How do I stop spending so much time post processing?

FarmerTed1971 wrote in post #18146510
Interesting. I cannot even imagine NOT shooting in RAW.

Me neither, and I'm a 'get it right in camera' freak. The white balance alone makes RAW a Hobson's choice for me.

Alveric wrote in post #18146581
Me neither, and I'm a 'get it right in camera' freak. The white balance alone makes RAW a Hobson's choice for me.

The thing is that for a lot of people getting it right in camera doesn't mean a ready to use image file, it means recording the optimum set of data ready to take into the processing stage of photography.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #18146755
The thing is that for a lot of people getting it right in camera doesn't mean a ready to use image file, it means recording the optimum set of data ready to take into the processing stage of photography.

Alan

Precisely what I do. I spend little time in post-processing, unless the job requires stamp-cloning out clutter. Most of my post-processing is fine tuning, but I ALWAYS do post-processing, even if it's just contrast boosting. I never use files straight out of the camera –unless it's for demonstration purposes–, hence I never shoot JPEGs.

Well, each to their own. I have found the saturation, sharpening,colour boost,contrast adjustments in the camera menu so I'm happy

Thanks for all the replies guys, I'm getting a lot of good information and advice from all of you.

Now this coming weekend, here we go again. My grandmother's 90th birthday, my Dad is hosting a big shindig type event for her at a hall and of course he comes by yesterday and asks if I'll be bringing my camera stuff. I said well, that will cost ya big guy lol, but in reality I was thinking well here's a guy who gave me everything in life, and never asks for anything so I have to photograph it. Otherwise I'd feel selfish, she doesn't have much time left and that side of my family rarely gets together as they are spread all over the usa.

I'm going to go into it and take a lot of the advice members have said in this thread.

Limit my shots, look for the right shots, and get it right in camera.
I'm only bringing one lens and not my whole bag, just gonna go with the 50l as I have a lot of fun shooting with it.
Mainly though I am going to try and enjoy myself and try and have fun.


I just want to clarify a thing I said earlier. What I mean by saying I'm not a very happy guy stems from my ocd problem. I have an amazing wife and 2 kids who deal with my craziness and I do enjoy life. I just suffer from a very disabling type of ocd that creeps into my daily life 90% of the day, the other 10% I'm sleeping. So I'm typically very on edge and frustrated. The camera though, has always calmed all of it and allowed me to escape from the impulses and feel normal per say. I think that's why I shoot so much.

Have fun! Maybe consider a portrait of your grandmother, and a portrait of her with all of the generations around her. And then put the camera away and let everyone else with smartphones do the dirty work for the rest of the event.

kirk

One more thing to add, the more input you get from others about how good the shots are without a ton of processing, the more confidence you most likely will gain in your shooting abilities and limited post, thus possibly reducing the OCD edge you have with the images. I don't know much about those disorders, however, I would hope that you can get to a point where you know you have done enough to have results that others love, and you can back off the time per photo.

Here is another experiment. Take a shot that you really like, but don't spend alot of time on it. Sharpen it up, add a bit of contrast and/or saturation, etc. Shoot it off to a local shop to print as a large print, something greater than an 8x10. Frame it and hang it. It might serve as a reminder that you don't need to go through a ton of time to get great works of art.

Shoot less and outsource processing. Maybe not practical for casual stuff, but works well for weddings.

AltgnJoey wrote in post #18146976
here's a guy who gave me everything in life, and never asks for anything so I have to photograph it. Otherwise I'd feel selfish, she doesn't have much time left and that side of my family rarely gets together as they are spread all over the usa.

I think that is a very good reason to spend some time and effort to create something nice. In these situations, I have a clear target for taking pictures: E.g. one great print - e.g. by bringing the entire family together for a group shot. Take the shots - LR/PS the heck out of it and make some large prints.

I typically target a photo book for such an event: Typically 40 - 50 pictures for the book which translates (at a 20% - 25% keeper rate) into taking about 200 - 250 pictures - culling drastically and then working on the rest of them.

One thing I've learned over the years when snap-shot shooting for the family (such as the 90th B-Day party, etc) is that no one besides me really cares about the quality of the photos. This isn't to say the people don't care but that they just want the snap-shots.

It was quite freeing when I finally figured that out. I still shoot in RAW, but I let my software auto-process everything (LR or DxO) and provide some basic NR and Sharpening. I do a quick cull of obvious bad shots and then process the rest and upload for the family. Everyone is happier including me.

I'm slowly learning to only spend time on the shots I like the most and that I would want to hang in my own home (or sell if I was going to do that). Afterall, I think as photographers, we're among the only people that are going to appreciate the effort we put in. A casual viewer doesn't know our software or the subtle differences our processing workflow might make. Thus a 10-sec process in LR might appear just as good to someone as a masterpiece we spend hours on in PS. In the end, if spending hours makes you happy in the end, that is all that matters. There is definitely a law of diminishing returns in photography, which includes post-processing.

AltgnJoey wrote in post #18146976
I'm only bringing one lens and not my whole bag, just gonna go with the 50l as I have a lot of fun shooting with it.
Mainly though I am going to try and enjoy myself and try and have fun.


... I'm not a very happy guy stems from my ocd problem. ... I just suffer from a very disabling type of ocd that creeps into my daily life 90% of the day, the other 10% I'm sleeping. So I'm typically very on edge and frustrated. The camera though, has always calmed all of it and allowed me to escape from the impulses and feel normal per say. I think that's why I shoot so much.

The first paragraph above sums it up nicely...have a good time, take some 'snapshots' to record a event with family members all enjoying themselves, and have a good time yourself.

You are not always creating 'art', you are not always recording history for historians and anthropologists to marvel over. You are not always making a photo to be sold to a finicky client. So set your OCD aside in such circumstances as 'not appropriate to fret over'. There are plenty of things that DO matter, but this is not one of them.

AltgnJoey wrote in post #18144526
I am literally walking right on by my laptop and telling myself daily, nope not today.

Everytime I shoot personal stuff, birthdays, family outings, holidays, I come home with some of my best stuff but I just sit there dreading the editing process. Now obviously if it's a job, I sit down and edit edit edit all day knowing that I have a responsibility and time frame to get the images to a client.

I honestly don't know what happened. I use to love coming home from personal outings and love seeing and working on my shots, weather one image took an hour or not. I was happy.

Now it's almost as if I can't do a standard exposure, contrast, saturation edit and slap it up on social media because I know if I take the photo through photoshop, and my other countless editing programs I can come away with a better image. Thing is I just want to get them up and move on to the next set of images and further my skill in the act of photography, but seeing 300+ picks waiting to be edited just kills my motivation.

Anyone else feel the same way? How can I just let go of the fact every image needs a 30 min make over in an editing program.

I am a perfectionist, I suffer from ocd, I also never want to misrepresent myself to the public that my pictures are subpar compared to jane doe who makes every shot she has look like a fantasy painting.

From my point of view it sounds like post-processing is a laborious experience for you, instead of post-processing being an extension of your mousing hand, and treating it more as a positive "work out" than a task.

tim wrote in post #18147142
Shoot less and outsource processing. Maybe not practical for casual stuff, but works well for weddings.

How would you go about finding someone to PP?

You can post over on the "Services Wanted" board here, or just contact members that seem to do well with post processing and develop a working relationship with them. Many of them (and myself) are always happy to help with post processing for nominal fees, some folks do this more for a living than others.

Just very generally, if something isn't enjoyable, why do it? Following that path leads to contentment, even in the amount of post-processing.