how much pp before the hand over?

[jkloef]

How much pp do you do to pictures before handing the clients the cd or proofbook? I see a lot of photos on here and think wow that one took some work but it looks amazingly better than the original must have! Do you pick and choose a few to give the B&G a taste of what you can do or do you just save that for the album? I can't imagine doing more than basic color enhancement to the whole lot of them.

[jessiper]

I make sure all the images look their best before giving them to the clients. I don't understand why anyone would want to have their images out in the world any less perfect.

[stathunter]

I personally charge for pp work and have that built into my contract but on the other hand I do not hand over pictures that are blaugh......they better be keepers.

[Big Mike]

I guess it depends on a lot of factors. If your final product is an album...and the proofs are only a step toward creating that final product, then maybe you don't do much to them.

However, for many photographers, the 'final' product includes all of the photos...and then I agree with jessiper...I wouldn't want any of my photos to looks less that perfect.

[stathunter]

Remember that they will judge you on what you hand over.........not what you can potentially do to the photos. It is simple for me....give them the two good ones.........ha.. Make them as perfect as possible or ruin my image.

[stathunter]

Krista,
Can I offer a quick suggestion. The photo on your website....is good but does not seem like your best work. Maybe have another photo as your main photo.

[jkloef]

Don't get me wrong, I don't hand over blah pictures, they are all "keepers" and of course there are some that I like to take extra time with to make them stand out even more. Maybe just because my pp skills are still pretty slow but I can't imagine taking that special time with each (or even most) of the 500 proofs I typically give! I am just wondering if you do more than the basic adjustments to the majority of your pics before handing them over to your clients or do you just do up your favorites?

[BEWITCHED]

Hi i sit for two days and level contrast and sharpen all photos 1000 photos Iam new two the game and can not seem to through some ones specal day photos away .I do have to learn to slow down on the day and stop snaping so much.

[Big Mike]

Maybe it depends on what you call a basic adjustment....and how fast/easily you can edit. I recently had a groom with a scar or mark on his forehead...and I edited it out of every photo I gave them (200+). It didn't really take all that long.

I try to think about whether they will want to blow up an image for a print bigger than 4x6...and if I think they will (any of the formals or couple shots) then I'll edit it a bit more. Things like tan lines on a bride's maid...that might take a fairly long time to edit on say 50 images...but does it make sense to do it only on some of them and not on others?

Same wedding, one of the groom's men was a fishing guide and spent a lot of time sitting on a boat with a hat on. The result was that his face was red and his forehead was pale white....and the line was very distinct...it was pretty funny actually. I fixed that in all the images...although I did a quicker/dirtier job on ones where I didn't think they would enlarge it.

[jkloef]

Scott
Thanks for the suggestion. I am actually in the process of updating the site now.

[jkloef]

Mike my hat is off to you. I guess I will just have to get a good bit faster at it! It does make complete sense to make them all look their best.

[Phil V]

Hi i sit for two days and level contrast and sharpen all photos 1000 photos Iam new two the game and can not seem to through some ones specal day photos away .I do have to learn to slow down on the day and stop snaping so much.
Now this is just MHO, but what you need to learn to do is throw some of those away.

Admittedly I am very old and I come from a time when I'd shoot 3 rolls of 120 (15 on) to produce a 30 side album! But even shooting digital with 2 shooters we rarely exceed 1000 pics in a day, and they quickly get whittled down to 200-350. If you're shooting 1000 plus you must have (almost) duplicate images. It's not the B&G's job to sort out the best images, you didn't pick them for their artistic vision - they picked you for yours. You're not throwing away their pictures - they're not their pictures until you've handed them over.

I've said it before, but the most effective and underused post processing trick is simply the delete key.

To the original question, everything gets colour balanced, curves etc. Then a selection get special effects and all the PJ shots get a B&W conversion, some of the PJ stuff won't even get presented to the B&G in colour. That accounts for about a days work and 350-500 images for the happy couple. Hopefully I'll get faster at this, or at least better.
I'll only revisit the PP to ensure a uniform look across album pages, by request or for enlargements.

[lil_miss]

I make sure all the images look their best before giving them to the clients. I don't understand why anyone would want to have their images out in the world any less perfect.

Remember that they will judge you on what you hand over.........not what you can potentially do to the photos. It is simple for me....give them the two good ones.........ha.. Make them as perfect as possible or ruin my image.

