 2,700 :o

We hacked that down to 900 .... it was a full day, 9am till midnight with 2 of us shooting ..... but it was still wayyy too many!

Were trying to be more controlled as were tending to find that its usually the first shot that we took thats the keeper and the extra oneswe shot of the same thing after that trying to get a better one are just usuall Blahhh

We do stil tend to shoot 3 of each posed group we do thoug to make it easier for getting rid of the blinkers, handsup to face, looks away etc Very hard to see those through the viewfinder on the 30D but I am tending to lift my head and look outside of the viewfinder for these now after focusing, easy to do using a tripod and easier to see who is blinking, looki9ng elsewhere.

[th3r0m]

Each to their own, I say, then. Personally, I'd find having to adjust every image very time consuming, rather than being able to get away with not changing it on the majority.

Why would you have adjust every image? Adjust one image from the scene, then sync that WB across all of the images from that scene. 1 image adjustment for every scene, not 1 adjustment for every image.

[RobKirkwood]

You'll notice a lot faster processing when you switch to LR - it really made a HUGE difference to my workflow. Best money I ever spent? Possibly.... :)I'm sure we will, especially now they seem to have improved the sharpening - we originally got it free as a result of buying Raw Shooter Premium, but I don't want to switch workflow in the middle of doing weddings.

Rob

[RobKirkwood]

Last one we processed was 2,700 :oSee this is where my age (56) and laziness comes into play - why should I build myself a mountain to climb? :lol: ...we do always take multiples of groups of course, and ensure that we've both covered the key moments, so we have backup in case a CF card or camera goes bad.

Rob

[sando]

Why would you have adjust every image? Adjust one image from the scene, then sync that WB across all of the images from that scene. 1 image adjustment for every scene, not 1 adjustment for every image.

Again, that's still adjusting every image.

[cdifoto]

I find that the more images I shoot, the fewer images I'm happy with.

[th3r0m]

Again, that's still adjusting every image.

You're right, every image is adjusted but the adjustments are done in groups, rather than image by image as the OP was originally doing them, so time is still saved and the workflow is streamlined that much more.

[sando]

You're right, every image is adjusted but the adjustments are done in groups, rather than image by image as the OP was originally doing them, so time is still saved and the workflow is streamlined that much more.

Again, I disagree that using a static WB is faster in PP to correct, but hey, to each his own. Try both methods.

[Bobster]

I used to then look through the images and star them but with an average of 1500 pictures this seemed to be a waste of time. So I just start editing them.
i use Pixort (http://www.pixort.com) to cull my shots, its the fastest app i've found, just press 1 to keep and 2 to chuck has 3,4+5 as well, but i just use 1 and 2..

[CateUK]

With two photogs you are going to take ALOT of pictures!

And yes the whole group thing in the UK is huge. Even when they do have a list of 15 groupings (I only take at most 3 of each group shot), in my experience they tend to add to this as they go along with all the emotion. And as the Bride gets more tipsy then I have had a conveyor belt of cheesy grins of the bride with practically every individual of the wedding party. I haven't found a way to get out of that.... and then I have to edit them because they no I took them!!

[CateUK]

Oh I meant to add the Card Reader Advice is great perhaps it's time to invest as my 4GB takes just under 30 mins to download

[th3r0m]

Oh I meant to add the Card Reader Advice is great perhaps it's time to invest as my 4GB takes just under 30 mins to download

Make sure your computer supports usb 2.0 as well. I thought I saw an earlier post where you said you had an older computer, so you may not have a usb 2.0 port, which would make buying a better card reader a bit of a waste as it would just move the choke point to your usb port. :)

Disregard if you are using firewire.

[Banbert]

Thats a long time to download images Cate, if you do find that you only have USB 1.1 on your PC then it would save you a lot of time getting a USB or Firewire PCI card for your current PC, these are quite cheap now and decent way of adding USB or Firewire to an old system that doesnt currently have these faster ports.

[Bobster]

My laptop is old but still a good workhorse so I imagine that's the reason it's slow. But that's not something I can do anything about as just no funds for a new one!
Thats a long time to download images Cate, if you do find that you only have USB 1.1 on your PC then it would save you a lot of time getting a USB or Firewire PCI card for your current PC, these are quite cheap now and decent way of adding USB or Firewire to an old system that doesnt currently have these faster ports.
sounds more like a PCMCIA firewire or USB2 card than a PCI card..

