Editing Time.

coach

Senior Member
I would like to know how much time most of you spend editing a photo. Well let me give some more information. I would like to be able to one day be a portrait Photographer. I have a friend who does this. She seems to spend alot of hours editing a photo session. I would say her photo's are average at best. I am begining to think she enjoys editing more than taking Photo's. So far Editing is the one part of this that I am not a huge fan of. I enjoy the taking of the photos and interacting with the people I am shooting.
 

Carolina Photo Guy

Senior Member
I would like to know how much time most of you spend editing a photo. Well let me give some more information. I would like to be able to one day be a portrait Photographer. I have a friend who does this. She seems to spend alot of hours editing a photo session. I would say her photo's are average at best. I am begining to think she enjoys editing more than taking Photo's. So far Editing is the one part of this that I am not a huge fan of. I enjoy the taking of the photos and interacting with the people I am shooting.

If you are not willing to do whatever it takes to make your photos look the absolute best they can, then you're just wasting your time and
that of the very few clients that you will have. You say your friend's photos are average at best. And yet, she apparently has a client list, where-as you DON'T.
I'm willing to also bet that she has repeat business. You sound as if you want the glamour of Portrait Photography without the sweat equity.

JMTCW
 
The better photographer you are the less time it will take. The better clients you have the less time it will take. The better locations you have the less time it will take.

We have not seen any of your photographs yet so we don't know how good you are. Clients are notorious for not liking what a photographer shoots. Locations with the exception of a great studio ($$$) are never perfect.

So bottom line is that you need to work on your craft and learn PhotoShop and get a great computer with a excellent monitor.

 

ohkphoto

Snow White
So far Editing is the one part of this that I am not a huge fan of. I enjoy the taking of the photos and interacting with the people I am shooting.

Post-processing is an important part of photography --in digital, it's the computer. In film, it was the darkroom. If you plan to someday do professional portraits, you better develop a liking for "editing". With today's hi-res cameras, you have to do some enhancing/editing if you want happy and returning clients, unless you're far enough along in your business and client base that you can afford to outsource this. Most photographers (including myself) don't like to relinquish that control because it's part of the artistic process and vision.

As a general rule of thumb, for each hour of portrait or event shooting, I process/edit for 1 hour. For weddings, each hour of shooting gets 2 hours of editing.
 

DW_

Senior Member
I find the editing side of photography relaxing and enjoyable while the photo side of the equation can be a bit of a pain sometimes. Photography is like making a cake. Taking the photo is the mixing and baking and cleaning up the kitchen part while editing and printing is the eating part. One glance at my waistline and you'll see I do enjoy eating cake! ;)
 

Eye-level

Banned
I have spent untold hours editing other people's stuff...my own stuff tends to run towards mediocre snapshot crap so I hardly ever mess with post production other than cropping and resizing.
 

coach

Senior Member
Thank you for your answer OHK that was what I was looking for. To Carolina guy. I asked a very simple question I did not see the need for you to go about my lack of client list or willing to put in the sweat equity. I was just curious as to what is the norm for how many hours of post processing. Yes she has repeat business however I believe it stems from her low prices more than her quailty of work. Example: Wedding packages starting at $250.00 Senior Portraits at $75.00. She tells me she spends 4 to 5 hours editing a one hour shoot. I am taking classes in lightroom now it dosen't mean i have to like it as much or more than the actual taking of the photos. The one thing I wont do is start a business without the knowledge and skill. So if I ask a question in the future please try to stay on subject and answer it. When I want Opinion's thats what I will ask for.
 

Ruidoso Bill

Senior Member
I think one to two hours for each hour of shooting is a fair average. There are certainly shots that I have spent more time than that on. Lightroom is but the beginning, lots more after that. In your friends case, the prices are on the low side but I'll bet she improves on every shoot and her speed of post processing will also improve, in the mean time she is developing a portfolio for future work. Many charge nothing while getting started. Minimum wage would be good for my early stuff.
 

Dr Daniels

Senior Member
I love Photoshop, especially when it comes to bring a certain tone to the photo through an awesome color cast, then compositing is really good fun.
HOWEVER, Photoshop should not be a substitute for bad technique. It's ok to fix this and that, but I think it should not be overwhelming. If your light was poor during the shoot, there's little you can do to turn it around.

To the question 'how long should we spend post-processing?' It entirely depends on the photograph. Especially when it comes to portrait retouching. If your light is great, your technique is flawless, and your model is beautiful with a nice make-up, then you shouldn't have to spend an hour on the photo.
I don't like portraits that have been heavily abused in post-processing. It looks fake and freaky. But that's me. And I am often guilty of this cardinal sin.
The best way for me to see if I abused on post-processing is to look at the photograph the next day with a fresh pair of eyes. It's amazing the stuff you see sometimes.
 

bobmielke

New member
I've been using the full version of Photoshop since version 4.0 or about 16 years. It is what's called an open ended program. This means few, if any know all it's nuances or capabilities. The more you use it the faster your work flow. On simple edits it takes me about 15 minutes per photo to get where I want o go. I've done this so many times I have a routine I follow. If you want a great book on the process look at http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Dig...?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1331591587&sr=1-9. Scott is brilliant at giving step by step instructions in an organized method.

Although you might consider starting with Adobe Elements 10, a scaled down version of Adobe Photoshop CS5, you might consider how serious you are about photography. If you stick with it you'll eventually need the full Photoshop. Those that master the basics have a big advantage over those who don't. I love post processing because the key to it is a skill level where you can't tell it was post processed at all.
 
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coach

Senior Member
Thanks Bill and Dr Daniels. I am doing free shoots now and have had some nice comments, also have taken some of those what happened there photo's. Driving my wife, nuts she hates getting her picture taken. lol My friend I talked about in the original post seems to have a lot of overexposed shots, But I have come to believe that is what she likes because it's repeated in almost every photo she takes. I am not skilled enough to detect if this is done in post procees or in the original lighting setup.
 

gqtuazon

Gear Head
I don't do pro work so all of the images are for personal use to capture memories of my family and friends. I only spend 5 to 10 minutes per RAW image which usually consist of adjusting the exposure (as needed), contrast, and resize for web posting.
 
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