As a professional photographer, we always want to get the best shot and use the best photo editing software to select and edit. However, to get the best images, some photographers capture more than just one photo.
Having a safe shot and another angle is an excellent practice for photographers. Nonetheless, you’ll also get if not hundreds, but thousands of photos when you get home, and you need to go through all of them.
Let’s face it; culling photos can take a lot of time and take a toll on your productivity. Here are some of the reasons that can also affect your productivity when culling photos:
Procrastination Becomes Your Muse
It’s not a secret that all professionals procrastinate at some point because, let’s face it, people get tired – you are not alone. You can also get distracted or even don’t have the strength to power through your work, and it’s normal and acceptable.
Here are some of the things that you can do to make punctuality and timeliness your muse, again:
Forgive yourself
Don’t dwell on your past procrastination and forgive yourself. Forgiveness is essential so you can start anew and move forward in working on your deliverables.
Identify the reason why you’re avoiding the task
Make sure to find the cause or reason why you’re avoiding work or culling your photos. Then, find a solution for you to avoid getting stuck.
Cull your to-do list
Yes, we’re talking about photos here, but it’s also essential to look at the bigger picture and look at your overall to-do list. In this way, you can focus on culling and editing your photos without any distractions.
Avoid multitasking
If we don’t focus on one task, even if we have the best photo editing software to aid us, we still wouldn’t get things done. So, make sure to focus on what’s essential or top on your to-do list.
You Don’t Have a Culling Criteria
Credits: Glenn Carsten Peters
Photo culling software and tools are essential, but the most important aspect, however, is your culling criteria. If you don’t have one, then, chances are, this is one of the reasons why you’re failing.
Here are some of the steps and process to help you create your criteria today:
- Remove out-of-place photos in your album
- Remove blurry, overexposed, or underexposed photos
- Remove duplicate photos in your album
- Accidental pictures and another unnecessary frame should be removed from your album
You Delete Photos Instead of Selecting Good Ones
It’s human nature to consider often or even act on deleting bad photos in your album or set for the day. It’s a normal instinct but, human as we are, it’s also a flawed approach in culling photos.
Here are the things you need to think about when culling photos before touching the delete key:
- Do not delete photos even if it is below your standards, or you don’t like it.
- Remember that it is easier to select than to delete hundreds of photos.
- You need to take a second look at the album, especially if you need more photos to send your clients.
You Don’t Use the Right Photo Editing and Culling Software
There are many photo editing and culling software in the market that offers help for photographers and editors. However, it would help if you considered the following criteria when choosing software:
The software can detect exposure problems:
Most simply, exposure is how light or dark the image will appear when the camera captures it. With this, the culling software that you need to use should have an exposure algorithm. The algorithm can detect whether the human subject is extremely over or underexposed.
AI is essential in this kind of software to ensure that you get the best results. Don’t hesitate to add images that don’t have humans as their subjects because some software can still detect exposure in the photos.
It can detect out of focus images and blurred images.
Another algorithm that you need to look for in culling software is the Blur Algorithm or its capacity to identify intentional blur from unintentional blur.
The algorithm is usually 90% accurate in detecting which subjects are blurry in the photo and to how much extent.
It can detect closed eyes subjects in the images.
Some photographers go the extra mile in editing closed eyes in photographs. However, if you have thousands of photos that you can choose from, then it’s best to use software that can help you choose photos with subjects that have open eyes.
Choose software that has the AI to detect the distance between the upper and lower eyelids. This way, it can detect whether the eyes are unintentionally closed or half-closed in the photos.
You are Not Critical when Choosing Your Photos
Photographers have different styles and approaches. Therefore, you need to follow your gut first when culling photos. This gut instinct develops over the years in the industry, but don’t worry if you are still new in your profession.
Again, you can choose to use photo culling software in your process to aid you with selection. You’ll be able to develop a keen and faster gut reaction in the future as long as you practice and follow your workflow.
You Forget to Rate Your Photos
We need to go back to the idea of not deleting photos when it comes to rating photos. So, again, instead of deleting pictures, you can filter them out using the star rating in Lightroom.
Once you’ve culled photos from your software, take a second look, and rate the images. You can add a star for your pictures that you want to provide to your client. Two stars can also be used as additional photos for the album. Lastly, those with three stars are for your online and offline publication.
Honestly, these tips accompanied by the best photo editing and culling software will surely help make your job easier.
In case, you are looking for some photography workflow doubts, you can check our Q&A with 100+ professionals here
Establish a routine, create, and test your criteria and processes to help you find the best system and avoid procrastination.
Check out FilterPixel today and try the best software that’s best for events and wedding photographers.
