How to Process
Very few clients know exactly what goes on after their photoshoot. Why in the world would it take so long to get their pictures? (My full processing time is usually between 10-14 days). First thing to remember is that I'm not in my office 24/7, AND that not all the time in the office is devoted to processing images. (you know... there's also paperwork, emails, advertising, ordering etc.)
So, here's a simple step by step on how I do things around the office.
The image below if from Adobe Bridge. This is how I view, sort, rename and process your images. Many photographers use Lightroom. I do not. I prefer Bridge. Below you will see that the images say ".CR2" This is a RAW file, not jpeg (no processing was done in the camera). The first set is to take all the images (anywhere from 300-3000) and give them all 3 stars. I then do a quick sweep and remove my test images, anything that was out of focus or just a bad shot give them zero stars.
I then batch rename the images. In this case it will be Audrey001, Audrey 002, etc.
In my next sweep, I will pick out the Best of the Best and give them 5 stars.
I will then open the 5 star images in Camera RAW edit through Adobe Photoshop. This is where I can adjust the white balance, exposure, brightness, contrast and vignette. Sometimes ill get fancy and go black and white, or sepia or desaturated. =)
With those 5 star images edited, I will process them to make them JPEG images. In this case, since they will be uploaded to facebook and the blog, they are sized down to 800 pixels per largest side.
Now that I have the blog images, they can be applied to my blog and put up on facebook. This is how the "sneak peeks" are made.
After this, I re-do the process again with ALL the images so that I can upload them to the proofing site, make a slideshow, and prep for your proofing meeting.
I feel like my workflow has gotten to a good manageable amount of time. Now that you know what's happening, you can come help me out? JK, thats what I have kayla for. =)
Thanks for reading!!!
