Author Topic: Production- Output Increase (Read 4680 times)

tab62 · « **on:** November 11, 2012, 17:40 »

Hi Folks,

Can you give me some advice/tips on out to raise my output (number of pics submitted per week)? Currently, I submit about 20 pics per week which I have told it way too low to make some coin in this business.

Yeah, I can work 20 hours a day, take only one shower per week, and eat peanut butter & Jelly (of course on White Bread) sandwiches at the computer but I would like to have some type of social life for my wife and kids as well.

Thanks.

T

cthoman · « **Reply #1 on:** November 11, 2012, 17:47 »

Good planning, assembly line techniques and stay focused & work.

tab62 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 11, 2012, 17:50 »

I feel that I hit the good planning and Focused parts but if you could go into more detail on the 'assembly line' part that would be great. Thanks

T

ShadySue · « **Reply #3 on:** November 11, 2012, 18:09 »

Quote from: tab62 on November 11, 2012, 17:40

Yeah, I can work 20 hours a day, take only one shower per week, and eat peanut butter & Jelly (of course on White Bread) sandwiches at the computer but I would like to have some type of social life for my wife and kids as well.

Get your wife to go to Zumba and get a child sized hamster wheel.

tab62 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 11, 2012, 18:23 »

LOL! Aint the truth! both of these would make great stock shots

sc · « **Reply #5 on:** November 11, 2012, 18:30 »

it's not necessarily about increasing the production but increasing the value of what you produce. 20 images a week with good commercial value is better than 20 images that are so-so.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #6 on:** November 11, 2012, 19:12 »

Change shutter from single to multi shot!

tab62 · « **Reply #7 on:** November 11, 2012, 19:19 »

I wish! My camera can do 10 frames a second! What is killing me is the processing part. I've been told that I shouldn't spend more than 5 minutes developing a pic- I don't agree with that answer at all. Some pics take more time to make good adjustments.

steheap · « **Reply #8 on:** November 11, 2012, 21:58 »

Do you use Lightroom or Photoshop? I think I probably spend 2 mins per image in Lightroom to just adjust white/black level, bit of clarity and saturation. Finally, any straightening/cropping that is necessary. That's normally it. Only go to PS if I need to clone something out of the image.

Keywording takes longer because I think it is important not to skimp on that step, but even then the basic keywords can be sync'd from one image to another and then add a few unique ones.

Steve

tab62 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 11, 2012, 23:20 »

Hi Steve,

I do the initial work in Camera Raw and than in CS6. Very time consuming to say the least...

Thanks.

Tom

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #10 on:** November 11, 2012, 23:44 »

Have you shared your portfolio - I don't see it in your posts. Depending on what type of work you're doing, time consuming post processing might be fine or might be something you need to learn to speed up. Hard to say without knowing what you do.

I have a number of composites and HDR shots. Those take a while to process but when I do a good job, the images can sell well and make it worth it. Retouching shots of people can be an important stepIf I was taking that amount of time on
If you were submitting 20 images a week (roughly 1K a year) and getting almost all of those accepted and a good fraction of those were decent sellers, you'd be doing pretty well for someone doing this (a) alone and (b) in addition to a day job.

tab62 · « **Reply #11 on:** November 12, 2012, 00:47 »

My acceptance is about 70%+ on Shutter and higher on the other MS companies thus you made my day based on your 'a' and 'b' comments. Thanks T

JPSDK · « **Reply #12 on:** November 12, 2012, 03:02 »

Quote from: tab62 on November 11, 2012, 23:20

Hi Steve,

I do the initial work in Camera Raw and than in CS6. Very time consuming to say the least...

Thanks.

Tom

Shoot jpg and use photoshop actions.

aeonf · « **Reply #13 on:** November 12, 2012, 04:12 »

Use a Wacom instead of the mouse in PS, much more efficient.

leaf · « **Reply #14 on:** November 12, 2012, 04:24 »

For me, assembly line working means to do things in batches. Do a shoot, pick the 50 or so shots then keyword all shots at 'once', then spend a day editing everything - instead of picking one image then keywording and editing that one image and THEN moving onto the next one.

