In 3 hour shoot of a model – fashion, glam etc., I take about 200 photos. Now of course there are the bad ones, but how do you choose, like the top 5 or 10. Better yet, what is the average number of photos that a photographer typically chooses?
I usually try to narrow my photo shoots down to about 30-40 images. I try not to show my clients more then that as I find it becomes overwhelming.
I cull my photos in a three step process.
Step One: This is the easy step delete all the obviously bad ones (eyes closed, weird expressions, flash did not fire, etc.) for a family or group portrait I might keep these in a separate folder in case I need them for fixes later.
Step 2: Weed out the duplicates. There will certainly be multiple shots of some poses and try to pick the ones I think are the best from each shot.
Step 3: The next day I will go through the remaining and try to pick my favorites from the files that are left. I wait a day to decide with fresh eyes if I still feel that it is a great shot otherwise I put it in the bin.
Sometimes for group shots It is difficult to get everyone in the group to look great in the same shot. For these instances I might have to do a little photoshop magic with a shot from the same pose to have everyone smiling and looking at the camera.
This is my system and I find it works for what I do from family portraits to actor headshots.
February 15th, 2010 at 6:51 am
I usually try to narrow my photo shoots down to about 30-40 images. I try not to show my clients more then that as I find it becomes overwhelming.
I cull my photos in a three step process.
Step One: This is the easy step delete all the obviously bad ones (eyes closed, weird expressions, flash did not fire, etc.) for a family or group portrait I might keep these in a separate folder in case I need them for fixes later.
Step 2: Weed out the duplicates. There will certainly be multiple shots of some poses and try to pick the ones I think are the best from each shot.
Step 3: The next day I will go through the remaining and try to pick my favorites from the files that are left. I wait a day to decide with fresh eyes if I still feel that it is a great shot otherwise I put it in the bin.
Sometimes for group shots It is difficult to get everyone in the group to look great in the same shot. For these instances I might have to do a little photoshop magic with a shot from the same pose to have everyone smiling and looking at the camera.
This is my system and I find it works for what I do from family portraits to actor headshots.
References :
Professional Photographer
http://www.wrsphotography.com
February 15th, 2010 at 7:34 am
I just finished such a shoot.
Before I do anything I burn a DVD of all the images as a backup. I also append the EXIF data with my copyright notice, my contact information, model or client information as well as key words (I use Bridge for this). Once all the files with the information on them are safely burned, I start editing.
With pad and pencil in hand, I go through each image using my computers file manager (Find on Mac or Window Explorer on PC). The ones that are out of focus, mis-framed or just not appropriate are put in a file folder I name reject or first edit junk, some thing like that.
After all the good ones are separated from the rest, the then further sort them into folders with names like PJ, SwimSuiteBlue, PunkBlack, DressBlue, BMWWind. so my client can go to each session without having to sort through them all.
If they (the client or model) have specified a certain number of shots of each outfit, then I usually give them a choice of about twice that number for each setting.
In my contract with my clients I reserve all rights to the copyright and they only pay for the one time usage of the specified images.
So while I may shoot two or three hundred shots, the client may only pay for the rights to use thirty of them .. the rest I can use as stock photos or in my portfolio (book).
Programs I use for editing?
* Find or Windows Explorer for a rough edit
* Photo Mechanic for final editing
* Photoshop for resizing, appending EXIF data using XMP and for converting RAW files to TIFF or JPEG image files for the end user.
References :
ProFotog
February 15th, 2010 at 7:52 am
From my experience it’s more important to know which *people* to keep out.
References :