How do I stop spending so much time post processing?

My Dad was a Pulitzer winning photog. Other than really awesome vacation slides, I can remember only one family print. I shot our last 2 vacations exclusively with my Galaxy S7. The previous vacation is still in raw sitting on a hd. Join the club.
: /

Stick to Lightroom, uninstall photoshop if you need to.

AltgnJoey wrote in post #18144616
**** this turned into a rant. I just trashed 140 shots from my sisters birthday bash, stuff I was actually going to edit. Then looking at them I said I hate them, they are horrible pictures, boring, and mean nothing to me. gone. felt liberating.

Did you shoot those for her, or did you shoot those for you?

Or did you just drag your camera along to a social event because it's an easy social crutch, and you felt like you're "expected to" take photos at all family gatherings?

AltgnJoey wrote in post #18144616
Good question. I don't know the answer to at this point.

I've done weddings, corporate headshots, newborn sessions, family portraits, through the past few years of photography. I've always wanted to make a steady income off it and have done the marketing, the seo bull s, the outreach, and in the end I sat there saying this just isn't me. I hate weddings cause well, I kinda hate happy people? So I know I'm not cut out to be all happy and be this pleasurable experience for a couple on their wedding day, the pay is nice though.

Family, newborn, portrait stuff - ehh I enjoy it a tad, I mean kids are cool, and I have a good time. Once was enough for newborn work, couldn't wait to get out of that situation.

Headshots were ok, kinda f ing boring but again paid well.

Thing is the more I post to social media the more referrals I am getting. So it's a mix of, well I know these pictures are potential advertisements.

I kinda feel like I am emulating a lot of the more successful photographers in the Philadelphia region because I think that's what people want and in order for me to make some money I have to edit my shots like all these other people are doing.

I guess photography for me, became more of photography for them - the potential client - which killed all my interest about 2 years ago.

Now I'm back and I'm starting to feel this need to emulate a certain look by local big wigs, I am getting jaded again. In all honesty I know what I want to shoot, and I know I don't want my images to look like something out of the 60s,70s, or 80,s film era.

Sh this turned into a rant. I just trashed 140 shots from my sisters birthday bash, stuff I was actually going to edit. Then looking at them I said I hate them, they are horrible pictures, boring, and mean nothing to me. gone. felt liberating.

I think you have a burnout issue here.... Or you aren't shooting enough for yourself.....

I'll just say, your problem is one more of us would like to have, be kind to share?
I'm often dreadfully low on moitivation to edit my photos to perfection, even though I know I should do it.

I used to feel like this but I've learned to streamline my process and it has made things easier and more pleasant for me. It starts with my Lightroom import. I have made a few presets based on what I'm shooting. For instance, I know if I am out birding all day my processing for all images is going to be similar at the basic level and similar to every birding shoot before that. I have a 'birding' preset that I import the images with and I just have to do minor tweaks from there. Same for portraits, landscapes, etc. The second thing I do is quickly go through my images and assign a 5 star rating to the best images. Not every image is going to make the final cut so my thinking is why bother putting in the time with them? I process only the 5 star images to completion so typically that's about 5-10% of the entire series. Lastly I've come to learn Lightroom is really all you need for most images. If you've resisted the temptation to use present and actually learned how to do things in Lightroom you can zip through images at an amazing pace and even achieve filtration looks available in 3rd party plug-ins. I use Photoshop and external editors like Nik or On1 for exceptional cases but I've learned not to rely on them. I used to be frustrated that I would put all kinds of time into PS, Nik, etc. only to have people not really be able to tell the difference or end up showing a preference for the shot processed only in LR. Fancy filtration, effects, etc. is less important than the content. Good images don't usually require a lot of fuss and most non-photogs won't appreciate the extra effort. Case in point I sometimes send images to friends and receive exceptional praise but when I go to their place and see my pictures on their computer looking all blown out at a brightness of 100% I'm horrified but it still looks great to them. Most people will never be as critical of our work as we are because they don't know the difference. There is a saying that necessity is the mother of invention and if you take the time to look at some videos, read some blogs or as specific questions you'll find out that you are not alone and many before you have developed and shared a wealth of information about making digital workflow more efficient. Good luck to you. I hope the situation gets better.