I agree - I dont expect my clients to "guess" what the picture might look like when I'm finished... I am the photographer not them.

In saying that though - I dont do heavy PP - just basic adjustments including B&W etc. Occasionally I'll throw in a midnight sepia and a few signature things, but thats about it.. Doing all of the above doesnt take all that long in the scheme of things.

[tim]

I give customers images with color and brightness corrected, nothing else usually unless an image really needs work. I call them digital negatives.

[Kai]

Krista, do you have lightroom? I like to give my clients the best pictures I can.

[mmahoney]

I've said it before, but the most effective and underused post processing trick is simply the delete key.

Amen to that .. 200 quality photos in the hands of a full day coverage couple from maybe 600-700 photos taken during the day is where I'd like to be.

Lower numbers and higher quality is my objective.
Mike

[jkloef]

Kai- I use lightroom for pretty much everything unless the photo needs major work. Love it!

Tim- This sounds like what I have been doing so far, I like pp and am very impressed with what a lot of people put on here but tend to prefer a simpler style when it comes to my own photos. Do you doll them up a bit more before putting them in the album or is what you see what you get? (Don't get me wrong here I love what I see on your site I am just curious as to if album pics get special attention).

[taygull]

I will adjust images but I'm not going to spend a bunch of time on 200-300 images.

What I do is create a gallery for each part of the wedding and then I have a separate gallery for "Artist Favorites". These are the ones I prefer and I will spend as much time as I need to work up these 20 or so images. My clients then can decide which images they like and I will then work on them....if that is included in the contract. I will do all the basic conversion of the raw files with tweaking levels, color balance and fix anything obvious on all images before they see them. I'm just not going to do my "artist work" on all the keepers.

[sblais]

As little as possible, but as much as needed.

[zorz]

I take my experience from artistic portraiture background.

First, I backup all files from the CF cards and archive with no intent to return to them. Then, I make my own judgment on deleting the duplicates or imperfect photos - it simplifies the later selection process for all of us. About 30% go. In yet-to-happen case they remember something that I did not present to them as proofs (i.e., among those 30%), I'd go to the archive.

Then, I go through the remaining and rate them. Run automatic color and exposure correction on all of them - they become raw files (this is how I call them for the clients), implying very basic post-processing, prone to imperfections. I have no problems showing those because they have seen my finished works made in the past and know what they may become. I do take one sure photo and apply advanced post-processing, showcasing my manual color correction, retouching, and artistic effects. It serves as a personal example of "before and after".

I then present all the files to the clients, recommend about 50 of them (ranked highest), suitable for an album, show an example of my manual PP'ing on a single photo, and let them select those that they want to have carefully processed. I also suggest identifying 10 all-star photos to which I will apply my best knowledge and skill (samples (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=368905)). Those take 5-10 hours each and such an effort definitely cannot be expected on every photo of hundreds given...

Again, this is taken from my artistic portraiture approach. I know it wouldn't appeal to all customers but then, I don't have to get all the clients out there, either.

[BJ Pulsipher]

I also divide the wedding into sections to make it more managable. I quit deciding which ranking to give pictures. I let my husband do that because I get too emotionally involved with the pics and his taste has a broader appeal. Then I work with those. It streamlines my work flow. Basic pp is included, extra stuff costs by the hour.

[Bobster]

colour correction, curves, saturation, any blotches, pimples etc, sharpening - swap the occaisonal face over etc ;)

[jkloef]

Thank you for all of the input! The artist favorites folder is a great idea that I may utilize. It is a good way of showing off your skills but still gives them the basic shot in case they aren't thrilled with the heavy pp.

Scott, just curious as to what you think of my new front page pic...better....worse....or about the same? Sometimes I think that I like the pics better since I know the whole story of what was happening at the time it was taken. It's difficult to be subjective on some of them! :)

[sierra_nova]

All the images the bride and groom ever see are fully pp'd.

They have some options - anything in colour I will do black and white, they can ask for selective colouring, but essentially everything is done by the time they see it.

I do this for a few reasons - I see pp as part of my style, and part of what they bride and groom are paying me for. Also, all of my packages come with a DVD of all images set to music, and this is what they will be showing their family and friends while the album is in production, so I want my best foot forward so to speak.

If you cost your pp time into your packages, it really isn't an issue.

Cheers!
Naomi