How Long Should We Edit HDR Photos For?
As HDR photographers, editing our images is almost second nature to us. The majority of us feel that little tinge of excitement as we begin transferring the day’s images onto our hard drives. There’s usually a few photos of the many we may have taken that we can’t wait to run through the software.
There may also be a few images that we know we’ll have to put a bit of extra work into to get the most out of them. I was working through a shot the other day that I’d taken that morning. It wasn’t a particularly difficult shot to process. But no matter what I did I wasn’t satisfied with the final image.
The image in question.
It took me about an hour before I was happy enough to move onto the next photo. However, towards the later stages of processing the image I began to ask myself if it was worth spending more time editing it. I’ve spent longer editing photos but on this occasion I was slightly pressed for time. I had to prioritize my to-do list.
It got me to thinking about how long I’d be willing to sit and work on one particular shot. Ultimately I decided it would depend on the time I had available, what the image was for and whether the image had the potential to be a real stunner.
The longest I’ve ever spent on one image was around 4 hours. However, I personally know of two photographers who’ve spent around 2 weeks on a single shot.
Inevitably my passion for photography would dwindle if I had to spend that much time in front of the screen, but at the same time they may be producing higher quality images than mine.
A number of ‘purist’ photographers I know become irate at the very thought of post-processing. I can only imagine what they’s think of two weeks editing on one photo.
How much time do you spend processing? Would you put a limit on that time, after which you’d bin the image?
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Lee
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Andreas Heinrich
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Miroslav Petrasko
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Jimmy McIntyre
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Stephen Pattison
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http://twitter.com/matmaxx Matthias Weigel
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Sussie Atchley
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Pat L Kiellor
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http://www.facebook.com/dan.mcdevitt Dan McDevitt
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http://www.facebook.com/lowther.andrew Andrew Lowther
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ZubbuZ
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http://www.facebook.com/jay.parker.948 Jay Parker
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Jimmy McIntyre
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http://www.facebook.com/mike.dooley.31 Mike Dooley
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http://www.facebook.com/loisbryanphotog Lois Bryan
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http://www.facebook.com/yhun.suarez Yhunski Suarez
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Paul Mack
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Guest