How much do you retouch?

[Frank_in_PHX]

How much time do you spend retouching your photos? Do you do all of them, or just pick out a few to "clean up?"

[Gale]

I spend to much time futzing with all my images worth futzing with. (the others get artified)lolol
I have learned the art and actions etc are quite pleasand and beautifu.
At first, I though people were all nutz for doing that.
Now I envy thier talent.
Have fun.
I use CS3

[mitch]

My "keeper" ratio is about 1 in 10 for macro, botanicals, and nature shots. That comes from subject movement and from bracketing with macros and botanicals.

I started with a 30D, and it had a 3MP sensor. So minute movements in something like a camelia did not result in a visible ghost. As I have progressed to better sensors, the cameras are less forgiving. The tiniest air current will cause visible ghosting with the Canon 1Ds MkII, for example. The 20D is also prone, though less so. That's just the nature of enhanced resolution. Movements smaller than a photosite on sensors with lessresolution will not be recorded.

Landscapes, the keeper ratio would be higher. Although, over the last year, I try to bracket widely for HDR. So I can easily end up with five or seven shots.

When I shoot an event, and I've done a couple recently, my "keeper" ratio is more like 50%.

So I definitely do not retouch every photo I take.

With photos that are candidate "keepers," I will run them through Lightroom 2 or ACR. Then into Photoshop. They all get basic adjustments to tone and color, sharpening.

Like Gale, I tend to use my sharpening actions or scripts.

Lightroom and ACR make basic adjustments very easy -- capture sharpening, tone, saturation, vibrance, etc. I watched Schewe and Reichmann the other day as Schewe tried to replicate in Photoshop what he did in ACR in less than a minute. First, you would need a fair knowledge of Photoshop to do it. Second, it took Jeff Schewe about 8x longer to get the same result. 8x longer and several layers.

I resisted making adjustments in ACR (and only used it for RAW conversion) until support was added for loading photos into Photoshop as Smart Objects. I always want the flexibility of stepping backwards and adjusting settings. Loading the photo from LR or ACR as a Smart Object gives me that flexibility. I no longer have reluctance to making adjustments in LR or ACR.

If a photo has no serious problems, I can do basic adjustments in just a minute or two, load it into PS, sharpen, and output in another minute or so. If I need to do some dodging and burning, that could take a few minutes longer.

Fine art images can take a long time. Doing the conversion from color to B&W can consume several minutes, maybe longer as I try to shape tones. HDR stuff can take quite a bit of time. These are photos where I am trying my best to craft the best image possible, where I am trying to evoke some sort of feeling. I can easily spend an hour or more on a single photo in those circumstances.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Heartsfire]

I do minimal retouching/processing before putting pictures in clients galleries.  My first pass at a batch of shots is to weed out the totally bad ones.  Since I always take multiple shots of one pose, I then pick the best of.  Next I will adjust white balance, exposure and contrast if needed.  I then sharpen and process to jpg.  At this point they are posted to proof galleries for the client to pick their favorites.  I will spend 5 - 15 minutes on final choices, if needed. (removing minor items, blemishes, dark circles, etc.)

My shots for personal use that I want to have printed, I could spend days on it.

[Frank_in_PHX]

I see.

I wanted to see what others are doing, cause I might be spending too much time being too fussy to begin with. I come from a school of "never let them see anything but the best" so I spend too much time (I guess) on first rounds.

Yep, my "wow" shots I can spend daaayyyssss on!

[Jess]

Not being a pro photographer  I only process what I really like from my photo shoots, sometimes this is 50% sometimes only one or two. I use Lightroom 2.1  for RAW conversion and then CS4 for whatever I feel like doing.  I use Mitch's TLR sharpening scrips which I find work well for me.  I also like to use NIK Pro 3 filters which are a lot of fun and easy to use.....

I don't spend a lot of time on images that don't really grab me but I do keep anything that I feel might be worth a second look a bit later when I am sitting looking at the rain...like I am today  

Cheers Jess.

[GrfxDziner]

I usually average about a 10% too, similar to Mitch. I do retouch all of the ones I feel are worth keeping. I will spend anywhere from 1 hour to several hours working on an image. At times I will revisit them, and spend more too. I really enjoy retouching, and used to do it with airbrushing and dyes/bleach before photo editing became digital.

[mitch]

Being almost 50, I cut my teeth in color and B&W darkrooms.

My father was an avid photographer. We built a B&W darkroom in the basement. Later, a color darkroom in an upstairs bedroom.

I never used retouching paint. I did use a lot of techniques in the darkroom, such as posterization and solarization. In fact, I won my first photo competition at 14 with solarized prints on foil paper and posterized color prints. Retouiching that would take hours to do and expose me to really noxious chemicals now take minutes in Photoshop.

We used to dodge with hangers and gaffer's tape, burn by making test prints and using them to cut masks from cardboard.

Now, people get impatient if retouching takes more than a minute or two.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Conrad Birdie]

Actually, I spend way too much time retouching my photos.  But, the truth is, I enjoy it.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment I guess, plus it makes me feel good knowing that the time and effort I have spent learning Photoshop CS2 has paid off.   

I also love doing Panoramic Photography and stitching them together.  That gives me an even better feeling seeing them in frames and hanging on walls.  A good friend of mine has 6 of my pano's hanging in his office.  I smile every time I walk into his office.  We are both HUGE sports fanatics, and most of my pano's are stadium and sports related. 

[mitch]

I enjoy doing low light and night panos of urban areas and familiar sites at plalces like London, Washington D.C., etc.

Have you tried HDR, Conrad?

Mitch

[Conrad Birdie]

I enjoy doing low light and night panos of urban areas and familiar sites at plalces like London, Washington D.C., etc.

Have you tried HDR, Conrad?

Not yet, but it is in my plans....lol.   I would love to do a HUGE pano HDR of Busch Stadium in St. Louis, but I have yet to figure out how to deal with the moving people.....lol.

Mitch

[pseudosid]

Being strictly Amateur with not that much experience, I tend to do the same as Jess, I only retouch the images that I think are worth keeping, but having said that I do not scrap much either  they just pile up on my HDD