Culling RAW files

goinggreynow

goinggreynow

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Morning all
Would just appreciate any tips/guidance etc.
Although not currently an issue as it's not the motorsport season, I often find myself coming home from Silverstone with upwards of 2000 images.
After downloading and a quick look through, the photos can sometimes sit untouched for months. My backlog of images is, quite frankly, overwhelming which also means the enthusiasm to get on and do something with them is not there.
Over the years, I've tried a few different approaches; take JPEGs not RAW and cut down on tne editing, delete poor photos on the go, putting the camera away at certain times so I don't take so many photos, etc. Not taking my camera is a step too far.
Back home, I've tried setting myself a target of editing all photos within a certain time period after the event or sitting down at the PC at certain times in the evening and editing for 1/2 hours. This works for a while but then the discipline soon falls away.
Realistically, if I keep going racing then I'm going to come home with 000s of photos, no matter what.
A regime of being quite brutal culling files is needed and recently, I've taken a few steps. After seeing reviews, I'm trialling FastRawViewer and would welcome any comments or suggestions for other similar software.
Added to the mix is that I'm also looking for a mobile device (Ipad Pro or Surface Pro) with the main aim of being able to cull unwanted files/edit RAWs while being away from the main PC.
As you can see, I'm in a bit of a rut at the moment and would welcome any words of wisdom.
by the way, I use standalone LR on the PC and have no wish to take a monthly subscription for LRCC. But I am open to changing my software (i'm trialling Affinity Photo).
Thanks
 
I use Survey mode in LR. Was giving a lesson to someone who had LR4 on Monday so this definitely works for older versions!

- Set a filter to hide all rejected images.
- Tab to close left & right panels (close the top is optional)
- "n" to enter survey mode
- Use the filmstrip to shift+select a bunch of similar images.
- Use "x" to reject the junk, remaining images resize to fill the screen so you can better judge the lesser number of better images. Keep going 'till you're happy.
- Once complete, use the arrow key to move to the next image and shift+select the next group.

If you've sorted everything by capture time, you'll generally have a bunch of similar images all next to each other.

When you're done for the day I'd suggest
- Give the photos you've curated a colour label or keyword so you can filter them out when you return to continue the job (you can always change this later)
- Filter by rejected only, then so a select-all then delete. Bonus points for deleting from hard drive :)

Also, bonus points for a smart collection to pick up all "non green" images which is effectively your "homework". Tackle it for an hour a night, rather than a whole day. You can get image blind and delete happy after a while.

If you can take the time to do this when you do an import, it'll save you having to go through the pain of spending hours later. And whilst it might be slow to begin with, once you get used to it it's lightning fast. I usually take 80-100 portrait images of my wife for her makeup Instagram and we can curate down to a handful in less than 5 minutes - and that's with 2 of us discussing the merits of a over b.

Once you get an idea of what to look for when comparing, will also speed things up. Car bonnet chopped off, background distractions, 10 images that are literally the same and just need 1 picking... Also ask yourself what you're going to do with those images. Don't keep images that you're not going to look at or that clients are unlikely to buy. Is anyone likely to come and ask you for an image of Bob Smith driving in the Silverstone Special race from 2009? (Bad example perhaps but you get the idea)
 
You say you're not interested in paying an Adobe subscription, but you want a mobile solution so you can cull when you're out and about. Lightroom allows you to do just that, and you don't have to pay monthly. I got a year's worth of Lightroom for £75 just before black Friday. I also shoot motorsport, so my workflow when I'm back from a meeting is this:

Import stage - Import all raw files to Lightroom, and add to a collection at this point. Collections are grouped by year and then numbered and titled with a description of the event. I apply my standard import development preset, create standard previews and smart previews (this greatly speeds up the development module) and sync them with Lightroom Mobile at this point. Click Import and leave the laptop to chew through all that for a little while.

Development & culling stage - I do this in one go. I go through each image one by one. Any I don't like, I press the X button on my keyboard to flag as rejected. Images I want to keep I do any further required work on at this stage. Once I've got to the end of my images, I can go back into the Library module and delete all images flagged as rejected.

The beauty of syncing with Lightroom Mobile is that all of my images are also available on my phone, and I can cull and edit on my lunchbreak at work or wherever I get a few minutes. Any changes I make are synced back to the original files on my laptop next time I open Lightroom there. This would also work on an iPad or Surface tablet.

