I’m often asked about my post processing and workflow by other photographers, so I thought I’d share my basic post processing workflow. If you’ve never done any photo editing, I’ll warn you, this will all sound confusing. This post is geared more toward other photographers and those with experience in Photoshop or Lightroom. In the interest of sharing, and hopefully helping someone else, and maybe gaining tips in return, I’ll share my basic workflow.
I’ll start by saying that Lightroom has changed my life. Really. It has cut my post processing time by about two-thirds. I really don’t use CS3 much anymore except for special projects and artistic and creative editing. What used to take me several days to edit in CS3 now takes me a few hours.
I know that a lot of people shoot in different modes, and use the semi automatic modes a lot (Av, Tv). For myself, I shoot in manual (camera on manual and flash on manual), and in doing that, it makes post processing so much easier and faster. With manual, you have a whole series of images with the same exposure so you can apply one setting to all of them. I find with the auto modes, the settings and exposure changes all the time depending on how the camera registers light, so it’s more inconsistent, which means have to address each individual image separately instead of working in sequences.
So, my goal in post work is to do it quickly, efficiently, and consistently. I wanted to create my system so I can easily repeat. I group tasks together and try to use the tools efficiently. Most importantly, I use keyboard shortcuts. it’s so much faster to use the keyboard shortcuts instead of using my mouse.
Step 1: Import. I import my files into Lightroom (LR) and use a preset during importing. So, I have a certain presets that I use for every single photo. its a basic bump in contrast, a slight bump in saturation, slight vignette, etc). When importing into LR, on the import screen, where it says Develop Settings, that’s where you put the preset (either one you write or one you get elsewhere). So it imports and applies the preset at the same time, saving a step. Another benefit is that when you apply a preset, it will overwrite/erase any other alterations done to those specific settings. So if you played with an image first, then applied a preset, you’d lose the original alterations. So by applying the preset as the very first thing, you can then see how it looks on the image and make your alterations from there. Again, it’s being efficient.
Step 2: Cull images. I go through all my images, one by one, and decide which ones are keepers. I also decide which ones will be converted to B&W. I flag all the keepers. I give 5stars to all I want to convert to B&W. I also will mark portfolio images with a red marker if I have any of those. I used to rate all images on a scale, but that was cumbersome and not useful since I only used the 4-5 star. I also used to delete images that were bad, but that slowed me down significantly and I’ve found that my workflow is so much faster not doing that.
I generally don’t keep a lot of duplicates. So, if there are 4 images that are very very similar, I will chose one to keep, maybe two if I convert one of them to B&W. So as I’m going through in the library, I’ll compare all shots that are similar (a series) and chose one or two. I’m good at culling down. If I can’t decide which of similar shots are better, then I just pick one, since it obviously doesn’t really matter. I don’t worry about exposure or color at this point.
Step 3: Convert to B&W. I run a filter for my B&W choices (cmd+L for 5 stars). Now only the keepers that I selected to be converted to B&W are showing. I select all of the images (SELECT ALL), DEVELOP SETTINGS>use your B&W preset of choice. Bam! They’re all converted to B&W. Still, not worrying about exposure or tweaking.
Step 4: Processing. I remove the 5 star filter. I run a filter to now choose all my keeper images, including color and B&W (run filter for flagged images). All my keepers are now showing. I work in sequential order. This is important. if I was to jump around from one image to another, then it’s going to add more time and work. Attacking in sequential order allows me to work with whole sections of images at once.
I try to keep most of my editing in the top main basic panel, because it’s faster if I don’t need to scroll down through lots of different panels. Again, trying to be efficient.
I use keyboard shortcuts to keep it all fast. < > will scroll you through the settings while + – will increase and decrease a setting slightly (add shift to those to magnify the change).
So, I start with the first image. I use the W key (keyboard shortcut for WB) use the WB dropper to neutralize the color if needed. This is one of the only places I use my mouse. of course, best if there is a grey in the image, but often there isn’t, so i try to find a white or black. I find that white works better than black. in case you didn’t notice, when you move the dropper around the image, the little thumbnail in the top left corner of the window will show the global color changes if you were to chose that point for white balance.