The other option is to outsource which I do a lot. You can get people to edit your images or keywordword them or both.. if you are comfortable letting go of some part of the process it is an easy way to up your production.

sharpshot · « **Reply #15 on:** November 12, 2012, 04:48 »

Quote from: tab62 on November 11, 2012, 17:40

..I submit about 20 pics per week which I have told it way too low to make some coin in this business.

That's nonsense. There's lots of smaller portfolios with high quality images that outsell those that have only concentrated on volume. I sometimes did 100 a week when I started but there was probably only one or two decent images amongst them. It was a big waste of time. 20 a week is all you need, as long as you know what you're doing.

leaf · « **Reply #16 on:** November 12, 2012, 04:53 »

Quote from: sharpshot on November 12, 2012, 04:48

Quote from: tab62 on November 11, 2012, 17:40
..I submit about 20 pics per week which I have told it way too low to make some coin in this business.
That's nonsense. There's lots of smaller portfolios with high quality images that outsell those that have only concentrated on volume. I sometimes did 100 a week when I started but there was probably only one or two decent images amongst them. It was a big waste of time. 20 a week is all you need, as long as you know what you're doing.

Very true.
I still like a quote I got from Kelly Cline once. "more images doesn't make me more money. More of my best images is what makes me more money"

cthoman · « **Reply #17 on:** November 12, 2012, 12:09 »

Quote from: leaf on November 12, 2012, 04:24

For me, assembly line working means to do things in batches. Do a shoot, pick the 50 or so shots then keyword all shots at 'once', then spend a day editing everything - instead of picking one image then keywording and editing that one image and THEN moving onto the next one.

The other option is to outsource which I do a lot. You can get people to edit your images or keywordword them or both.. if you are comfortable letting go of some part of the process it is an easy way to up your production.

That's basically what I meant. Doing things in batches to save time. Some of that goes hand in hand with planning things out in advance. Also, creating action scripts and other automated processes that you are going to use over and over again.

lisafx · « **Reply #18 on:** November 12, 2012, 13:37 »

Quote from: SC on November 11, 2012, 18:30

it's not necessarily about increasing the production but increasing the value of what you produce. 20 images a week with good commercial value is better than 20 images that are so-so.

Agree. 20/week should be enough if they are the right 20 images

RacePhoto · « **Reply #19 on:** November 13, 2012, 10:18 »

Quote from: lisafx on November 12, 2012, 13:37

Quote from: SC on November 11, 2012, 18:30
it's not necessarily about increasing the production but increasing the value of what you produce. 20 images a week with good commercial value is better than 20 images that are so-so.

Agree. 20/week should be enough if they are the right 20 images

Thank you, I was going to PM the same.

Work smarter, not harder. 20 a week is a good number and you shouldn't worrk about spending 5 minutes an image or 30 minutes, if you are doing quality instead of quantity.

Quote from: sjlocke on November 11, 2012, 19:12

Change shutter from single to multi shot!

Shhhh!

Yeah, I've seen that game, and it's why "some places" have dropped the hammer on similar images. When you get two pages of the same girl in the same outfit, inch by inch, with the same bicycle, on the same hill, and the difference is her smile and her arms, I think it's a bit redundant. That was the old game... times have changed.

20 a week is good effort and good growth. 1000 a year if they are acceptable.

tab62 · « **Reply #20 on:** November 13, 2012, 10:44 »

all good tips! thus I was in the heart giving mode today. I will apply some of these tips today...

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Author Topic: Production- Output Increase (Read 4680 times)

tab62

cthoman

tab62

ShadySue

tab62

sc

Sean Locke Photography

tab62

steheap

tab62

Jo Ann Snover

tab62

JPSDK

aeonf

leaf

sharpshot

leaf

cthoman

lisafx

RacePhoto

tab62

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