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akash.nu

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
At this point I’m behind by at least a year. Just don’t have enough time in my life anymore to sit with old pictures and really edit them to my liking.
 

Clix Pix

macrumors Core
I hear you on this!!! I've still got photos from July 2018 that need to be processed!! I have the bad habit of looking quickly through freshly-shot images, picking out a few and editing them immediately with the idea that I'll get back to the others "later." Somehow "later" never quite gets here!

If I've only shot a few photos at a given time, that's usually not too much of a problem, but when I have done a whole bunch at a special event or something, that seems to be what is the sticking-point and since I usually don't have time to wade through several hundred or more images right then often they never get done at all.

That said, I have made some changes in my editing software and that has helped speed things up a bit, and one of my goals this winter is to go back through those older files and seriously cull them, just edit the good images and discard the rest, but here we are at nearly the end of January and I haven't quite gotten around to that yet! Too busy shooting new stuff....
 
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anotherscotsman

macrumors 68020
Aug 2, 2014
2,369
16,735
UK
I try to do as little as possible on as many photos as possible - I try and get as close as I can in camera just to minimise post. Not a philosophical decision, more based on laziness combined with lack of post skills!
 
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mollyc

macrumors G3
Aug 18, 2016
8,065
50,753
I stay fairly current and edit as I shoot. I get backlogged with things like vacations or swim meets, but otherwise stay current.
 

sean000

macrumors 68000
Jul 16, 2015
1,628
2,346
Bellingham, WA
I used to be so disciplined with my workflow. Everything culled, edited, and tagged relatively quickly. I printed and shared more as well. Then I had kids, and my spare time evaporated! :)
I do get around to it, but not as frequently as I used to.
 

akash.nu

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
All of you seems to be in much better position than me!
 

Darmok N Jalad

macrumors 603
Sep 26, 2017
5,425
48,329
Tanagra (not really)
Lets hope you build a backlog soon then!
The weather has been lousy (ice, snow, or really cold), so I’ve been indoors a lot. At best, I may get a few good bird sightings, but that’s been it. With those, it’s usually a lot of culling and only a few worth PP. I usually don’t spend huge amounts of time on any shot, though.
 

Clix Pix

macrumors Core
Oddly enough, one reason I justified to myself back in November that now was the time to make my big switch from Nikon to Sony was to get my hands on those macro lenses, especially the 90mm after which I'd been lusting for so long, as I knew I would more than likely be shooting indoors most of the next several months to follow, and so far that has indeed been the case. I'm lucky that I can get shots of geese and ducks off my deck, too, which gives me some variety so that I'm not just shooting macro only. We don't have too many small yard birds around here, or rather, we do, but not within easy sight from my condo unit since the front yard such as it is, is very small.. Sometimes in the spring and summer I see a few and can shoot them, but that is infrequent.

At the moment I'm a little bit caught up in my culling/editing process and am probably just going to push aside images shot last year and the year before, whatever, unless some particular situation comes up where I have the time and the inclination to go ahead and cull/process those as well.
 
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stillcrazyman

macrumors 603
Oct 10, 2014
5,649
65,014
Exile
I'm not one to get behind in editing. It's part of the workflow.
Granted, I'm just a hobbyist. I might go weeks without taking a photo. So, it's not really a problem for me.
 

someoldguy

macrumors 68030
Aug 2, 2009
2,806
13,993
usa
Nope , all caught up . Actually I'm beyond caught up . Having been largely housebound the last couple of weeks , I've been going back over stuff from previous years to see if there are any 'gems' I missed the first time around .
 
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Ledgem

macrumors 68020
Jan 18, 2008
2,042
936
Hawaii, USA
Editing? No, I'm up to date. Culling photos? Behind by a few months.

My general process is to cull and sort into albums, then edit. If I'm getting bored of culling (because let's face it - it is boring) then I hop over to the unedited albums and do some edits. But editing is a quick process for me - usually just adjusting sliders (and if I really had it together I'd make presets to make it even quicker), maybe removal of a blemish or two. There was a time when I'd do brushwork and editing in layers, but that's rare for me these days, even though photos edited that way are much better. Usually I'll take that extra care if I've decided I'm going to make a print of a photo.

