More shooting, less editing

Timppa

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Hi!

I have a bit of a dilemma.
I am not a big fan of editing all my pictures after taking them.
I like to shoot more and be less behind the computer.
But I know that shooting in RAW and editing is so much better then just shooting in jpeg.

My pictures start to pile up for editing and I don't feel like working with them, even though i love the images.

I don't mind cropping a bit, remove a spot or changing shadows and highlights, but anything after that just feels like a drag.
And if I use a preset, It never gets an ideal result right away, always need to tweak more.

What could I do to edit less/faster and be more in the field taking actual pictures?
I wish jpegs were so good I didn't had to do anything xD
Or are there any great presets out there that I don't know? I currently just use some I made myself.
The biggest problem I would say with me is getting the white balance great, dealing with noise and getting great colors.

Should I try other editing software? I have been thinking to try the Nikon software

Thanks!
 
Have you try Lightroom (LR)? A basic work flow in LR does not take up a lot of time. Crop, exposure, White balance, highlight, shadow sharpening, deNoise, Saturation and lens correction etc.
 
Have you try Lightroom (LR)? A basic work flow in LR does not take up a lot of time. Crop, exposure, White balance, highlight, shadow sharpening, deNoise, Saturation and lens correction etc.

I have been using lightroom for the passed couple of years.
And I enjoyed using it. But now I feel more and more I am done with editing so much. I feel I enjoy less to take pictures, because of the work afterwards.

Specially now since I became a dad, I want to spend more time with the family :)
 
I'm not sure why you are having issues with your "three biggest problems".

There are a variety of ways to nail the white balance before shooting including using a neutral grey target. Your camera should also have quite a few pre-set white balance setting to choose from and these can be fine-tuned.

Noise should only become an issue when shooting at high (for your camera) ISO settings. Are you shooting a lot in low light situations and cranking up the ISO to get a desired shutter speed? Only a slower shutter speed (using a tripod rather than hand-held) or faster lens will help.

And maybe experiment with the picture control settings of your camera i.e. Standard, Neutral, Vivid. Plus each of these can be fine tuned as well like bumping up the saturation.
 
WB doesn't change unless the light changes. If you shoot a simple white, gray or black target at the start of the set, when you import your photos to Lr, go to that target shot. Adjust exposure if necessary. Now click on the WB eyedropper and sample your target. Then make sure you have all the images in that set selected, and click on the SYNC button. Check only the WB box and click okay. Now the WB in all the selected images will be the same.

Other editing can be synced across all images the same way. You don't have to edit every image, that's the beauty of Lr.
 
Maybe I am to strict on myself? Zooming a lot to 1:1 ratio...
 
IIRC, LR has a self-learning autotune feature. it remembers how you make processing edits, and will fine-tune the auto button to how you tend to process your photos.

Just need a good workflow. I tend to apply as many mass edits as possible -- like WB or exposure fixes, then i rate my images and only edit the rated ones 3 or higher. Then I process VERY simply: adjust blacks down to clipping, then whites up to clipping, then up the shadows. I also have some basic settings preset on import, like clarity 10, vibrancy 20, and saturation 2.

I dislike editing. So the more you can get right in camera, the less you have to do in post.
 
Hi!

I have a bit of a dilemma.
I am not a big fan of editing all my pictures after taking them.
I like to shoot more and be less behind the computer.
But I know that shooting in RAW and editing is so much better then just shooting in jpeg.

My pictures start to pile up for editing and I don't feel like working with them, even though i love the images.

I don't mind cropping a bit, remove a spot or changing shadows and highlights, but anything after that just feels like a drag.
And if I use a preset, It never gets an ideal result right away, always need to tweak more.

What could I do to edit less/faster and be more in the field taking actual pictures?
I wish jpegs were so good I didn't had to do anything xD
Or are there any great presets out there that I don't know? I currently just use some I made myself.
The biggest problem I would say with me is getting the white balance great, dealing with noise and getting great colors.

Should I try other editing software? I have been thinking to try the Nikon software

Thanks!