I then press the > key to scroll through the different exposure headings. I usually adjust exposure next,using BRIGHTNESS to increase exposure as it works on the midtones, so you won’t have the issue of blowing your highlights. I use the +, – key to make those adjustments. Then I go to the next setting, usually blacks. I tend to use the blacks slider rather than the curves because it’s just faster and easier and gives me similar results. I’m all about efficiency. The I do contrast if needed. For most images, that’s it. I’m done with the image. Bam. That was a whole, 20 seconds. now, that was the first image. lets say there are 8 more images taken in the sequence with similar lighting. I can copy the setting of this first image (cmd+C), then paste those settings to the next image in the sequence, or to the whole series of images. Bam. In the amount of 30 seconds I’ve now finished editing a series of 9 images. IMPORTANT: you only want to copy/paste those settings you altered in processing. So, if you are working on a color image, and you change the WB, brightness, and blacks, you only want to copy those things to paste to the B&W image that happens to be the next in the sequence, otherwise you’ll also over-wright the B&W/color settings. So, cmd+c, uncheck all options, then check Basic Tone (which is the exposure + contrast). Then paste to next image. If any little tweaking in exposure is needed, do that. if there are a bunch of images in a row, highlight all of them (shift+ arrow keys), cmd+shift+S, sync all settings (if they’re all B&W r all color). Bam! You’ve just finished editing the whole series. make any little tweaks that might be needed. Done. Another way to copy/paste is to use option+cmd+v and that will paste the setting from the previous image. So basically I work through my library in this fashion. because I’m combining steps I can zip through a whole session fast. So, for a portrait session, I might have 300 images or so to start (just depends). I can go through, cull, and process the whole set in this manner in an hour or less (usually less, much less). really, it is that fast. I don’t need to open photoshop at all. I have the whole session edited and processed and done. If you have LR 2 then you can also do local adjustments in addition to the global ones. Again, fast and easy. I can do some basic skin smoothing by choosing the local brush, then clicking on Clarity. Decrease clarity about -45 or so, then paint where you want smoothing. Local exposure changes are the same process, choosing the local brush, then clicking on the brightness (or whatever you want to adjust) and painting it where I want it.
Step 5: Export. cmd+shift+E
I export to a subfolder and have it rename the images per the naming/saving preset I wrote. LR has a really cool option which I also use, which actually does use photoshop. In the export screen, I use the POST PROCESSING setting. and have it run a droplet/action which resizes, sharpens for web, adds border and watermark, and saves that version to my blog folder. So, it does the regular export, then after it finishes exporting, it does this extra step which runs all the images through the chosen droplet action in photoshop (which resizes, border, sharpen, watermark, saves to blog folder). This saves a ton of time and effort and now I also have my files to blog (which you’d think would mean I actually keep my blog up to date but I’m terrible at keeping it current).
Step 6: backup. I’ve already backed up all the original images when downloaded them, but now I’m going to backup with all the changes. I’m still working on my system for this. Right now it’s cumbersome and I want to streamline my backups as well. I’m starting to use Time Machine but still do it sort of manually instead of having it set to do a full history backup every hour or two. Anyway, to backup, if you’ve already backed up your RAW images, you just need to backup the LR catalog. I keep my active work on my main HD, and when I’m done and it’s be delivered to client, it’s moved to backup HDs and stored.
So that’s my basic workflow. I will open an image in CS3 to do some more intense processing, like adding a texture, or doing some really nice skin smoothing or whatever, but that’s on a case by case basis. I don’t normally do that for all my images. It’s time consuming and frankly, it’s really more for my satisfaction than it is for a client’s satisfaction.
EDIT: I’ve been asked about keyboard shortcuts in LR.
Since I mentioned this in my workflow, I figured I post a list of LR keyboard shortcuts that I find really speeds up my workflow. For me, using a mouse slows everything down most of the time and by using the keyboard I can work much faster. So, these might be helpful for someone else.
These are all for a mac (I’m not positive of the equivilent shortcuts on a pc)
shortcuts I use when Viewing & Culling images
Toggle Screen Modes – F
Toggle Side Panels On/Off – Shift-Tab
Library Grid – G
Library Loupe – E
Library Compare (2 Images) – C
Compare Multi Images (Survey) – N
Flag – P (turn on caps lock to autoadvance to next image)
Remove Flag – U (turn on caps lock to auto-advance to next image)
Rate – 1-5
Color Label – 6-9
Library Filters On/Off – Command-L
Develop Module – D
White Balance Selector – W
Before/After – Y
Zoom to 100% – Spacebar
shortcuts I use when editing
Show highlight/shadow clipping – J
Cycle through Basic Adjustment Panel Settings – < or >
Increase or Decrease Basic Develop Panel Settings – + or − (Use the Shift key for larger incremental changes)
Crop – R
Reset Crop – Command-Option-R
Next/Previous Picture – ← or →
Auto Tone – Command-U
Auto White Balance – Command-Shift-U
Undo – Command-Z
Past settings from previous image – Command-Option-V
Copy Image Settings – Command-Shift-C
Paste Image Settings – Command-Shift-V
Reset Image Settings – Command-Shift-R
Sync settings of multiple images – Command-Shift-S
by leighann
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