For years I just used Lightroom and Photoshop to organize and finalize my images. Why do I use the term ‘finalize’? Because I strive to get images that are at least 80% ‘ready’ straight out of my camera and the role of post processing is to bring them to 100% ready, or ‘finalized’.
I would use Adobe Lightroom for:
Tether / Import
Ranking
Adjustments such as contrast, color correction, exposure, etc
Key-words
Roughly 80% of my images would only go through Lightroom to be finalized. The remaining 20% would also need Adobe Photoshop for:
More complex adjustments such as removing parts of an image, compositing, advanced filters, etc.
My workflow is now different, why?
When I started using Lightroom to tether my camera to my computer on a regular basis, it became very clear that the tethering functionality offered by Lightroom was not serving me well. I had several stability issues that happened on set with the client present and that didn’t make me look good.
We are in the service industry and our goal is not only to provide the client with amazing images (a ton of amateur photographers and semi-pro can do that!), but also to create a very nice and smooth experience for your client. I believe that ultimately that experience will make the difference between choosing you instead of another photographer. That is why I decided to look at other options to improve the tethering functionality when on set.
I was talking to a photographer friend a few years back and he mentioned Capture One Pro, so I decided to try it and quickly realized that tethering through Capture One Pro was 10x better than through Lightroom. On the flip side, I found that handling very large catalogs (100+k images) was a lot easier and faster with Lightroom, so abandoning Lightroom entirely was not an option.
It took me a couple of months to realize that my optimal workflow would involve all three softwares.
Capture One Pro for:
Tether / Import
Ranking
Adjustments such as contrast, color correction, exposure, etc
Photoshop for:
More complex adjustments such as removing parts of an image, compositing, advanced filters, etc.
Lightroom for:
Key-words
Archive
Export
Despite dealing with three pieces of software instead of two is more complicated and expensive, I came to the conclusion that it was my best option. On top of that, the new workflow forces me to always finalize and archive all the images I deem interesting (not only the ones delivered to the client), which leads to no projects left unfinished.
What does your post processing workflow look like? Please share your experience with the community by commenting down below. If you enjoyed this information, please share it on your own channels.
Thank You and Happy Shooting!