Try a Fuji. The jpegs are incredible compared to Nikon jpegs, IMO. I switched to Fuji XT2 mirrorless and shoot in RAW + JPEG mode and only very rarely do I need to edit a RAW file. The "what you see is what you get" from the electronic viewfinder eliminates a lot of exposure and wb issues. The other change I made was to switch from a laptop with external monitor to an iPad Pro 12.5" tablet and editing with Affinity Photo app for iPad ($20). If I just need to crop and straighten and maybe remove a blemish, I use Snapseed (free). Totally mobile with all of my editing now. I love it. If you are just doing this for fun and editing seems like work, I highly recommend you do some research on Fuji jpegs. Here are a few that I think demonstrate the Fuji colors and jpeg quality:

Lake Chocorua by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Sabbaday by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Up up up! by SharonCat..., on Flickr
 
Well, stop doing that! lol (being too hard on yourself) that might be some of the problem.

I've found getting proper exposures seem to be key. I'm a longtime film photographer which I still shoot along with digital (and Polaroids, etc.). When people post their original images that they're struggling with it almost always looks like the exposure was off, and they're dealing with a lot of editing to fix it.

I've also done sports and events so I think I learned years ago how to frame the photo I want. I shoot film and I think we learned how to get proper exposures so not to waste film! Either way, learning to meter a scene or subject seems key.

I usually use auto for WB, but if it's more tricky light, evening etc., I scroll thru the WB choices til I find one that looks like what I'm seeing. You can't just go by names of settings, 'cloudy' etc. - those seem to be guidelines but may not always work in those conditions.

Usually I go into photoshop and often just open an image, it looks good, I don't do anything else; if I want to print I will, and if that looks good I'm done. Shooting in low light I often have to brighten it up for printing (going from a lighted screen to a piece of paper). My camera is DNG which produces a Raw image and a JPEG from that. Sometimes there's not much difference but of course file size. I can save my original Raw image as a JPEG if I want the smaller file.

If you're needing to do much if any post processing then think about how you're setting the camera. Maybe do some test shots of the same scene/subject at different settings (adjusting by a stop each time) and see what works best.

edit - Just took a look at your Flickr and you have a lot of nice photos, I don't really see any problems, but I don't know if it took a lot of editing or not.
 
Maybe too try looking up famous photographers to get your eyes used to looking at good photographs. There's a lot 'out there' that's over saturated, over done, etc. It won't help any to try for that instead of trying for good quality photographs.
 
Just shoot mostly in JPG and be satisfied with it.
And shoot selectively in RAW.

I shoot RAW for myself, but I shoot JPG for the high school.
I am NOT going to edit and convert THOUSANDS of images from RAW to JPG.
At an average game, JV + varsity, I shoot 400-700 frames.
In one week, I can easily shoot 2,000 frames. That is only three games.
In one school year, I estimate that I shoot over 30,000 frames.​

But I will shoot RAW where:
  • There is an important shoot, like a team or class picture. Because there are only a relatively few frames to edit and convert.
  • The lighting is BAD, I will shoot in RAW, to give me more buffer to fix the image.
Or, shoot in JPG + RAW, and use the 90/10 rule.
Just use the JPG for most stuff. 90%
Store away the RAW for when you really want to tinker with an image. 10%
 
HWhat could I do to edit less/faster and be more in the field taking actual pictures?
I wish jpegs were so good I didn't had to do anything xD
Why aren't your jpegs good enough for you? If you feel you need to capture Raw, you must be extremely fussy! Lighten up and take what the camera gives you. Or you can keep on torturing yourself by editing the Raw files.

If you have your basic settings all good, the camera should give you nice images straight out of the camera. Unless you're using some really crumby gear. Check your settings. Make it easy on yourself.
 
What kind of camera do you have? How long have you been using it? Do you know how to set the camera up to make the best possible straight out of camera jpeg images? Do you think it is possible that you are not doing all that you could do to custom configure the camera for the best Straight Out of camera results?
 

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