The End of Summer Random Discussion for TPBM (29)

puddlepirate44 wrote in post #8620662
OK, part two of my ramblings.

Expectations. We all have 'em. We all need 'em. Really. Setting goals is essential to getting better at our craft. It's like creating a New Year's resolution. We want to conquer flash photography. We want to knock out some killer landscapes. We want to learn HDR. Whatever. We need something to strive for in our pursuit of photography otherwise we'll stagnate and become obsolete.

What's important is that we don't set those expectations too high. C'mon, let's be realistic. Ansel Adams was at the top of his Landscape Game after YEARS of shooting. We wander out to Yosemite with a Rebel XT, six months of practice and expect to come back with the same results. Not gonna happen. Sure, you may nail a shot that looks similar, but usually that's more accident than design.

Here's the problem. You peruse the POTN forums. Or you wander over to some wedding photog's website. Either way, you start looking at their shots. Whenever I do that for too long, I usually wind up wanting to sell all my gear because I suck. None of my shots look that good. Well, OK, maybe one or two, but, GEEZ, not Every. Single. One. Right? We tend to forget some very basic things:

• Some of these pros have been in the photography biz for DECADES. Some, very few in fact, not that long, but they are good. Really good. When you look at their website, at their online galleries, you're looking at the best possible shots they can muster. And they have a ton of shoots to glean from. More than you or me. They can pick and choose. Know this: Not every shot is stellar. What you see on their galleries is stellar, yes, but not every shot "SOOC" is stellar. We're seeing the crème de la crème. Think about it, if they shoot 30 weddings in the year, and the keep 400 shots from every wedding, that's 12,000 shots. I'm thinking that, yeah, there's going to be 50 or so stunning shots in there that will be in the gallery....
  
• Also, because these pros shoot so much, they have crazy experience that I don't have... yet. While I'm standing there trying to pull the starter cord of my brain so I can think of a shot, the more experienced pro will have already seen it, set it up, shot it and moved on... because they've done it a thousand times before, and I've done it, what, six?
  
• And, three, the most difficult thing that we forget, is that we're the hardest critics of our work. There are those of you around here that are just that good. You deny it, you brush it off, you get all embarrassed, but, really, you're good. The stuff you put up is just as good as the folks from the Big Leagues. The hardest thing in an art setting (and, yes, I believe photography to be a form of art) is to be honest with your work. Being able to sit back and say, "OK, that's a good shot." Or, "Too narrow a DOF, but I'll remember that next time." Hey, we're all learning. Don't hamstring yourself with untruths.

Again, we need expectations. But we also need truth and realism.

More later.

puddlepirate44 wrote in post #8620963
Part Three of Random Ramblings:

OK, so you've done the shoot. Now you're home and you've downloaded your card(s). So you've got a ton of photos staring back at you.

Let's look at the numbers. Say this shoot was a wedding. You've promised the couple 250 shots. (I'm making this up, I'm not sure what Lisa promises. I think 250 is the low end of the deal) You took 1500 shots and, like a good kid, most of those shots are duplicates to give you a safety net. Sure, there are those people that will walk into a wedding venue, shoot only 500 shots and every single one of them is perfect.

Of these creeps, we shall not speak.

We have a bunch of duplicates, but that's OK. Anyway, you took 1500 shots, needing only, say, 300, giving yourself a buffer.

That means you've got 1200 to lose.

Thus, the culling of the herd begins. Again, you have to be honest with yourself and the shots you took. If the shot is really bad, like Grandma is unrecognizable or you totally blew out the exposure, sure, ditch it. But if you're just grumpy because you're hungry, take a break so that you can look at the shots afresh.

The first culling is simple. Blurry, really, really bad exposure, flash failing to fire (say that three times fast...), nothing in focus, etc. The second culling is a bit more challenging. Remember how it was said that it's important to take 3-5 shots of every pose and/or composition? Take those shots, and choose the two, or the one best of the group.

You keep doing this until you have just a little more than you promised.

Here's the trick to culling: Be brutal. Think in terms of time.

As was mentioned earlier, time is money. The more time you spend processing, the less time you have for other stuff.

Say you're just starting out in the photog biz. You only have one wedding scheduled for all of the Summer. So you shoot it and you have, literally, MONTHS to finish it, right?

No, wrong.

