Mastering the Photo Editing Workflow

Professional photographers constantly strive to make the image editing process more efficient. The more time spent editing images means the less time spent shooting for clients. This lowers the profitability of a photographer. Here is a basic system for an efficient photo editing workflow.

Photographers can shoot hundreds of images for a single sitting or shoot. The less time spent per image the more clients a photographer can have. Workflow management can be broken down into different stages. The stages are mostly dependent upon the image editing programs the photographer uses in the studio.

1. Download - Images have to be transferred from the camera to photo editing software. Depending on the image-editing program, images can be imported directly to an application right from the card. This is the most efficient choice.
   
2. Image Editing - Before specific image edits can be performed, all the images need to be reviewed for misfires and unusable images and then the images need to be renamed and numbered.
3. Selection - The bulk images need to be narrowed down to ones that will be used. After the choice has been made, select all the images that were not chosen and put in a separate folder for archiving. (This is for studios that shoot for multiple projects.)
   
4. Raw Conversion - Convert all raw files. This step is only for photographers not using image-editing programs that convert from RAW for viewing. This is not the most efficient procedure. You will have to make edits for all images by opening and correcting for color and tone by using this method.
5. Clean Up - For photographers using image editing software that works with RAW images, make all minor clean up and enhancements. Simple white balancing, contrast and image editing can be done at this point.
6. Save Corrected Images - Select the corrected images and save them to a folder on the computer.
7. Break Here -The uncorrected images can be edited using the photo editing workflow in the following section. Skip the beginning steps and start with number 4 for the remainder of the images.
8. Save Images - After completing the workflow for individual images, save all the images to the same folder used for the other images.
9. Re-Size Images - Resize images using actions. The fastest way to resize is to create a droplet on the desktop for standard sizes used by the studio. Just drag the folder onto the droplet and it will automatically resize all the images in the folder. Another way is to batch process the images from the same folder using actions. This sizes all your images automatically. This is a real time saver.