How Fast Is Your PP Workflow? This question is focused on the digital photography medium, and respectfully does not apply to film. The question is for UHHer’s that do their own...

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

This question is focused on the digital photography medium, and respectfully does not apply to film.
The question is for UHHer’s that do their own shooting, editing, processing and post-possessing (RAW or JPeg) with no assistance.
Here’s the scenario: You go on your personal “photo shoot” (vacation, special event, walkabout, or personal adventure) and you produce and accumulate 200 to 500 frames or more of multiple scenes with different exposure triangles. You finally get back to your “workstation” and examine your 200 to 500 exposures.
-->How much time do you/would you (personally) spend in your workflow with 200 to 500 frames to get the photos and results you want or expected? Hours, days, or multiple sessions? I know we all have other things to do, and Post Processing can be time consuming (just like now after a travel vacation).
Broadly speaking, digital PP workflow generally includes the following steps….
• Download/previewing (Raw Conversion?)
• Culling (for the keepers or one’s that may have potential).
• Adjustments/Corrections (Sharpening, B/W, Color)
• Saving, storage and posting
Over the years, as my personal knowledge, expectations and critiques of my own work has increased; so has my post processing time (especially for large amounts of frames)! I shoot mostly Jpeg and concluded that it ain’t the cameras or software…I think I’m just more demanding of myself! Am I alone?
(I know SOOC is another matter and alternative that some do and some don't)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The absolutely first step is to cull, there is NEVER a reason to keep / edit 200 image, and certaily not 500, of any topic EVER.

If you shoot in RAW, you need a tool that renders an image at the pixel-level details so you can kick inferiors in just a 1- or 2-seconds review. That rendering needs to be just as fast as your 1-second kick decision. Instantaneous. FastRawViewer is one such tool.

So, 200 images, 200 seconds, less than 5-minutes for cull 1. Now, run a second review / cull of the images, where you're looking only at potential keepers against other potential keepers. You should be down to 50%, to possily 80%, of that original offload. Your very best from that original 200 is now maybe 40, 60, 100, if you were having a really good day of very unique and distinct topics.

Now, your workflow and duration and level of effort are dependent on your choice of tools, and your level of technical skill with those tools. Personally, I use almost exclusively Adobe Lightroom Classic. I have Develop Presets that I trigger after the import of my culled images. I use LR's sync technology to sync the editing of one similar image against others that were imported with the same editing needs, things like exposure adjustment, WB, movement of the blacks, whites, highlights and shadows. Things like sharpening and noise processing were defaulted to the camera chracteristics and ISO-level of the images via the Develop User Presets.

All through my LR editing, I continuously seek to kick inferior images. If I imported 40 images, I'm still trying to drive down and isolate only the best, whether that's a final 10, 20 or 30. It won't be 40.

Time-wise, that I try to avoid any complicated edits, except where needed. I'll level and crop to improve the compositions, but removing content is a last resort, only if I don't have another image that avoids this complex and time-consuming work. That's why I shoot lots of versions and have many to choose from to find the single best that was the whole reason I was capturing that subject / stretch of images.

Although I remember having maybe 1000 images from the Chicago Marathon a few weeks ago, I have only 46 images kept in LR and 566 images in the recycle bin from where they were offloaded. I may have deleted already those images from the cull that would fill-out to my 1000+ memory. My LR timestamps from import through export of those 46 keepers is a 7-hour timeframe, but I watching TV and doing some other things too during the edit effort.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Hard to tell for me.
Since I'm selective in my shooting, I don't shoot a ton, and even the okay ones are memories, and I only process the ones I'm going to print or post, I don't spend a lot of time post processing. I'll usually only process an image when I want to use it for something, not every single image.
Pretty quick I suppose.

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

CHG_CANON wrote:

The absolutely first step is to cull, there is NEVER a reason to keep / edit 200 image, and certaily not 500, of any topic EVER.

If you shoot in RAW, you need a tool that renders an image at the pixel-level details so you can kick inferiors in just a 1- or 2-seconds review. That rendering needs to be just as fast as your 1-second kick decision. Instantaneous. FastRawViewer is one such tool.

So, 200 images, 200 seconds, less than 5-minutes for cull 1. Now, run a second review / cull of the images, where you're looking only at potential keepers against other potential keepers. You should be down to 50%, to possily 80%, of that original offload. Your very best from that original 200 is now maybe 40, 60, 100, if you were having a really good day of very unique and distinct topics.

Now, your workflow and duration and level of effort are dependent on your choice of tools, and your level of technical skill with those tools. Personally, I use almost exclusively Adobe Lightroom Classic. I have Develop Presets that I trigger after the import of my culled images. I use LR's sync technology to sync the editing of one similar image against others that were imported with the same editing needs, things like exposure adjustment, WB, movement of the blacks, whites, highlights and shadows. Things like sharpening and noise processing were defaulted to the camera chracteristics and ISO-level of the images via the Develop User Presets.

