Photography Editing Workflow

Photography Editing Workflow: Enhancing Your Shots with Precision

Photography is more than just capturing moments—it’s about refining and perfecting them through a structured editing process. Whether you’re working on portraits, weddings, or sports shots, an efficient editing workflow can elevate your images and streamline your production. From importing and organizing to final retouching and exporting, mastering each step ensures your photos look their best while keeping your creative process efficient.

There are many effective approaches to completing a task, and each person may have their own preferred method. In this post, I’d like to share my personal process, which you are welcome to use or adapt to fit your own workflow. All commands. given in this are for Mac’s

Step 1: Import Your Photos

The first step in any editing workflow should be moving files off of your camera’s memory card and to your computer, external disk, or NAS. Some photographers will work on the photos directly off of the memory card but there are several issues to this method. The biggest issue is that you will not have any sort of backup in case something happens to the photos or the card. The card or photos can be accidentally deleted, formatted, or corrupted due to file errors, hardware malfunctions, or accidental overwrites, potentially resulting in the loss of valuable images. Working off of your card is also typically a lot slower than right off of your computer or external drive.

My Importing Steps:

  • Immediately after returning home from my shoot I will transfer all of the RAW files to my desktop. If for some reason I don’t have enough space I will transfer it to my external drive or my NAS. In this command I will create the directory structure for the the client folder. I will put the RAW files inside its own RAW folder.
    • mac%: mkdir -p ~/Desktop/ClientName/RAW && rsync -aP /Volumes/path/to/RAW files/ ~/Desktop/ClientName/RAW/
  • Some might rename files at this step using a batch rename tool. I don’t.
  • After importing I will remove the camera’s memory card but will not format/delete it until the beginning of the next shoot

Step 2: Culling & Selecting the Best Shots

The next step will be to cull the photos. Culling is the process of reviewing and selecting the best images and then discarding/flagging images you will not use. This saves time and ensures you focus on the best images. When I first began shooting I would do this process by hand using Lightroom. It was extremely time intensive, especially with larger shoots like weddings. Eventually I found out about Narrative.so shortly after they released their culling tool and I used that for many years. They have a free plan as well, but it is very easy to use and pretty quick at culling. I highly recommend Narrative. Now I use Aftershoot for my culling.

My Culling Steps:

  • Create new project in Aftershoot
  • Load RAW images
  • Adjust settings and then Cull
  • After culling I will use the culling section and will go through the photos to verify and check the photos. The photos will now be ranked 1-5 stars (1 being the worst). I will verify the good photos and will change the photos I don’t want to a 1 star and change the photos I do want to a 5 star.

Step 3: Edits

Once you have finished culling you will need to edit your images. In the past after culling I would then save the culling edits and load my files into Lightroom where I would edit. Not that I am using Aftershoot, I will let AI do base edits for me. These edits are based on 10,000 images that I have previously uploaded so that it can learn my editing style. While this isn’t absolutely perfect it does get it pretty close to what I am wanting and I can adjust it further later.

My Editing Steps:

  • Adjust settings and let Aftershoot perform AI edits on the culled photos I selected
  • While this is editing I will create a new Lightroom catalog in the client folder next to RAW (/ClientName/LR /ClientName/RAW)
  • After the edits are finished I will have the new Lightroom catalog open and then export the edits directly from Aftershoot. This will open Lightroom and start the import process

Step 4: Advanced Editing & Retouching

Once I have my culled and edited photos in Lightroom, I will go through the 4 and 5 star photos (and sometimes 3) and will verify they are the

Software Recommendations:

  • Lightroom: Global adjustments, batch edits, and presets.
  • Photoshop: Advanced retouching, object removal, and compositing.
  • Capture One: High-end color grading and tethered shooting.

Step 5: Exporting & Delivery

After editing, it’s time to export the final images in the required formats.

Best Practices for Exporting:

  • High-resolution JPEGs for clients.
  • TIFFs or PSDs for archival purposes.
  • Web-optimized JPEGs for online sharing.

Backup Strategies to Protect Your Work

A robust backup system ensures your hard work is never lost. Follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule:

  1. Three copies of your data:
    • Original RAW files
    • Edited versions
    • Final exported images
  2. Two different storage types:
    • External hard drives
    • Cloud storage
  3. One off-site backup:
    • Online cloud service like Backblaze, Google Drive, or Dropbox

Recommended Backup Workflow:

  • Primary Storage: Save your images on a high-speed SSD for fast editing.
  • External Backup: Use a RAID system or multiple hard drives for redundancy.
  • Cloud Backup: Services like Backblaze or Amazon S3 provide automatic off-site backup.
  • Cold Storage: For long-term archival, Blu-ray discs or offline hard drives can be used.

Final Thoughts

A smooth editing workflow paired with a reliable backup strategy ensures you deliver stunning images while safeguarding your work. By staying organized, optimizing your editing process, and implementing secure backups, you can focus on what matters most—capturing incredible moments for your clients.

What’s your go-to backup strategy? Let me know in the comments!

 

Posted in For Photographers