Beverly Hills Wedding Photographer Jen OSullivan » LightRoom

Work Flow: Post Production Time

Jen — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:47:00 +0000

A common issue with digital photographers is we now spend most of our time staring at a computer. This should not be so. We want to be shooting, not working in LightRoom and PhotoShop. The general rule of thumb for post production time (basic exposure and color corrections along with exporting, and proofing) should be no more that the time it took you to shoot. Half the time is better. For example: if you shot an 8 hour wedding it should take you about 4 hours in post with a maximum of 8. If you are going over 8 hours in post, you are losing money and probably losing your mind.

Jen is a boutique wedding photographer based out of Beverly Hills, California.
She specializes in alternative, photojournalistic wedding photography and is known for capturing the unique definitive moments during your event.

To view more helpful photo tips go to JensTips.com and learn something new today!
Copyright © 2009 by Jen O’Sullivan http://www.jenosullivan.com

WORKFLOW: Lightroom Black and White Conversions

Jen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:08:55 +0000

Lately it has been the hot topic across several platforms that I am involved in: “how do you do your black and white conversions?” There are multiple ways to do this in LightRoom and in PhotoShop. I just learned a new way tonight from one of my students (that I will most likely never do since I can get the same results faster in LightRoom.) Everyone does it the way they feel most comfortable, however time is of the essence and I will always take the short cut if in the end I get the same results. Someday I will have to count how many ways I can come up with. There must be at least 40 different ways. They will all render your black and white image slightly different and you will have to choose which way works best for your aesthetics and workflow. Here is how I do them:

I work in LightRoom and fully destaturate the image using the “Saturation” slider. Then I bump up the brightness, bump up the contrast, and occasionally at 1-4 points of black. I then use the lens correction to taste darkening the corners just a tad. Whatever you do, in PhotoShop or LightRoom, do NOT convert to grayscale. This will render a flat image and will not print well.

Feel free to comment on this blogpost (the actual blogpost and not the Facebook import) how you do your black and white conversions.

To view more helpful photo tips go to JensTips.com and learn something new today!
Copyright © 2009 by Jen O’Sullivan http://www.jenosullivan.com

WORKFLOW: LightRoom Smart Collections

Jen — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:41:39 +0000

LightRoom is great for many reasons. One of my favorites is the ability to create Collections and reorganize my images within those collections prior to exporting and renumbering. Renumbering and ordering your imagery is key to having happy clients. The truth is, clients get very upset when they see chunks of photos missing. They also get confused when looking through thousands of imagery if they are not all in order. Even though you shot them in order, you may have used more than one camera or took a few shots at a time that was more convenient but would fit better with the story line if they were place somewhere else in the archive. Also, by categorizing your imagery, your clients can easily find what they are looking for. You want to keep your categories to around 200-300 images. If the reception has over 500 images which can be typical, think of splitting it into two groups such as “dinner” and “dancing.”

Here is how I categorize my imagery:

Photographers Faves
Bride Preparations
Groom Preparations
Ceremony
Family Portraits
Wedding Party
Newlyweds
Dinner
Dancing
Portrait Studio
First Assistant
Second Assistant

To view more helpful photo tips go to JensTips.com and learn something new today!
Copyright © 2009 by Jen O’Sullivan http://www.jenosullivan.com

WORKFLOW: Free Photoshop Actions

Jen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:56:59 +0000

As you may know, I have been exceptionally busy between weddings, bookings, the June 30th Open House for my new company Event Pros International, the June 30th opening lecture for the inaugural Term of ASAP Mentoring, and my first month in my new Beverly Hills studio. I hope you will be kind in forgiving my lack of posts over the past few days.

For Workflow Wednesday I thought I would post on a helpful tip one of my students (Michelle Castro) gave the class yesterday: Coffee Tea Photography

“I mentioned this great site last night – she is an amazing resource for PS/PSE/LR – she offers FREE actions, presets, storyboards, and many other things. Check her out – she even has a group on flickr. Happy downloading! — Michelle“

WORKFLOW: Group Portraits

Jen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:18:51 +0000

When shooting an event or a wedding there are always the obligatory formal group photos that need to be taken. While not the most exciting shots they need to be taken and need to be done quickly and well. This is one of the few times at an event I will put my camera to Manual mode. I take an average reading to get the correct exposure once and then leave it on that setting for all the shots. The reason for this: you may get the majority of the group in one shot wearing all light colors so your meter will under expose the entire photo and then in the next everyone is in black in which case your camera will over expose everything. Get a good reading and then just stick with it. Here is where the post production workflow comes in. When you edit these photos you only have to correct one and then you can sync all the rest in PhotoShop or LightRoom (or whichever RAW processing software you are using.) This will help make these photos quick and painless.