AltgnJoey wrote in post #18144616
I hate weddings cause well, I kinda hate happy people?

This comes off as a very strange thing to say, but I'll try to run with it. Just free-associating now. Maybe you'd be more comfortable around people who might not look happy but are intensely involved in what they're doing, which creates photographic interest. Areas where this applies include concerts and sports. Or start with the idea of counterculture. My part of the country has alternative weekly newspapers. Yours probably does too. These papers run ads for vintage/hippie/punk clothing stores with photos that are kind of moody and noir. Also ads for tattoo artists, locally made jewelry, crafts. The papers use photos to illustrate articles as well. I don't know how the pay is.

Clients who want that look will hire those bigwigs. What can you offer that's your own style?

AltgnJoey wrote in post #18144589
Really? I have used photoshop for a lot of its tone adjustments the past few years. Trying to achieve certain looks, things that maybe I saw others doing and wanted to do them as well.

In reality, I have always shot black and white well before I took up photography 7 years ago. I had spent my teenage years in Philadelphia filming a lot of semi and profession skateboarders well into my late 20's. Always in black and white. I just like the asthetic , it feels right to me. I never have tried processing my photos to black and white in photoshop. any good tutorials you could recommend, I would like to give it a try.

I had my own darkroom for a couple of decades and I also did custom B&W and color printing professionally many years back. I always want my B&W work to look like my B&W work but for inspiration I always turn the the truly great B&W artists like Weston, Minor White, Siskind, Wynn Bullock & Adams for the technical inspiration. They set the bar really high so when I process and print my B&W images now it's with that technical level that they have set in mind. I have taken photoshop classes and workshops but after learning and getting comfortable with the tools I have found my own way of doing things. It does all help to have files from my MM to start with. I would say take a couple of classes in photoshop at a Jr College.

I like Fuji film simulations, but it's hard to give up shooting raw. I wish there is a easy way to edit some raw photos on mobile phone and sync back to computer.

Get it right in the camera.

AltgnJoey wrote in post #18144616
Good question. I don't know the answer to at this point.

I've done weddings, corporate headshots, newborn sessions, family portraits, through the past few years of photography. I've always wanted to make a steady income off it and have done the marketing, the seo bull s, the outreach, and in the end I sat there saying this just isn't me. I hate weddings cause well, I kinda hate happy people? So I know I'm not cut out to be all happy and be this pleasurable experience for a couple on their wedding day, the pay is nice though.

Family, newborn, portrait stuff - ehh I enjoy it a tad, I mean kids are cool, and I have a good time. Once was enough for newborn work, couldn't wait to get out of that situation.

Headshots were ok, kinda f ing boring but again paid well.

Thing is the more I post to social media the more referrals I am getting. So it's a mix of, well I know these pictures are potential advertisements.

I kinda feel like I am emulating a lot of the more successful photographers in the Philadelphia region because I think that's what people want and in order for me to make some money I have to edit my shots like all these other people are doing.

I guess photography for me, became more of photography for them - the potential client - which killed all my interest about 2 years ago.

Now I'm back and I'm starting to feel this need to emulate a certain look by local big wigs, I am getting jaded again. In all honesty I know what I want to shoot, and I know I don't want my images to look like something out of the 60s,70s, or 80,s film era.

**** this turned into a rant. I just trashed 140 shots from my sisters birthday bash, stuff I was actually going to edit. Then looking at them I said I hate them, they are horrible pictures, boring, and mean nothing to me. gone. felt liberating.

do you like your day job? how about devoting you time to being better at what you do there if you want to earn more money?

just want something to do with you extra time? volunteer for something, plenty of folks need a little help.

