11 Tips to Save Time in Retouching Your Photos

1.   Ideas For   PHOTOGRAPHERS   11 Tips to Save Time in Retouching   Your Photos   Follow these to quickly process your photos !   Time is money and you have to make the most of it! So save your time when editing   your photos . So today I want to give you a series of tips to optimize your   development process.     Post Processing is an essential part of photography. We already discussed the   reasons why you should shoot in RAW if you want to get the most out of your   images, but many choose to shoot in JPG because they think that the processing   would take too much time.     1    

2.       1. Think Before You Shoot   Not everything is fixed in the processing. A good photograph must be good from the shot,   otherwise, you can hardly save it in the processing. The processing is to make slight   adjustments to exposure and contrast, to eliminate small elements that can distract   attention or make the shot ugly, and to give your personal touch to color.     But if you shoot like crazy without stopping to compose and correctly adjust the   parameters of your camera, then not only will it take much longer to process your photos,   but they will never look as good as if you had taken your time to think before to shoot.     Of course, if you want to experiment with montages or special techniques you will spend   much more time processing that shot, but that is just one shot and it is also done with   pleasure. Having to develop hundreds of photos for not having fixed a little before shooting   will be a problem and can be quite tedious.     2. Think Before Processing   Just as you need to think before you shoot, so is thinking before you process. Starting to   play settings like crazy without knowing where you want to go is going to waste precious   time.     Therefore, the first step in developing is to stop to analyze the photograph and decide what   you want to do with it:     ● What style do you want to give it?   ● Do you have the right exposure for what you want to convey?   ● Too much or too little contrast?   ● Do you need a white balance adjustment?   ● Do you want to customize its colors to give it a personal touch?   ● Or maybe better a black and white retouch?     Once you have decided what type of development you want to achieve, then it will be time   to start playing all the settings that this processing requires. Since you already know where   you want to go, it will be much easier to get to the point and not waste time.         2    

3.       3. Know the Program   There are many programs that can help you develop and process your photos. You   can choose the one you like the most or the one that provides you with the best   tools to get what you need, but without a doubt something essential will be that   you know it well.     They are all complex programs and have very powerful and elaborate tools. To get   the most out of them, it is not enough to use intuition: you must study them. So if   you want to optimize the time you spend processing your photos to the maximum,   without a doubt one of the best tips is that you learn to handle the program   correctly.     You do not need to know all its options and tools by heart, but it will be necessary   to know the ones that you are going to use regularly. On the internet you will find   hundreds of tutorials to learn how to use any of them, you just have to spend a little   time on it. In our blog you can find tutorials on various programs.     4. Choose a Suitable Profile   The first thing you should choose before you start tapping all the development   options is a profile. You will usually find it before all the adjustment panels or inside   the camera calibration panel, depending on the processing program you use.     The profile you choose will change the initial appearance of your photograph and,   therefore, will be the basis of your processing. So, choose the profile that best suits   the processing you had in mind to have less retouching and thus save time.     Many professionals choose to always choose a flat or neutral profile at this step. It   may not be the option that saves the most editing time, because it leaves the photo   very contrasting, washed, and desaturated, but it is undoubtedly the best base if   you want to recover all the nuances of texture and color of the most delicate areas,   such as shadows or the high lights.           3    

4.         5. Batch Process Similar Photos   Many times you will find yourself in this situation: a series of several photographs   that need practically the same adjustments. These are usually small adjustments to   exposure, contrast, or white balance, and it is very tedious to apply the same   development over and over again to dozens of photos.     This is why some development programs allow batch processing, such as   Lightroom . What does batch processing mean? Well, you select all the photos you   want and the adjustments that you apply to one photo will be automatically applied   to all the others. Simple, huh?     If there are any photos that did not look good with batch processing, don't worry.   Then you can make the necessary adjustments individually in each of them, to make   them perfect.     6. Always Apply the Same Workflow   Having an orderly work system has many advantages: it allows reducing work times   while guaranteeing quality in the result. This is also true for processing, so if you   don't have a workflow yet, this could be a great time to design your own and start   implementing it as a system from now on.     Having your own and constant workflow you will achieve:     ● Do not forget any important processing steps.   ● Gain speed when processing photos.   ● Perfect your technique to obtaining better processing.                     4    

5.       7. Learn the Keyboard Shortcuts   Without a doubt, if you want to make the most of your time, it is essential to learn some   keyboard shortcuts of the program you use. Being able to select a tool simply by pressing a   key will save you a lot of time, especially when you have to switch between them often.     On the internet you will find lists of the most common keyboard shortcuts for practically   any program, so find yours and keep them handy to consult them whenever you need and   memorize the ones you use the most. This way you will greatly optimize the processing   time.   8. Download Actions, Presets, or Plugins     If you want to give your photo a creative touch, you don't have to start retouching from   scratch. There are countless actions, presets, and plugins that will change the appearance   of your photography completely with just one click, and that you can download on the   internet for free (there are also paid ones).     You can use these resources as a basis for your retouching and then modify the settings   that you deem appropriate. Remember that automatic processes are great for us to save   time, but they are still automation and they will not always be perfect. That's why they will   usually require you to finish adjusting them manually. But even so, they will save you a lot of   time.     5    

6.         9. Create Your Own Actions and Presets   Did you know that in addition to downloading actions and presets you can also   create your own? Without a doubt creating your own library of automation will be a   great idea to save time.     Think about the process you usually go through to retouch any of your   photographs . Is there something you do always and in the same way? Why not   make it an automatic process so you don't have to repeat it over and over again?   You will save a lot of time and speed up your retouching processes.     In the links in the previous point, you will not only find how to download and install   actions and presets, but we also teach you to create your own. So if you don't know   how to do it, don't miss out on those articles!     10. Customize your Workspace   Most editing programs will allow you to configure the interface to your liking to   move, change, show or hide all the panels and tools they contain as you wish.     There are always tools that you use more than others and panels that you use more   often. Take time to reflect on what you need to have more close at hand and   configure your workspace with the idea of always reducing the distance between   the tools you use most frequently. In addition, you can also choose to hide panels   and tools that you never use. If they don't work for you, having them in the middle   of the interface will only serve to get in the way and slow you down.     Without a doubt, customizing the program's interface to your liking is a great time   optimization. Think that 1 second of savings in an operation that you are going to   perform 100 times is more than 1 minute and a half of savings.                 6    

7.         11. Avoid Interruptions   And finally, the advice that will save you the most time: avoid procrastination!     It is true that sometimes we are very lazy to process our photographs, especially if   there are many, and even the flight of a fly distracts us from work. In those   moments is when social networks and messaging services become our worst   enemy.     If you do not stop consulting your networks and your messages while you are   processing your photos, you will lose precious time. Not only the time you dedicate   to them, but also the time it takes you to then pick up the processing where you left   off.     So, if you want to be productive, you should forget about your smartphone and web   browser, and try to focus on your photos.     What is your advice?   These are my tips to save time, but surely you also have some tips to optimize your   retouching process . Do you want to share it with us? Let us know in the comments!   So we can all save as much time as possible in our processes.     Anne Warren Designer, Freelance Photographer & Writer From: Offshore Clipping Path Here is my motto, hope you like it!     7