Ready to throw in the towel...

I've got about the same gear as you, and I started out shooting only jpg because I didn't want to spend the money for a RAW post-processor. Liked others have said, T2i shoots excellent jpg in auto and modes.

I do PP the jpgs with free FastStone, but it only takes about 30 seconds/photo, not 10 minutes. After I figure out the PP settings for the 1st image, the others within the same lighting scenario get the same PP - just a few clicks per photo.

That being said, I recently bought a P&S (SX150) as a casual carry-around... and it also takes good jpg in both auto and modes.

To all: Yes, I know that RAW would give me "superb" IQ instead of just "excellent" IQ ... to each his own.

10 minutes per photo for PP? There's your problem right there.

Amamba wrote in post #13279504
This. If I shoot my kids' b'day party and I have 30 photos to process, out of a couple hundred, at 10 minutes average per photo - which is probably too optimistic - that's 5 - 6 straight hours of work. Since I don't have the ability to spend 6 hours in one sitting, unless I want to sacrifice a better part of my weekend, this turns into an hour a day for a week - after a full time job, kids time, wife time, house time, car time... this starts feeling like a 2nd job, and it turns from something I like doing to something I feel I have to do. And there are other things I'd like to do in my spare time - read a book, watch a movie, take a bike ride with kids, have some range time with friends..

I guess I need to re-think what I want to get out of photography, and how to get there.

Processing a single portrait photo takes me maybe 2 minutes max, maybe 1 minute average. There's your problem. And this is for stuff that I would need to worry about being top notch quality. If I just wanted snaps of my kids birthday party, I would probably just end up spending a minute each on 3-5 photos, and then just pasting the adjustments to various other ones, be done with 100 images in 15 minutes.

Landscapes are a different matter though.

I'm with the others. I know I'm not the best at PP, but still feel my pictures come out far better than any P&S I've owned. I got good shots with the P&S's, but I couldn't get the shallow DOF I get now. I couldn't capture the kids at the exact moment I wanted because of lag. I couldn't take a shot with apparent blown highlights and bring back the clouds and blue in the skies. Bring up the shadows a bit. With Lightroom, I spend less than 5 minutes with each photo. That's probably a pretty extreme case really. Most I probably spend less than a minute on. Do I get the results of some of the PP experts around here? No way. But I still feel they are FAR better than any P&S could do on a regular basis. I have some export presets and a system to get them to our iPhones and the web. Some of those steps get tedious, but they are with P&S's too.

On the video, I have never done anything with any of my video footage. I go back and watch clips and smile at the memories. I hope to put some things together some day for the family, but like you, I don't have time for it. But if I don't take those clips now, I can't go back and make them.

As someone said before - use Lightroom and you'll be way ahead. 10 minutes per photo is way too much for simple birthday pics. With LR you'll speed up your process 10 fold easily.

Well, here's what I do on a typical portrait.

1. Adjust white balance and some exposure adjustment in DPP. 1-2 min.

2. Transfer to PS. 1 min at least (it's not fast).

3. Brighten eyes (levels adjustment layer, then another layer to dodge highlights / burn shadows / saturate, then pull back opacity to avoid overprocessed look). That's another 2 min, I have some of it automated in Actions.

3. Run a photo filter. I find that with some people, the skin comes out perfect, but with others (that's pretty much everyone in my family) I need to play with filters to get it right. Especially since my son has a very fair skin and my daughter is more tan, so when they are together in the photo I need to work on one of them separately. That's another couple of minutes.

4. Get brightness, levels and contrast to look the best I can. This is usually the most time consuming part.

5. Sharpen & save as JPEG.

So, what part of the process should I NOT be doing out of camera ?

IMO there is nothing wrong with going "I don't want to spend my life learning all this, i have other stuff to do" and right now, there are soem great damn P&S's available. The new s100 should be awesome.

If its the post processing that is the issue, you don't HAVE to process the crap out of every photo. Go into lightroom, sharpen/adjust the first photo in a group, then apply that change to all photos that need the same, done. And with a DSLR that you already have, there is less post work that needs to be done. Just take pictures, don't edit them, and have fun with your kids. =).

I do all of that in LR....i wouldn't transfer over to Cs5 unless....well actually i don't know...

When i used a p&s i used to do all my editing in ps.....

since getting LR, i can do everything that i used to do in PS....remove artifacts...gradient filters...

selective highliting/darkening

crop/angle/resize

batch conversions...

basically LR is for photography and PS is for pixel editing and graphic design etc...

not that using both in tandem isn't necessary, and plenty of people do just what you do....but i think if you obtained LR and learned to use it, you could cut that time in half.

Actually, you can do most of that in DPP....if you know how to use it....but i prefer LR to DPP.

The best part of using Lightroom is you can make a bunch of adjustments to 1 photo and paste those same adjustments over all of your photos and its non-distructive. You can always go back and re-work them if you so choose. Download a 30 day trial.

Well, here's an unedited (resized) photo that I consider one of the best as far as my ability to get things right straight out of camera go. (Not talking about composition etc, just the need for post processing).

However there are some things that need fixing even if I don't want to do much work. His eyes are too dark, an there needs to be some sharpening. Unfortunately, most other photos aren't even there.

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White balance and exposure in LR is only 30 seconds at most. Then you can use brushes to work with eyes. I seldom go beyond that, but I know you can do the skin effects with brushes. You can hit the skies with gradients and other things.

Go find the RAW conversions thread that Tony Long made. Some great examples there of what you can do without leaving LR or DPP. Sure there are some shots that take more time and effort. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not. But for most shots, I think you could be very happy with results from LR in 2-3 minutes tops.

nicksan wrote in post #13279649
10 minutes per photo for PP? There's your problem right there.

That is a bit much for an 'average' photo IMO

Tommydigi wrote in post #13279426
Get yourself Lightroom where you can do really quick and easy processing across an entire set of photos. Maybe even get some presets to make it easier. I agree sometimes shooting for fun is like having a job that does not pay, especially if you shoot RAW and edit every photo.

Maybe before you sell everything get a good point and shoot and just shoot with it for while, you may find its nice having both.

I use lightroom & can edit a bunch of photos in what feels like no time. I edited about 30 from sunday [a car meet at the beach] before my cup of tea got cold!!! If you have set styles that you like then set up presets for them all ie portraits, b&w, landscapes etc then you can apply the preset to one/selected/all photos at the click of a button. I'll then run through & adjust/tweak exposure if needed & maybe crop/rotate if needed then export as jpeg while i finish my cup of tea

Of course you could change your 'picture styles' in a similar way & shoot jpeg you'd just have to remember to change the style for the particular shot you were taking/finished look you'd like.

Edit - I only use CS2 for resizing & letterboxing a copy for web/Flickr use. As has just been said ^^^ 99% is done in LR.

Here the the RAW conversions thread I referenced.

I see nothing wrong with your sample image. It's fine for a snapshot.

I mean you aren't hauling around reflectors and portable strobes to shoot these are you?

See in your example your talking about editing his eyes...

thats fine and dandy but unless your framing these or selling them....i wouldn't waste the time...

i mean im aware that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but i think your spending to much time worrying about all the details....

if your time is limited....just focus on getting good composition and good exposure....then in LR you can do WB>Exposure>Fill/recovery/Clarity>sat/vibrance.....and done....takes less then 2 minutes..

If you start in with adjusting eyes and hair and skin then 10 mins is fast for a photo lol....

its just to much but you know that already...

gotta find a style that suits your time...

and youve got me rethinking my pp....because i have so limited time to pp as well ...so ive been thinking about moving over to JPG and just doing the bare minimum so i can share with fam and friends a little faster..