Brad usually gets on me when I leave my open container of corn on the counter top, the bread unattended without its twist tie and the condiments dripping with condensation onto the granite. “I like to eat first, clean later” is always my response.
If I’ve learned anything from Brad and from my business in the past 1.5 years, it’s the importance of being organized. “I’m organized in my head” is another of my famous responses. However, I’ve learned that, especially when dealing with 25 couples a year, being organized is a must….and having things organized in my head simply doesn’t cut it.
In the past week, I’ve had a conversation with two different photographers about Culling and I thought I would share what goes on in my head in writing. π My hope is that this will not only help me to better refine my thoughts but hopefully it can help you with your workflow as well.
Culling (or the process of selecting images) can be an extremely time consuming task for photographers. Especially when speaking in terms of shooting a wedding day, I am looking at culling anywhere from 1500-2500 images down to around 600. This is a huge task!
I’ve decided to use a recent engagement session to explain my thoughts. When I import an engagement or bridal session into my Lightroom Catalog, I ALWAYS import them at 1:1 Ratio **You can see this option of importing next to the word Initial Previews: below**. This allows the images to load at fullsize preventing lag time when switching from image to image later.
Usually while the images are importing and rendering I’m multi-tasking. Once complete, I view the images in Grid Style allowing me to see 8 images on screen at a time. I’m a HUGE proponent of selecting images that you like rather than eliminating those you don’t like. It saves SO much time.
In addition, seeing multiple images on the screen at once allows me to quickly search for the images that stand out to me and most speak to my brand.
When I’ve flagged my favorite images, the catalog looks something like this. Lightroom is an excellent program for culling as it allows you to flag and isolate the flagged images.
If I am understanding correctly, Bridge, IView, and PhotoMechanic are other greaet programs to use.
I then create folders. In each Collection Set I create two collections: one with all the images and one with the selected images to be edited. I recently have made the decision to be more consistent and disciplined with my selections.
As you can see below they vary from 75-90 images per shoot. In the future, I will be selecting the best 70 images per session.
After I have created the new collections, I enter the collections titled Selected and I place a Red Tag on the 10-15 images that I will be using for their blog post.
And then….I tell their story. π π π My favorite part!
ALREADY BOUND
I realize that the way I do things may not work for everyone but hopefully there is at least one person out there who has benefited from this post. If not…at least Brad will be proud that I’m making an attempt to be organized. π
Have a wonderful day!
Live Simply, Love Freely,
Catherine
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m a photographer learning…so I’m new to all of this! Especially choosing what photos, it can be frustating if you don’t give yourself a limint!
This helped me out alot! π
This is great! I’m another aspiring photog-in-(self)-training, and I’m currently learning the ends and outs of managing my photos. I have been so curious as to how “real” photographers do things, but haven’t found much out there. Still have lots and LOTS to learn, but I am so glad that you chose to share your process. Thank you!