I’ve never met a summer I didn’t like, and Summer is aging beautifully here in Dayton.
Quickly, but beautifully.
This year has been one of personal growth. And if not growth, then certainly change. And if not change, then certainly reflection.
And isn’t time spent in reflection the seed of growth & change?
While I’ve worked very hard to perfect my craft of how to measure light & button manipulation in my camera, behind the scenes is very much a work in progress. In some ways I didn’t think it was as important to nail down the quickest workflow, because I wanted the BEST images. I wanted to create artwork with my photography.
In other words, I felt that the time I spent in post production was ok to sacrifice because it was part of the process of aiming for perfection. I shot in JPG format & opened up every image in Photoshop. Of course at times there were ways I could batch a couple images, but I didn’t like not being able to control each effect or change on them so I didn’t use that method very often. I created customized actions for every wedding and went to great lengths to achieve a standard that I thought was only possible with two or even three weeks of “editing hell” after a wedding.
Of course I heard of other programs, but when you are doing something that produces the final product you want… you kind of want to stick with it {even if it’s clearly inefficient}. For anyone reading who might not be a photographer who “develops” thousands of images at once & doesn’t understand how time consuming this is… Let’s just pretend it’s like being a chef who singlehandedly runs the farm that produces her ingredients. As the single owner & employee of this operation, I was running myself ragged and barely keeping up.
Yet I was proud of what I was offering on the plate that went out.
I was not proud that spending so much time editing can make it hard to keep up with emails & phone calls & tracking taxes & the hundreds of other little things that were neglected or postponed. The only good thing about making mistakes is that you start to hunger for what will make you change for the better. All the pain & frustration of failure fuels your motivation to find a better path.
This summer I’ve been working up  the courage to address my weaknesses {oh yes, there are many more}. I tried a couple new methods of post-processing and have, with all certainty, converted into a Lightroom enthusiast. I had tried Lightroom before, several years ago. I didn’t like it. I didn’t spend the time to make it work for me. After some new friends encouraged me to try it out again, I finally “bought” the bullet.
At the same time I sent out a few weddings to a third party to sample their method of editing.
HANDS DOWN, I AM PROUD TO KEEP MY PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSING IN-HOUSE.
I’ve been working to find a way to achieve the same high standards I had before, but to edit much more efficiently & quickly. Now that I am using RAW images & working with a much better platform for hundreds of images… I feel the final results are even better than before. I didn’t feel that the other option of sending out the files created the same trademark that I try to use when I’m processing images. I requested my images be sent back & happily edited them myself. Very very pleased with the process & the final results.
It might not be typical to admit such things here, from the person who is “so put together” {not true at all!}. Â However, I had always defended my judgement that I could shoot JPGs with accuracy and liked the control of opening each image file separately. Now I feel that I kind of owe it to the other photographers who heard me say that, because I’ve made such a drastic change in opinion of it all. I love being able to connect with people and the idea that we all have something to share & much to learn.
I wish that someone would have told me sooner, but now I’m telling you and I hope it helps someone!
Lightroom 4 has replaced what Photoshop, InDesign, Action Runner and Photo Mechanic were doing for me.
Much faster and with much more accuracy.
And my carpal tunnel isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be {true story}.
Of course I wish I had started sooner, but I am excited to see how this improves my ability to help my little business bloom. ♥
I have a lot of beautiful weddings & sweet couples to share with you from this past year,
stay tuned for this collaboration with Lovely Rentals!
This is so funny, because this could be my story exactly–except I was shooting in RAW, doing RAW edits, then editing each file individually in Photoshop with a mess of different actions, because (I thought!) I liked having so much control. I just switched to (mostly) Lightroom this year, too (after also trying, and not liking, it once before). It has made all the difference! Thanks for sharing your experience–it is nice to know other people go through similar transitions! 🙂
Briana,
Thank you so much for sharing! I am glad that someone else can relate, it IS very encouraging! Now I’m not sure how I ever got on without it ;D