Outsource my post-production?

[sscarmack]

Time management.

How many shoots per week do you have? Time management, however, is not a panacea.

Quality over quantity...Someone like yourself in the professional field should know better.

 

[407370]

There's a lot more than dodging and burning

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

Obviously. DUH! But those are the two most common things.

Eh that is interesting I never said that. Vtech44 said it.

 

[manaheim]

Time management.

How many shoots per week do you have? Time management, however, is not a panacea.

Quality over quantity...Someone like yourself in the professional field should know better.

I would strongly caution anyone who is NOT a professional from standing judgment against someone who is. Heck, I'd strongly caution it for anyone who IS a professional. You just can't really know what their situation is.

I once scoffed at a guy who shot sporting events. "How can you not use RAW?!" says I. "How can you batch process thousands of images with the same settings?!" says I. Little did I know. After some education I was like, "Ok, I'm an idiot." And I was a part-time paid professional photographer making some pretty good money.

So yeah.

 

[Watchful]

If a business owner has the opportunity and the ability to grow their business and increase their profitability and they choose not to, they might not be cut out to be a business owner.
For a business, the bottom line is the driving force, for an artist, its the work and any sales are unimportant in comparison.
I guess you need to choose art or business.

 

[table1349]

Perhaps you should study business a bit more. Ever hear of The Pareto Principle?

The bottom line is the driving force that has put the economy in the situation that it is.

 

[JacobPhoto]

I see some fierce disputes here in the thread But I agree with manaheim:

I would strongly caution anyone who is NOT a professional from standing judgment against someone who is. Heck, I'd strongly caution it for anyone who IS a professional.

It's a bad idea to get into a power play with each other in photography. It will always be subjective.
So, I've received my first edited set from one of post-production studios (2Canoes studio) and can already share my first experience. Well, as a matter of fact, it turns out that professional editor can be much more closer to my style than I thought. I think after a few orders we will understand each other without further explanations. In general, I'm pleased.

Please share your personal experience here. I think it would be much more helpful.

 

[robbins.photo]

I would strongly caution anyone who is NOT a professional from standing judgment against someone who is. Heck, I'd strongly caution it for anyone who IS a professional. You just can't really know what their situation is.

I once scoffed at a guy who shot sporting events. "How can you not use RAW?!" says I. "How can you batch process thousands of images with the same settings?!" says I. Little did I know. After some education I was like, "Ok, I'm an idiot." And I was a part-time paid professional photographer making some pretty good money.

So yeah.

But on the flip side of that coin if your not willing to roast a few heretics at the stake now and again you run the risk of being tossed out of the Keepers of All Secret Photographic Knowledge. They'll take your robe and everything.

 

[manaheim]

Share MY personal experiences?

 

[robbins.photo]

Share MY personal experiences?

Ok, wait.. I thought we had a very clear don't ask, don't tell, for the love of all that is holy don't share video policy on that kind of stuff, right?

 

[manaheim]

The videos would be illegal in most states.

 

[Derrel]

Yesterday, I outsourced some retouching (just two frames) for the first time as a photographer (not as an ad agency bod) and it was the best use of my time (done overnight as the supplier was in the US) and money ($3.75 per image). It is not, as some in this thread have suggested, a case of 'getting it right in camera' (how on earth can you reduce rosacea on the subject's face in camera?! No, I did not have a MUA on the unpaid/speculative shoot). The work was minor for a pro retoucher but would have taken me hours as it's not what I do. As an ad agency bod, I understood clearly the value that a pro retoucher can add - why on earth would I attempt to do a job that is outside my specialism?! As a photographer we are often, unrealistically, expected (and therefore place the expectations on ourselves) to be world-class cinematographers, video editors, retouchers, MUAs, gaffers, etc. My suggestion is to know one's own limitations (whilst aiming to expand them), respect the expertise of others and recognise when it is more time and cost effective to outsource.

So, I've received my first edited set from one of post-production studios (2Canoes studio) and can already share my first experience. Well, as a matter of fact, it turns out that professional editor can be much more closer to my style than I thought. I think after a few orders we will understand each other without further explanations. In general, I'm pleased.