My FIA WEC gallery here (https://www.paddock42.com/2018/08/23/fia-wec-silverstone-gallery/) was edited about 50% on my laptop and 50% on my phone using this method
 
I don't take nearly that amount of shots and I get daunted by the idea of PP.

In addition to some of the above approaches, I use colours to assess my shots.

Go through them all one by one, delete the obvious rejects (if I didn't already do this in camera). Then grade them.

Any I really like, I give five stars to (hit 5) and they automatically go into one collection. Any I think are OK as backups, I code red (hit 6) and they go into another collection. Over the years, I've been a lot more brutal with this so I only keep the ones I'm really happy with.

I spend more time on the 5 star ones and save them to JPEG at a higher resolution (and I may keep the RAW files.

The ones I code red, I may straighten up building and level horizons and do a bit of tweaking. Once I'm relatively happy, I'll save them into an 'also ran' folder as a lower max size JPEG and delete the RAW files.

My system was more about freeing up space on my PC as anything else.

I've not investigated syncing my PC and mobile to do some of this editing work on the fly though. That sounds like a good plan.
 
I frequently take 1000s of photos, the 'selection process' in Lightroom was driving me mad due to how slow it was.

I'm much happier now I started using photo mechanic for culling.

I import the cards to a folder named by the event (this is going to be nice when it's not just all dates)
Use photo mechanic to SPEED through the images and 5 star any I wish to keep.
Filter to show only 5 stars and move those to a 'selection' folder (the rest can be deleted in due time)

I import the selection folder to Lightroom, I use the X flag to further reject images and hide them with filters - process the remaining.


I'm thinking the only reason I'm still with lightroom now is because of my presets..... if there was a faster alternative..
 
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many thanks for all replies received so far. Plenty of good advice.
Picking up a couple of the points specifically;
Kaolin said:
Photo mechanic is very good for culling (and all other ingestion type tasks), add some music (genre of choice) at a 120 ppm, big mug of tea and you should be able to manage to cull 1-2000 per hour...
Click to expand...
dancook said:
I frequently take 1000s of photos, the 'selection process' in Lightroom was driving me mad due to how slow it was.

I'm much happier now I started using photo mechanic for culling.

I import the cards to a folder named by the event (this is going to be nice when it's not just all dates)
Use photo mechanic to SPEED through the images and 5 star any I wish to keep.
Filter to show only 5 stars and move those to a 'selection' folder (the rest can be deleted in due time)

I import the selection folder to Lightroom, I use the X flag to further reject images and hide them with filters - process the remaining.


I'm thinking the only reason I'm still with lightroom now is because of my presets..... if there was a faster alternative..
Click to expand...
I'm happy to pay for software which helps with culling RAWs but I'm not in a position to splash out $150 for something that may or may not work for me. Thanks for the suggestions, though.

RichardC27 said:
You say you're not interested in paying an Adobe subscription, but you want a mobile solution so you can cull when you're out and about. Lightroom allows you to do just that, and you don't have to pay monthly. I got a year's worth of Lightroom for £75 just before black Friday. I also shoot motorsport, so my workflow when I'm back from a meeting is this:

Import stage - Import all raw files to Lightroom, and add to a collection at this point. Collections are grouped by year and then numbered and titled with a description of the event. I apply my standard import development preset, create standard previews and smart previews (this greatly speeds up the development module) and sync them with Lightroom Mobile at this point. Click Import and leave the laptop to chew through all that for a little while.

Development & culling stage - I do this in one go. I go through each image one by one. Any I don't like, I press the X button on my keyboard to flag as rejected. Images I want to keep I do any further required work on at this stage. Once I've got to the end of my images, I can go back into the Library module and delete all images flagged as rejected.

The beauty of syncing with Lightroom Mobile is that all of my images are also available on my phone, and I can cull and edit on my lunchbreak at work or wherever I get a few minutes. Any changes I make are synced back to the original files on my laptop next time I open Lightroom there. This would also work on an iPad or Surface tablet.

My FIA WEC gallery here (https://www.paddock42.com/2018/08/23/fia-wec-silverstone-gallery/) was edited about 50% on my laptop and 50% on my phone using this method
Click to expand...
Thanks for this.
Basically I'm not a cloud user which is a major issue and prevents me using LRCC/LRCC Classic, irrespective of the subscription.
Although I mentioned being away from the PC, my main requirement is having some sort of mobile device so that I can work on my photos from the comforrt of my sofa!!
Quite apart from the number of photos I have, I realise that I have 2 main issues. What software and what device (IPad or Surface/laptop). It feels as though i have been going round in circles for months with no clear way forward.
 