[CateUK]

I do have USB2 just I use a laptop, it was a top spec one about 4 years ago, I worked for a laptop company at the time, it's just getting a bit full (despite two internal HD and two external ones!!)

[Bobster]

I do have USB2 just I use a laptop, it was a top spec one about 4 years ago, I worked for a laptop company at the time, it's just getting a bit full (despite two internal HD and two external ones!!)
bit full?? are you backing stuff up?

also 4 years old? when was the last time you re-installed xp?

[suyenfung]

i've been thinking about this and i think that any method of setting wb is equally time consuming in post. it takes the same amount of time to sync the images to a corrected frame no matter what you start with.

auto, static or even custom - it doesn't matter - the world is an inconsistent place and it's still going to be wrong some if not a lot of the time. the degree of wrongness is irrelevant. even if auto wb delivers correct color balance some of the time, it is more time consuming to sort through which are ok and which need adjusting than to just sync them all.

to further complicate matters, in a perfect world you could correctly adjust one image and sync all other images from that scene, but unfortunately this just doesn't work. micro adjustments on each image are required to get a sometimes not even perfect, but uniform, color balance.

so, imho, either live with subtle, probably imperceptible by the client, color shifts and save yourself a lot of time, or adjust each image independently.

[Banbert]

sounds more like a PCMCIA firewire or USB2 card than a PCI card..


Didnt see the bit about it being a laptop :o and to think i work in IT ... good job my photography stuffs gong well ! :eek:

[karensimmons]

Shoot in RAW. Adjust in Bridge or Lightroom.

It'll save you hours and hours and hours of work.

Karen

[toneyw]

I shoot only for fun but my recent trip to China netted me 3,000+ RAW images. If it were not the shear number, slow computer and limited time, I think I would have gone through them fairly quickly in LR. Something to consider.

[JJacula]

I'm no expert here, but I download my cards to PC, burn all files to DVD, then start editing in ACR. Anything not worth keeping is deleted immediately, then I batch process as I go according to scene. I do almost all of my adjustments in ACR, then run a defog action on all of them via batch process. I might run a few of them through noiseware, might black and white a few (again, via action), color pop a few - just to have some fun with them. Then I pick 40-50 to put online - that's usually within 24 hours of the wedding - and send the rest off to the lab.

My first wedding took me what seemed like forever to go through, second wedding was much faster.

[Phil V]

I'm with Rob on setting a constant WB, it definitely cuts down on PP time, we shoot all the outside pics should under daylight WB, that's what we did with film. evening images will have a warm glow (why wouldn't they - that's why you liked the view when you shot it).:)

All NR is done as a batch before any other processing.

All the inside shots get a manual WB set (usually in batches per location).

Once the JPGs are there, B&W conversions etc can all be done as a abatch.

But mostly, if you're processing over 50% of your pics you're either exceedingly gifted or you haven't learned the most important thing. They've paid YOU for your artistic eye, the singular most important function in PP is the delete key. The customer shouldn't be picking the 1 image from a set of 3 with the best expression/focus - that's your job. They believe you're good from seeing quality not quantity.

I don't do loads of weddings, but the PP for me (including cloning etc on the portraits) is done in a day. If it takes me longer than that I'm working for peanuts.:(

[nicolerork]

Well I'm not sure why it's taking you so long to download images. I shoot anywhere from 2000-2500 per wedding between myself and my assistant. There's been several times when the pictures were done and the proofs were up the next morning.

[Padawan Dad]

My entire process takes approx. 3 hours. I'm just talking proofs here.

I download to my PC, back-up on 2 External HD's all the RAW files. Then I color correct, add contrast and saturation. I may do an occasional B&W. I use Canon's DPP for ALL of my proof editing. I think that it is MUCH more efficient than Photoshop for this type of work, and personally believe that the colors are a tad bit more accurate and richer than Photoshop.

When the B&G requests an album, or prints, then I work on the requested images individually in CS2... WHEN the B&G request them.