Majesta - You're amazing. I just culled a wedding in 2.5 hours. I never thought to rate them at once for the blog, delivery, etc. I usually go through them again to pick out the blog images...saves so much time!
Melissa Jill - Yay Majesta! That is amazing! So glad to hear!!
Karen Bonar - so, question - I don't have associates and likely never will - but who culls their images? With your tip, it'd be them. Is that how it goes? (just being uber nosy/curious!)
Melissa Jill - Hi Karen! Yep! All of my associates cull their own images as well as those of the 2nd shooter they worked with on weddings they shoot. :)
Siarrah - Right in the middle of culling, I randomly went to your blog and saw this new post. I've been doing it all wrong apparently. Thank you for these tips and tricks MJ! I already know they are going to make a big difference in my work flow.
Michelle - Holy crap! I've come across this set before but I keep saying "I'll read it later", so should have read it before!! All of these tips are amazing and need to be a part of my process. The 'Delete' one scares me for some reason but I Need to do it! I have so many files on my hard drive that don't get touched taking up space!
Alicia -- Beba Photography - First off, I kick myself for not have visited your blog in so long! You are always such an amazing treasure trove of information and I LOVE viewing your images! : ) I loved reading this article so much! It was such a good affirmation! When I first started culling images, I'd take DAYS. Ugh. :P I was so indecisive and it would be almost excruciating to delete an image. Then I started doing what you recommended with the starring system and deleted the 1's all at once. I rate on 1, 3 and 5 and keep my 5's. If I need a few more, I pull from the 3's. It has helped so much and now I'm through my pictures so much more quickly! I shot, culled and edited photos for a client yesterday by lunch time. It was nice to focus 100% effort and get them done. It's so much more satisfying to breathe a sign of relief than breathe from stress that I've procrastinated on doing something. Do it right away and it's a joy, not a burden. Thank you for sharing this, because like I mentioned earlier, it was a big sign of confirmation that I've been doing it right. Thanks!! : )
Ericha - I don't know why I'm just reading this now but I'm definitely going to try culling in 30-minute increments. Thank you! :)
Nunny - Great tips that are really simple and easy to follow along with. Culling is really difficult sometimes but i like the point where we should look for the good photos rather than looking for the bad. Maybe its more of a positive psychological thing. You say you do your culling in Lightroom, do you also prefer to edit or touch-up your photos in Lightroom?
Alicia - I am just catching up on this series and I needed this post SO badly. If I start with 3000 combined images from a wedding the client usually gets 2000 minimum. I just have such a hard time culling! Even portrait sessions I only cull down to 200 or so. I really need to work on this and selecting the keepers rather than the bad ones is genuis. It sounds so simple yet I've never thought of it! I'm definitely going to try to do better! Thank you so much Melissa!
Ali - Great practical tips. I'm resonating with every word :) Next time I'm going to tremble with that delete thing!
Elaine - Really great of you to share this. This has helped me alot with how to get past this tedious task. Can't wait for part 3!
Mark C - You never know when you're going to have to go back to the originals & find another image...if you delete the ones you don't select, you won't have that option! What I do is select the ones I want to keep, but then copy them to a folder called select. You use those images then for editing, but always have the full card folder backed up somewhere. Chances are you'll never need to go into that folder, but if you do, they are there.
Jenn - thanks for this. and thanks for confirming #8. the hardest part!
Victoria Gingras - Fantastic advice all around. I have tried a couple different ways of culling but haven't really settled into a solid routine yet. This is some of the best advice I have seen and I cannot wait to try it!! Thank you for sharing!
Carri - And Raw broccoli for that matter. :)
Leslie Hancock - ...when do I get to eat the cookies mentioned in the Friday post?
Kerry Ly - I love the "use the delete key one time". I usually delete AND pick my favorites as I go, which can be such a headache. This makes WAY more sense. Thanks!!
Kari Jeanne - I would have NEVER thought of only marking the keepers - you are SO SMART. You're right, so much easier to pick the best of a similar bunch then delete all the bad ones. I'm sending you an internet high five you smarty pants.
Amy Yellis - I don't know how you do it Melissa. I hate culling 200 shots from portrait sessions down to 50. 4000 down to 800 seems like torture. But seriously, I really love your method, and I'm going to try tweaking mine a little and see how it goes. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I really appreciate it. You are making the industry better.
Jamie - Melissa, I am SO thankful to you for doing this series!! Looooving it, and so excited for future installments! As for the tip I'm implementing... I'm still back on #1: Systematizing. I've got it all in my head, and I've got it fairly laid out in Excel, but it's time to get it down on paper in a way that I could hand it over to someone without saying a word, and they could run my business just from that! Thanks SO much again for sharing your genius so freely!! You're wonderful!
Chung Nguyen - This is super handy. Thank you so much for sharing it!