Seems like some rationality does indeed exist here in TPF land...even the OP's gone with his gut feeling, and has on his first outsourced set, had a positive outcome! I honestly think the idea of "doing it ALL" from start to finish is, in many cases, more about hubris than about rational evaluation of one's own talents.Over the years, I've seen work form many,many people that demonstrated good,solid in-camera work, but rather poor- to middlin'-grade post processing work. I've even told a few people,. directly, that their photography craft work, in-the field, is good, but that their post-processing would be better served by being handed off to somebody whop really excels in that realm.

I know a number of fishermen who are VERY good--but their chef skills are very,very weak, so while they're good at catchin', they're not all that hot at cookin' what they have caught. I really think it is unrealistic to think that every single shooter is equally good in post-processing and image optimizing as he or she is behind the camera eyepiece.

 

[beagle100]

Yesterday, I outsourced some retouching (just two frames) for the first time as a(whilst aiming to expand them), respect the expertise of others and recognise when it is more time and cost effective to outsource.

So, I've received my first edited set from one of post-production studios (2Canoes studio) and can already share my first experience. Well, as a matter of fact, it turns out that professional editor can be much more closer to my style than I thought. I think after a few orders we will understand each other without further explanations. In general, I'm pleased.

I know a number of fishermen who are VERY good--but their chef skills are very,very weak, so while they're good at catchin', they're not all that hot at cookin' what they have caught. I really think it is unrealistic to think that every single shooter is equally good in post-processing and image optimizing as he or she is behind the camera eyepiece.

those wealthy photographers outsourcing their post processing work!
Maybe Scott Kelby was right when he said just get it right in the camera

www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

 

[paigew]

I have outsourced a few images via retouch.com they do a great job. There are top wedding photos who outsource their editing. Especially for basic edits. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

 

[pendennis]

In the era between Daguerreotypes and digital, there existed the magic medium of negative photography. I was fortunate to have done professional work then.

I started out thinking I could do it all; photograph, edit, sell, scout, etc. It didn't take long to figure out that I had to cede control of some elements of my business processes. I wasn't a particularly gifted printer. I had done B/W and some color, but found a lot of the work tedious, and very time-consuming.

I could sell myself and my product, and I learned the technical side of taking the picture - composition, exposure, environmental conditions, etc. I could also control the logistics, and the soft side of the business. I developed a relationship with a local lab and one of their printing technicians. He mostly worked "in the back" of the shop, hardly ever seeing the store's front counter. He would advise me on my mistakes in exposure, mostly, and what the limits of darkroom work really were. While he could machine print some enlargements, he'd also single print negatives which needed some extra work. He provided me with notes which I included with my own.

I took courses on time management, work flow, theory of constraints, etc. Those were eye openers, and it improved my concept of business immensely.

So, yes, if you believe you can't control everything, then you can't. Recognize your own weaknesses and shortcomings, and play to your strengths.

 

[TheLibrarian]

One of my first jobs at 17 was I think editing and printing wedding albums. I say i think because all I did was set the color and minor cropping. Not sure what he did to give me the negatives. Thats all that was done in those days dodging and burning were done by hand in the dark room. Much less all the photoshop lightroom stuff these days which i don't bother too much with SOOC4life. Ukranians and Chinese on model mayhem want 3-5$ per photo thats too much for a whole album. Part time teenager can bang out at least 4 an hour for 8-9$ an hour. Once i got a color scheme for a roll he had me run the whole roll at those settings to save time. Of course we were printing the stuff with a huge machine too so I had a physical product when i was done then the lady who manned the front (took rolls to be developed from customers and I did those too on another machine) she cut them up and put them in the book. Of course then you have full and part time staff and a store front and the legal stuff that should go with all that. If you're churning out wedding albums week after week how much editing should each picture really need? If people are paying high end for fashion magazine quality pictures then they deserve that money to go into the production process. Sorry, didn't realize its been sorted out and its "modern" wedding photography. Back in the day we churned em out.