All through my LR editing, I continuously seek to kick inferior images. If I imported 40 images, I'm still trying to drive down and isolate only the best, whether that's a final 10, 20 or 30. It won't be 40.

Time-wise, that I try to avoid any complicated edits, except where needed. I'll level and crop to improve the compositions, but removing content is a last resort, only if I don't have another image that avoids this complex and time-consuming work. That's why I shoot lots of versions and have many to choose from to find the single best that was the whole reason I was capturing that subject / stretch of images.

The absolutely first step is to cull, there is NEV... (show quote)

Thanks Paul....there's a little "Ditto" to your response to my PP approach....but it has become a little more time consuming over the years. (BTW...I don't keep 500 hundred...that an accumulation after a long shoot or long vacation away from the computer.....heck....I might end up with 50 after all). Keep shooting

Grahame Loc: Fiji

RonDavis wrote:

-->How much time do you/would you (personally) spend in your workflow with 200 to 500 frames to get the photos and results you want or expected? Hours, days, or multiple sessions? I know we all have other things to do, and Post Processing can be time consuming (just like now after a travel vacation).

From my own experience built up over the years in relation to one area. 500 frames (raw only) shot at a race event, culled to 475 and then edited in ACR and saved as jpeg at size required. Then batch processed in PS to add watermark.

Total time from start (after download from camera) to ready for uploading to web around 3 to 4 hours. Note of course that these are images for the event promoter and participants not every one is going to be what I class personally as a really good image.

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

Longshadow wrote:

Hard to tell for me.
Since I'm selective in my shooting, I don't shoot a ton, and even the okay ones are memories, and I only process the ones I'm going to print or post, I don't spend a lot of time post processing. I'll usually only process an image when I want to use it for something, not every single image.
Pretty quick I suppose.

Longshadow....thanks for responding to this question....because sometimes I wonder what is the appropriate time we should spend in the PP stage of our "hobby". Keep up the good practice

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

RonDavis wrote:

Thanks Paul....there's a little "Ditto" to your response to my PP approach....but it has become a little more time consuming over the years. (BTW...I don't keep 500 hundred...that an accumulation after a long shoot or long vacation away from the computer.....heck....I might end up with 50 after all). Keep shooting

I added one additional comment to the earlier reply after visiting my desktop where I do my editing. The LR timestamps say I spent 7-hours of part-time ish effort to find, edit and publish 46 image from an original 600 (or maybe 1000+ as I remember offloading from two cards).

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

RonDavis wrote:

Longshadow....thanks for responding to this question....because sometimes I wonder what is the appropriate time we should spend in the PP stage of our "hobby". Keep up the good practice

I suppose as much time as one likes to dedicate to it.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I shouldn't admit to it, but I'm still not finished with the many, many photos I took on my road trips from Connecticut to California 4 and 5 years ago. There are thousands of photos in those caches.

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

I am retired and shoot for my own pleasure, not a pro under pressure to turn out the finished product. So it makes no difference to me if my PP work takes one hour, one day or one week.

Don

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

CHG_CANON wrote:

I added one additional comment to the earlier reply after visiting my desktop where I do my editing. The LR timestamps say I spent 7-hours of part-time ish effort to find, edit and publish 46 image from an original 600 (or maybe 1000+ as I remember offloading from two cards).

Well....your time frame is slightly faster than mine.....but we're very close on the yield rate (keepers and published). (It's more fun to shoot and imagine results...than to actually PP).

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

photoman022 wrote:

I shouldn't admit to it, but I'm still not finished with the many, many photos I took on my road trips from Connecticut to California 4 and 5 years ago. There are thousands of photos in those caches.

Understood.....but you've got something to do this winter

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

photoman022 wrote:

I shouldn't admit to it, but I'm still not finished with the many, many photos I took on my road trips from Connecticut to California 4 and 5 years ago. There are thousands of photos in those caches.

One of the reasons I'm selective and only edit what I'm going to use for something.

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

Grahame wrote:

From my own experience built up over the years in relation to one area. 500 frames (raw only) shot at a race event, culled to 475 and then edited in ACR and saved as jpeg at size required. Then batch processed in PS to add watermark.

Total time from start (after download from camera) to ready for uploading to web around 3 to 4 hours. Note of course that these are images for the event promoter and participants not every one is going to be what I class personally as a really good image.

That's still pretty fast for 500 Raw.....thanks for the comment....keep shooting

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

PAR4DCR wrote:

I am retired and shoot for my own pleasure, not a pro under pressure to turn out the finished product. So it makes no difference to me if my PP work takes one hour, one day or one week.

Don

Hey Don....understood, but what about the "Honey Do" list and other chores in mean time