ONE to ONE Workflow and Editing Tuition
So we all know that the processing and editing of a set of wedding images is a time consuming process – what many also miss is that they aren’t producing quality edits that match as a set of images.
Photographers also believe that you can’t FULLY edit a complete wedding gallery to polished completion in an acceptable time frame, and would rather “half” edit them to a proofing stage and then work on album choices at a later date, polishing and editing them for a second time.
What these 1 to 1 sessions will do is give you the tools to competently edit your own images to a high standard so that ALL gallery images that the client sees are as good as they possibly can be.
I will also show you that getting a high quality finished edit doesn’t rely on boxed actions or any other mass solution, but that these skills once perfected will allow you to take your editing up a step and provide better results to your paying clients, not at the cost of an inordinate increase in processing time.
This doesn’t mean though that you lose your look or style as it will allow you to tailor the editing experience to what suits you. HOWEVER it does mean that you will start from a point of neutrality with the maximum detail and quality in each image thus ensuring that the final result, with your style, is as good as you can possibly get.
These are 1/2 day sessions at my office location and are £275.00
(optional Photojunction / JAD module £35.00)
This session assumes a working knowledge of LR and Photoshop including knowing how layer masks and actions work – should you NOT be familiar with these aspects then email me so we can tailor content to cover your knowledge gaps. Attendees will be bound by an NDA agreement.
PROPER FOLDER STRUCTURES
At the heart of your workflow should be a system that organises each client so that you are following repeatable processes which will aid you in all your dealings with that client. It will also mean that each folder subset is complete and contains everything required to fulfil existing or future requirements
LIGHTROOM
From import through to export you will learn quick and repeatable processes that ensure the quality of your Lightroom edits are as good as they can be. The correct use of the adjustment brushes and other tools will show you on YOUR images how you can easily improve your final results. See how the best way to improve and streamline your workflow is through the use of droplets. Learn how to create them to suit your processing style whilst still maintaining full creative control.
PHOTOSHOP
See why you need to use BOTH editing programs to fully finish your image processing in the shortest possible time frame. Learn how to use your own actions that are fully customisable with layer masks and that still afford you great control without reverting to the latest fad action or script. Create and save your actions and turn them in to droplets for use in Lightroom to save YOU time
USING A TABLET TO EDIT
Remove any preconceived ideas about how hard it is to use a tablet to edit. See why you can integrate this into your workflow to produce better edits in a shorter time. Finally realising that photographers producing quality high standard editing don’t have to sacrifice hours and hours extra.
PHOTOJUNCTION (OPTIONAL MODULE)
Should you require it we can also take you through setting up and creating your album layouts using the industry standard Photojunction by Queensberry. This can, at first look, seem a rather confusing piece of software. However with a small amount of training and after being taken through the procedures from the initial import of images, through the page design stage, to the export or QBY ordering process you will become very comfortable with it.
JORGENSEN ALBUM DESIGNER (OPTIONAL MODULE)
JAD is the design software used for all Jorgensen matted and digital albums. Whilst working in a similar way to Photojunction it can seem alien to start with. Once shown how to design / layout and save templates you will find that it is one of the most user friendly pieces of software available from any of the premium album companies.
The session will show you how simple automation steps can remove the mundane time sucking tasks and that a beautiful FINISHED set of images will enable you to take the next step to wowing those clients and ultimately helping your business
FEEDBACK
I was hoping to come away with a workflow which would be repeatable and produce higher quality results hopefully in a similar timescale to my current methods. With the intention of shooting 50+ weddings next year I need to be efficient & stop wasting time tinkering with editing methods………….. starting with file storage we looked at a very simple folder structure and then moving onto Lightroom Simons order of applying different edits is significantly different to mine but results in higher quality images with far more latitude to push the files in processing. This is a massive factor in being able to export clean files to photoshop which will then stand up to fairly significant adjustments when required
We then looked at automation techniques including droplets to speed up the interface between LR3 & CS5. This is the point at which Simon’s workflow proved to be viable for handling large numbers of files in minimal time. My previous methods of handling files one by one had meant that only problem files went into CS5 & I attempted to fully process images in LR3.
