[5-25] "Image Processing”

I offer clients a combination of SOOCs (straight-out-of-the-camera) and final(s) (selects):

• SOOC = lightly modified (i.e. how image comes out of the camera)

• Final = modified in LR/Photoshop

It sounds weird but over the years, I became aware that choosing images is difficult; my goal is to make the process easier, more efficient.

The more images to choose from, the harder for the client to identify the best (i.e. needle in a haystack is easier to find with less hay.)

Pre-import

(1) Principal shoot: Images taken

(2) Raw elimination: eliminate images with glaring mistakes

(3) Import: images imported into catalog, renamed (docket, first name, #)

Culling

(4) First pass: images with obviously improved ones are struck (tagged, not removed)

(5) Second pass: strike duplicates, out-of-focus images

(6) Sorting: I will separate useful images based on stylistic distinctions (kept-1, kept-2,...); struck images placed in new folder:

[raw (all)] => [kept-1], [kept-2], ..., [struck]

(7) Batch edits: Images will now be edited en masse (vignette, exposure, color balance); I tend to underexpose portraits to lift the exposure later

(8) Contact sheet: each "kept" is exported as a pdf, nine images per side (3x3)

Clients can download the contact sheet, choose which SOOCs/finals to request.

Contact sheets are also nostalgic, from an older era when negatives were printed and inspected.