Culling could be a lot faster if I could just let go. Just look at the thumbnails that appear interesting first, tag those, and delete everything else, then go through and pixel-peep to see which ones are blurry and should be trashed. But I have a good amount of storage space, and since most of my photos are of my children these days I keep thinking about how those are moments I'll never get back and maybe some day this photo will be so meaningful to me... but of course, I don't ever really go back to look at those photos that weren't tagged as being special.

I've heard Lightroom is coming out with an automated culling tool - that it'll group photos for you and suggest one as the optimal one. As I don't use Lightroom, I certainly hope that Capture One does something similar. I could really use something like that.
 

robgendreau

macrumors 68040
Jul 13, 2008
3,471
339
A related problem I have is that as I improve my editing skills I want to go back and re-edit some images to make them better. And then I find images that perhaps I had overlooked, that can make nice shots with the application of my newfound skills. It never seems to end. Sheesh, some of those famous paintings had been worked on for years and years. I'm obviously not anywhere close to being in that league, but I suppose when one stops trying to improve that's more worrisome. So take heart.
 

cannondale1974

macrumors member
Jul 4, 2011
37
8
Lexington, Ky.
I am ALWAYS behind with editing. With two young kids, one playing multiple sports and violin I always have tons of photos to go through and edit. I take a lot of pictures for neighbor's kids birthdays, events and some of my hobbies so those add up as well. A few months ago I had 20,000 pictures in my Lightroom catalog to go through. Miraculously, I got through all of them and I'm proud to say I'm all caught up right now! I bet I keep only 20% of what I take so realistically I edited 4,000 pictures after culling them. Batch editing helps quite a bit but I still have to crop most and touch up exposure and white balance.

Having said all that, I take a LOT of video also and I'm years behind going through all the video I've taken. Most is dumped to external HD's, maybe I'll get to it when the kids are in college. :)
 

Ray2

macrumors 65816
Jul 8, 2014
1,170
489
I don’t tend to fall behind. I try to stick to a few good shots approach. The rest get trashed.
 

Macshroomer

macrumors 65816
Dec 6, 2009
1,305
733
If you mean post processing, that gets done right away or I become delayed on payments to me.

Editing is culling images, picking selects and eventually archiving. I usually do my archiving in the Fall before my busy ski season starts and that is what I did this time. I shot about 133,000 images in 2019 so it takes awhile but with dual 4TB SSD stripe RAID systems archiving to about 180TB of RAID 5's, it goes pretty quickly.
 

Clix Pix

macrumors Core
I am up to date -- for the moment, anyway! -- with culling and editing for 2020..... Figured I'd at least get the files of images shot this year under control first and then I will go back and start working on last year's. I have worked out a more efficient system and hopefully now I will be able to clear my backlog much more quickly, which will also save space in my external drives, too. I seem to be shooting much, much more than I did in 2018 ad even in 2019 so it behooves me to get things moving along smoothly right from the start of this new year.
 
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akash.nu

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
I am up to date -- for the moment, anyway! -- with culling and editing for 2020..... Figured I'd at least get the files of images shot this year under control first and then I will go back and start working on last year's. I have worked out a more efficient system and hopefully now I will be able to clear my backlog much more quickly, which will also save space in my external drives, too. I seem to be shooting much, much more than I did in 2018 ad even in 2019 so it behooves me to get things moving along smoothly right from the start of this new year.

Good luck with that new year resolution.
 

Clix Pix

macrumors Core
Thanks, Akash.nu! So far, so good, right?! Then again, we are early into only the second month of this year.....and I haven't had any big occasions where I tend to shoot a lot of images, sometimes well over 1000...... That is what always bogs me down. Next one of those occasions is coming up in May, so if I can at least keep everything up-to-date prior to when I head off for that event, I'll be doing well!
 
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