How I do it with my football pics

Tag pics I like as a take them > Import just the tagged files into laptop using Photo Mechanic > Once I've edited all of them I'll skip through the cards in Photo Mechanic (it's lightning quick) and select any I've missed/ones for stock - import and edit them - format card - the ones I don't want never touch my computer.

Photo Mechanic is the best $150 I've ever spent on software - and much quicker and more cost effective than buying another device to browse your pics on the sofa.
 
goinggreynow said:
I'm happy to pay for software which helps with culling RAWs but I'm not in a position to splash out $150 for something that may or may not work for me. Thanks for the suggestions, though.
Click to expand...

They do a 30 day trial if you want to actually try it.

I only use the software for the selection process because of how fast it is to cycle and render images, but I am using it professionally and for me it's worth it.

time is money :D
 
goinggreynow said:
Thanks for this.
Basically I'm not a cloud user which is a major issue and prevents me using LRCC/LRCC Classic, irrespective of the subscription.
Although I mentioned being away from the PC, my main requirement is having some sort of mobile device so that I can work on my photos from the comforrt of my sofa!!
Quite apart from the number of photos I have, I realise that I have 2 main issues. What software and what device (IPad or Surface/laptop). It feels as though i have been going round in circles for months with no clear way forward.
Click to expand...

The flexibility this setup gives is one of my favourite things about the whole Adobe suite. Being able to view and edit from my phone or any other device with an internet connection has become a key part of my workflow (you can even do basic edits in a browser), and as far as I'm aware isn't something any of the competition can offer at the moment. That alone makes it worth the annual subscription for me. Lightroom Mobile is surprisingly full featured now, to the point where you can do things like split toning, curve adjustments, sharpening and noise reduction all from your phone. What prevents you from being a cloud user?
 
FWIW

Though not the numbers the OP mentions I used to import all files into LR and then do my initial cull in LR. However, I asked asked a similar question a while back and there were recommendations for Fast Stone Viewer.

I tried it and found it let me look at the files much quicker than LR for that initial culling so I was importing fewer into LR and that process was then quicker.

By initial culling, I mean those images that are:-
OOF
Missed compositionally
Those simply meh!

In other words the dross of the set are sent to oblivion.......................then I get on with only looking at, in LR, the "initial" set of keepers (yes more get thrown as needed) and keyword etc as appropriate :)
 
davidy233 said:
How I do it with my football pics

Tag pics I like as a take them > Import just the tagged files into laptop using Photo Mechanic > Once I've edited all of them I'll skip through the cards in Photo Mechanic (it's lightning quick) and select any I've missed/ones for stock - import and edit them - format card - the ones I don't want never touch my computer.

Photo Mechanic is the best $150 I've ever spent on software - and much quicker and more cost effective than buying another device to browse your pics on the sofa.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. For comfort reasons, I really do need to have the ability to cull/edit, etc when sitting on the sofa. This, mixed in with say a couple of hours at the desktop, would be my ideal solution.
How did you get into Photo Mechanic and justify the cost?
 
RichardC27 said:
The flexibility this setup gives is ............. What prevents you from being a cloud user?
Click to expand...
Irrational fear of not being "in control" of my images, safety, security - the list goes on. Probably a bonkers attitude in this day and age!
Also, I need to get clear in my own mind what happens to images etc when a Lr subscription ends.
 
Box Brownie said:
FWIW

Though not the numbers the OP mentions I used to import all files into LR and then do my initial cull in LR. However, I asked asked a similar question a while back and there were recommendations for Fast Stone Viewer.

I tried it and found it let me look at the files much quicker than LR for that initial culling so I was importing fewer into LR and that process was then quicker.

By initial culling, I mean those images that are:-
OOF
Missed compositionally
Those simply meh!

In other words the dross of the set are sent to oblivion.......................then I get on with only looking at, in LR, the "initial" set of keepers (yes more get thrown as needed) and keyword etc as appropriate :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. Do you undertake all your culling at the desktop?
From my limited time using FastRawViewer (trial software), I'm realising that the right software combined with discipline on my part can make a real difference. I can cope with the editing if I'm dealing with (at worst) a few hundred images rather than a few thousand.
I think I'll give Faststone a go and see now I get on with it.
Thanks
 
Box Brownie said:
FWIW

Though not the numbers the OP mentions I used to import all files into LR and then do my initial cull in LR. However, I asked asked a similar question a while back and there were recommendations for Fast Stone Viewer.

