So… we got together as a group and shot an event. Now what?
In general, when we partner with an event, we try to get all of their images together in a single gallery with THEIR (not your) watermark. We also try to give them fairly exclusive use of the images for a month or two, meaning we generally repost and share THIER release post instead of having individual photographers do blasts of their own. Obviously, we want to balance adding value to the partners with making sure the photographer gets credit individually too! We do that by presenting your meta data with each image (Google finds it as your work as well!) Below is a guide to what we think is the best-practice to accomplish all of these goals.
After the shoot, you’ll receive a link to upload your full-res, unwatermarked, JPG files into the site. The site automagically resizes them for web view, adds the event watermark, builds web galleries, and preserves/presents all of your personal metadata. This guide assumes that you’re capturing digital images and using Adobe Lightroom (or similar) for development/editing workflows.
DURING THE SHOOT (CRTITICAL!)
Shoot THE SAME “master clock” as the other photographers (with every camera you intend to use). The clock MUST display seconds!
Camera capture times are never correct (and no two ever match), so it’s important to be able to actually sync everyone’s capture times across multiple cameras after the fact to make the images in the gallery sort correctly (i.e. Jane’s pictures of thing X end up with Bill’s pictures of the same thing happening at the same time.) Pro-tip – try to make the capture right after the seconds change. Note that it’s not important that all of the photographers shoot the clock simultaneously. In later steps, you’ll just need to know the difference between the clock and your camera(s)’ capture time.
Do NOT use auto-white balance. It’s much better to use a fixed white balance (even if it’s wrong) for the entire shoot. At some point during the event, shoot a white/grey card of some sort in each of the major “white” lighting conditions present (a simple piece of typing paper or truly white business card will totally do!) You can use this white/grey card image to BULK correct all of the “wrong” images later instead of guessing at each one.
AFTER THE SHOOT: backup, import and ADD META-DATA your work
Use your standard workflow to get your images from your camera into Lightroom, etc.
- We recommend adding your personal meta-data during this import. DO include your name, website, socials, and any other info you want to attach to your images. We like using a Lightroom meta-data preset for this (for the info that never changes.)
- Add the overall event meta-data for the event, including GPG info. Add GPG information, the name of the event, location, type and relevant general keywords.
EXAMPLE: If, say, Rip was importing Locker505 Fashion Show images – in the meta-data import area, he’d apply his usual meta data preset that adds his personal info, copyright statement, address, socials, etc. Then, in the keywords area he’d type something like “Locker505, fashion, fashion show, clothing, charity, Sheraton Uptown, hotel, ballroom, runway, designers, haute couture, model, modeling, GPG, Guerrilla Photo Group” and then click import.
TIME CORRECT YOUR FILES!
We know it’s tempting to dive in and just.quickly,check to “see if you got X or Y” during the shoot or start to fiddle with things. Trust us. Time-correct first or you may forget. Failure to time-correct is the easiest way to break the whole communal gallery as well as the partner experience with us. It’s a small but important detail. To do it:
- Using the Lightroom Library module, find your image of the “master clock” that you captured during the shoot.
- Click to highlight it.
- Hit “CTRL/CMD A” to select all of the rest of your images. You should see them ALL highlighted in the gallery view, with the clock image “extra highlighted.”
- Click the “Metadata” menu option at the top of the Lightroom window.
- Select “Edit Capture Time”. The Edit Capture Time dialogue opens.
- Set Type of Adjustment to “Adjust to a specified date and time”
- In the New Time section of the dialogue, set Corrected Time for your clock image to exactly match the time shown in the image of the clock, making sure to select AM/PM correctly.
- Double-check the date. Was that really the day and time? (Don’t trust your camera. Look at a calendar. ;-P)
- Once you’re certain. Click “Change All” (If your button just says “Change” instead of “Change ALL” something is wrong.) All of your selected images have been shifted equally in time.
- To verify: In the Library single-image view of the clock, click the “i” key to toggle through the metadata views until you see the capture time/date. Does the info in the upper left of the window match the picture of the clock? Use your left/right arrows to browse through a few other adjacent images. Are they right too? Woot!
MAKE THOUGHTFUL IMAGE SELECTIONS
Pick only real winners that are well composed, focused, and illustrative of the action. Of course, balance the uniqueness of your image and it’s contribution to the event with the quality of it. That is, if you were the ONLY photographer that happened to catch the on-stage wedding proposal, even out-of-focus images might be better than no images at all. However, if 4x photographers were all simultaneously snapping away at a 2 minute dance performance or runway walk from similar locations, you probably only want to submit your 1-2 “killer” shots. Remember that we’re not making a “proofing gallery.” We’re assembling the final public professional gallery of official images from our partner’s event! Please select accordingly. 🙂
PROCESS, CROP, AND FINALIZE YOUR IMAGES
Balance your image exposure, color, contrast, white balance, etc. Use your histogram and white card shots. Remember, “auto exposure/correction” doesn’t work in most circumstances. It’ll make nightclub images look like broad daylight. “Auto white-balance” doesn’t work either. It’ll make any scene, say, with a big red backdrop, shift all of the skin-tones to hulk green! Also, keep in mind that it’s okay to have colored skin tones under intentionally colored light.
Use your white/grey card shot(s) combined with the “W” key in Lightroom’s Develop view to select the part of the image that’s actually white. Then, select all of the images you shot in similar lighting. Click Sync in the lower right, then click Select none. Then select *just* the white balance* and click Synchronize. Voila! All perfect. Remember to uncheck white balance syncing for subsequent setting syncs (like bulk fixing exposure/contrast across lots of images.)
Crop your images into their final form, being mindful of limb “amputations,” subject centering/composition, headroom, etc.
OUTPUT FULL RESOLUTION JPGs
Remember: DO NOT resize or watermark.DO retain your meta-data.
To retain your meta data, be sure to select the checkbox in the export dialog:
Bulk rename your files here if you don’t already do this in camera. It’s definitely preferable to have each person’s files have different file names instead of default camera manufacturer names (e.g., Rip’s files are all called “RIP_1234.jpg” by default in camera, which works. They could also be renamed “RIP_Event_Name_date.jpg” and that would be cool too.) Just remember, if you rename here in the export step, it’s a P.I.T.A. to go back and find the original file in your library.
PREFLIGHT CHECK
Seriously. Double-check. Open some of your JPGs. It they full res? Is your white balance, color and contrast good? Are all of your crops finalized? Are the time/date correct?
UPLOAD YOUR PERFECTED SET OF SELECTED IMAGES
Follow the upload link provided. You can drag and drop all of the images into the uploader. Leave the window open and make sure everything “goes up” correctly.
CLOSE THE LOOP
Touch base with the team to let folks know you’ve uploaded your magic!
WAIT TO SHARE
We like to let the event partner make the announcement, then we all like/comment/share THIER announcement. After a month or two, feel free to share your own personal watermaked versions if you wish, but we find that most folks just end up posting the event watermarked pics from the existing gallery instead of uploading and sharing their individual edits.
THANK YOU!
We can’t thank you enough for being part of the team and sharing your work!