Think of where you want to be in five years. Do you want to be doing that wild and crazy photog business where you're shooting 30+ weddings every year on top of Senior portraits and other such stuff? Then, realistically, you have, maybe, a week to process ALL the shots of the wedding. More like three days.

Why three days? You shoot the wedding on Saturday. You process Sunday-Tuesday. Wednesday you do meetings with prospective clients and show the newlyweds their proofs. Thursday, maybe a day off. Friday you do more meetings and meet with the next wedding couple at the rehearsal and get ready for Saturday's wedding. See?

If you set up your speedy workflow NOW, even if you don't have that large scale of a business, then you won't be overwhelmed when that time comes.

Start thinking of how much time you want to spend processing the shots. If you have only three days (say, ten hour days) to process 300 shots, that equals that you process ten photos an hour.

One photo every six minutes. That's so that you can keep your head above water.

So, look at your photos. Think, "Can I process that in six minutes?"

Here's something else to consider when culling. Not every shot is going to be a stellar, "Great Knees of Ramses" shot. When you look over your shots, 90-95% of them will be processed simply. A quick and dirty processing to that makes it stand out. We'll talk about processing in the next post. But the vast majority of the shots will be just a couple of tweaks, a tonal curve or a bump in saturation.

I can hear the collective gasps now. "NO! Every shot must be portfolio perfect!"

Here's the problem with that. One: You don't have the time. You don't. Remember, six minutes. Two: The client doesn't care. Three: You're gonna kill yourself doing it. Really. I'd give you three weddings processing that way and you'll be so sick of photography that you'll quit.

On point Two: The client doesn't care. I've seen brides look at shots that were almost tossed and they fall in love with them. They were blurry or something, but they love 'em. Here's why: When we, as photographers, look at a photo, we look at the Art of the photo. When they look at the photo, they look at the Emotion or the Memory of the photo. We see narrow DOF, they see Grandma smiling at their wedding.

Case in point. Zane and Leyla just lost Jinx, may she RIP. The pain and sorrow we feel is just a fraction of what they feel. Lately, Zane posted up some shots of Jinx. Like this one:

OK, who's the one that looked at this shot and said, "Wow, it's crooked, the darks are too muddy, it's too centered and what's with that shadow?" I know I didn't. I was all, "Aww" and sniffles, right? Because the emotion was complete.

I'm not saying that this is a license to get sloppy with the shots, but we need to remember that a photo is a combination of technical correctness and decisive moment. Brain and heart.

OK, so 90-95% of the shots, you do straight processing. But for the other 5-10%, you blow their socks off! As you're culling the massive herd, you start looking for those shots that really stand out. REALLY stand out. Those are the ones that you take some time with. You really pretty them up. So that the bride will look at the proofs and go, "Nice, nice, nice, WOW!"

Be brutal while culling. Not because the shots are bad, but because you have to think in terms of time.

And your time is worth something!

One more, then I'm done.

puddlepirate44 wrote in post #8621075
Part Four, and I'm done.

Processing, in the arena of the six minute rule, is vastly important. Again, I'm not against Photoshop or Lightroom or whatever system you use. I just think that we get lost in the velvety morass of the digital darkroom. I tend to get all mesmerized by all the presets and actions. Seriously, I have a TON of actions and presets. I have no idea what 80% of them do. I mean, is this guy's B/W action better than this girl's B/W preset?

Here's how to survive this labyrinth. When you have some time, go through all your actions and presets. Take a normal photo and apply the day away! As you do, write down the actions presets that you really like. Find different kinds and styles. A really nice smooth B/W. Something gritty. Contrasty. Bumped saturation. Etc. Collect about 10-15 presets/actions. These are your "GoTo" processing points.

Now, when you're doing that fast and furious processing for that 90-95%, you don't have to hunt and peck for a Sepia processing; you know that you have one that is ready to rock and roll.

Every 4-6 months, review this GoTo list. Is there a preset that you use A LOT? Is there an action that you seem to use over and over? Maybe give it a rest for a cycle. I don't know about you, but it's not uncommon for me to overuse a preset. When I look at a gallery and they all have that v300 preset look... I know I've gone too far.

Anyway, with straight processing or with a predetermined presets/actions list, you can blow through a LOT of the shots in a hurry.

OK, all done. Thanks for letting me ramble. I'll shut up now.

Permagrin wrote in post #8621515
NFL season starts right now. WOO HOO

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #8621525
I would like to ask the Titans to please smash the Steelers right in the mush please...?