I tried it and found it let me look at the files much quicker than LR for that initial culling so I was importing fewer into LR and that process was then quicker.

By initial culling, I mean those images that are:-
OOF
Missed compositionally
Those simply meh!

In other words the dross of the set are sent to oblivion.......................then I get on with only looking at, in LR, the "initial" set of keepers (yes more get thrown as needed) and keyword etc as appropriate :)
Click to expand...


I'm intrigued by Fast Stone Viewer. It may be my imagination but my version of LR seems to be slower than it used to be. I could do with something that enables me to do the initial culling more quickly.

Anyone else recommend Fast Stone?
 
goinggreynow said:
Thanks for this. Do you undertake all your culling at the desktop?
From my limited time using FastRawViewer (trial software), I'm realising that the right software combined with discipline on my part can make a real difference. I can cope with the editing if I'm dealing with (at worst) a few hundred images rather than a few thousand.
I think I'll give Faststone a go and see now I get on with it.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, on the desktop PC.....though in shooting intervals I typically do some chimping culling.

IMO whichever protocol is used requires a disciplined approach ;)

PS and having seen @jerry12953 post. O may have missed this ~ I use a card reader and copy to card contents to a specific folder. In the past as mentioned I imported into LR and for large folders means I go and make a cuppa. Using Faststone ~ when I open the folder in it, it takes (for large folders) approx 1 minute to "scan" it and then I can get on reviewing and culling.
 
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goinggreynow said:
Thanks for this. For comfort reasons, I really do need to have the ability to cull/edit, etc when sitting on the sofa. This, mixed in with say a couple of hours at the desktop, would be my ideal solution.
How did you get into Photo Mechanic and justify the cost?
Click to expand...
First time I saw PhotoMechanic in action (virtually all the sports photographers use it) I knew I'd buy it - just incredibly fast for viewing pictures, there might be something else comparable for quick viewing of pics but I've not seen anything to match it - for a working photographer it's also got really powerful and quick captioning features but I don't think that's something that would persuade you to buy it.

Tagging pics you want to keep in camera and only ingesting the ones you've tagged takes away virtually all the pain of culling the pics that you don't want
 
goinggreynow said:
Irrational fear of not being "in control" of my images, safety, security - the list goes on. Probably a bonkers attitude in this day and age!
Also, I need to get clear in my own mind what happens to images etc when a Lr subscription ends.
Click to expand...

If you use Lightroom Classic then your original images stay on your hard drive and don't go anywhere. All Lightroom syncs to the cloud are files called smart previews, which are compressed files at 2048 pixels on the longest edge. These are what you edit on your mobile device, not the original. They are not publically available and only you can see them.
 
Box Brownie said:
I use a card reader and copy to card contents to a specific folder. In the past as mentioned I imported into LR and for large folders means I go and make a cuppa. Using Faststone ~ when I open the folder in it, it takes (for large folders) approx 1 minute to "scan" it and then I can get on reviewing and culling.
Click to expand...
I use Adobe Camera Raw rather than Lr most of the time because I prefer the interface, and though generally there is little, there is something that ACR can do when it comes to levelling images that Lr can't do. Because of the use of ACR I use Adobe Bridge for culling and rating images, and also tagging. It seems pretty quick to me, though I have used Faststone Viewer or Photo Mechanic. Also, I'm not sure if Bridge is still free to download, but if you have an Adobe subscription, it certainly is available to try if you haven't already.
 
j crossley said:
What's that then?
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When you want to level with ACR you can zoom into the image, to say use the Level Tool to draw on the corner of a building to straighten it. As far as I know, you can use the same tool to draw line on the same bit if the building/image in Lr, but you can't zoom in to do it. It is like you are straightening the image at arms length. If the part of the image you are trying to straighten is very small, it can be hard to get the accuracy with Lr imho.

The Auto straightening options are very good in ACR and Lr (as they are the same) but occasionally it doesn't work, either because there is no obvious straight (slightly off vertical or off horizontal) elements in a scene to align, or in somewhere like Venice, you may have a number of buildings where none are exactly the same alignment, and the software chooses the wrong building and it looks 'wrong'.
 
goinggreynow said:
Realistically, if I keep going racing then I'm going to come home with 000s of photos, no matter what.
A regime of being quite brutal culling files is needed and recently, I've taken a few steps. After seeing reviews, I'm trialling FastRawViewer and would welcome any comments or suggestions for other similar software.
Added to the mix is that I'm also looking for a mobile device (Ipad Pro or Surface Pro) with the main aim of being able to cull unwanted files/edit RAWs while being away from the main PC.
Click to expand...

