As someone who retired and then did a degree in digital imaging and photography, most people have very little idea how time consuming properly photographing things is - even 'simple' things like a landscape shot. Things that require lighting set-ups such as product photography or portraiture are even more time consuming. All of that is before we consider editing.
I took 2,000 photos with my main camera and nearly 1,000 with my phone on my recent trip to Namibia. I have properly edited fewer than fifty so far.
Two seconds to take a shot, 15 minutes to process it.
When it comes to doing reviews I can have the text sorted in less than an hour - but it's the photos that push the article into a much longer job.
Locals around here know I dabble in photography, so I often get asked to cover local events. At one such event I was having a natter with one of the guys who was running a stall. "You picked the right job! Turn up, take some photos, job done. I've got all this lot to put up and take down".
When I got home I downloaded the photos to my computer. 1500 shots.
So I go through and delete the failed shots - maybe 100 or so.
Then I pick through the sequenced shots. If it's an action shot it'll be at 10 frames a second, or more.
Then I go through all the rest, moving picks to a new folder.
Then I re-pick that folder, selecting the best of the best.
Then I process the top picks. I shoot in raw format, so every photo has to be 'developed' to bring out the true colours.
Then I spot-check each photo, maybe adjusting sharpness or contrast - or tweaking lowlights/highlights.
Finally, I export to tif and move over to Photoshop.
Cropping comes next. This really takes some time because it's an 'artistic' process - and then each photo is save in small and large formats. Small for social media, large for folks who want to download a copy for printing.
Finally it all gets uploaded.
Couple of days work...maybe three or four depending on the size of the event.
But - I do enjoy it, else I wouldn't do it. And yeah, I could just shoot in jpg and bung the photos out - but I wouldn't be happy with the results.
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