#45 Editing: How To Edit Photos Faster, Or Quit Editing Altogether

Read the show notes for this episode at http://doubleexposure.show/episodes/45 - This week we are talking about how to speed up your photo editing process so that you can spend more of your time shooting and bringing in new paying clients. - First, we recommend breaking up your process into smaller chunks. Let's start with my (Sophia's) post-shoot process. I complete each segment over several days following the session or wedding. The day after: download and backup photos. A couple days later: sort the photos into folders. This especially makes culling and colour correcting weddings easier by making each segment smaller. A couple more days later: cull photos. This is the slowest part due largely to technological limitations. I'll zip through a section of photos and reach a section of photos which haven't fully loaded... Then I wait... A few more days later: colour correct photos. Once I've edited a few of my favourites, I sync those settings across all of the photos (except exposure and white balance) to speed up the process. Then all I have to do is correct the exposure and white balance of all of the photos, which I can do in large chunks. Really, this part is pretty quick. Pretty much immediately afterward: upload photos to the client's gallery or contact them to schedule their proofing session. By following the same process each I edit a shoot I don't get sidetracked, and each segment seems more manageable when performed on its own. - After you've broken down your process into smaller, bite-sized chunks, there are a few things you can do to speed the the process up even more. Here is some advice from Petro: Frame photos in your camera so you don't have to crop anything later. Properly expose your images in your camera. This will take so much work out of colour correcting later. Know your equipment. For example, if your camera shoots dark, bump up your exposure meter. This will help make it so you don't have to bring up the exposure in every image later on. Cull images as you download them. This will save you a lot of time in editing. Save presets with your preferences and apply them on import. - If you still cannot for the life of you get through editing another single wedding, consider outsourcing. Include the price of editing in your packages. Remember that by paying someone else to do it, you are saving the money you'd be paying yourself to do it. While you're not editing you can be spending time bringing in new business and making even more money.