I have to echo the PhotoMechanic option, as it has been designed around the exact needs you describe, and goes well beyond a quick culling tool, as its really a file management swiss army knife. It does far too many "really useful" things to describe, so you need to look into it.

Try searching You tube for Photo Mechanic sports and spend a bit of time browsing https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=photomechanic+sports . But its also heavily used by wedding and wildlife photographers so there are dozens of videos available.

Scott Kelby also did a book on it (and Lightroom) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sports-Pho...8&qid=1543751719&sr=8-1&keywords=kelby+sports

Version 6 is about to be released, which will give a DAM option, and many other updates, as it hasn't been updated for years. You are entitled to upgrades to a new versions for 12 months from the original purchase, or at least that is the current policy. Technical support for PM is exceptionally good.

I also use FRV, which can also be very fast, especially once you learn the shortcuts, but its really a very different program to Photo Mechanic.

I use PM for ingesting files from card, initial captioning, and culling, but then open FRV, from PM for the more detailed quality assessment and "selection" of the images I know I want to take forward. I then go back into PM for detailed captioning. PM is much faster than FRV, and once you get used to PM its difficult to think of not having it available.

Neither of course have a tablet option, and I use FRV/PM on an 11" MacBook air when away from the desktop. PM works on Mac and Windows, but not IOS.

In spite of the price, its well worth looking at, watching some videos and giving the trial a go. BUT do watch the videos before starting the trial as you are likely to completely miss a lot of what PM has to offer.
 
As an aside, if a single event generates 2000 shots; and your average DSLR shutter manages circa 200,000, then your camera has a life of about 100 such events. I think if it were me, I'd either do less events, shoot more sparingly, or make sure I earn some money back from the shots to pay for the next camera body.
Maybe I'm being a bit curmudgeonly and missing a point, but it was my immediate thought when I read the first post and it's been on my mind since. Sorry for the digression.
 
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LeeRatters said:
I sort of envy you all. In a way!

There's no way in this world I could come back from a day out with 50 photos let alone 100's or even 1000's to sort through......
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Doesn't this depend on what you are photographing and circumstances?

A days' landscape photography, can yield between zero to maybe tens of photographs, for me, but most likely 5-10. A day of bird in flight photography can yield several hundred images (not sure I've ever managed over the 1000). A three week "photography intensive" holiday can bring back a few thousand images. These numbers seem a lot to me (coming from a sheet film/roll film background) but are trivial amounts now days. I was reading about a wedding recently where around 13,000 images had been taken ! Having done a lot of weddings in my day, I am still struggling to work out how that is even physically possible.

I ended up using Photo Mechanic not so much for culling large numbers of images, but because culling in Lightroom was impossibly slow.
 
Lindsay56 said:
As an aside, if a single event generates 2000 shots; and your average DSLR shutter manages circa 200,000, then your camera has a life of about 100 such events. I think if it were me, I'd either do less events, shoot more sparingly, or make sure I earn some money back from the shots to pay for the next camera body.
Maybe I'm being a bit curmudgeonly and missing a point, but it was my immediate thought when I read the first post and it's been on my mind since. Sorry for the digression.
Click to expand...

Good job tech has moved on then, I shoot 99% of the time with electronic shutter.

You can also just replace the shutter, not the whole camera, if it fails.

"The Kaplan-Meier estimate applied to the numbers from the submitted reports for the 5D Mark III indicate you have a better than 3 out of 4 chance of making it to 500,000 shutter actuations before it fails. From an authorised Canon repair centre , a new shutter will cost you ~£210 in parts and labour."
 
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Lindsay56 said:
As an aside, if a single event generates 2000 shots; and your average DSLR shutter manages circa 200,000, then your camera has a life of about 100 such events. I think if it were me, I'd either do less events, shoot more sparingly, or make sure I earn some money back from the shots to pay for the next camera body.
Maybe I'm being a bit curmudgeonly and missing a point, but it was my immediate thought when I read the first post and it's been on my mind since. Sorry for the digression.
Click to expand...
The shutter reliability is an expected lifespan, though I doubt they will guarantee that, ;) and shutters can fail earlier than expected, but you would hope they under estimate to cover themselves. I read a couple of weeks ago that Kipax (sports photographer here with possibly a 1DXII I think) had past 1 million actuations on his cameras, and one had to go in for repair. That camera is rated to about 500,000, and he got more than twice that. I can't find his actual post, because the search function isn't working properly atm. :rolleyes: If you are a Pro, you factor wear and tear into your costs. Or you should be. ;)
 
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Interesting and good to hear the above points about shutter life. Thanks both
 
myotis said:
Doesn't this depend on what you are photographing and circumstances?

