So now that we’ve done the shoot, you are probably anxious to see the images and wondering what’s the next steps? If you are receiving images from our shoot (Model-Paid shoots should not expect images from the shoot), please continue to read the following info.
After the shoot (aka shoot production), post-production of the images captured begins (“post” for short) We basically have three more steps:
- Review Images and Edit the Shoot (selections)
- Post-Production of the Edits
- Delivery of the Images
How long this takes before the final images are available to you will depend on when we each complete our part for the post-production for the shoot.
Review Images and Edits (selections)
As soon as I can after the shoot is completed, I will download the images from my camera, sort and organized the images and create the files for the private on-line Zenfolio gallery. When the gallery is available for your review, I will send you an email notification. The Shoot Agreement states that I have up to one week to get the catalog to you. This gallery will contains every image from the shoot. Proofing for the shoot will be done via this site. You can create a collection of your favorites from the shoot and share them with me once you are finished.. Once the gallery is available for you to review, you’ll have one week to get your edit (your selected images from the shoot) of the shoot images back to me.
Retouching of the Edits
Once you and I have done the edit to the shoot, I can begin the retouching on the selected images.
My style involves significant post work to the images. So post can take up to several weeks depending on:
- my current workload (how much available time I can devote to retouching)
- how many images I have to work on and
- how involved the retouching that’s needed for the images from the shoot
In post I will do the following to each image:
- adjust color, white balance and contrast
- skin clean up and smoothing
- clean up distracting elements and backgrounds
- apply my unique look to the images
This is work and it takes time to do it right. Images typically take 10-15 minutes each but can be longer if a lot of manual detail is involved. This is especially true for beauty images which require a lot of manual detail work and can take from 30 minutes to an hour to complete each image. You can do the math and understand that if there are a lot of images then that will take a lot of time to complete the retouching.
So keep this in mind as you do your edit for the shoot. I’m happy to work as many images as I can but more images means a longer wait for the results. I know it’s tempting to give me a long list of edits but really commit to the image, “love” it not just “like” it.
With all this in mind, we agreed (via the Shoot Agreement) that the absolute deadline is six (6) weeks from the shoot date. This is my standard default answer to “when do you think the images will be ready?” question. I know you are anxious to see the finished images and start using them but anything worth doing is worth doing right. I promise I’m doing my best to get the images to you to start enjoying them and I am grateful for your patience as I get them ready for delivery.