We looked at different tools for cloning etc & also worked on using a tablet to really speed up editing. With the images in CS5 Simons workflow proved that sharpening in CS5 is significantly, no massively better, than exporting from LR3
Start to finish we worked on my images to demonstrate the workflow. Far more important than using some random images because they were from weddings I had processed & back home I could look at the 2 versions side by side.
The workflow and automation methods work very well at producing images which are frankly night & day different to my earlier attempts. And the entire gallery has a consistent look which I’m very, very pleased with especially as its made up of Nikon & Canon files
The processing will take longer than purely editing in LR3, probably about 2 hours a wedding. Thats a time I am prepared to put in though because the end result is so much better & has to help in looking to increase my prices over the next 18 months.But that is ignoring a significant factor. At the end of Simon’s workflow the images are finished both for printing/album & web. There is no need to revisit them. With my old workflow I almost always ended up tinkering with images for the album & that probably took up most of the 2 hours anyway and frankly the images still look poor compared to the recent wedding images.
The final images have a look to them which i didn’t think was achievable with my kit. Bright, clean skin tones & depth to the shadow areas were something I’d spent god knows how long trying to achieve & totally failed at.
Paul Goode
I have done this with Simon and it was an eye opener for me – I really learnt a lot and will be moving to a new workflow for next season with a renewed confidence that I had lost somewhere along the way with all the editing options that we are presented with.
I really could see a dramatic difference in the results after the training session to those I had been producing before !
Highly recommended.
Tim Driver
Well I attended this course last Wednesday. My main reasons for attending was 1) I’m sick to death of messing with WB and tint and still ending up with a crappy colour image and 2) The little bit of photoshop and LR I do know is pretty much self taught as online tutorials send me to sleep. Needless to say my “self taught skills” are now being renamed as “bad habits” !
What Simon really pushed is to organise your files correctly, get it right in LR as close as possible so that PS is just polishing, edit once and be consistent. All of which is taught in detail on this course.
The course is unhurried and Simon is an excellent teacher. There is plenty of opportunity for asking questions and it seemed even my dumb questions were not too silly (or Simon has an excellent poker face).
In some ways the course wasn’t what I expected (and I don’t mean this in a bad way), I was expecting loads of really complicated PS procedures that would be impossible to remember but that really wasn’t the case. Its all fairly simple stuff but when performed in a certain order without cutting corners will lead to quality, efficient and consistent results.
Its going to take some time to get fully used to it and I’m yet to edit a full wedding but I have edited 50 odd portrait images and am definitely seeing an improvement.
So all in all its not cheap but definitely worth the money as Simon is passing onto you a workflow system that has taken him years to evolve. I would highly recommend attending whatever stage of your career you are at.
Cris Lowis
I did this training with Simon last month and wanted to really give the system a go before I gave you a review… Now you have to bear in mind that I am from a computer background and have what I what consider a very good working knowledge of Photoshop and Lightroom. My main problem (I thought) was that I was getting icky skin tones, with no consistency between an edited session…
How wrong was I! Turns out I’d been making some pretty HUGE mistakes right at the very beginning of my processing workflow, so no matter what I did after that it was always going to be an uphill battle. Simon’s system is very logical, no fancy magic, but a finely tuned approach that was easy to implement. As Simon does weddings and I do newborns I wasn’t sure how well it would work for me, but I’m confident it has. In the end, I have adapted Simon’s system into one that works better for me and my way of thinking, but essentially it is exactly the same processing steps that Simon taught me.
So was it worth the money? Yes!
Do I wish I’d done it sooner? Hell yes!
Is my processing going to be perfect from now on? No, as I still have to work on improving my own judgement with levels etc, but I will get there with practise.
Elli Cassidy
Simon Revill Photography Northwingfield Road, Grassmoor, Chesterfield, S42 5EB 