A days' landscape photography, can yield between zero to maybe tens of photographs, for me, but most likely 5-10. A day of bird in flight photography can yield several hundred images (not sure I've ever managed over the 1000). A three week "photography intensive" holiday can bring back a few thousand images. These numbers seem a lot to me (coming from a sheet film/roll film background) but are trivial amounts now days. I was reading about a wedding recently where around 13,000 images had been taken ! Having done a lot of weddings in my day, I am still struggling to work out how that is even physically possible.

I ended up using Photo Mechanic not so much for culling large numbers of images, but because culling in Lightroom was impossibly slow.
Click to expand...

I guess it does. It also depends on the person ;)

My Flickr album for this years Dorset holiday contains 10 images plus another 10 Jurassic landscape images..... My album for "Get Outside - 2018" this year contains 141 images of hikes, walks, days out..... I've witnessed people taking that many shots of Clevedon Pier at sunset in under half an hour......!!

13,000 wedding images!! I just couldn't do it. It would be torture to sort through that many! Actually, I'd rather go through torture!! :D That's 361 rolls of 36 exp film in your money ;)
 
LeeRatters said:
I guess it does. It also depends on the person ;)
Click to expand...

Actually, I got that 13000 wrong, or got mixed up, it was only 9,000, and it was Kevin Mullins, who I consider to be a pretty good photographer. He has actually compiled them here where they are running at a speed that makes them look like a video - its interesting viewing if you have the time, and aimed at letting you get an insight into everything he takes at a wedding before culling.

And yes, the number of pictures does depend on the person, and you have an impressively low number. I have found I take more on non-dedicated photography days, as I tend to grab shots and leave the thinking until later. But, when I am having a serious photography day, I do my thinking on the day, and do my "culling" before I press the shutter, or even before I set up the tripod. Even after spending some time setting everything up, I can decide its not really that good after all, and abandon it.

As an aside, as I did weddings on roll film, often on 6x 7, at 10 pictures per roll, your estimate of of 361 rolls is a little low in my money :-)
 
(I've taken 9000 photos at a wedding once, 12 hour day - wish I had photo mechanic then)

When I photograph live music if I take my Sony A9's I may take 1500-2000 photos in 3 hours, if I take my Hasselblad + Leica pair I might take 500

When I use the Hasselblad I will wait for the moments and fire the shutter once - because it shoots about 1 FPS with a second or two blackout. When I use the Sony I will shoot through the moments with burst, and know that I'll likely have a the best moment to pick from. What happens is that I remember the photos I take with the Hasselblad, but not the Sony - which is why then I end up repeating some angles and taking too many.

I can work either way to produce results but I stopped using the Sony for a while because of the frustration and time it adds to processing. UNTIL I got photo mechanic, now I can cull at light-speed so I'm back to using the Sony again.

Whilst I prefer the IQ of the Hasselblad, i can watch some of the best moments pass me by because the AF didn't lock or I took the photo a moment too soon, or too late and can't take another. So I'll use the Sony to get all the moments I possibly can.
 
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dancook said:
I can work either way to produce results but I stopped using the Sony for a while because of the frustration and time it adds to processing. UNTIL I got photo mechanic, now I can cull at light-speed so I'm back to using the Sony again.
Click to expand...

Photo Mechanic is one of those things that your really need to use to appreciate. Just reading about the specs, doesn't prepare you for how big a difference it can make.
 
I used to shoot a lot of motorsport and would do my selects in the evening getting back from the track. I used Lightroom, in loupe view, and "X, U & P" keys to rate obvious rejects, and picks. Using with caps lock on automatically progresses through the images. I'd then process the picks. And make sure I had all my clients covered, before deleting the rejects. Any images that were shared/used were given a star rating and/or colour code.

I also have a smart collection set up, that collects any images over 12 months old without a star/colour rating. I regularly go into the collection and delete a few hundred of the images (after reviewing them to make sure I haven't missed anything), working on the basis that if I haven't done anything with an image after 12 months, I'm unlikely to do anything with it at all.
 
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