How do Pros sort through all the images from a shoot

[cy_krajci]

I read recently that a wedding photographer talked about taking 500

images at a wedding shoot. This made me wonder.

 

How do Pros sort through all those images to select the ones on which

they will do the post-processing?

 

Do you decide which ones to process and then show to the client, or

do you show the shots to the client and then post-process?

 

Thanks.

[nico_.]

I'm not a pro but I've shoot a few hundred pictures at a wedding. You can't and shouldn't show all your shots to clients. Editing out pictures is a skill that you have to learn and practise. Most clients would be overwhelmed by the sheer number of shots. I do the sorting in several iterations. At first I have three categories (and folders): thrash, ok and good. The good ones are further selected one or two times until I have the desired amount of pictures which varies between 100-150.

[ellis_vener_photography]

If digital, I use the Browser in Photoshop CS. there are other programs as well like Photo

Mechanic that also have a browser function. When editing I look for major technical flaws

(mostly focus or really bad exposure, then composition/framing/expressions/ eye blinks/

etc.

[Mike D]

I just got PhotoMechanic because it's browser shows images at full screen on my monitor. This function can be really helpful when pounding through hundreds of images at a time.

[sheldonnalos]

I'm not a pro, but I recently shot a friend's wedding, about 250 frames. I did the edit and the post processing in C1 LE, only about 1 1/2 hours work. The ability to quickly scan through thumbnails in the browser, and delete or make adjustments only to the "keeper" shots is really quite nice. Check out their 15 day demo if you haven't tried it. It takes a bit to learn the interface, but it's really a nice tool. Most of the shots required no Photoshop intervention after the fact, all the control I need is built into C1.

 

Check it out at www.phaseone.com

 

Hope this helps!

 

Sheldon

[joe heiliger houston, tx]

C1 LE is the bomb.... I think its the best software out there for the price. As said, it allows for quick viewing and editing. Then, you can batch convert from RAW to a variety of formats.

 

I like it! Makes my job easier!

 

Joe

[doug_neeb]

I am by no means a "pro" Maybe semi-pro or slightly advanced amateur. I like Breezebrowser. I take 250 - 300 shots at local HS football games. I put all the photos in a folder, batch rename by game. Then I open the Thumbnail view. On the right hand pane I can go flipping through all the images with just an arrow. There is a box you check to "Tag" and image. I tag preliminary keepers. Takes 10 minutes to go through the shoot. Tag anything that looks worth keeping. I then use the Select All Tagged function and copy (not move) the just the Tagged images into a folder. I then start whatever post processing I will do. If a Tagged image then looks crappy or cannot be cropped to something interesting, I just delete it from the Tagged folder.

 

You can find it here if you are intersted.

 

http://www.breezesys.com/BreezeBrowser/

 

Just my $.02 which when discouted to actual present value may be worth less.

 

Doug