workflow

jamesboyce

Hi guys. Firstly, Neil, thank you for all the effort you have put into this blog. I discovered your site just over a year ago, and I always look forward to finding a new post by you:)
I have a question about workflow. I am about to start editing a few hundred raw photos from a family christmas holiday. Multiple lighting scenarios and compositions over about a week. What is the quickest way to process these? Batch process them all in ACR and then go through and pick out some for black and white and those that need more adjustments etc? Do them scenario by scenario?
Are there any tips or tricks that would save me from going through them one by one, yet still give me a chance to make each photo look its best? I'm using RAW files in ACR and Photoshop CS4. Thanks:)

Neil vN

James ... I don't think there's really a way around editing multiple images if they were taken in a variety of settings.

Ultimately you just have to edit them in groups, even if the groups are just 2 or 3 or 4 images at a time. So yeah, scenario by scenario.

I do my B&W conversions in ACR / Bridge already. Saves me a step in Photoshop.
http://neilvn.com/tangents/2008/10/20/a-little-less-gray/

An important consideration here, is to edit only the images you want to show.
Don't edit hundreds of images. Just the images you are going to show family and friends.

jamesboyce

Thanks Neil, I have a tendency to do things the long way until I discover a shortcut. It's good to know that this is the best way.
It's interesting to see your map of visits, I'm from Canberra Australia. Thanks again for the advice