Edit Before You Cull Your Photos with Adobe Camera Raw
I usually cull my photos rather fast and delete them before they have a chance to see the light of day. Why? Because 42 Megapixel images take up a lot of space and if the shot was bad, there is no sense keeping it.
Recently, however, I have started to cull my photos differently. I found that sometimes an image offers something more than its composition at first glance. For instance, as a landscape photographer, I take a lot of pictures of the same thing with minor changing variables like waves, clouds, the direction of light, etc. Sometimes those small details can be difficult to see when you cull before you edit the images.
Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, and ON1 Photo RAW afford us the ability to edit one image and then synchronize the settings across a large group. I am using that ability to my advantage now by taking a base image with similar settings to an entire group. I get the exposure and minor tone settings dialed in, and then I synchronize it over a group of photos. Then I begin the culling process when I can see the potential of the image before it meets the chopping block.
In this video tutorial, I will show you why this is paramount when editing your photos. On a recent trip to Olympic National Park, I was in a rush to get a shot, I was light painting, and a wave was fast approaching. I didn’t have much time to think, just shoot. In turn, my white balance did some funky things, but I kept the shot just in case. During post-production, I was curious to see what I could get out of it and found it to be the best shot of the night.
Had I played the game of “Which One Of These Is Not Like The Others” and deleted it, I would have lost it forever! Take a look at this in-depth video tutorial to see the process in action!
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
You have a beautiful family! Welcome home.
Thank you so much! It feels good to be back, phew it was a long month!
Another brilliant idea. Will use it in future
Great family shots my friend, your both blessed
Thanks, my friend. We are very blessed. I love my family to the ends of the earth and would not have it any other way! Thanks for checking them out 🙂
Your main problem with that shoot is I wasn’t with you. LOL. I would be jealous but I had my own travel itinerary that was fun…
Culling is almost an art form in and of itself for event photography, especially that done under urgent time constraints, such as sports events repping teams that are anxious for key shots within minutes of the moment. For me, being a photographer that’s often shooting thousands of images in a given event, my technique is basically focused only on the home runs and unless it’s a completely black frame or totally out of focus, I just ignore the vast majority of shots; in fact I reduce the size of the previews so that they are true thumbnails and if they don’t stand out as a thumbnail, I’m not even interested in looking closer. One thing I like to do in the field is mark/protect images in camera that are significant so I’ll be able to find them quickly on import.
Agreed 100% on both accounts, you should have been there 🙂
This advice mainly applies to Fine Art Landscape photographers I guess or simple photo shoots. However, huge events, you are exactly right.
Thanks for the “culling” vid. Good advice.
Wondering to what extent the image histogram plays in your culling decision, and in particular would you benefit from using a histogram derived directly from the raw data rather than the imbedded jpeg?
Software like “FastRaw Viewer” offers this, but not sure if the extra work and cost is worth it.
Your opinion?
Thanks for watching. You know, I used to watch the histogram like a hawk but what I found is that it grounds me from my artistic decisions. I have since stopped worrying as much about the data and have started allowing the images to speak to me. Sometimes blown out areas, where the histogram is clearly bad, can make for good artistic looking images if processed correctly.
Don’t get me wrong the histogram IS important, and that data says a lot, but I am less concerned about the data and more focused on the images.
Blake,
Please tell me you also sing the song while playing the ‘One of These Things is Not Like the Others’ game….. I thought I was the only one!
Haha! You know it 🙂
Blake, there were some gems in here. This is part of why I don’t shoot on AWB. (btw, your new lens makes your face appear very narrow…lol) thanks.
I had a photography teacher in high school that always said “No matter how good you are there is always someone who is better.”
I have enjoyed photography for 45 years and I always look for someone to learn from. I really enjoy your videos Blake. Whenever I see an e-mail from you I know my skill in not only photography has increased but so has my skill in Photoshop.
Keep up the GREAT work.
That is so awesome! Why? My Dad always told me the same thing. I live by those words everyday of my life so I can be in constant competition with the unknown someone. You will be a better person for it!
I really appreciate your thoughts and your continual support of f.64 Academy! It means the world to me ?
Your emails are pulling me deeper and deeper into the world of photography. Every time I open your mail I learn something new and I feel a renewed energy in me. Thanks for this.
Thanks Blake for this really great tip. It’s interesting that I shoot in a similar way. Then the tons of images sit in LR taking up space. Quite often it’s hard to delete images because they are my “children”, and I can’t get rid of them But now I have a tool that will definitively reduce the number of my keepers.