Question for those that doctor photos

[gramps]

I am going to turn pro in photography next year and need a suggestion for a photo editing program.

Currently I am useing picasa2 for quick basic fixes and photoshop 7 for those that require something more than basic add light and crop.

The delima I have is that I need something that is fast, not fast as in click and it happens but more fast as in....last Saturday I shot 1100 photos and I need to doctor these things in bulk.

Photoshop is great for fixing the photos but it takes too long to ....levels, curves, hue/saturation, brightness, selective color with that many photos.

Is elements more of what I am looking for? Or do any of you have suggestions on programs.

[Thunder]

One program.

ACDC or Acee Dcee. Just google it. It's an cataloger, mass editor and quick fix all in one. We use it when deployed to weed out the bad photos from the good. It's not exactly user friendly, but if your turning pro you should be reading books anyways.

[gramps]

Sorry for being slow Thunder. I went to the library and checked out Photoshop Elements class room in a book. As soon as I get through this I will take a look at ACDSee. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Hae-Yu]

I prefer iView Media over ACDSee as it does much of the same stuff, but the cataloger is far better. MS just bought out iView though so I'm not sure what's up with it. But iView and PhotoMechanic are the 2 best tools for photos that I've found. Both are specifically for pro users and batch operations are strong points. Photo Mechanic is the best for ingesting photos and iView is the best for cataloging. Both are used for things like Sports Illustrated event shoots, 24/7 Across America and other shoots with hundreds of photogs with thousands of photos.

ACDSee works pretty good and I keep it around for a couple of odd batch operations, but I think the UI is cludged together, inconsistent and very clumsy compared to the others. You'll always find a tool that does some task better than the rest.

Photoshop has a lot of batch operations, I don't understand why it wouldn't work for that specific need. You can create "macros" - I forgot PS's name for macro - to auto apply to large groups of files or single ones. I did a lot of research in this area and I couldn't find one tool that did everything I needed well.

Congrats on the career change too!

[gramps]

Guys I really appreciate your input. I will tell ya that I am THRILLED with the final results of photoshop. The pictures just pop off the paper. The problem is that I can only process, if I am in the zone, about 35-40 an hour. The Batch import and auto correct just doesnt do the job, for the quality I am looking for, but then, a computer probably never will be able to replace a real set of eyes. I think a combination of programs is probably the answer. Football runs for a couple more weeks then I need to get serious about exploration and developing a system.

[Thunder]

Along with a good program PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't sell yourself short on a good printer. Find a top of the line printer and read the manual front to back. You can shoot and edit pictures like a champ but if you can't produce a good print everything is worthless. (that and you can make money hand over fist if you take a picture that ends up in an art display.)

[Laroacha]

Thunder,,,,would you say,,,,,invest in a dye sub rather than a inkjet?

[MiddleFinger]

or maybe a toner boat???....dork

[gramps]

Thunder you make a good point however I am going to work with a store out here to do the digital to paper part. Hated the dark room in high school, dont want any part of it now.

[gramps]

I wanted to drop a note and thank you for your input. I have looked at ACDSee and the Iview. Unfortunately, the batch edit just isnt a real good option. When I am shooting, I try to keep my back to the sunlight, however some plays will take the shot to almost shooting into the sun. So the lighting is constantly changing. One shot is deep shadows and the next could be color washout. Maybe I am just not smart enough to figure out how to use the built in tools with speed, but the more mouse clicks that are involved the slower the process time per image.

The editing in Iview was impressive, but the number of mouse clicks and opening new windows just doesnt work when I have 600 photos from one game to process.

Picasa does a good job with brightness, cropping and color balance. It lacks the ability to adjust saturation, sharpen, and the straightening leaves a lot to be desired. But I can blow through photos at a pace of 200-250 an hour. Half the photos are finished with Picasa, the others that need some additional attention I have been doing a 2nd pass through Photoshop elements. After working with Photoshop 7 over the summer, I have become somewhat familiar with the workings of it. The only thing that I really liked about Iview that elements could improve on was the ability to go from one shot to the next without (elements) haveing to open each shot I want to edit.

[Hae-Yu]

That's good info. I use iView for mostly "sorting" the photos after bringing them in and I think that's where it's strength lies - cataloging and sorting. When I have a big batch, the tools are helpful in picking out which photos to keep and which to discard. Batch editing the tags is useful as well as the speed with which it opens, sorts, and displays.

I throw out a lot (maybe 3/4) before I start any editing. ACDSee has comparable tools too, but I prefer iView's.

Don't sell iView short as your cataloger though. I don't know of many tools that can keep track of media across all of your removable drives - without them being plugged in (as long as the catalog file is stored on your main drive) - and works as fast on displaying such a large # of files. I use PSE for my editor, but I couldn't live without iView.