Author Topic: Bottlenecking...where do you? (Read 6269 times)

mantonino · « **on:** December 03, 2008, 01:00 »

What step in the process do you get hung up on? What slows you down the most?

I started an upload at 6:30pm tonight and 6.5 hrs later it's 30% done!!

That's a LONG freaking upload. I'm going to have another HUGE batch done before that gets uploaded.

So where do you get hung up? Not shooting enough? Can't edit fast enough? Avoid keywording? Where is your stumbling block?

Bateleur · « **Reply #1 on:** December 03, 2008, 01:58 »

Two places for me:

1) Keywording. Drives me crazy.

2) Record-keeping. Keeping track of what I've submitted where, and what's been accepted/rejected.

grp_photo · « **Reply #2 on:** December 03, 2008, 03:48 »

Quote from: Bateleur on December 03, 2008, 01:58

Two places for me:

1) Keywording. Drives me crazy.

2) Record-keeping. Keeping track of what I've submitted where, and what's been accepted/rejected.

Same here

MikLav · « **Reply #3 on:** December 03, 2008, 03:58 »

Quote from: mantonino on December 03, 2008, 01:00

So where do you get hung up? Can't edit fast enough?

Can't edit fast enough, and keep adding "final touches" to each and every photo even when I realize the photo is generic and isn't my top achievement. I am trying to improve though and got some moderate success

antoniodalbore · « **Reply #4 on:** December 03, 2008, 04:56 »

Hi Antonino,

let's say that for an average studio shoot, most of my time is taken by prop / lights / reflectors / lens / tripod / subject setup. It might take up to one hour to find the good one...

Then:
- 10 sec copy from CF to Incoming folder
- 20-60 sec selection of best shoot
- 30 sec RAW processing to TIFF 16bit
- 10 sec trash of remaining pics
- 60 sec PS editing
- 30 sec keywording
- 10 sec save as TIFF 8bit to TIFF Archive
- 10 sec move RAW to RAW Archive
- 5 sec convert to JPG
- 5 sec save as JPS to Outgoing folder
- 10 to 60 sec upload to agency
- 5 sec delete JPG from Outgoing folder
- 10 sec set state = pending in DAM

Of course during upload I start processing the next one so that time is not impacting my workflow.

Hope can help.

Norebbo · « **Reply #5 on:** December 03, 2008, 11:00 »

I seem to be able to generate images and keyword them pretty fast - but the thing that slows me down is uploading. $:-\$ It's not something I look forward to each week.

mantonino · « **Reply #6 on:** December 03, 2008, 18:57 »

Quote from: Bateleur on December 03, 2008, 01:58

Two places for me:

1) Keywording. Drives me crazy.

2) Record-keeping. Keeping track of what I've submitted where, and what's been accepted/rejected.

Do you technically have to do #2? Does it take "time" in the process? Or is it something more like "good info to have" instead of the actual just shoot & submit? I dunno - Cushy is decent in that way - tells me to where I've uploaded at least. i could use it for more but since it's all manual, I haven't yet.

mantonino · « **Reply #7 on:** December 03, 2008, 18:58 »

Quote from: Norebbo on December 03, 2008, 11:00

I seem to be able to generate images and keyword them pretty fast - but the thing that slows me down is uploading. $:-\$ It's not something I look forward to each week.

On all sites or some in particular? I like uploading to Yay, Shutterstock, MostPhotos and FotoMind - HATE the rest. If I could outsource PUSHING on Fotolia I would.

charlesknox · « **Reply #8 on:** December 03, 2008, 19:11 »

Me it's for sure not shooting enough. I can always find time to keyword but getting things organized for a shoot is rough

Anyone want to be my producer? haha

icefront · « **Reply #9 on:** December 03, 2008, 19:19 »

Shooting & mood.

My day job eats my creativity, I'm burned out when I finish so the microstock part suffers from this. Can't wait to quit my day job and enter the full-time photography.

vonkara · « **Reply #10 on:** December 04, 2008, 00:52 »

Wow.. I'm happy to see other people than me with creativity issue. I never shoot enough. Even more, these days all what I'm shooting is ending in total crap images when uploaded to my computer. 2 weeks without a bit of sunshine outside. That mean too much of studio problems day after day

jsolie · « **Reply #11 on:** December 04, 2008, 17:47 »

Quote from: icefront on December 03, 2008, 19:19

Shooting & mood.

My day job eats my creativity, I'm burned out when I finish so the microstock part suffers from this. Can't wait to quit my day job and enter the full-time photography.

I hear you on this one.

Another thing that slows me down is keywording. Many times I find that I've mis-spelled a keyword, and this is after I've uploaded the offending image to several agencies. Some make it easier than others to correct typographical errors. I'd absolutely LOVE it if Adobe could put a spell checker in LR or PS...

sharply_done · « **Reply #12 on:** December 04, 2008, 20:45 »

Quote from: jsolie on December 04, 2008, 17:47

... I'd absolutely LOVE it if Adobe could put a spell checker in LR or PS...

Here's an easy work-around: Copy and paste into MS Word and press F7. You can also use http://www.spellcheck.net

RacePhoto · « **Reply #13 on:** December 06, 2008, 00:07 »

Quote from: mantonino on December 03, 2008, 01:00

What step in the process do you get hung up on? What slows you down the most?

Somewhere between shooting the photos and uploading them.

Uploaded to Alamy until 6 am last night, or is that, this morning? None are keyworded yet. Just edited which took most of the afternoon on Thursday. Went out and watched football, started working again at Midnight.

I'm a lazy keyworder and just put in the words that apply exactly to what's in the photo location and specifics, no concepts most of the time, so it's a breeze.

I'm pretty picky when I edit. Then I review at 100% doing detailed spots that may detract, that takes the longest time. I don't mind because if I get a rejection, the whole process is a waste of time, so my personal view is make it right the first time.

Last micro batch took half an hour each for seven images. (isolations on black where I have to remove every hint of background and check all the edges at 100-200%) Still got rejected at IS and DT because I didn't do them the same workflow as in the past. DANG! I don't know if I want to go back to the TIFs and start over, I'll see how they do on the other six sites.

Bateleur · « **Reply #14 on:** December 06, 2008, 04:32 »

Quote from: mantonino on December 03, 2008, 18:57

Quote from: Bateleur on December 03, 2008, 01:58
Two places for me:

1) Keywording. Drives me crazy.

2) Record-keeping. Keeping track of what I've submitted where, and what's been accepted/rejected.

Do you technically have to do #2? Does it take "time" in the process? Or is it something more like "good info to have" instead of the actual just shoot & submit? I dunno - Cushy is decent in that way - tells me to where I've uploaded at least. i could use it for more but since it's all manual, I haven't yet.

It depends on what you mean by '... the process.'

I'm taking it to mean the whole range of things you have (or, maybe 'should') do when selling photographs through agencies.

You have to set up shoots (one way or another), take the photographs, convert them from RAW and otherwise process them, keyword them, etc. etc. Leave out any one of these 'processes' and you won't sell anything. But your photographs will sell just as well if you don't keep any records at all.

But is that wise?

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Author Topic: Bottlenecking...where do you? (Read 6269 times)

mantonino

Bateleur

grp_photo

MikLav

antoniodalbore

Norebbo

mantonino

mantonino

charlesknox

icefront

vonkara

jsolie

sharply_done

RacePhoto

Bateleur

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