Just like having stuff? sell your gear and buy an extra car that's cool af.

maybe take up knitting?

or if you just like making yourself miserable with your hobbies, maybe you could look into scarification?

or just quit taking photos and watch golf or football or baseball or something on the weekends like everyone else.

hope this helps.

really though, the first step is taking fewer pictures. I might take 20 pictures at my OWN FREAKIN' KIDS' birthday party and have more than enough. 140 pics at a (apparently) grown woman's birthday "bash"? that's why people have iPhones.

Alveric wrote in post #18144911
Get it right in the camera.

Get it right in camera for the way it needs to be processed to finish the process.

yinro wrote in post #18144898
I like Fuji film simulations, but it's hard to give up shooting raw. I wish there is a easy way to edit some raw photos on mobile phone and sync back to computer.

I say use your equipment to it's fullest potential. Film and digital are different so if you want the film look shoot film. Otherwise use digital to it's fullest potential.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #18144919
Get it right in camera for the way it needs to be processed to finish the process.

Yes that really should be the correct starting point. I really don't think I will ever be in the position to own any Leica M Series camera, let alone a set of lenses to go with it, but there is one thing that intrigues me about the MM and post processing. When I shoot using a colour digital sensor and convert I have the RGB channels available so that I can adjust the spectral response to simulate both film and filters in the software, in my case usually LR, where I did my own set of B&W presets that I prefer, as well as trying Silver FX. For the colour filter effects I assume you have to go back to filtering on the camera, since there is no spectral data for the software to use. I see where a good RAW converter will help with the MM for global tonal adjustments, and dodging and burning with local brushes in LR, but other than adding some grain effect I struggle to see where a program like Silver FX can help much. Most of what it does seems to be relying on using spectral data from the original colour image.

I too had a darkroom for many years, but was only ever an amature. I too like my black and white work to look like my black and white work, when I shot on FP4 and HP5 and generally printed on Ilford or Kentmere papers. At least I have now found a lab that prints digitally on Ilford MGIV papers, for real black and white prints.

BigAl007 wrote in post #18145167
Yes that really should be the correct starting point. I really don't think I will ever be in the position to own any Leica M Series camera, let alone a set of lenses to go with it, but there is one thing that intrigues me about the MM and post processing. When I shoot using a colour digital sensor and convert I have the RGB channels available so that I can adjust the spectral response to simulate both film and filters in the software, in my case usually LR, where I did my own set of B&W presets that I prefer, as well as trying Silver FX. For the colour filter effects I assume you have to go back to filtering on the camera, since there is no spectral data for the software to use. I see where a good RAW converter will help with the MM for global tonal adjustments, and dodging and burning with local brushes in LR, but other than adding some grain effect I struggle to see where a program like Silver FX can help much. Most of what it does seems to be relying on using spectral data from the original colour image.

I too had a darkroom for many years, but was only ever an amature. I too like my black and white work to look like my black and white work, when I shot on FP4 and HP5 and generally printed on Ilford or Kentmere papers. At least I have now found a lab that prints digitally on Ilford MGIV papers, for real black and white prints.

Yes you filter on camera just like you would with film. Also because there is no color channels the original 18MP MM behaves both with DR and IQ like a 36MP camera and the new MM 24 MPS behaves like a 48 MP camera.

I start in adobe raw. Make adjustments there and save as tiffs and finish in CS6.

A lot of my B&W film work was medium format and some large format. tri-x pro 320 and I also liked tmax 400 in rodinal 1:50 and Kodak Elite grades 2-4 where a;ways on the shelf.

If I had a darkroom I would still be shooting film in some capacity but a downsize due to a divorce some years back caused the loss of the DR and I had a darkroom outside the home that i also lost. I am the only one that knows what my finished prints should look like so that part of the process I could never let go with film or with digital.