Person event post-processing workflow?

[dancook]

So as i'm doing more event photography I wanted to try and get better at processing images.

I'm interested in both the thought process and techniques..

I saw some processing tutorials that start with black/white clipping, then I saw LR automates this with shift double click - it looks good at first, but once you pay more attention it can flatten the skin tones and also the blacks can become too light.

I have Sony cameras, and I wasn't sure if I should start editing in Adobe or Camera profiles, the last video I watched said you should always change it to a camera profile - hmm..

The last set of images I did

Auto Exposure - Shift Dbl Click and adjust to taste
Contrast + 10-20
Auto clip whites - sometimes the whites are -100 at this point
Auto clip blacks
Perhaps a tiny bit of clarity/vignette

White balancing the set is another annoyance, which I've gotten better at recently.

Or any good videos out there?

thanks

 

[Gidfran]

It is very interesting, I think I could help you, but little bit later

 

[doublemint76]

All depends on your level of knowledge and how much time you are willing to spend editing/learning really. Are we talking photoshop, Lightroom or a bit of both?

If you have lots of images to edit then you should really consider some presets, either creating your own or buying some. As with all presets you have to bear in mind the lighting conditions, so you may find that it doesn't look how its sold on the website. Thats because it depends on the type of picture, lighting etc so you have to bear this in mind. After a while you get to know what presets will work and what don't. People often frown upon presets but you can just use them as a starting point and then tweak them to how you like. I don't know your style but i've always found VSCO a solid set, and a good starting point.

Sliders are all well and good, but just using the tone curve alone can transform an image, so taking time to learn it if you already don't is a must i would say. The curves in lightroom is a bit fiddly, much easier to manipulate in photoshop.

 

[dancook]

All depends on your level of knowledge and how much time you are willing to spend editing/learning really. Are we talking photoshop, Lightroom or a bit of both?

If you have lots of images to edit then you should really consider some presets, either creating your own or buying some. As with all presets you have to bear in mind the lighting conditions, so you may find that it doesn't look how its sold on the website. Thats because it depends on the type of picture, lighting etc so you have to bear this in mind. After a while you get to know what presets will work and what don't. People often frown upon presets but you can just use them as a starting point and then tweak them to how you like. I don't know your style but i've always found VSCO a solid set, and a good starting point.

Sliders are all well and good, but just using the tone curve alone can transform an image, so taking time to learn it if you already don't is a must i would say. The curves in lightroom is a bit fiddly, much easier to manipulate in photoshop.

I'm using Lightroom mostly because there's a large volume of images to go through.

It's for school event photography moreso than wedding - so don't want to create a personal style, just something with more impact than the default RAW.

I will send you a few links to my current output which can't be made public.

For some live music last night, I quite liked 'Camera vivid' profile and tweak the Exposure/WB only, I'm not sure this will be suitable for the school work yet..

Now I'm thinking the shirt highlights need to be toned down ... I need some thinking structure to my processing !

GT-Live-28March2018 (31 of 64) by dancook1982, on Flickr

 

[Livin The Dream]

An idea of your current thought/workflow process currently might be a good starting point Dan. Even indoor events will have differing lighting situations (might have some flash mixed in too?) and so I'm not convinced setting black and white points across the lot would be my start point. If you have for example a light in the background, then setting the white point to that wouldn't be right, so some blown highlights will be inevitable. I personally tend to cull, set exposure across a series of similar pictures (match exposure is very handy which I use a lot with the shortcut) and then do this with WB. I'd set up a basic preset of my own that works as a starting point. Try to get 80% of the way there in the first round, then tweak a little again with fresh eyes.

 

[dancook]

An idea of your current thought/workflow process currently might be a good starting point Dan. Even indoor events will have differing lighting situations (might have some flash mixed in too?) and so I'm not convinced setting black and white points across the lot would be my start point. If you have for example a light in the background, then setting the white point to that wouldn't be right, so some blown highlights will be inevitable. I personally tend to cull, set exposure across a series of similar pictures (match exposure is very handy which I use a lot with the shortcut) and then do this with WB. I'd set up a basic preset of my own that works as a starting point. Try to get 80% of the way there in the first round, then tweak a little again with fresh eyes.

I've sent you some examples, so just a good way to get raw images looking their best really. In an efficient way, but not stylised.

I suspect with presets and for E.g. An s tone curve people have ways of quickly making images punchy...

I will have to come back I've run out of time right now.

 

[Kell]

I think it would be great to have a 'one size fits all' approach to this, but it will rarely, if ever, work across multiple shots.

I have a LR preset which I've created myself as I like quite heavily contrasty images. I apply this and then tweak. But it's done on a photo by photo basis. When I come back from an event or holiday, I set aside some time - normally 2+ hours to go through them all, make my selects and filter them by the 5* images which then get the most attention. I keep some of the other 'also ran' images, but don't tend to do too much to them.

I'm not saying this is 'correct' but it's how I work through mine - and I'm very much an amateur.